After Josselin we night stopped at Locmariaquer on the West side of the Gulf du Morbihan (nice enough but not really worth a separate blog entry) then today we re-positioned to Carnac to see the Megalithic Stones….
The menhirs (a Breton word meaning “long stone”) in and around Carnac predate Stonehenge by around 100 years and the sheer number of sites and standing stones (at least 3000) makes this area the worlds’ most concentrated megalithic site.
We cycled between the Le Menec and Kerlescan groups, the menhirs were almost continuously in view aligned like stoney sentinals in rows or forming enclosures around formations.
Some Menhirs like the mighty Geant du Manio (standing over 6 metres high) stood alone marking the location of a burial sites or stood atop cairns, chambers or dolmens (Breton for “stone table” and collective burial chambers often entered via a passage).
Nobody really knows the purpose of these sites, the common consensus is that they served as a massive necropolis, a layout for religious or ritual purposes with the rows utilised as processional paths and the enclosures as ceremonial places. We prefer the legend of Saint Cornely in that the megaliths were Roman legionaries petrified into stone by God or the local belief that they are the fossilised magical remains of a mighty serpent. Whatever their significance the placing of numerous massive chunks of local granite (heaviest 300 tonnes) by pre Celtic people between 5000 and 3500 BC is both wonderful and awe inspiring.
Todays Fun Fact: Whilst Grahame can be clearly seen in 3 of the photos (to provide relative scale) he is in fact in one other ( look hard now!).
Still have great memories of that awesome site. HUGS from Mumski x
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