What's your favorite megalithic monument?

Question

Stonehenge is only one of hundreds of stone megaliths around the world. Many of the famous ones are in the British Isles or Europe. Humans began constructing megalithic monuments made of huge stones, often transported for many miles from their place of origin, at about the time that state-level political organization was developing -- it took a certain level of control over surplus labor to get them built. --

Answer 1

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Answer 2

"Favourite" is an entirely subjective quality so there is no "right" answer to this question. Personally, I'm partial to Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, the Easter Island monuments, and the Pyramid of the Sun at Chichen Itza. Nevertheless, it's hard to disregard such things as the Serpent Mound or Chillicothe Mound in Ohio (which aren't even lithic), the Great Sphinx of Egypt, the Olmec heads, and so on.

All that having been said, the most wondrous aspect of all these ancient monuments, IMHO, lies less in what they are than in how they came to be. The social organization necessary, the amazing sophistication of the pre-industrial technology involved, and the pure artistry applied to their creation puts many modern "monuments" to shame.

Erecting monuments on the scale of these involved the active participation of large numbers of people from all levels of society, and in some cases, may have involved the ENTIRE society. It involved social co-operation (voluntary, involuntary, or both) on a culture-wide scale that we can barely comprehend.  The only thing modern nations have accomplished that came even close to involving that kind of pan-societal co-operative effort was the Allies' defeat of the Axis in World War II.

Of course, since the early 20th century, monumental architecture is far more likely to be erected by corporations, emplying paid workers, rather than by states or at the command of kings and potentates (except perhaps in Dubai). But corporations are no less egotistical than pharaohs, so there is constant competition among corporations to "outdo the other guy"; witness the neverending race to erect "the world's tallest building/freestanding structure", which began with the besting of 1889's Eiffel Tower by the Chrysler Building in 1930 and seems now to be confined to an intense competition between the Arab states (Dubai, Kwait, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia) to build the tallest hotel/commercial/residential complex, among which the Burj Dubai, slated for completion next year, is the current leader having surpassed the height of Toronto's CN Tower earlier this year.

Answer 3

The ones on Easter Island: http://worldheritage.heindorffhus.dk/Chi...