This is a list of sites where claims for the use of archaeoastronomy have been made, sorted by country.
Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte have edited a book on heritage sites of astronomy and archaeoastronomy that provides a list of the main archaeoastronomical sites around the world.
Zorats Karer (aka Carahunge), archeological site claimed by many to have astronomical significance.
Ngaut Ngaut oral tradition says these engravings represent lunar cycles.
Wurdi Youang, a stone arrangement with possible solar alignments
Calçoene (called "Amazon Stonehenge")
Magura Cave, Bronze Age "paintings of staggered black and white squares could have been used to count the days in a calendar month", possibly indicating the number of days in the solar tropical year.
Angkor Wat
Phnom Bakheng, According to Jean Filliozat of the École Française, the center tower represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the 4 lunar phases each with 27 days.
Petroforms
Medicine Wheel
El Infiernito, (Spanish for "Little hell"), is a pre-Columbian Muisca site located in the outskirts of Villa de Leyva, Boyacá Department, Colombia. It is composed of several earthworks surrounding a setting of menhirs (upright standing stones); several burial mounds are also present. The site was a center of religious ceremonies and spiritual purification rites, and also served as a rudimentary astronomical observatory.
Puyang tomb, dated from 5000 BP, depicts a mosaic of constellations.
Abu Simbel, The axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, the god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark.
Great Pyramids of Egypt
Nabta Playa
Finland
The so-called Giants' Churches (Finn. jätinkirkko), which are large, from ca. 20 m to over 70 m long rectangular or oval stone enclosures built in the Neolithic (ca. 3000-1800 BC), have axis and doorway orientations towards the sunrises and sunsets of the solstices and other calendrically significant days. E.g., the Kastelli of Raahe, which is one of the largest Giants' Churches, had its five "gates", i.e. wall openings oriented towards the midsummer sunset, the winter solstice sunrise, winter solstice sunset, the sunrises of the mid-quarter days of early May (Walpurgis, Beltaine) and August (Lammas), as well as the sunrise 11 days before the vernal equinox in 2500 BC.
Carnac stones
Goseck circle
Glauberg
Magdalenenberg (disputed)
Tikal
Uaxactun
Copán Ruinas [1]
El Puente
Borobudur
Prambanan
For a full list see the chapter on India in the ICOMOS book edited by Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte. These sites include:
Brahmagiri
Hanamsagar
Udayagiri
Sun temples of Varanasi
Vijayanagar
Jantar Mantar
Gyarah Sidi
J.M. Malville and Rana P.B. Singh have done much work on the archaeoastronomy of sacred sites in India.
Persepolis
Naqsh-e Rustam
Ireland
Brú na Bóinne, AKA Newgrange, once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage into the chamber for about 17 minutes and illuminates the chamber floor.
Knowth
Dowth
Loughcrew
Carrowkeel
Mound of the Hostages
Drombeg stone circle, at the winter solstice, the sun sets into a v formed by two distant overlapping hills and makes an alignment with the altar stone and the two main uprights. Due to the nature of the site and the western hills, local sunset is c. 15:50.
Beltany stone circle
Rujm el-Hiri, ancient megalithic monument in the Golan Heights.
Alatri
Nuraghe
Namoratunga
Cheomseongdae, ancient observatory in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea.
Kokino Situated 1030 m above sea level on the Tatićev Kamen Summit near Kumanovo.
Megalithic Temples of Malta
Mnajdra
Calakmul
Cantona
Casas Grandes
Chichen Itza, the caracol is theorized to be a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens. El Castillo the main pyramid also has archeoastronomy features.
Coba
Dzibilchaltun, Spring equinox, the sun rises so that it shines directly through one window of the temple and out the other.
Ikil, Hierophany where the sunrise on the day of the solar zenith transit aligns with the summit of Ikil Structure 1 as viewed from an observation point within Ikil Cave 1.
Izamal
Mitla
Monte Alban, zenith tube
Palenque
La Quemada
El Tajín
Teotihuacan, the pecked-cross circles as survey-markers
Tulum
Uxmal, Venus alignment of the "Governor's Palace"
Xochicalco, zenith tube
Yagul
Netherlands
Funnel Beaker Culture megalith graves ("hunebedden") in the eastern Netherlands might be oriented on moonrises.
Lahore Fort
Buena Vista
Chankillo
Cusco
Machu Picchu
Nazca Lines
Choquequirao
Ollantaytambo
Almendres Cromlech
Anta Grande do Zambujeiro
Dolmen of Cunha Baixa
Sarmizegetusa Regia
Arkaim
Rujm el-Hiri in the Golan Heights, territory occupied by § Israel.
Ale's Stones
Switzerland
Columna Jovis
Göbekli Tepe
Ballochroy
Callanish Stones
Maeshowe, it is aligned so that the rear wall of its central chamber, a rough cube of five yards square held up by a bracketed wall, is illuminated on the winter solstice.
Prehistoric Orkney
Stonehenge
Woodhenge
America's Stonehenge in New Hampshire
Anderson Mounds, Anderson, Indiana.
Bighorn Medicine Wheel
Cahokia, large Mississippian culture site with numerous solar and other alignments
Mound 72, summer solstice sunrise/winter solstice sunset aligned burial mound
Casa Malpaís Archaeological Site, Springerville, Arizona. Summer solstice at noon and sunset.
Chaco Canyon, cardinal orientations, meridian alignment, inter-pueblo alignments
Chimney Rock Archaeological Area, near Pagosa Springs, Colorado
The 3-Slab Site atop Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, which marks the solstices.
Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park
Crack Cave at Picture Canyon (Colorado) in Comanche National Grassland
Emerald Mound and Village Site, Lebanon, Illinois
Haleets on Bainbridge Island in Washington state
Hovenweep Castle
Holly Solstice Panel in Hovenweep National Monument
Moorehead Circle, timber circle in Ohio
Octagon Earthworks
Serpent Mound
Skystone near Naches Trail in Washington state
Wally's Dome in Sacramento Mountains (New Mexico)
