These menhirs are arranged in eleven lines, forming regular alleys.
The purpose of these menhirs is not well understood.
In certain places on the Scandinavian peninsula, extensive groups of menhirs occur, scattered irregularly over the plain; these are supposed to mark ancient battle-fields.
These chambers, especially those of later date, are often accompanied by circles or radiating lines of rude pillars, the Menhirs or standing stones.
In Brittany we find the Menhirsor "standing stones," unhewn pillars, regularly accompanying the dolmens.
Menhirs are still erected by the dolmen builders on the Brama-pootra, the Khassias, and always in commemoration of the dead.
To say streets is scarcely an exaggeration, for these jutting rocks have in places almost the regularity of the menhirs of Carnac.
Tumuli are also numerous, but only a few menhirsand traces of cromlechs are to be seen.
Let him marvel at the mightiest of menhirs now broken and prostrate at Locmariaquer, and then let him ponder over the subterranean places near it.
The central menhir or Cenn Cruaich probably represents the Solar God, and the twelve menhirs surrounding this probably represent the twelve months of the year.
A curious holed stone standing between two low menhirs on the moors beyond the Lanyon Dolmen, near Madron; but in Borlase's time (cf.
Not only were tumuli thus transferred by re-dedication from pagan gods to Christian saints, but dolmens and menhirs as well.
In fact, where menhirs are found, an obscene creed has persisted.
Farther on, she went down some stone steps, crossed a little meadow in which stood four rows of menhirs and stopped suddenly with a stifled cry, a cry of admiration and amazement, before the sight that presented itself to her eyes.
Like them it was adorned with menhirs and horses' heads, like them it contained traces of sacrifices.
Menhirs properly so called, also known as LECHS in Brittany, are in reality isolated monoliths or single upright stones, often of considerable size.
We shall refer later to the important monument of Mzora and the menhirs surrounding it, the builders of which certainly belonged to a race that lived much nearer our own day than did the inhabitants of the Cave of Hercules.
What is really certain, however, is that a definite plan was evidently followed, the distances between the alignments tallying exactly; the menhirs being set up in straight parallel lines gradually decreasing in size towards the east.
It was with this end in view that they erectedmenhirs and selected enormous stones for their megalithic monuments.
Alignments are groups of menhirs set up in one or wore rows.
These are, however, but exceptions, isolated facts, and it would certainly never do to argue from them that menhirs were connected with the worship of the generative flowers of nature.
In some cases menhirs mark the site of a tomb, and sometimes, as is the case with the obelisks of Egypt, they commemorate some happy event.
The menhirs of El Wad, in Algeria, form long avenues, running front west to east.
Sculptures on the menhirs of the covered avenue of Gavr'innis.
Some archaeologists in view of the shape of certain menhirs and the superstitions connected with then, think they must be phallic monuments.
Excavations carried on in 1884 brought to light a pavement consisting of ten large slabs of granite, and beneath this pavement was found a kind of crypt at least three feet deep, the lower part of the lateral menhirs forming the walls.
In many cases, too, crosses have been placed or engraved on menhirs in order to "Christianize" them.
The so-called "Canaanite High Place" recently found at Gezer consists of a line of ten menhirs running north and south, together with a large block in which was a socket for an idol or other object of worship.
There is, however, a circle of stones west of Tiberias, and an enclosure of menhirs between Tyre and Sidon.
The line joining the centres of B and A passes through a menhir called Hauptville's Quoit away to the north-east, while that which joins the centres of C and A cuts a group of three menhirs called The Cove, lying to the south-west.
It seems clear from the excavations that the menhirs do not mark the place of burials, though they may in some cases have been raised in honour of the dead.
Fifthly, we come to the alignement, in which a series of menhirs is arranged in open lines on some definite system.
The other alignement, that of Rinaiou, consists of sevenmenhirs set in a straight line.
Passing now to combinations of menhirs in groups, we must first mention the remarkable alignements of Brittany, of which the most famous are those of Carnac.
There were no rows in connection with the menhirs on Devil Tor and the Whitmoor Stone.
It traversed Syria, and Gilead and Moab are strewn with its remains, hut circles, dolmens, and menhirs identical with those on Dartmoor.
He says:--"The serpent appears on the prehistoric cromlechs and menhirs of Europe, on which I believe the remains of phallic worship may be traced.
The passage ends in a square sepulchral chamber, the supports of which are eight menhirs of grained granite, a stone not found on the island.
Passing on to Kerlescant, with its thirteen rows of menhirs made up of 570 individual stones, we come to the end of the avenue and gaze backward upon the plain covered with these indestructible symbols of a forgotten past.
What Menhirs and Dolmens are Regarding the nomenclature of the several species of megalithic monuments met with in Brittany some definitions are necessary.
Such of the menhirsas are carved were obviously so treated before they were placed in situ, as the design passes round the edges.
We have early Christian accounts of Pagan rites among the natives of the Negeb, who still in the seventh century were worshipping Venus at Elusa, and the stonemenhirs on Mount Sinai.
These I have never found elsewhere, though they recall the earthen mounds which form circles in England, sometimes surrounding menhirs or dolmens, and sometimes I believe used as meeting-places or courts of justice.
Numerous menhirs further on in the direction of Croix-de-bois, perhaps the relics of an alignment.
Three menhirs in the Ile Balanec, and a partly ruined dolmen near the modern Château de Boisriou.
To the south the ground is strewn with ruined dolmens and menhirs either fallen or standing, relics of alignments that have been plundered.
It is in a line with othermenhirs at Kergornec, Saint Gilles-Pligeaux, and Crech Ogel in the old bourg of Quintin.
A dolmen and two fallen menhirsnear it at the hamlet of Vinihy.
Isolated menhirs were either memorials to the dead, or boundary marks between tribal lands.
The largest of the menhirs is prostrate; apparently it had been purposely thrown down to form a coverer to a Gallo-Roman grave that has been discovered beneath it.
Two menhirs by the road from Mur to Corlay, one at Botrain is a rude quartz block, square and tapering to a point 12 ft.
Two menhirs at Kergornec, one in the Parc-er-Pélem, is 22 ft.
The menhirsare for the most part higher than those of Carnac, but unhappily a great many of them are fallen.
An allée couverte at Villepierre, two dolmens in the wood at Coetby and two menhirs called Baboun et Baboune at the outskirts of the wood of Lanvaux.
There are two menhirs in the commune, one 15 feet and the other 16 feet high, one at Kérangosquer, and the other on the lande de Kervéquilen.
Several dolmens are scattered over the neighbourhood, and menhirs as well, of which one is 21 feet high.
Seven menhirs in the wood at Floranges, and six in the forest of Camors.
Out of curiosity to hear what his ideas might be, I asked the child what he imagined the menhirs were.
Before reaching Carnac, we stopped at Kermario on the left, and got out of the carriage to inspect the army of large menhirs about the windmill.
Some are menhirs planted vertically on the end, others enormous blocks simply laid upon the soil.
The local guide-book mentioned some prehistoric menhirs and a chambered barrow on the top of Red Ridge, a distant hill, so they had fixed that as their Mecca.
At Carnac in Brittany four thousand menhirs in eleven rows are still standing.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "menhirs" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
