Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Newgrange with the Sturms



Saint Patrick's Day is CRAZY in Dublin! All the locals leave town as the tourists flood in! Since we had experienced the parade and excitement of Patty's day last year, we decided to take the day to explore outside of the city. We went with our friends Katie and Aaron to one of oldest historical sights in the world, Newgrange. It is a prehistoric burial mound dating to 3,000 BC, predating some of the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge! It has artistic concentric circles and spirals carved into the stones, but the most fascinating thing about Newgrange was the architectural precision! Those who built this tomb were brilliant astronomers. There is a narrow square opening above the tomb entrance way. Every year in December during the winter solstice when the sun is rising, the rays of light shine through that small opening, extend to the back walls of the inner chamber, and illuminate the inside of the tomb! These engineers were smart!

When Newgrange was discovered the grey rock face seen in this picture had fallen, so they reconstructed the face of the tomb using the same rocks from the original



Get the shot Katie!






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