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Astronomical complex

Examples of suggested ancient astronomical complexes that may have been used as solar and lunar observatories include, in reverse-chronological order:

• The E-group ruins of a plaza with three temples and two viewing platforms at Uaxactún, near the Petén Basin, Guatemala, accredited to the Mayan civilization referred to as a Complejo Conmemorativo Astronomico.^[5]

• It has been suggested that the grouping of stone circles and ridge-top cairnsonBodmin MoorinCornwall compose a ritual or astronomical complex.^[6]
• StonehengeonSalisbury PlaininWiltshire, United Kingdom.^[7]
• The Callanish Complex of megaliths in the Hebrides islands.^[8][9]
• The series of recumbent stone circlesinAberdeenshire in the North East of Scotland, including Balquhain stone circle and the cupmarked stone on its west flank.
• Wandlebury Hill, Portingbury Warren Mound in Portingbury Hills and a series of 11 marker stones including the Leper StoneinCambridgeshire and EssexinEngland, also known as the Wandlebury EnigmaorThe Wandlebury-Hatfield Heath Astronomical Complex.^[10]

• Goseck circle and other Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe

• In 2006, then Atlit Yam was discovered in Israel in 2009, dated with certainty to at least 6300 BCE, at which point it was abandoned and submerged in the Mediterranean, but still being excavated and analyzed as of 2014. Atlit Yam has human skeletons ceremoniously buried, and is a small semi-circle of long, narrow uprighted stones etched with cup marks.
• Rogem Hiri, 40,000,000 kg of stone with a 'gate' or opening in the outer stone circle through which the sun rises on each Summer Solstice (with this 'gate' matching the Summer Solstice's sunrise even more accurately millennia ago), and a burial chamber in the center under two 5-tonne megaliths, a layer of circa 3,000 BCE exposed, with a surveyed but unexcavated, estimated 4,000 BCE, layer beneath.
• Mnajdra and other Megalithic Temples of Malta, circa 3100 BCE and younger.

Examples of modern astronomical complexes of stellar observatories include:

• The Leoncito Astronomical Complex in the San Juan ProvinceofArgentina.
• The University of Idaho Astronomical Complex in the United States of America.^[11]
• The research and observational centre at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and its observatories, the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, on La Palma and the Observatorio del Teide, on Tenerife.^[12]
• The observatories of the Caltech Astronomy Department, California Institute of TechnologyinPasadena, California, United States of America.^[13]

• Burl, Aubrey., Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual, Shire Archaeology, 2010^{[permanent dead link]}