22.5081°N, 30.7261°E.
Megalithic stone alignment in the Nubian Desert of southern Egypt, approximately 100 km west of Abu Simbel, in a paleo-lake basin that filled seasonally during the African Humid Period. The site is dated to approximately 4500–3600 BCE — predating Stonehenge by 2,000 years and the pyramids of Giza by 1,000 years. The principal calendar circle is 4 metres in diameter, with two pairs of upright sandstone slabs forming sight lines aligned to the summer solstice sunrise and (independently) to the meridian transit of stars in the Orion Belt at the date of construction (Brophy and Rosen, 2005, contested). Cattle burials (5500 BCE) suggest a herding population during the Holocene wet period. The site was abandoned around 3400 BCE as the monsoons retreated and the Sahara desiccated.
The oldest known astronomical alignment on Earth was abandoned when the rains stopped — and the Sahara has not returned since.
| Landmark | Bearing | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| giza | 2.67° | 831 km |
| angkor wat | 83.49° | 7,733 km |
| nazca | 261.78° | 12,215 km |
| teotihuacan | 306.70° | 12,805 km |
| stonehenge | 326.89° | 4,242 km |
| gobekli tepe | 23.82° | 1,814 km |
| machu picchu | 262.50° | 11,907 km |
| easter island | 254.39° | 15,971 km |
| cahokia | 317.42° | 10,839 km |
| sedona | 327.28° | 12,507 km |
| mecca | 95.67° | 945 km |
| jerusalem | 22.32° | 1,120 km |
| vatican | 326.02° | 2,745 km |
| lhasa | 68.83° | 6,017 km |
| kailash | 67.92° | 5,067 km |
| uluru | 110.56° | 12,037 km |
| tiwanaku | 257.87° | 11,643 km |
| chaco canyon | 325.50° | 12,188 km |
| mt shasta | 338.54° | 12,393 km |
| levis stadium | 336.34° | 12,766 km |