Some science behind the scenes
Sacred geography - cursus
Cursus are ley lines that have been marked using standing stones, marked stones or banks. There are overlaps between cursus and hollow roads.
Cursus (plural 'cursūs' or 'cursuses') was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, hence the Latin name cursus, meaning "course".
Cursus monuments are now understood to be Neolithic structures and represent some of the oldest prehistoric monumental structures of the British Isles. They range in length from 50 metres to almost 10 kilometres and the distance between the parallel earthworks can be up to 100 metres. Banks at the terminal ends enclose the cursus.
Contemporary internal features are rare. They also appear to ignore difficulties in terrain. The Dorset Cursus the longest known example, crosses a river and three valleys along its course across Cranborne Chase.
Examples include the four cursus at Rudston in Yorkshire, that at Fornham All Saints in Suffolk, the Cleaven Dyke in Perthshire and the Dorset cursus mentioned above. A notable example is the Stonehenge Cursus, within sight of the more famous stone circle, on land belonging to The National Trust's Stonehenge Landscape. There are, however, numerous other examples.
These too appear to be spiritual pathways, but it is possible that they were marked by wooden columns which have since disappeared.
Stone ways
Numerous other countries also have the equivalent of the marked stone ways of the UK. In Germany, for example, they are called ‘Steinweg’ – stone ways. In the Netherlands they are called Spokenwegen [spook roads] or Dood wegen [death roads] and may or may not be lined with stones.
Garmsar is a city in the Semnan province of Iran, located about 82km southeast of Tehran. It lies on the edge of Dasht-e Kavir, Iran's largest desert. One of the big tourist attractions in the area is the The Stone Way.
Carnac
The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac, in Brittany, consisting of alignments [spiritual pathway markers], dolmens and tumuli [tunnels to the underworld] and single menhirs [portals].
The more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, and are the largest such collection in the world. Most of the stones are within the Breton village of Carnac, but some to the east are within La Trinité-sur-Mer. The stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period, probably around 3300 BC, but some may date to as old as 4500 BC.
Observations
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- Babylon
- Babylon - The Ishtar Gate 01
- Babylon - The Ishtar Gate 02
- Babylon - The Ishtar Gate 03
- Brittany - Carnac and its symbolism
- Brittany - Spook weg, corpse ways and ley lines
- Celtic - Diodorus Sicilus and Pindar - Stonehenge
- County Meath - Tara - Lia Fáil
- Delos - 03 The sacred geographical features
- Eleanor C Merry - The Flaming Door - Carnac, the Messenger and the Labyrinth
- Eridu
- Gaudi - Professional work - 04 The Sagrada Família
- Glastonbury
- Glastonbury Tor
- Hernan Cortes - Aztecs and Mexica - The view from Tlatelolco
- Incas - Macchu Picchu
- John Michell - The View over Atlantic – The sacred geography of China
- Kish - The Kish archaeological site
- Knights Templar - Temple Bruer Preceptory
- Lagash
- Lagash - Sacred geography
- Larsa - And the Great Hymn to Shamash
- Lethbridge, T C – ESP Beyond Time and Distance – Stone circles were laboratories in which power could be collected and stored until such time as it was needed
- Malta - 02 The Temples
- Malta - 02 The Temples detail
- Malta - 03 The 'cart tracks'
- Malta - 06 Tarxien Temples
- Malta - 08 Mnajdra Temple
- Malta - 10 Ħaġar Qim
- Mesopotamian - Means of achieving spiritual experience 09 Creating a sacred geography
- Nineveh
- Nineveh - Jonah prophecies the destruction of the city
- Norse - Borum Eshoj
- Norse - Faro
- Norse - Gamla Uppsala - Adam of Bremen
- Norse - Gamla Uppsala - The Three Great Mounds
- Norse - Gamla Uppsala - The Ynglinga and Njals saga
- Norse - Gutasaga
- Norse - Helgo
- Norse - Jelling
- Norse - Jelling - The North and South Mound
- Organisation of Pictish society – Roles - Knight - The Whitham Shield
- Sacred geography - Ancient Egyptian - Abu Simbel
- Sacred geography - Ancient Egyptian - The sphinx
- Sacred geography – Picts
- Sacred geography – Picts – Citadels 01 – Mither Tap
- Sacred geography – Picts – Citadels 02 – Callanish
- Sacred geography – Picts – Citadels 03 – Orkney and the Brough of Birsay
- Sacred geography – Picts – Cursus 01
- Sacred geography – Picts – Mark stones
- Schuré - The Great Initiates – 01 Reconstruction of an Initiation ceremony
- Scotland, Lewis - Cailleach na Mointeach - moonrise
- Symbols – Picts – Sacred site - Concentric circles [Complex site]
- Taq Bostan 01
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - Avebury henge
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - Silbury Hill
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - The Sanctuary
- The Ancestors - Avebury World Heritage site - Windmill Hill
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - A Dowsing survey by Norman Fahy
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - The Cairn
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - The Henge
- The Ancestors - Bryn Celli Ddu - The Ritual Pit
- The Ancestors - Neolithic Orkney - Maes Howe
- The Ancestors - Neolithic Orkney - The Ring of Brodgar
- The Ancestors - Neolithic Orkney - The Standing Stones of Stenness
- The Ancestors – Stonehenge – 01 Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
- The Ancestors – Stonehenge – 02 Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
- The Ancestors – Stonehenge – 03 Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
- The Sacred geography of the Amazon basin
- Uluru
- Ur
- Uruk
- Uruk - The Anu ziggurat
- Uruk – The Anu district of Kulaba
- Uruk – The Eanna district of Uruk
- Vatican
- Vatican - St Peters Basilica
- Vatican - St Peters square
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Celtic Sacred sites and their conversion to Christian sites
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Tara as the centre of the Irish Mysteries
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - The Pyramids as the site of the Mysteries
- Watkins, Alfred – The revelation that helped the discovery of the UK’s sacred geography
- Ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu
- Zoroastrian - Means of achieving spiritual experience - 12 Creating a sacred geography