Carnac is arguably Europe’s most visually remarkable megalithic site. It is situated near the town of the same name in Brittany. Many will have seen images of the rows of standing stones there, often unaware that there are four main sets of them close to Carnac as well as cromlechs and solitary menhirs, including the largest, Le Grand Menhir Brisé, now broken, but originally 70 ft long and weighing around 300 tons. In their 1978 book ^[1771.180], Alexander Thom and his son, Archie, in the conclusion to their book, in spite of their extensive studies of the stone rows, agreed that “we do not know what these were for” and although various theories have been proposed since; we still don’t.

I always thought that the stone rows at Carnac were unique, until I saw an image of a similar arrangement of stones at Vibhuthihalli at Karnataka in India. It may be pure coincidence, but the similar sounds of Carnac and Karnataka is remarkable^(f)(g).

Jean Markale presumed that there was a connection between Atlantis and the megalithic standing stones of Carnac in Brittany. Rather than solve these two mysteries, his book, Carnac et L’enigme de L’atlantide (Carnac and the Enigma of Atlantis) ^[0470]  would seem to deepen them.>Paul Johnson offered a review of Markale’s book in 1987^(j).<

Helmut Tributsch suggested that the island of Gavrinis near Carnac in Brittany had been the capital of this Atlantean civilisation^(h). He dated the destruction of Atlantis to 2200 BC, a date also favoured by Anton Mifsud.

Hans-Pény Hirmenech expressed the wild idea that the rows of standing stones at Carnac marked the tombs of Atlantean soldiers who fought in the Trojan War! Wikipedia notes that “A Christian myth associated with the stones held that they were pagan soldiers in pursuit of Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone.”^(a)

Hank Harrison supports the idea of a megalithic Atlantis with its centre of power, probably located in the Morbihan area of Brittany.

Based on the picture and the data present, Schulz Paulsson believes that the megaliths were first constructed by dwellers of northwest France during the second half of the fifth millennium BC.”^(b) Mike Parker Pearson, Stonehenge’s leading authority, has endorsed this idea of a French origin for megalith building^(c).

Neil L. Thomas in a 2021 paper^(d) has studied three sites near Carnac that hold long rows of standing stones whose purpose was uncertain. Thomas concluded that they had a calendrical function relating to the sun and moon. I cannot help wondering why such extensive and labour-intensive structures were needed to achieve this relatively simple objective.

R. Cedric Leonard has published an interesting overview of the Carnac mystery, suggesting that the erection of the three rows of standing stones may have been originally connected. He further proposes that the builders of the monuments were possibly a Cro-Magnon people, namely, the Azilians.

In 2017, Arthur Faram published a short paper with the interesting title of The Carnac Stones Decoded. Frankly, I could not understand his theory at all⁽ⁱ⁾.

^(a) Carnac stones – Wikipedia

^(b) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/articles/europe-megalithic-monuments-france-sea-routes-mediterranean-180971467/

^(c) Stonehenge, other ancient rock structures may trace their origins to monuments like this | Request PDF (researchgate.net) 

^(d) (99+) Academia.edu 

^(e) https://atlantisquestscience.wordpress.com/science/the-stones-of-carnac/ 

^(f)  (99+) Mystery of the Similarities of Indian, European and British Megaliths: a Consideration of Possible Influences in Antiquity | Subhashis Das – Academia.edu (Plate 9) 

^(g) Stone Alignment of Vibhutihalli | PDF | Sunset | Neolithic (scribd.com) 

^(h) Die gläsernen Türme von Atlantis: Erinnerungen an Megalith-EuropaDie gläsernen Türme von Atlantis: Erinnerungen an Megalith-EuropaDie gläsernen Türme von Atlantis: Erinnerungen an Megalith-Europa – Helmut Tributsch (archive.org)(German) *

⁽ⁱ⁾  Carnac Stones (thefaramfoundation.com) 

^(j) https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/anceur/eu-john.htm *