Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Viking Stone Ship

Ales Stenar (Ale’s Stones) is our first Viking Stone Ship – an amazing construction of 59 standing stones laid out in the shape a ship. It is thought that these ancient monuments were erected between 500 and 1000 CE although it is also thought that the construction incorporates stones from earlier Stone and Bronze Age monuments previously on the site. It seems that the stones are aligned on the winter and summer solstice sun rises and, rather like Stone Henge it can be used as an astrological calendar. Located high on the cliffs above the Baltic Sea it is simply beautiful in the afternoon sun - even with people climbing all over the stones.
a quartz stone at each end

port side

rather a big one

we saw a face in this one

Tonight we are in Ystad, a port town with an interesting medieval old town section. The official aire was packed, dusty and near a factory so we headed on up the road and found a beachside carpark with a few vans parked up so here we are at yet another free site.

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