Georgia Guidestones

The Georgia Guidestones is a granite monument erected in 1980 in Elbert County, Georgia, in the United States. A set of 10 guidelines is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient language scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The monument stands at the highest point in Elbert County, about 90 miles (140 km) east of Atlanta, 45 miles (72 km) from Athens, and 9 miles (14 km) north of the center of Elberton. The stones are visible from Georgia Highway 77 (Hartwell Highway) and are reached by turning east on Guidestones Road.

The structure is sometimes referred to as an "American Stonehenge". The monument is 19 feet 3 inches (5.87 m) tall, made from six granite slabs weighing 237,746 pounds (107,840 kg) in all. One slab stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone lies on top of the five slabs, which are astronomically aligned. An additional stone tablet, which is set in the ground a short distance to the west of the structure, provides some notes on the history and purpose of the Guidestones.

History

In June 1979, an unknown person or persons under the pseudonym R. C. Christian hired Elberton Granite Finishing Company to build the structure.

The land was apparently purchased by Elbert County on October 1, 1979, although the Georgia Mountain Travel Association's history says the monument is located "on the farm of Mildred and Wayne Mullenix."

The monument was unveiled on March 22, 1980, before an audience variously described as 100 or 400 people.

In 2008, the stones were defaced with polyurethane paint and graffiti with slogans such as "Death to the new world order". Wired magazine called the defacement "the first serious act of vandalism in the Guidestones' history".

In September 2014, an employee of the Elbert County maintenance department contacted the FBI when the stones were vandalised with graffiti including the phrase "I Am Isis, goddess of love". On September 22nd (after a tip on September 11th), local blogger Van Smith reported that a granite cube inscribed with the numbers "20" and "14" had been installed in a square notch in the corner of the English language stone. Smith noted the notch's appearance in 2009. The cube was later removed and destroyed by somebody who appeared to be an Elberton official, as recorded in a video which showed additional markings of "8", "16", "MM" and "JAM".

Speaking on The Mind's Eye podcast on the 35th anniversary of the Guidestones' unveiling, in March 2015, the vice president of Elberton Granite Association, Chris Kubas, claimed that a corner of the English language monolith was accidentally chipped when the capstone was placed on top and unable to be fixed. Kubas said that the capstone was then taken off and a square block section was cut out of the English slab where the damage took place, which was then replaced and filled in by another piece of similar granite measured to the exact dimensions. On September 11, 2009, this section was stolen by a man who used a ladder to cut out the block, prompting the installation of cameras and additional security measures. It is thought that the same man, William Jeremy Ellis of Alabama, attempted to replace the piece in 2013, but was caught by the newly installed security system and arrested by the Elberton Sheriff. Due to fears of another theft, the original piece was kept by EGA and never reinstalled into the Guidestones, where an empty piece remained until the numbered cube was installed in 2014. As a wedding gift to his a wife in celebration of their recent wedding at the Georgia Guidestones, a man secretly installed the cube that he had manufactured with their initials (JAM, MM) and the date of the wedding (8/16/2014). The cube was taken down and destroyed (cut into two pieces), but not thrown away as it is currently in the hands of EGA.

Description

Inscriptions

A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely â€" improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion â€" faith â€" tradition â€" and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth â€" beauty â€" love â€" seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth â€" Leave room for nature â€" Leave room for nature.

Explanatory tablet

A few feet to the west of the monument, an additional granite ledger has been set level with the ground. This tablet identifies the structure and the languages used on it, lists various facts about the size, weight, and astronomical features of the stones, the date it was installed, and the sponsors of the project. It also speaks of a time capsule buried under the tablet, but spaces on the stone reserved for filling in the dates on which the capsule was buried and is to be opened have not been inscribed, so it is uncertain if the time capsule was put in place. Each side of the tablet is perpendicular to one of the cardinal directions, and is inscribed so that the northern edge is the top of the inscription. At the center of each tablet edge is a small circle, each containing a letter representing the appropriate compass direction (N, S, E, W).

The complete text of the explanatory tablet is detailed below. The tablet is somewhat inconsistent with respect to punctuation and also misspells "pseudonym". The original spelling, punctuation, and line breaks in the text have been preserved in the transcription which follows (letter case is not). At the top center of the tablet is written:

The Georgia Guidestones
Center cluster erected March 22, 1980

Immediately below this is the outline of a square, inside which is written:

Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason

Around the edges of the square are written the names of four ancient languages, one per edge. Starting from the top and proceeding clockwise, they are: Babylonian (in cuneiform script), Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Ancient Egyptian (in hieroglyphics).

On the left side of the tablet is the following column of text:

Astronomic Features
1. channel through stone
indicates celestial pole.
2. horizontal slot indicates
annual travel of sun.
3. sunbeam through capstone
marks noontime throughout
the year

Author: R.C. Christian
(a pseudonyn) [sic]

Sponsors: A small group
of Americans who seek
the Age of Reason

Time Capsule
Placed six feet below this spot
On
To Be Opened on

The words appear as shown under the time capsule heading; no dates are engraved.

Physical data

On the right side of the tablet is the following column of text (metric conversions added):

PHYSICAL DATA

1. OVERALL HEIGHT - 19 FEET 3 INCHES [5.87 m].

2. TOTAL WEIGHT - 237,746 POUNDS [107,840 kg].

3. FOUR MAJOR STONES ARE 16 FEET,

   FOUR INCHES [4.98 m] HIGH, EACH WEIGHING

   AN AVERAGE OF 42,437 POUNDS [19,249 kg].

4. CENTER STONE IS 16 FEET, FOUR-

   INCHES [4.98 m] HIGH, WEIGHS 20,957

   POUNDS [9,506 kg].

5. CAPSTONE IS 9-FEET, 8-INCHES [2.95 m]

   LONG, 6-FEET, 6-INCHES [1.98 m] WIDE;

   1-FOOT, 7-INCHES [0.48 m] THICK. WEIGHS

   24,832 POUNDS [11,264 kg].

6. SUPPORT STONES (BASES) 7-FEET,

   4 INCHES [2.24 m] LONG 2-FEET [0.61 m] WIDE.

   1 FOOT, 4-INCHES [0.41 m] THICK, EACH

   WEIGHING AN AVERAGE OF 4,875

   POUNDS [2,211 kg].

7. SUPPORT STONE (BASE) 4-FEET,

   2½ INCHES [1.28 m] LONG, 2-FEET, 2-INCHES [0.66 m]

   WIDE, 1-FOOT, 7-INCHES [0.48 m] THICK.

   WEIGHT 2,707 POUNDS [1,228 kg].

8. 951 CUBIC FEET [26.9 m³] GRANITE.

9. GRANITE QUARRIED FROM PYRAMID

   QUARRIES LOCATED 3 MILES [5 km] WEST

   OF ELBERTON, GEORGIA.

Guidestone languages

Below the two columns of text is written the caption "GUIDESTONE LANGUAGES", with a diagram of the granite slab layout beneath it. The names of eight modern languages are inscribed along the long edges of the projecting rectangles, one per edge. Starting from due north and moving clockwise around so that the upper edge of the northeast rectangle is listed first, they are English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. At the bottom center of the tablet is the following text:

Additional information available at Elberton Granite Museum & Exhibit
College Avenue
Elberton, Georgia

Astronomical features

The four outer stones are oriented to mark the limits of the 18.6 year lunar declination cycle. The center column features a hole drilled at an angle from one side to the other, through which can be seen the North Star, a star whose position changes only very gradually over time. The same pillar has a slot carved through it which is aligned with the Sun's solstices and equinoxes. A 7/8" aperture in the capstone allows a ray of sun to pass through at noon each day, shining a beam on the center stone indicating the day of the year.

Documentary series

The Georgia Guidestones are featured extensively in the Travel Channel episode "Mysteries at the Museum: Monumental Mysteries Special" featuring Don Wildman. They are featured prominently in the conspiracy web series Guidestones. The guidestones were featured in the Brad Meltzer's Decoded episode "Apocalypse in Georgia" and in 2013, a documentary titled The Georgia Guidestones Movie, received screenings in Georgia, South Carolina, and Oregon. The monument is also featured in the "New World Order" episode of the History Channel series America Unearthed.

Reception

Yoko Ono and others have praised the inscribed messages as "a stirring call to rational thinking", while Wired.com stated that unspecified opponents have labeled them as the "Ten Commandments of the Antichrist".

The Guidestones have become a subject of interest for conspiracy theorists. One of them, an activist named Mark Dice, demanded that the Guidestones "be smashed into a million pieces, and then the rubble used for a construction project", claiming that the Guidestones are of "a deep Satanic origin", and that R. C. Christian belongs to "a Luciferian secret society" related to the New World Order. At the unveiling of the monument, a local minister proclaimed that he believed the monument was "for sun worshipers, for cult worship and for devil worship". Others have suggested that the stones were commissioned by the Rosicrucians.

Computer analyst William C. Van Smith said the monument's dimensions predicted the height of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world which opened in Dubai over thirty years after the Georgia Guidestones were designed. Smith said the builders of the Guidestones were likely aware of the Burj Khalifa project which he compared to the biblical Tower of Babel.

The most widely agreed-upon interpretation of the stones is that they describe the basic concepts required to rebuild a devastated civilization. Brad Meltzer notes that the stones were built in 1979 at the height of the Cold War, and may have been intended as a message to the possible survivors of a World War III. The engraved suggestion to keep humanity's population below 500 million could have been made under the assumption that it had already been reduced below this number.

Notes

References

• Gary Jones (18 May 2005). "The Georgia Guidestones: tourist attraction or cult message?". The Elberton Star. 
• Fanthorpe, R. Lionel (2005). Mysteries and Secrets of the Templars. Toronto: Dundurn Group. p. 180. ISBN 1-55002-557-0. 
• Moran, Mark McGuire; Sceurman, Mark (2004). Weird U.S. Barnes & Noble Publishing. p. 193. ISBN 0-7607-5043-2. 
• Schemmel, William (2006). Georgia Off the Beaten Path. Globe Pequot. p. 206. ISBN 0-7627-4199-6. 
• Sullivan, Randall (May 2009). "American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse". Wired (Condé Nast) 17 (5). ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 19 April 2009. 
• WSGC Radio (6 Aug 2013). "Piece of GA Guidestones Recovered After Nearly Four Years". WSGC Radio. 

Further reading

• Raymond Wiley (2011). The Georgia Guidestones: America's Most Mysterious Monument. The Disinformation Company. ISBN 978-1-934708-68-2. 

External links

• The Georgia Guidestones Movie
• The Georgia Guidestone Guidebook â€" Elberton Granite (1981)
• Roadside Georgia
• Georgia Guidestones photos at Flickr
• American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse
• Georgia Guidestones Video and Photos by Travelers LeahAndMark.com
• Skeptoid: The Georgia Guidestones
• Georgia's Own Doomsday Stonehenge Monument