Georgia Guidestones
| Georgia Guidestones | |
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 Georgia Guidestones, looking east |
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| Data | |
| place | Elbert County , Georgia |
| builder | Joe H. Fendley, Sr. |
| Client | RC Christian |
| Construction year | 1980 |
| height | 5.87 m |
| Floor space | 44.59 m² |
| Coordinates | 34 ° 13 '55.2 " N , 82 ° 53' 40.2" W |
The Georgia Guidestones ( German about "orientation boards of Georgia", also known as stones of Georgia or landmarks of Georgia ) are a monument made of granite stone . It is located about 14 kilometers north of the center of the city of Elberton in Elbert County in the US -Bundesstaat Georgia . Because of its appearance, it is sometimes referred to as the "American Stonehenge ". An inscription with ten guidelines is carved into the massive stone blocks in eight modern languages. On the top are the guidelines in abbreviated form in four ancient languages: Babylonian , Ancient Greek , Sanskrit, and in Egyptian hieroglyphics .
Including the base plate embedded in the floor, it is almost six meters high, consists of six granite slabs and weighs almost 100 tons. In the center of the monument there is a plate around which four other plates are grouped in a star shape. A capstone lies on top of these five slabs. There is also a stone slab set into the ground in the immediate vicinity, which contains information about the history and the purpose of the guidestones.
history
In June 1979 a man appeared at the Elberton Granite Finishing Company using the pseudonym Robert C. Christian and stated that he was acting on behalf of "a small group of loyal Americans who believe in God" and wanted to remain anonymous.
Christian explained the plan to the owner of the company and later builder Joe Fendley. It should be used as a compass , calendar and clock and be able to withstand disasters. He gave metric information about the size and scope of the monument. The construction of the monument required significantly larger blocks of granite than had previously been mined, cut or completed in Elbert County. Fendley could only make a rough estimate of the cost as additional tools and consultants were required, and estimated the construction time to be around six months.
Christian turned to local Granite City Bank President Wyatt Martin for funding. Martin was aware of Christian's identity through a confidentiality agreement and as the only intermediary, as he had to check his creditworthiness. Christian told him that a group that wanted to remain anonymous had been planning an unusually large and elaborate stone monument for more than 20 years.
Christian gave Fendley a wooden model of the monument and ten pages with detailed information about the monument, including statics, foundation and astrology . The information is similar to that of the inner part of Stonehenge.
Martin approved Fendley for construction after a credit was received by his bank. The five ac (2 hectare) property on which the Guidestones stand was bought by Christian on October 1, 1979 for $ 5,000 from farm owner Wayne Mullinex, who retained the lifelong right to graze his cattle on the property. After buying the property, Martin only had correspondence with Christian. The property was later transferred to Elbert County.
The unveiling of the Guidestones, which took place on March 22, 1980, near the time of the spring equinox , was attended by between 100 and 400 people.
Inscriptions
Ten “commandments”, principles or guidelines are engraved in the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages by means of sandblasting, one language on each side of the four upright stones. Starting clockwise from the north, these are English , Spanish , Swahili , Hindi , Hebrew , Arabic , Classical Chinese , and Russian . The English inscription (highlighted in gray) is shown below and the German translation is compared.
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A shorter message is written on the four vertical sides of the capstone, again in a different language and corresponding script on each side. The explanatory board next to the guidestones identifies these languages / scripts as Babylonian cuneiform script (North), Ancient Greek (East), Sanskrit (South) and Egyptian hieroglyphics (West) and requires (which is probably the English translation):
- Let these be guidestones to an age of reason (for example: "Let these [stones] be guide stones to an age of reason")
In 2014 a keystone with the inscription "2014" was added to the monument ; it is on the board with English and Spanish inscriptions.
Blackboard with explanations
A few meters west of the monument, another granite slab was set into the ground. It explains the structure and the languages, contains data on the size, weight and astronomical details of the stones, as well as the date of construction and the sponsors of the project.
The sides of the board face the cardinal points and are labeled so that north indicates the direction of reading. In the middle of each side there is a small circle with an enclosed letter indicating the corresponding direction in English (N, S, E, W). The lettering on the board is imprecise with the punctuation. The misspelling "PSEUDONYN" is used for pseudonyms.
At the top of the board it says:
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Below is the outline of a square with text. The names of four ancient scripts or languages are arranged on the sides of the square, one on each side. These are listed below in clockwise order from the top. The square should represent the top plate of the four stones.
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LET THESE BE |
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Further explanations follow in two blocks, one on the left and one on the right
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This is followed by another heading and below the floor plan of the upright stones of the structure, consisting of a small square surrounded by four longer squares pointing northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest. In the representation there are the names of eight languages with one each on the long sides of the stones. These are listed below starting from the upper side of the northeast cuboid and going clockwise.
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The note is at the bottom of the board
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place
The Georgia Guidestones are located on the highest point in Elbert County, Georgia. The stones are located near Highway 77 (Hartwell Highway) east of Georgia and are easily visible from that road. Small street signs on the highway show the exit to the Guidestones: "Guidestones Rd." They are located approximately 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Atlanta , 45 miles (72 kilometers) from Athens, Georgia, and 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of downtown Elberton.
Reception and interpretation
The most common assumption is that the stones provided the basic concept for rebuilding a broken civilization. The author Brad Meltzer found that the stones were erected in 1979 at the height of the Cold War and were intended as a message to any survivors of a Third World War . Accordingly, the demand to keep the earth's population below 500 million people could stem from the assumption that after a nuclear war the surviving population would be below this order of magnitude.
The content of the guidestones is also counted among the alternative 10 commandments .
Yoko Ono paid homage to the inscriptions as "a poignant appeal to rational thinking" ("a stirring call to rational thinking").
conspiracy theories
The Guidestones gained a lot of interest among conspiracy theorists . They claim the stones were built by a secret society associated with the "New World Order" . Why such an alleged group should carve their "secret plans" on a rock in Georgia remains contradictory even within these theories.
When the monument was unveiled, a local politician was convinced that it was built for "sun worshipers", ritual rites or for "devil worship". Others claimed the stones were commissioned by Rosicrucians .
Computer analyst William C. Van Smith claimed in a CNN article that the monument's dimensions predicted the height of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai , which he equated with the biblical Tower of Babel .
Web links
- Booklet of Elberton Granite Finishing Co., Inc., about the creation of the Guidestones (1981) (PDF; 72.3 MB)
- America Unhenged on RoadsideAmerica.com
- Roadside Georgia
- Elberton Star "The Georgia Guidestones: tourist attraction or cult message?" ( Memento from April 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Guidestones into the Age of Reason on DamnInteresting.com
- Dismantling RC Christian's Monument (Canada Free Press) by Judi McLeod
- Episode from the Georgia Guidestones of the Hoaxilla podcast
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse , Randall Sullivan, Wired , April 20, 2009
- ↑ a b Raymond Wiley; KT Prime: The Georgia guidestones: America's most mysterious monument New York, NY: The Disinformation Company Ltd., (2011), ISBN 978-1-934708-68-2
- ↑ Waiting for the end of the world: Georgia's 30-year stone mystery , Matt Smith, CNN (March 22, 2010)