I found out about the Carnac alignments whilst browsing
my Lonely Planet in the hotel room in Bretagne. They looked really fascinating
so we decided to drive across Bretagne to see them.
It took us a couple of hours to drive down from
Plougrescant, as we made several detours to see the famous Pink Granite Coast
of Britanny. We didn’t really know what to expect in Carnac, but whatever it
was we were expecting, it was not this.
Imagine Stonehenge. Then imagine Stonehenge stretching
for miles and miles. And imagine million more stones. That’s the Carnac
Alignments.
There are more than 3,000 stones, each weighing a ton. To
quote Wikipedia:
“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…. The stones were erected.. probably
around 3300 BC, but some may date to as old as 4500 BC....
..Modern myths were
formed… a Christian myth.. held that they were pagan soldiers in pursuit of
Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone. Brittany.. local tradition claims that the reason they
stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned
to stone by Merlin.”
At times like this, I really wished I were a millionaire
so I could hire a helicopter to take aerial shots.
There is also a tumulus at the top of a nearby hill which
is a must visit.
