May
The earliest peoples of South Africa are largely enigmatic. What is known about the historic inhabitants of this territory is that there was an ancient awareness of the spiritual power of nature’s cyclical habits and the movements of the sun and moon. Records of ceremonial rituals and art, such as rock gongs and paintings support this fact. The level at which they demonstrated how in tune they were with life forces is where art, science and religion merge into a magnificent display of spiritual connection at these megalithic sacred sites in Southern Africa.
The sunpaths across Southern Africa are a remarkable discovery researched by Dean Liprini. They are vast and transcendent grid network of profiles, markerstones and observatories covering an inexplicably large area of 800km in length. The network is comprised of geometrically aligned Solar and Lunar observatories across the tip of Africa. It depicts the 3 main pathways of the sun, namely, the summer solstice, winter solstice and equinox. These anciently marked places are optimised for witnessing the first and last rays of the sun at dawn and dusk. These sunpaths were created for many reasons and as such became a centre for of pilgrimage for ancient peoples to study the shadows, refractions and movement of the sun and moon.
As a sanctified site in Southern Africa, mapping the sunpaths and community custodianship is the biggest part of Sacred Sites foundation. It is believed that ancient Stone-Age man, Bushmen, San,KhoiKhoi and Strandloper peoples had a cosmological belief system with the movements of the Sun.
They recognised various star constellations, prayed and dancing at sunrise and to celebrate the new moon, this solidifies their connection to higher powers. The sunpaths tell a story of immense dedication to science and religion in an indubitably culturally significant creative display. While we have much to discover about who exactly created them, we do know that they were a people of discipline, knowledge and faith.