Rujm el-Hiri, an ancient basalt rock structure, situated in the Golan Heights, about 16 kilometres east of the Sea of Galilee, has been drifting tens of metres since its construction nearly 5,000 years ago. For years, scientists have pondered the reason for the unusual movement as well as the purpose of the monument, also known as ‘Stonehenge of the East’.
After years of mystery, scientists may finally have come up with an answer. According to a study published in the journal Remote Sensing, the tectonic plates in the area around Golan Heights shift between 0.3 and 0.6 inches every year which means Ruim el-Hiri has shifted 131 feet (nearly 10 metres) over the past 4,000 years, completely changing the alignment of the stone structure.
“Analysis shows that since the entire region has rotated over time, the Rujm el-Hiri’s location shifted from its original position for tens of metres for the thousands of years of the object’s existence,” the study highlighted.
Prior to the study, theories indicated that the rock circle was an ancient sky observatory. To find truth in the theory, the researchers redrew the sky map and aligned the directions of cosmic events as well as celestial bodies that would have appeared between 3,500 BC and 2,500 BC and matched them with the monument’s current structure.
After going through the data, scientists found that the alignment of the monument’s gateways and radial walls during this historical period was “entirely different from today’s”.
“This means that the current orientation of the radial walls and entrances was not the same as 4000-2000 B.C., and the speculation that they were aligned with celestial bodies of the past are not supported.”
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‘A complex structure’
Satellite surveys showed Rujm el-Hiri has burial mounds, linear stone walls and circular “flower-like” enclosures which suggests that the monument is not an isolated relic, but part of a complex network of ancient structures.
Since its discovery in 1968, Rujm el-Hiri has captivated the imagination of archaeologists. The structure consists of 42,000 basalt rocks up to 2.5 metres high, arranged in concentric circles along with smaller structures sharing similar design principles. It has an outer circle spanning 150 metres.
The researchers claim that more excavation of selected features in and around Rujm el-Hiri is required to better understand the reasons behind substantial investment in the monument.
