How many menhirs are there in the Carnac alignment?

3,000 menhirs
The singularity of the Carnac megaliths is their extrordinary alignments and their sheer numbers, this is the largest gathering of standing stones of this type in the world. The two main sites (Ménec and Kermario) alone account for nearly 3,000 menhirs, and the alignments extend over almost four miles!

What is special about Carnac?

Carnac is known throughout the world for its unique rows of ancient standing stones. The town is split into two areas: Carnac-Ville, where you’ll find the Museum of Prehistory, and Carnac-Plage, a family seaside resort with a state-of-the-art thalassotherapy centre. Oyster farming is big business.

Where are the Carnac stones located?

western France
Carnac, village, Morbihan département, Bretagne (Brittany) region, western France, near the Atlantic coast, just southwest of Auray. It is the site of more than 3,000 prehistoric stone monuments.

Is Carnac older than Stonehenge?

Well worth visiting the megaliths at Carnac… Still a mystery about why they are in straight =lines, about 2000 years earlier than Stonehenge, which follows the more predictable circular ligament. …

Where are the standing stones in Carnac France?

More than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, and form the largest such collection in the world. Most of the stones are within the Breton village of Carnac, but some to the east are within La Trinité-sur-Mer.

How big is the dolmen of the Carnac stones?

A rare dolmen still covered by its original cairn. South of the Kermario alignments, it is 25 to 30 metres (82–98 ft) wide, 5 m (16 ft) high, and has a small menhir on top.

Why do the Carnac stones stand in straight lines?

A Christian myth associated with the stones held that they were pagan soldiers in pursuit of Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone. Brittany has its own local versions of the Arthurian cycle. Local tradition claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin.

Who are the people who built the Carnac stones?

According to Neil Oliver ‘s BBC documentary A History of Ancient Britain, the alignments would have been built by hunter-gatherer people (“These weren’t erected by Neolithic farmers, but by Mesolithic hunters”). That would place them in a different category from Stonehenge in England, which has been claimed to be the work of Early European Farmers.