Located deep in the Nubian desert, the Nabta Playa stone circle holds astonishing details of ancient astronomy.
Located 500 miles south of Cairo, deep in the Nubian desert is one of the oldest stone circles in the world. Research has revealed that the Nabta Playa complex dates before Predynastic Egyptian history.
Nabta Playa is unique not only for its age but also the ancient astronomy coded into its alignments. It could be evidence of the first Egyptian civilization to use astronomymanner.
If it is the origin of Ancient Egyptian Astronomy, it provides the earliest signs of the Egyptian civilization itself.
The mystery of the ancient Egyptian Stone Circle
If you didn’t know better, you could easily miss the Nabta Playa stone circle. Discovered in 1974, anthropology professor Fred Wendorf was returning from an expedition from Libya. He and his party nearly crossed the rock formation without noticing. After an initial investigation, instincts told him there was something significant about Nabta Playa.
Located deep in the Nubian Desert, the area is one of the most inhospitable in Egypt. It is isolated by miles of dry, barren sand that endures extremely high temperatures.
It wasn’t always like this. In ancient times the Nabta Playa region was once home to annual rainfall which brought with it seasonal lakes and livable landscapes. Around 11,000 years ago that the monsoons of Central Africa moved north. They brought a water source into the regions of southern Egypt.
Returning to the site, Wendorf’s revealed the stones to be quartzite sandstone. These were likely brought from the open zone of ancient sandstone mining, located one kilometer away. Ancient practices beyond a hunter-gatherer society were previously unidentified across Egypt in this time.
Nabta Playa was beginning to reveal its secrets. In 1980, archaeologists, using a GPS, examined the stone circles formations. Their results found ancient wisdom within their alignments. The large radial stones were placed with their exact position in the north-south, east-west cardinal directions. Their layout was similar to the calendar circle stones at the Karnak temple.
The first civilization of Ancient Egypt?
The Nabta Playa site shows evidence of a society not previously recorded in ancient Egypt. Around 7500 years ago, the area was home to a population of people with cultural practice.
The megalithic structures remain the most valuable remnants of a lost culture. Found within the area are stone circles, burial chambers, as well as megalithic and carved standing stones. So far, at least 30 of these structures have been uncovered.
In what is now named the “Valley of Sacrifices,” there are ten mounds of broken sandstone blocks. The chambers beneath them contain remains of cattle, goats, and sheep.
The largest and perhaps oldest contains an entire cow in an elaborate chamber covered by a tamarisk roof. The carcass is orientated roughly north-south, lying on its left side, with its head west.
At around 8000BC, the first signs of human occupation begin to appear in the region. It is this area where the oldest evidence of animal agriculture is found on the African continent.
Nabta Playa appears to be a center of cultural evolution of the Egyptian civilization. From the burial mounds to farming, and animal husbandry, the first sprouts emerge at Nabta Playa.
Studies reveal signs of occupation in the area for thousands of years. Geologists explain the climate was cycling from very arid and harsh to seasonally wet and habitable every few thousand years.
Weather could have been a factor for a cycle of cultures living in the area. Excavations show long spans of time passing without any artifacts found. Then, something happened at 3000BC (5000 years ago). It’s here the last signs of human occupation are recorded at Nabta Playa.
