# What is the best ancient site to watch the solstice?

> 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.

*By YPB Team · Published September 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-ancient-site-to-watch-the-solstice*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

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

Tags: travel, archaeology, solstice, astronomy