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KOKINO
Megalithic Observatory
Kokino - megalithic observatory located in the area of the municipality of Staro Nagoricane, at a distance of about 75 km from Skopje, or 35 km from Kumanovo.
It is located on the top of "Taticev Kamen", at an altitude of 1,030 meters. It is dated to 1800. BC, or early Bronze Age, and covers an area of 5,000 square meters.
The Megalithic Observatory is located on a vulkan hill. The rocks were created by the hardening of the lava, which leaked from a volcanic crater. Time and erosion made gaps, and some of those gaps were the main markers that tracked the cycles of the Sun and the Moon and measured time.
The seven stone markers in the past marked the sunrise and lunar eclipse periods in the short-lived, equatorial, and long-term periods, as well as their deviations. The sun, in fact, only at sunrise - on March 21 and September 21 - rises exactly to the east and sets exactly to the west. Then there is a gradual deviation of up to 45 degrees.
Landslides involving natural markers on megalithic rocks in Kokino indicate that sunrises at the same location on the Sun are repeated at 18.6 years. Probably some members of the tribal community were tasked with monitoring the movements of the celestial bodies on a daily basis and making calendars to determine the days of rituals, as well as to begin seasonal work in agriculture and animal husbandry. The observatory is located on two stepped platforms from which the planets were tracked. Traces of several objects and parts of ceramics have been found on the upper platform.
According to archaeologists, there were no dwellings at the Kokino site, but the observatory was also a sanctuary, and rock carvings were used to place objects for their deities. There is also a kind of throne in the site, where elders and tribal leaders probably sat. During the discovery of the site, numerous artefacts were found (ceramic plates, amphorae, stone axes, etc.).
The site is complex and contains elements that are visible, but also those that are not easily noticeable to the visitor. At the top of the hill is a human intervention in the elements that are part of this site. Two flat platforms can be seen: the upper and lower platforms, where in the middle are several seats or thrones, placed in a north-south direction. Twenty meters southeast of the seats is a small platform, called the Astronomical Platform, which has not been fully preserved and has been used to observe the movement of the Sun and Moon. It is reached by a steep passage, called the "Passage of the Old Astronomer," which is carved into the southeastern rock. The second astronomical platform is located on the western perimeter of an artificially smoothed terrace on the north side. Most of the archeological artifacts have been found here. The entire space was surrounded by a 1.20-meter-wide wall, the function of which was to mark the holy place, as well as to separate it from the rest of the space where ritual ceremonies were not performed.
The Kokino Megalithic Observatory is one of the oldest observatories in the world. In 2005, the US space agency NASA included Kokino on a map of 15 ancient observatories along with Abu Simbel in Egypt, Stonehenge in Great Britain, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Machu Picchu in Peru and others.