Newgrange: The Solstice Light Still Returns, and the Reading of the Monument Died with Its Builders
Every winter a beam of light still runs into the Newgrange chamber right on schedule, after more than five thousand years. The monument stands intact, but the way to read what its builders encoded in it died with them.
Read in Vietnamese →Every year, on mornings around the winter solstice, sunlight passes through a small opening above the entrance to Newgrange in Ireland. The beam runs down the stone passage and lands on the chamber deep inside the mound. The display lasts only minutes and depends on clouds and the Sun's angle. A structure raised around 3200 BCE has caught that exact moment for more than five thousand years, and it still keeps the appointment today.
Newgrange stands in the Brú na Bóinne complex beside the River Boyne. It is a passage tomb: a large earth mound hides a narrow route leading to a cruciform stone chamber. The builders used massive stones for the walls, the roof, and the kerb ringing the mound. They left no written explanation. What survives is the direction of the passage, a light opening, spiral carvings, and human remains placed in the chamber.
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