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The Ménec alignments, the best-known megalithic site among the Carnac stones Stones in the Kerlescan alignments Megalithic alignments at Carnac Le Menec alignments. The Carnac stones (Breton: Steudadoù Karnag) are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites near the south coast of Brittany in northwestern France, consisting of stone alignments (rows), dolmens (stone tombs), tumuli ...
The Carnac stones were erected during the Neolithic period which lasted from around 4500 BC until 2000 BC. The precise date of the stones is difficult to ascertain as little dateable material has been found beneath them, but the site's main phase of activity is commonly attributed to c. 3300 BC.
The French ministry of culture lists the following numbers of megalithic monuments: Menhirs: 1172 Dolmen: 1349 Carnac stones, Brittany; Mégalithes du causse de Blandas [], over 80 megaliths exist on the Blandas plateau in the Massif Central ( Gard department) in southern France.
Alignments of menhirs are common, the most famous being the Carnac stones in Brittany, where more than 3000 individual menhirs are arranged in four groups and arrayed in rows stretching across four kilometres. Each set is organised with the tallest stones at the western end and shorter ones at the eastern end.
A menhir (/ ˈ m ɛ n h ɪər /; [1] from Brittonic languages: maen or men, "stone" and hir or hîr, "long" [2]), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found individually as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar ...
Drombeg stone circle, at the winter solstice, the sun sets into a v formed by two distant overlapping hills and makes an alignment with the altar stone and the two main uprights. Due to the nature of the site and the western hills, local mid-winter sunset is c. 15:50. [citation needed] Beltany stone circle
Monolith with bull, fox, and crane in low relief at Göbekli Tepe. The density of most stone is between 2 and 3 tons per cubic meter. Basalt weighs about 2.8 to 3.0 tons per cubic meter; granite averages about 2.75 metric tons per cubic meter; limestone, 2.7 metric tons per cubic meter; sandstone or marble, 2.5 tons per cubic meter.
Amongst the vast Neolithic collections of the Carnac stones in Brittany, several dozen dolmens are found. Across the country, several dolmens still stand, such as the ones of Passebonneau and des Gorces near Saint-Benoît-du-Sault.