New Zealand Reveals Stonehenge Replica
Submitted by TimPrevett on Monday, 14 February 2005 Page Views: 5244
Modern SitesCountry: New Zealand Type: Modern Stone Circle etcInternal Links:
Nestled into the verdant hills of the New Zealand region of the Wairarapa is the world's newest "Stonehenge" but this henge is no mere pastiche. Instead, Stonehenge Aotearoa, which opened this weekend, is a full-scale adaptation of its Salisbury Plain ancestor, built to work for the Antipodes.
The aim of the Kiwi Stonehenge is to help people rediscover the basics of astronomy.
"You can read as much as you like in a book how the sun and the moon work, how people use stars to navigate by, or to foretell the seasons," says Richard Hall, president of the Phoenix Astronomical Society which built the henge.
"You stand here amongst the henge and you show people exactly how it works. Somehow it simplifies it and it becomes that much more easy to understand," he said.
Outside the circle of the henge stand six heel stones, the markers for the rising and setting points of the sun at solstice and equinox.
To make the henge truly of Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand), the astronomers have ensured that their creation marks the stars and constellations that Polynesian navigators used on their epic voyages across the Pacific Ocean, and they have also incorporated Maori lore.
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