The California Chamber in Fahnestock Park, in New York
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic or igneous rock.
A monolith is a monument or natural feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock. Erosion usually exposes these formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic rock. The word monolith derives from the latin word 'monolithus' and the Greek word 'monolithos', derived from 'one' or 'lonely' and 'stone'.
There are natural and manmade monoliths.
Popular culture - The best-known cultural reference is to the Monolith from the Space Odyssey science fiction series by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. In the series, the Monoliths are black ebon and transparent oblong slabs, fitting exactly into the ratio 1:4:9 (9 height, 4 width and 1 depth). They form part of a Solar-System-wide computer network planted by an alien civilization to monitor an experiment which culminated in humanity.
- List of monoliths around the world Wikipedia
Standing stones, 'orthostats', 'liths' or more commonly, megaliths because of their large and cumbersome size, are solitary stones set vertically in the ground. Where they appear in groups together they are known as megalithic monuments and come in many different varieties. Standing stones are found throughout the world with no known or documented history.
Standing stones are usually difficult to date but pottery found underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people, others in the region appear to be earlier or later however. - Continued Wikipedia
The Odin Stone
A young man had seduced a girl under promise of marriage, and she proving with child, was deserted by him: The young man was called before session; the elders were particularly severe. Being asked by the minister the cause of so much rigor, they answered, "You do not know what a bad man this is; he has broke the promise of Odin."
Being further asked what they meant by the promise of Odin, they put him in mind of the stone at Stenhouse, with the round hole in it; and added, that it was customary, when promises were made, for the contracting parties to join hands through this hole, and the promises so made were called the promises of Odin.
It was said that a child passed through the hole when young would never shake with palsy in old age. Up to the time of its destruction, it was customary to leave some offering on visiting the stone, such as a piece of bread, or cheese, or a rag, or even a stone.
The Odin stone, long the favorite trysting-place in summer twilights of Orkney lovers, was demolished in 1814 by a sacrilegious farmer, who used its material to assist him in the erection of a cowhouse. this misguided man was a Ferry-Louper (the name formerly given to strangers from the south), and his wanton destruction of the consecrated stone stirred so strongly the resentment of the peasantry in the district that various unsuccessful attempts were made to burn his house and holdings about his ears.
Druidical circles and monoliths were looked upon with awe; and there were few that would have dared to remove them.
Here is a tradition of a monolith on the farm of Achorrachin in Glenlivet. The farmer was building a steading, and took the stone as a lintel to a byre door. Disease fell upon the cattle, and most unearthly noises were heard during the night all round the steading. There was no peace for man or beast.
By the advice of a friend, the stone was taken from the wall and thrown into the river that ran past the farm. Still there was no peace. The stone was at last put into its old place in the middle of a field. Things then returned to their usual course.
The stone stands to the present day in the middle of the field, and in some of its crevices were seen, not many years ago, small pieces of mortar.
In the forest near Fulda there is a stone with many furrows. It was there that Frau Holle cried such bitter tears over her husband that it softened the hard stone.
In the western part of Cornwall, all the marks of any peculiar kind found on the rocks are referred either to the giants or the devil. In the eastern part of the county such markings are almost always attributed to Arthur.
Not far from the Devil's Coit in St. Columb, on the edge of the Gossmoor, there is a large stone upon which are deeply impressed marks, which a little fancy may convert into the marks of four horseshoes.
This is "King Arthur's Stone," and these marks were made by the horse upon which the British king rode when he resided at Castle Denis, and hunted on these moors. King Arthur's bed, and chair, and caves, are frequently to be met with.
The Giant's Coits - and many traditions of these will be found in the section devoted to the giant romances - are probably monuments of the earliest types of rock mythology. Those of Arthur belong to the period when the Britons were so far advanced in civilization as to war under experienced rulers; and those which are appropriated by the devil are evidently instances of the influence of priestcraft [Roman Catholicism] on the minds of an impressible people.
Who that has traveled into Cornwall but has visited the Logan Stone? Numerous Logan rocks exist on the granite hills of the county, but that remarkable mass which is poised on the cubical masses forming its Cyclopean support, at Trereen, is beyond all others "The Logan Stone."
A more sublime spot could not have been chosen by the Bardic priesthood for any ordeal connected with their worship; and even admitting that nature may have disposed the huge mass to wear away, so as to rest delicately poised on a pivot, it is highly probable that the wild worship of the untrained tribes, who had passed to those islands from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, may have led them to believe that some superhuman power belonged to such a strangely balanced mass of rock.
Nothing can be more certain than that through all time, passing on from father to son, there has been a wild reverence of this mass of rock; and long after the days when the Druid ceased to be there is every reason for believing that the Christian priests, if they did not encourage, did not forbid, the use of this and similar rocks to be used as places of ordeal by the uneducated and superstitious people around.
Hence the mass of rock on which is poised the Logan Stone has ever been connected with the supernatural. To the south of the Logan Rock is a high peak of granite, towering above the other rocks; this is known as the Castle Peak.
No one can say for how long a period, but most certainly for ages, this peak has been the midnight rendezvous for witches. Many a man, and woman too, now sleeping quietly in the churchyard of St. Levan, would, had they the power, attest to have seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights mounted on the stems of the ragwort (Senécio Jacobæa Linn.), and bringing with them the things necessary to make their charms potent and strong.
This place was long noted as the gathering place of the army of witches who took their departure for Wales, where they would luxuriate at the most favored seasons of the year upon the milk of the Welshmen's cows. From this peak many a struggling ship has been watched by a malignant crone, while she has been brewing the tempest to destroy it; and many a rejoicing chorus has been echoed, in horror, by the cliffs around, when the witches have been croaking their miserable delight over the perishing crews, as they have watched man, woman, and child drowning, whom they were presently to rob of the treasures they were bringing home from other lands.
Upon the rocks behind the Logan Rock it would appear that every kind of mischief which can befall man or beast was once brewed by the St. Levan witches.
Circle was set up by Bronze Age peoples c.1800BC, 200 yrs. earlier than Stonehenge.
Misty Avebury Stones. About 100 great sarsen stones
and local sandstone from Marlborough Downs, still stand.
The Merlin Stone at Avebury. This village is ringed by
one of the most important prehistoric monuments in Britain.
Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire, England was regarded by
many experts as the most important early Bronze Age.
This stone is located in front of Kilmalkedar Church on the Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry. The stone is inscribed ANM MAILE-INBIR MACI BROCANN [The name of Mael Inbir son of Brocan] (Trans. from Harbison 174). ANM "literally means 'name', but may have a secondary meaning implying 'the remains or relics of'. Such inscriptions are likely to be Christian" (Edwards 103).
Ayers Rock is the world's largest monolith rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8km. It is consideredonce of the great wonders of the world. It is located in the Kata Tjuta National Park which is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.
Depending on the time of day and the atmospheric conditions the rock can dramatically change colour, anything from blue to glowing red ! Many avid photographers set up for days and record the many changing colors of Uluru.
Ayers Rock was named for the Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. It extends down over 3 and a half miles beneath the surface. Approximately 500 million years ago it was part of the ocean floor at the center of Australia. Some believe tha there is a light source emanating at various times of the year. The Aborigines believe that there it is hollow below ground, and that there is an energy source which they call TJUKURPA...the dream time. It respresents something that their ancestors were aware of thousands of years ago and has been carried forward through the oral traditions.
The natural environment of the Mingan Archipelago has struck the visitors' imagination since it was first discovered. And looking at the island beaches scattered with huge limestone monoliths that seem to have just stepped out from the sea, one can well understand why. Some exhibit their nudity bravely, others, more modest, draped in vegetation, conceal themselves in the northern forest of the islands.
To understand the origin of the extraordinary Minganie landscape, we must go back in time to well before the dinosaurs.
The North Shore Canadian Shield survived an era of fire and volcanoes because of the extremely hard rock material of which it was made. When life came to earth, the first marine organisms were generated in an early sea on the edge of the Canadian Shield. Major rivers were already criss-crossing the area and eroding the Shield, carrying rock particles to the sea. This sediment, combined with the remains of marine organisms, would slowly form a sea floor made up of limestone strata.
With the shifting of the earth's crust, this limestone bedrock came to the surface as a huge plateau. The friable mineral fell an easy victim to erosion, and the huge tableland was soon covered with splits and cracks. The rivers running down from the Canadian Shield used these natural corridors to reach the sea. And as they did so, they segmented the tableland, thus creating the Mingan Islands. Over time, nature eroded and sculpted the coastline of the islands into works of art.
This grey limestone still conceals many secret treasures. Thanks to its marine origins, going back to the beginning of life, and to its makeup of mineral and animal remains, it is a treasure trove of fossils. This explains the major scientific importance of the archipelago.
This story begins with the last major ice age of 20 000 years ago. With the gradual cooling of the earth, ice floes gradually spread over the whole of North America, including the Mingan Archipelago, which was covered by 2.5 km of ice. Because of the weight of the ice, the whole continent sank lower.
Later, the earth warmed up again and the glaciers began to melt. There were two consequences to the thaw: the remarkable rise in the ocean level, and the slow but gradual emergence of the continent. Indeed, 10 000 years ago, there were some 85 m of water over the archipelago.
After slowly rising for 2 800 years, the tip of the islands broke surface, and Nature began to shape the first monoliths which today stand drowsily amidst the forests and barren.
For many centuries, the islands continued to rise from the water, and the sea and the currents did their work on the new land mass. The continent is still rising today, and the work of erosion continues. The monoliths, created from friable rock more than 450 million years old, are prey to many erosive agents. Waves, the changing sea level and the winds as well as seasonal freezing and thawing, all sculpture and model the monoliths. These limestone sculptures pointing skywards in the island landscape form the largest group of monoliths in Canada.
But there are other points of interest on the archipelago, other great works of nature: grottoes, archways, strange silhouettes, fossils and cliffs also have their centuries-old stories to recount.
Bottleneck Peak and Moon - Sids Mountain Utah
Monolith - '2001 A Space Odyssey
Creation - Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Eclipse
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
