Having earlier mentioned that there is a Winter Solstice webcast from Newgrange, here's news of a similar event from Maeshowe, Orkney...The annual Internet broadcasts from Maeshowe have resumed, allowing web surfers across the planet to view the winter solstice sunset from inside the cairn.
As the light from the setting sun strikes the back wall of the 5,000-year-old tomb’s main chamber, three cameras will be capturing the images and broadcasting them live over the World Wide Web.
The broadcasts, supported by Historic Scotland and Highland Park, at www.maeshowe.co.uk are scheduled to run until February 5, 2008.
And here's a description from Orkneyjar...
The late George Mackay Brown penned what is perhaps the most poignant account of the event:
"The most exciting thing in Orkney, perhaps in Scotland, is going to happen this afternoon at sunset, in few other places even in Orkney can you see the wide hemisphere of sky in all its plenitude.
The winter sun just hangs over the ridge of the Coolags. Its setting will seal the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. At this season the sun is a pale wick between two gulfs of darkness. Surely there could be no darker place in the be-wintered world than the interior of Maeshowe.
One of the light rays is caught in this stone web of death. Through the long corridor it has found its way; it splashes the far wall of the chamber. The illumination lasts a few minutes, then is quenched
Winter after winter I never cease to wonder at the way primitive man arranged, in hewn stone, such powerful symbolism."
Maeshowe And The Winter Solstice
0 comments:
Post a Comment