A ring of stones that tracks the solstice sunsets, of unknown age
Off the Little River to Ripley road at Mount Rothwell in Victoria, about a hundred basalt stones lie in an egg-shaped ring some 50 metres across, from small rocks to standing stones a metre high, 23 tonnes in all, with three waist-high stones at the western end, the ring’s highest point. Nobody knows who laid it out, what it was for, or how old it is. What a survey has shown is that it seems to watch the sun. Stones set out to the west of the apex mark where the sun sets at the equinoxes and the solstices, to within a few degrees; the straight sides of the ring point to the solstice sunsets; and at the equinoxes the sun goes down over the three big stones. Scientists studying it have suggested, from carbon dates at nearby sites, that it could be as old as 11,000 years, which would make it the oldest astronomical observatory in the world, but its real age is unknown. Its name is the Wadawurrung for the big hill, the tallest of the You Yangs. The land belongs to the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative.
Mount Rothwell, Little River, Victoria, Australia
See it on the map
Other places on the map within a couple of hours of here.
