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What is the best ancient site to watch the solstice?

By YPB Team

Some of these still draw thousands at dawn, while others are lit for a few minutes a year with almost nobody there to see it.

  1. Kokino — ranked #11
    Kokino
    Bronze Age hilltop observatory in North Macedonia with stone markers for the solstice sunrises.
    1000pts
  2. Cahokia Mounds — ranked #22
    Cahokia Mounds
    Mississippian city in Illinois whose Woodhenge post circle is used for public solstice sunrises.
    777pts
  3. Newgrange — ranked #33
    Newgrange
    Irish passage tomb whose roof-box lets the winter solstice sunrise flood the inner chamber.
    678pts
  4. Karnak — ranked #44
    Karnak
    Luxor temple complex whose main axis lines up with the winter solstice sunrise.
    678pts
  5. Stonehenge — ranked #55
    Stonehenge
    Wiltshire circle aligned on the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset, open to crowds on solstice morning.
    555pts
  6. Chaco Canyon — ranked #66
    Chaco Canyon
    Ancestral Puebloan centre in New Mexico where a sun dagger on Fajada Butte marks the solstices.
    555pts
  7. Bryn Celli Ddu — ranked #77
    Bryn Celli Ddu
    Anglesey passage tomb whose chamber is lit by the summer solstice sunrise.
    555pts
  8. Drombeg — ranked #88
    Drombeg
    West Cork stone circle facing the setting sun at the winter solstice.
    555pts
  9. Ale's Stones — ranked #99
    Ale's Stones
    Ship-shaped setting of 59 stones on a Swedish clifftop, aligned with the midsummer sunset.
    555pts
  10. Maeshowe — ranked #1010
    Maeshowe
    Orkney chambered cairn lit by the setting sun for a few weeks around the winter solstice.
    0pts
  11. Machu Picchu — ranked #1111
    Machu Picchu
    Inca citadel whose Temple of the Sun window catches the June solstice sunrise.
    0pts
  12. Chankillo — ranked #1212
    Chankillo
    Thirteen towers on a Peruvian ridge that tracked the sun from one solstice to the next.
    0pts
  13. Goseck Circle — ranked #1313
    Goseck Circle
    Neolithic ring ditch in Germany with gates facing the winter solstice sunrise and sunset.
    0pts
  14. Mnajdra — ranked #1414
    Mnajdra
    Maltese megalithic temple where solstice light falls on the stones beside its doorway.
    0pts
  15. Bighorn Medicine Wheel — ranked #1515
    Bighorn Medicine Wheel
    Stone wheel high in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains with cairns pointing to the midsummer sunrise.
    0pts
  16. Hovenweep — ranked #1616
    Hovenweep
    Puebloan towers on the Utah-Colorado border with openings that channel solstice light.
    0pts
  17. Pyramids of Giza — ranked #1717
    Pyramids of Giza
    Seen from the Sphinx at the summer solstice, the sun sets between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.
    0pts

Comments 1

Seen from the Sphinx at midsummer, the sun sets between Khufu and Khafre, an alignment far less famous than Stonehenge's: https://youpick.best/articles/stonehenge-vs-pyramids-ranked

YP
ypb-team
Sep 29