Читать книгу Astronomy in your pocket - Vladimir Vladimirovich Bereznyakovsky - Страница 5

On the plains of North America, a huge number of archaeological sites have been found in the form of stone circles on the tops of hills. The oldest is the circle at Mahorville in Canada, which was built around 2500 BC.

Big horn, one of the most important astronomical monuments, is located in the state of Wyoming, USA. big horn is a large group of stones, from which come “rays” about 12 meters long, at the ends of which a stone circle is drawn. At the ends of each of the six rays are heaped stone piles, and the direction of the southwest pile of stones coincides with the direction of sunrise on the day of the summer solstice. On the big horn, it was also possible to observe and study the sunrises of Sirius, Rigel, and Aldebaran.

The “star” pyramids of Ecuador are also a part of history that is very interesting for both archaeologists and astronomers. Not far from the capital of Ecuador, Quito, there is a complex of 15 truncated pyramids of various heights and squares. The estimated date of construction is 700—1200 ad, but interestingly, all ramps approach the pyramids from the northeast and are inclined at an angle of 10°, and the largest reaches 300 meters in length. It was in this direction that you could see the rising of the star Alcayde, which is located at the end of the constellation URSA Major. This star rises last of the seven stars of the constellation, but the interest of the Injuns was really connected with the harvest, because, since Algina appears at an altitude of 10°, and its sunrise falls at the end of October, for the Injuns this event meant the onset of the rainy season and the beginning of the agricultural year. This season in the tropical zone comes suddenly, threatening to catch landowners by surprise, which is why the inhabitants of Ecuador were so important astronomical methods of warning the elements.

The “star” pyramids of Ecuador