The Nabta Playa Stone Circle
Learn Who Built Egypt's Oldest Astronomical Megaliths, How Old They Really Are, and What Their Alignments With the Sun and Stars Can and Cannot Tell Us
Somewhere west of Lake Nasser, in a desert where a year can pass without measurable rain, a ring of sandstone slabs once marked the rising of the midsummer sun. The people who set them there had no cities, no writing, and no farms. They herded cattle between seasonal lakes in a Sahara that was, for a few thousand years, surprisingly green. The Nabta Playa Stone Circle tells their story from the evidence up. Drawing on excavation reports, peer-reviewed research, and the work of archaeologists and astronomers who studied the site, it explains what Nabta Playa is, how old its monuments are, who built them, and what their alignments with the sun and stars can and cannot tell us. Inside, you'll find: Chapter 4, The Green Sahara: how a shift in Earth's orbit turned desert into grassland. You'll see why the herders came, and why they eventually left. Chapter 6, How Old Is Nabta Playa?: why articles give ages that differ by thousands of years. You'll be able to read any date about the site with confidence. Chapter 11, The Valley of Sacrifices: a young cow laid in a roofed, clay-lined chamber. You'll understand what cattle meant to the people who built the monuments. Chapter 13, Summer Solstice, the Zenith Sun, and the Coming Rains: the weeks when the noon sun cast no shadow. You'll see what the circle's builders were actually watching. Chapter 16, Was Nabta Playa an Observatory?: the tests that separate real alignments from coincidence. You'll be able to judge astronomical claims about any ancient site. Chapter 18, Nabta Playa and Stonehenge: a fair comparison of two very different monuments. You'll know exactly what "older than Stonehenge" does and does not mean. Chapter 22, Damaged, Moved, Rebuilt: why the circle now stands in a museum garden in Aswan. You'll understand what was lost, and what still survives in the desert. Written for general readers, travelers, and anyone who has met Nabta Playa in a documentary or online forum, the book separates solid findings from open questions and from claims the evidence rules out. It includes reference tables and a bibliography of the original research. 24 chapters, about 51,800 words.
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- Genre
- History & civilization
- Format
- Ebook