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An exploration of how and why places become invested with SACREDNESS and how the SACRED is embodied or made manifest through ART and ARCHITECTURE
NEWGRANGE, IRELAND
Newgrange, built around 3,200 BCE and recently restored, is a great circular mound of earth and stone 250 feet in diameter encircled by a ring of standing stones. The interior is solid except for a single stone-lined and stone-capped passage 62 feet long and 3 feet wide which terminates close to the centre of the mound in main chamber with a corbelled vault 20 feet high and three recessed chambers.
The entrance, in front of which is a massive curbstone (10 feet long, 4 feet high) carved with spirals and lozenges, incoporates a roof box which allows the sun, at sunrise on the morning of the winter solstice on December 21, to penetrate the full length of the interior passage all the way to the main chamber. A similar carefully calculated phenomenon is also found at Abu Simbel in Egypt.
 Diagram showing the path of sunlight into Newgrange
Photograph showing sunlight entering the main chamber
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