The Georgia Guidestones-An Unusual Landmark

The Georgia Guidestones are an unusual landmark. A lot of landmarks were purposely made to draw in tourists, such as the Eiffel Tower. Some landmarks are naturally occurring like the Grand Canyon. In Georgia, the purpose of the Guidestones, which are also referred to as the American Stonehenge, was quite different. There's a lot of information on the Internet about the stones, but here's a brief summary so you don't need to interrupt this article to find it.

Basically, the Georgia Guidestones are a granite monument arranged with a center rectangular tablet surrounded by four upright rectangular tablets joined by a capstone. Each of the outer rectangular tablets has a message presenting Ten Principles for Living an Age of Reason. The ten different principles are written in eight different languages on each side of four different upright slabs of granite. The capstone has four ancient languages represented espousing an appeal to reason. The stones also have the feature of being arranged astronomically. The unusual way in which they came to be by an anonymous sponsor that called himself, “R.C. Christian” adds to the mystery of what the messages all mean. The stones are a curiosity and controversial and best described by this quote: “raised the stones from local curiosity to the subject of national notoriety among conspiracy theorists and Christian dispensationalists.” In a book at the local library from the mysterious sponsor, Mr. Christian himself, states that the stones are a “message for human guidance” and that, “They are intended to stimulate discussion and logical compassionate action.” Being an adventurer myself and having the Guidestones within driving distance for a daytime road trip, off I went with my friend and my daughter.

My first impression was that they were not as big as I thought they would be. I think the air of mystery and a lack of perspective from the photos and videos contributed to that. While there, I searched the internet to see how they compare to Stonehenge. The Guidestones are only four feet shorter than the tallest tablet at Stonehenge. As far as the area, the Guidestones also don't cover a large land area. Another thing that was striking was the defacement of the stones. There was some pretty raunchy graffiti present as well as comments about the stones being representative of the anti-Christ and how they needed to come down. Other than the disgrace of the graffiti, the area was clean and overgrowth kept to a minimum. There were also some interesting features on the explanatory stone that was just to the west of the Guidestones. It referred to a time capsule that was buried underneath, but the date to open it was left out. From all the research, it was not ever clear whether there was truly a time capsule under the center stone. Also apparent were the many misspelled words on the tablet.

There were some other visitors to the Guidestones while we were there. There was a family that had some business in the area that came to visit and an older couple from 30 miles away that told us they had always heard about them, but this was the first time they had ever visited. We had an energetic discussion on what they thought the principles meant and how they had stirred up controversy. We also talked about how there were no markings or widespread pointers to the area other than the small sign right at the short roadway leading to the area of the Guidestones. It was obvious that we all thought that we found the experience to be thought provoking and a purposeful trip to do nothing other than to see them.

It's unfortunate that there are groups that think that the Georgia Guidestones represent the anti-Christ and are a message about the annihilation of 2/3 of the world's population. The Guidestones are off the beaten path, but it's worth it to go because it is interesting and different.