An ancient , enigmatic monument , cite to as the “ Wheel of Giants ” by archaeologist , consist in the Israeli - take component of the Golan Heights . It was thought to date back to around 3000 BCE , and archeologists have now reconfirm this , think that this mysterious Neolithic megastructure is at least as old asStonehenge , as reported byReuters .
observe shortly after the lightning1967 Six - Day Warbetween Israel and a turn of Arabic states , the megalithic repository of Gilgal Refaim is composed of around 42,000 volcanic rocks , arranged in five concentrical circles , some stark , some uncompleted . This ancient social organisation is large enough that it can only be seen in its entirety from the breeze , and is similar in coming into court to lots of other “ Big Circles ” key across Jordan and Syria .
This structure , whose Arabic name Rujm el - Hiri means “ Harlan F. Stone heap of the wild computed axial tomography , ” has been line as theStonehenge of the Levant . Similar to Stonehenge , the theories behind its purpose range wildly , with some cerebration that it serve as an astronomical calendar , whereas others consider it to have been a social gather site or a place of adoration – or perhaps all three .
figure credit : Rujm el - Hiri – the stone heap of the wild cat . Michael Homan / Flickr ; CC BY 2.0
Also like Stonehenge , Rujm el - Hiri is mayhap thought to be an example of anancient burying site , with the departed case in stony tomb calleddolmens . The memorial also curb a possible burial sleeping room , a complex tomb at the center of the 159 - meter - retentive ( 520 - foot - foresightful ) structure .
reasonably disturbingly , archeologists have also suggested that the internet site represents an earlier version of a “ Tower of Silence ” or dokhma , a put forward , round construction used byZoroastrians – a spiritual mathematical group of Persians emerge first in the mid-6th hundred BCE – to expose their dead to the sky , allowing scavenging bird to consume them .
After the soma and organ were removed – in a process know as excarnation – the bones were then buried in anossuary , a chest or well design to be a final resting place . Some archaeologists believe that the ossuary , which appeared similar to texture store silos , represent apathway to Christ’s Resurrection .
Stonehenge , perhaps the best - known prehistoric repository in Europe , was build around 4,500 years ago , and this Wheel of Giants in the Middle East seems to be similarly ancient . irrespective of eld , this Israeli - Syrian site remains thoroughly deep : Who build it , and why they built it , still remains as invitingly uncertain as ever .
