Saulės urvas

40 kilometrų į šiaurę nuo Dublino yra Uaimh na Gréine - Saulės urvas.

Туннель ориентирован на юго-восток, точно на место восхода Солнца в день зимнего солнцестояния. Над входом находится отверстие — окно 20 см в ширину, через которое солнечные лучи могут проникать к внутренней камере. В течение нескольких дней (с 19 по 23 декабря), лучи восходящего Солнца проникают по нему во внутреннюю комнату и ярко освещают её около 17 минут (от 14 до 21 минуты).

Pasaulio pabaiga, turėjusi nutikti gruodžio 21-ą...

Newgrange (Irish: Sí an Bhrú) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland, about one kilometre north of the River Boyne. It was built about 3200 BC, during the Neolithic period, which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is a large circular mound with a stone passageway and chambers inside. The mound has a retaining wall at the front and is ringed by 'kerbstones' engraved with artwork. There is no agreement about what the site was used for, but it has been speculated that it had religious significance – it is aligned with the rising sun and its light floods the chamber on the winter solstice.

Saulės vaikai statė Newgrange'ą.

After its initial use, Newgrange was sealed and it remained so for several millennia, later appearing in Irish mythology and folklore.

The complex of Newgrange was originally built between c. 3200 and 3100 BC, meaning that it is approximately 5,000 years old. According to carbon-14 dates, it is about five hundred years older than the current form of Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, as well as predating the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece. Geological analysis indicates that much of building materials used to construct Newgrange were littoral blocks collected from the rocky beach at Clogherhead, Co Louth, approx. 20 km to the north-east.

There have been various debates as to its original purpose. Many archaeologists believed that the monument had religious significance of some sort or another, either as a place of worship for a "cult of the dead" or for an astronomically-based faith. The archaeologist Michael J. O’Kelly, who led the 1962–1975 excavations at the site, believed that the monument had to be seen in relation to the nearby Knowth and Dowth, and that the building of Newgrange "cannot be regarded as other than the expression of some kind of powerful force or motivation, brought to the extremes of aggrandizement in these three monuments, the cathedrals of the megalithic religion." O’Kelly believed that Newgrange, alongside the hundreds of other passage tombs built in Ireland during the Neolithic, showed evidence for a religion which venerated the dead as one of its core principles. He believed that this "cult of the dead" was just one particular form of European Neolithic religion, and that other megalithic monuments displayed evidence for different religious beliefs which were solar, rather than death-orientated.

Ką primena Knowth

ir Dowth?

Newgrange'as 1905-aisiais...

Spiralės ant akmenų.

Все эти камни, а также стены коридора и погребальной камеры покрыты орнаментом, состоящим из зигзагообразных линий, треугольников, концентрических кругов, но наиболее часто встречается изображение тройной спирали. Этот символ был широко распространен в неолитическом искусстве и, как предполагают исследователи, был связан с циклом смерти и возрождения (в частности, аналогичные символы вырезаны на резных каменных шарах — характерных артефактах той же эпохи). Большинство изображений спирали располагается при входе в гробницу, как бы обозначая границу между миром мертвых и миром живых.

It first began to be studied by antiquarians in the 17th century AD and archeological excavations took place at the site over the following centuries. In the 1970s, the front of the monument was reconstructed, although some have questioned it. Today, Newgrange is a popular tourist site and, according to the archeologist Colin Renfrew, is "unhesitatingly regarded by the prehistorian as the great national monument of Ireland" and as one of the most important megalithic structures in Europe.

Access to Newgrange is by guided tour only. Tours begin at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre in Donore, Co. Meath, from which visitors are bussed to the site in groups. To experience the phenomenon on the morning of the Winter Solstice from inside Newgrange, one must enter a lottery at the interpretive centre. Roughly 100 people are chosen each year, fifty people receive tickets and are permitted to bring a guest per ticket. They are split into groups of five and taken in on the five days around the Solstice in which light does (weather permitting) enter the chamber. In 2008, 34,107 people entered the lottery. The yearly winter solstice on the morning of December 21, is often broadcast live on RTÉ television and the solstices of 2007 and 2008 could also be watched worldwide over the Internet via webcast.

Štai koks Pasaulio stabilumo įrodymas.