more than sixty miles from the sea, yet the region extends almost a thousand miles northwards with coastal-hopping/maritime access to the North, East, West and all the outlying Islands. The latter considerations apply to Northern Scotland and Ireland especially, but as elsewhere, we still need to find sufficient reason for the expenditure of so much energy and intellectual effort on the construction of astronomical monuments, not only those in Britain, France and the rest of Europe, but also the massive and more complex structures found in Egypt, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. B. INDICATIONS AND QUESTIONS In general, certain features seem to present themselves more often than not. The first would appear to be a strong focus on the extremal movements of the sun and the moon, especially the former with further emphasis on solstitial events. In certain instances the constellation of Orion and its "belt" appear to take on some degree of importance, while the amount of time, effort, and resources expended implies both a sound reason and a definite purpose behind their construction. The enigmatic features of such structures have attracted attention for decades (if not centuries) but more recently a number of independent researchers have suggested that conventional wisdom concerning the relatively recent rise of civilization on Earth may be in need of revision. Although not in keeping with prevailing viewpoints, the works of Charles Hapgood 23 ( Maps of the ancient Sea-Kings ), Colin Wilson 24 ( From Atlantis to the Sphinx ), Michael A. Cremo and