Qarahunj

The entire world knows about the English Stonehenge, but no one knows where the word Stonehenge comes from. The world's oldest observatory in located in Armenia, in the southern part of the country, not far from the city of Goris of Syunik Marz (region), 200 km to the south from Yerevan, at a height of 1770 meters above sea level. Qarahunj covers an area of 7 hectares. The name Qarahunj is interpreted as speaking stones. The names of Stonehenge of England, Carnac (Carnac stones) of France, Kalenish of Ireland came from the name Qarahunj (they are all the ancient observatories of younger age). It is written in ancient books of Anglo-Saxon chronology (the 8th century) that the first inhabitants of England (Britain) were Brits (Brits), who had come from Armenia. It is interesting that from the English Stonehenge to the Egyptian pyramids and to Qarahunj almost the same distance. Karahunj is, indeed, the oldest observatory in the world, and its age exceeds 7500 years. The entire megalithic monument consists of individual stones or groups of stones with height from 0.5 m to 3 m, which weight sometimes is up to 10 tons. There are holes on the top of the stones where probably were installed telescopic instruments. The holes with a diameter of 4-5 cm are 15-20 cm below the tops of the stones and conically expanded to 12 cm from the two sides. The holes are made by burnt clay tools, which have a core of obsidian and the inner part is clean and smooth. One part of the stones was meant to be for the exploring the stars, and the other one – for the moon. Altogether 84 stones of 222 had holes. The arrangement of stones of Qarahunj repeats the scheme of the Cygnus (Vulture) constellation. A similar arrangement has also the vulture depicted on one of the sculptures of prehistoric observatory discovered in Portasar (Gebegli Tepe) during the excavations in Western Armenia. There was a temple in the center of the monument, which matched the Garni temple by its size. Many Armenian and foreign scientists explored Qarahunj and came to the conclusion that it was the world's oldest observatory.