Zorats Karer

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Zorats Karer is a stone circle in Armenia, the ring and rows of 223 basalt stones near Sisian in Syunik, about 80 of them with a hole bored near the top; it is also called Karahunj or Carahunge. Pyramason catalogues it as PYR-110729 at 39.55070, 46.02860 (39°33'02.5"N 46°01'43.0"E).

From 1994 to 2001 the radio physicist Paris Herouni argued that the holes were sighting devices and dated the site to about 5500 BCE, and in 2004 the Armenian government named it the Karahunj Observatory. The evidence does not support that reading. A University of Munich survey in 2000, led by Stephan Kroll, found a cemetery mainly of the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age and read the lines of stones as the remains of a later city wall, possibly of the Hellenistic period. A critical assessment by César González-García found the astronomical claims untenable: they depend on narrow tubes set in the holes, for which there is no archaeological evidence. What the holes were for is still an open question.

There is 1 other catalogued site within 5 km of it, 7 within 25 km and 25 within 50 km. The nearest are Sigan, 3.3 km to the south, Saint Gayane Chapel, 7.7 km to the south-west, and Shalat, 9.5 km to the west.

The record

The shirt

Wear this siteKarahunj Site-Emblem T-Shirt, ArmeniaThe monument, its geometry and these coordinates printed beneath. Printed on demand, shipped worldwide. Every shirt funds the atlas.See the shirt

What is around it

• Sigan3.3 km
• Saint Gayane Chapel7.7 km
• Shalat9.5 km
• Vorotnavank10.0 km
• Orotan (river)13.6 km
• Ughtasar Petroglyphs15.2 km
• Tʻanahat17.4 km
• Tatev monastery26.9 km
• Tatevi Anapat27.0 km
• Bgheno-Noravank33.8 km

Updates from the atlas

Further reading

English Wikipedia  ·  Journal: Karahunj, Armenia's stones and the telescope that wasn't

Nearby on the atlas

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Distances are great-circle, from the coordinates Pyramason holds for each site.