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152 OUR ANCESTORS CAME FROM OUTER SPACE
vision into 28 parts similar to the 28 equal sectors of the Maltese
cross, but generally the exploration in the United States has
barely started. Most of these prehistoric sites are located in the
so called "Bible belt," where there is very little interest in pagan
temples of the past. However, this situation has recently begun
to change rapidly since even the farmers of the fertile Middle
West are coming to realize the value of their megalithic monuments
and archaeological sites.
Before I close this chapter on Celtic temples I have to mention
a kind of configuration that is neither a circle, nor an ellipse, nor
an ovoid. It is formed by a combination of a half circle and a
half ellipse. The very little known and perfect example of this
form is a temple called "Long Meg and Her Daughters," which
is situated in the north of England along an ancient Roman wall
in Little Salkeld, Cumberland. This temple can also be measured
by the Celtic foot and the ancient formula 22:7 of the circle.
The northern part of the monument is a half ellipse with a long
axis of 294 Celtic ft and a half short axis of 105 Celtic ft. The
southern part of the temple is constructed as a half circle, with a
147 Celtic ft radius. The north-south axis of the site is 30° oflF the
meridian, which could be a consequence of the displacement of
the terrestrial poles since the temple was built. The perimeter of
the Long Meg must have had originally 858 ft
for the northern part and 462 Celtic ft
or 396 Celtic ft,
for the southern. Translated
into our present metric system, the surface of this site is
exactly 4,500 sq m, perhaps another of the recurring, as
yet unsolved,
mysteries of the metric system.
The temple is in such poor state that it is diflBcult to make out
which stones make what alignments. Too many are missing. It
seems quite clear, however, that this too was an astronomical site
built to measure time. But why the odd shape?
Some think that these configurations are the first signs of prehistoric
geometry and that the different dimensions of this
temple
had the proportions of the sacred triangle of Sumer with
sides in the ratio of 3:4:5. This is not impossible, but it would
be very difficult to prove it.
There could be another simpler explanation,
easier to demonstrate conclusively, that will be
discussed in a later chapter of this book. The fact is that the elliptical
apparent orbits of the sun and the moon and the appar-