Carnac Alignments (Carnac, France)


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. 

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