Exploring megalithic giants throughout Europe
Submitted by Andy_B on Monday, 27 January 2020 Page Views: 719
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Have you ever wondered what mega-lith means? It’s a fancy name for big stone. These stones have patiently observed time for thousands of years, some of them balanced atop one another, and others placed in rows. Many of the stones sit in a position that allows them to face the rising sun.
In Europe, you can still discover many megalithic monuments that maintained their form until today. Sadly, some of them lay in ruin, some are completely broken and others were used to protect the Netherlands from the sea. The Council of Europe started a project that promotes megaliths' preservation and facilitates access for people interested to discover them. So let’s discover some that are worth travelling across Europe to admire them.
The Hunebedcentrum Museum Borger, Netherlands
If this is the first megalithic discovery you perform, you should start with the Hunebed. Follow a short forest path and you’ll get to the Hunebedcentrum Museum in Borger, the only museum in Europe that preserves megalithic culture. You’ll probably be shocked when you’ll see the stones because they are giants that peek through the trees. And we call them giants because only a giant could move one. Someone meticulously arranged them next to each other, and one on top of another. The Hunebed lays here, 5000 years after it was built, and no one can find its secrets.So, take time to discover them all if you travel to the Netherlands. One that stands out from the others is called the most romantic Hunebed, and it’s placed under an enormous tree where couples throughout time engraved their names so their love to withstand time. The stones together with the tree create a beautiful picture that reflects the charm of old times. It looks like the tree protects the stones from intruders, so it’s no surprise lovers feel safe in this romantic spot.
Continue your megalithic discovery in Germany because there you’ll find the biggest concentration of megalithic tombs in Europe. In the past thousands of giants dotted the German landscape, but nowadays only a few of them are in a good state. It's said that Germany sold many megaliths to the Netherlands to build the dykes. Others were used to create foundations for houses lived even nowadays.
In the medieval era, people associated megalithic monuments with superstitions. Some of them thought the giant stones from Germany are fairy houses, others thought the devil erected these stones. Because they were afraid the stones were the work of the devil, they destroyed many of them to deter the connection of the devil with the earth. If you visit Kleinenkneten, you’ll see only the skeleton of the grave because it’s the only part of the structure that survived. Among the several thousand neolithic funnel-beaker sites in Northern Europe (esp. Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Netherlands) it is the only site where there are three passage-graves within a long-barrow enclosure. Soil covered the original constructions and it produced a place that is often associated with a house of the dead.
Some megalithic structures feature a small stone circle around them to mark the barrier between the worlds. When touching one of them you can feel the connection with the deep past.
The National Museum of Nature and Man, Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch, Oldenburg
If you want to find out how the world changed after the ice age and how people learnt to adapt to different life conditions, you should visit the National Museum of Nature and Man in Oldenburg. Humans decided to stay in one place and to take advantage of the opportunities opened up for them. So their culture flourished because they had more time to focus on art. This museum is a great place for a starting point in the trip to discover the megalithic sites of Germany. Use an MPG calculator to find out how much fuel you need to power your drive. If you are an eco-friendly person you should use your bike to travel from one place to another. Walking by foot or bike allows you to explore every centimetre of the cultural trail between the best-preserved megalithic monuments in East Europe. You are treading deep into history so no matter the time of the year you’ll find it a thrill to discover the sites in the area.
Stone Age Park, Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen in Albersdorf
Travel to the northwest of Germany if you want to discover the Stone Age Park. This destination will reveal not only megalithic constructions, but also houses that are thousands of years old. They are reconstructed but they are beautifully preserved to maintain the originality of the first houses people built. They uncover a side of the past you probably don’t know. If you want to experience how people lived in the Stone Age you can try one of the activities the park promotes, from making weapons to cooking bread and creating fine pieces of jewellery. The skills the people from the Neolithic era enjoyed are still fun to try even nowadays.With discovering every new megalith you’ll hopefully experience the same amazement everyone feels when first seeing one, and begin to understand how our ancestors felt and what motivated them.
With many thanks to Gigacalculator, Martin L, Stollentroll and Holger Rix for their kind support and assistance with this article, including the lovely photos.
