Megalithic Braniacs

First of all let me say, it is nice to know we have a fan who is not related to us who was wondering where we were! Secondly, you'll be happy to know our absence from the blog has resulted in fresh material.
We had to drive about an hour and a half or so to get to Newgrange, the most famous of a series of ancient burial mounds in Ireland's county Meath. I wish I could show you the inside of this megalithic burial mound since the outside looks like, well a mound. But don't let the grass on the top of the mound fool you, this was no easy task. The megalithic tomb was built around 3200 B.C predating the first pyramids by about 500 years, and Stonehenge by about 1000 years. There's 200,000 tons of rock carefully laid and stacked (no bonding agent whatsoever) that experts estimate took more than 300 men a good 30 years to build.
But the inside is the truly amazing part. Through this entrance, a narrow passage that takes you to the interior of the mound (which we weren't allowed to photograph). At the time of the winter soltice the sun shines directly along this passage into the chamber for about 17 minutes as it rises. The alignment with the sun is too precise to have occurred by chance, especially when you consider the sun does not enter the passage at Newgrange through the main entrance, but rather through a specially contrived opening above it. Mastery of math, astronomy, architecture and all without a wheel. These were some smart megalithic people.