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Updated: June 22, 2025
The last-named vary from ten to one thousand feet in diameter, but excavations beneath them have brought to light only a few human bones. At Mzora, in Morocco, the traveller will notice a mound of elliptical shape, some 21 or 22 1/2 feet high, flanked on the west by a group of menhirs, and surrounded by an enceinte of upright stones which now number about forty.
Sculptures on the menhirs of the covered avenue of Gavr'innis. There has been a good deal of discussion about the orientation of megalithic monuments, and the truth on that point once ascertained, some light might be thrown on the aim of the builders. It is evident, however, that there never was any general system of orientation.
"At Bou-Merzoug," says M. Feraud, "in a radius of three leagues, on the mountain as well as on the plain, the whole country about the springs is covered with monuments of the Celtic form, such as dolmens, demi-dolmens, menhirs, avenues, and tumuli. In a word, there are to be found examples of nearly every type known in Europe.
If in the Land's End district you climb the ascent of Bolleit, the Place of Blood, where Athelstan fought and slew the Britons, you can see "the Pipers," two great menhirs, twelve and sixteen feet high, and the Holed Stone, which is really an ancient cross, but you will be told that the cruel Druids used to tie their human victims for sacrifice to this stone, and you would shudder at the memory if you did not know that the Druids were very philosophical folk, and never did such dreadful deeds.
Traditions of the neighborhood explained the menhirs as twelve giants turned into stone by the magic powers of good King Arthur, who, in defiance of the claims of the isle of Avalon, was supposed to be buried in a hitherto unexplored chamber of the large green mound that stood near.
Of the alignements, that of Caouria seems to consist, in part at least, of two parallel lines of menhirs, the rest of the plan being uncertain. There are still thirty-two blocks, of which six have fallen. The other alignement, that of Rinaiou, consists of seven menhirs set in a straight line. The cromlech is circular and stands on Cape Corse.
The Caaba of Mecca and the stone of the temple of Diana at Ephesus are famous isolated instances of it; but it has been suggested that the standing stones or menhirs which are found in every part of Europe, and in the south and west of Asia, were objects of this worship.
As we draw nearer to the chain of Libya, where this king awaits us, we traverse fields still green with growing corn and sparrows and larks sing around us in the impetuous spring of this land of Thebes. And now beyond two menhirs, as it were, become gradually distinct.
In Lower Galilee a single dolmen has been found; in Upper Galilee four of moderate dimensions are known. West of Tiberias is a circle, and between Tyre and Sidon an enclosure of menhirs. At Tell el Kady, one of the Jordan sources, a centre of basalt dolmens exists, and at Kefr Wal ... there is another large centre.
Stones with top coverings or carved heads are however rare. In front of the line of menhirs is a large flat table-stone resting on stone supports, the top of the uppermost plane being some 2 to 2 1/2 ft. from the ground; this flat stone is sometimes as much as a foot or more thick. The largest table-stones are to be seen at Nartiang, in the Jaintia Hills, and Laitlyngkot in the Khasi Hills.
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