The great burial mound at Newgrange in Ireland’s “valley of the kings.” Photo from Office of Public Works website.
By Irish Echo Staff
The burial mound in Newgrange, County Meath is reckoned to be 5000 years old.
That’s 500 years before the first pyramids.
Drop another zero and you get 50.
That’s the anniversary that was marked today, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and a date that draws visitors from all over the world to the top of a hill in the “Royal County.”
And folks came from as far as the United States to witness this morning's winter solstice phenomenon at Newgrange, Irish national broadcaster RTE reported.
That phenomenon is the rays of the rising sun shining down the mound’s passage into its central burial chamber.
Newgrange is an ancient astronomical clock, one that told Ireland’s Neolithic inhabitants that the old year had ended with the shortest day, and the new year was about to begin.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the solstice phenomenon at Newgrange.
The passage grave was only fully excavated in the 1960s and the December 21 sunrise effect discovered.
The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht's Chief Archaeologist, Michael MacDonagh, described it is a "remarkable phenomenon".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland show before sunrise, he said: "The sun rises at around 8.58 a.m. and for a period of about 17 minutes the shafts of the solstice sun gradually lights up the back of the chamber of the 5000-year-old passage tomb."
Mr. MacDonagh explained that the sun gradually lights the chamber over five days, peaking on December 21.
He said there were over a hundred people who won a ticket to witness this morning's solstice and they had come from across Europe and further afield.
"120 people from across the globe won the lottery this year and we will be welcoming them here this morning, all our colleagues in the Office of Public Works here at Brú na Bóinne centre.
"They are travelling from as far afield as France, Austria, Italy, Switzerland the U.S., UK and across the island of Ireland."
The Office of Public Works streamed this morning’s sunrise live. Go to www.opw.ie.
