The Puzzle Of The 13 Solar Towers of Chankillo
The Puzzle Of The 13 Solar Towers of Chankillo
Chankillo, a Peruvian "Stonehenge", has 13 towers in a straight line. Nobody knows why but one physicists thinks that software for simulating the position of the Sun for solar panels can help
The Physics arXiv Blog
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Near an oasis in the coastal desert of Peru lies one of the strangest structures in the Americas. The structure is a fort built at the top of a hill with a line of 13 towers constructed to its south.
The fort is odd from a military point of view because it would have been almost impossible to defend: it has numerous entrances and no source of water inside. Then there are the towers, which are several hundred metres from the hilltop fort, lie in a straight line and serve no discernible defensive role.
So in 2007, archaeologists put forward a new interpretation. They suggested the site may have been a place of worship and a solar observatory, like Stonehenge, rather than a fort.
Their main evidence was that the towers line up with the sunrise on important dates such as summer and winter solstice.
More:
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428951/the-puzzle-of-the-13-solar-towers-of-chankillo/
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Ancient solar observatory discovered in Peru
Updated 3/3/2007 7:30 AM
By Sara Goudarzi, Space.com
[font size=1]
By Ivan Ghezzi, Reuters
An aerial view of a fortified stone temple at Chankillo in Peru, the oldest solar observatory to be
discovered in the Americas. Chankillo has a heavily fortified hilltop structure, thick walls and parapets
and 13 stone towers
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The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been discovered in coastal Peru, archeologists announced Thursday.
The 2,300-year-old ceremonial complex featured the Towers of Chankillo, 13 towers running north to south along a low ridge and spread across 980 feet (300 meters) to form a toothed horizon that was used for solar observations.
Researchers excavated the solar observatory between 2000 and 2003. They found buildings—in exact mirror position of each other—to the east and west of the towers with observation points for watching the Sun rise and set over the toothed horizon.
How it works
In addition to the daily east to west motion, our Sun appears to move eastward through the stars in a path known as the ecliptic over the course of a year. Also, the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the ecliptic but slanted by an angle of a little over 23 degrees. The combinations of these positions determine where the Sun is above our horizon day by day.
More:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-03-02-solar-observatory_N.htm
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Ancient 'Fort' May Have Been Peruvian Version of Stonehenge
Posted by Greg at 03:00, 23 Aug 2012
In the coastal desert of Peru lies a strange structure some 2300-years-old, consisting of what appears to be a fort atop a hill, but with a vertebrae-like line of 13 towers constructed on a raised area to its south-east.
The fort is odd from a military point of view because it would have been almost impossible to defend: it has numerous entrances and no source of water inside. Then there are the towers, which are several hundred metres from the hilltop fort, lie in a straight line and serve no discernible defensive role.
So in 2007, archaeologists put forward a new interpretation. They suggested the site may have been a place of worship and a solar observatory, like Stonehenge, rather than a fort.
Their main evidence was that the towers line up with the sunrise on important dates such as summer and winter solstice.
cont'd
~snip~
Ironically, Sparavigna also notes that the ancient archaeological site is now sadly under threat from new construction work planned by...agricultural companies.
http://www.dailygrail.com/Hidden-History/2012/8/Ancient-Fort-May-Have-Been-Peruvian-Version-Stonehenge
