The Georgia Guidestones

The main thing of interest to me while on our little adventure to Georgia was to visit the Georgia Guidestones.  Living in this geographical area for most of my life I had never heard of the Georgia Guidestones until a few months ago.  As soon as I heard about them I knew I would have to make a trip there.  They are known as America’s Stonehenge.  On a knoll about 8 miles north of the town of Elberton, Georgia they stand in all their glory.  I was not disappointed.  There is a great mystery surrounding these stones.  No one knows for sure, although there is some speculation, just who was behind these stones.  Elberton is known as the granite capital of the world and the guidestones are  four granite monoliths, each nineteen feet tall. The main cluster was completed on March 22, 1980, using granite quarried from nearby Elberton.  On the top stone, carved on the four sides in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Babylonian Cuneiform, it says: "Let these be Guidestones to an Age of Reason." On the upright slabs, carved in eight different languages,  Swahili, Hebrew, Chinese, Russian, English, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic, are Ten Guides for the coming "Age of Reason.”  Here are the guides:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

The structure also has astronomical features.  Holes and slots carved into the granite stones are for viewing these astronomical features.  Sunbeam thru the capstone marks noon time each day.  A long diagonal hole through the center stone allows the north star, Polaris, to always be visible.  More slots indicate the annual travel of the sun allowing one to see where the sun rises on the solstices and equinoxes.  The four large stones are oriented to north, south, east and west.  There is a lot more interesting info on these stones but I don’t want to write a book here, just give enough info to let the reader know a little something about them.  I encourage you to google the Georgia Guidestones to learn more.  I found them extremely interesting and plan to go back again soon. Unfortunately some locals who don’t like having these stones in the area think they are demonic in nature have defaced the stones over the years.  The city of Elberton owns the stones and maintains trying to keep them clean.  On the day we were there vandalism was evident with not so nice graffiti spray painted on a few of the stones.