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Name : Nabta Playa
What it is : An ancient Oliver Stone circle in the Egyptian desert that may be the oldest eff astronomical observatory
The 7,500-year-old Nabta Playa may be the oldest known astronomical observatory.
Where it is from : An desert area of southern Egypt , about 175 international nautical mile ( 280 klick ) sou'-west of Aswan , that was once live by the ancient Nubians
When it was made : About 7,500 years ago
Related : Scythian on hogback : A 2,400 - year - honest-to-god amber sculpture of a warrior heading into battle
What it tells us about the yesteryear : Nabta Playa , which is 2,000 years older than Stonehenge , may have been one of the early astronomical observatories .
Today , its main stones are in a museum in Aswan to protect them from vandalism . But originally , Nabta Playa consisted of dozens of unsloped stones , each a few fundament in high spirits , in the desert about 60 miles ( 100 km ) westward of the Nile .
In increase to a pile of Stone above a central tomb , many of the stones seemed to have been deliberately placed in a circle toalign with the rising of certain stars .
The circle ’s six inner stones may have been used in ritual or to grade significant alignments . These inner stones were surrounded by 29 tolerate stone that some research worker think constitute a naive calendar .
— Scythian on horseback : A 2,400 - yr - old atomic number 79 carving of a warrior heading into battle
— Cave of Swimmers : 9,000 - year - old John Rock artistic production of people swimming in what ’s now the waterless Sahara
— Jade burial wooing : 2,000 - year - old ' immortality ' armor tire out by Chinese royalty
digging of the central tomb in 2001 reveal no human remains but revealed thecomplete skeleton of a cow . Along with other evidence , that suggests Nabta Playa was built by ancient people who depended on driving herds of kine between seasonal lakes .
The researcher indicate thatdistinctive stones in the calendar circlemay have signal sunrise on the summer solstice , which was a signal for these Stone Age people to soon expect rain that would replenish the lakes .
It ’s also been purpose that three of the cardinal stone represent the"belt " of Orionand that some of the gem marked seasonal rising of the bright stars Arcturus , Sirius and Alpha Centauri .
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