“Oh, sorry, no we don’t organise tours to Adams Calendar”, the rather disheveled youth who seems to be managing Koek ‘n Pan single handedly through an unanticipated brunch rush, tells me.
I good naturedly fail to mention that I’ve already taken the trouble to fill out the form he thrust in my hands earlier, when I broached a tour to the stones. I’m beginning to wonder if Adam’s Calendar is deliberately ellusive and difficult to find for visitors. Perhaps it’s fitting that the stones, shrouded in mystery, remain that way …
There is a book lying on the table in front of me called ‘Adam’s Calendar’, written by Johan Heine (who ‘found’ the stones in 2003) and Michael Tellinger. I pick it up and leaf through it. It is filled with beautiful photographs of the dolomite stones. I find I am excited about seeing them.
“Adam’s Calendar is built along the same longitudinal line as Great Zimbabwe and the Great Pyramid. It is also aligned with the rise of Orion’s belt when it rose horizontally on the horizon some 75 000 years ago.” I read.
Pictures taken from the air seem to clearly indicate how the ancient stones could have formed a circle. Is it possible, as the authors allege, that these are the only example of a functional, mostly in-tact, monolithic stone calendar in the world?
The fact that Michael Tellinger has also authored the rather controversial ‘Slave Species of god‘ that claims human beings are a species created by the Anunnaki, a superior species from a planet called Nibiru, who use us as slaves to obtain gold on a regular basis (all based on translations of Sumerian cuneiform tablets by Zecharia Sitchin), does leave me more than a little sceptical, and wary about the authenticity of the stones.
The Koek ‘n Pan guy hands me a cell phone number which we duly dial, only to find that Dr Steven Evans no longer does tours from Kaapsche Hoop to the famous stone calendar, said to be older than 75 000 years and the oldest man-made structure on Earth. That’s older than the pyramids at Giza and the Stonehenge, to put them in perspective.
All hope is not lost, as he gives us the number of Enos Zulu who he assures us will take us on a tour. Enos answers after only a couple of rings. He initially wants to add us to a group he’s taking the following morning, but we’re really keen on seeing the stones today so press him.
He’s just down the road, he assures us, and will begin walking, if we’re prepared to pick him up. He’s renting a room from someone in the little forestry settlement of Berlin, and off we head down the sand road past a few of the wild horses. We later learn from Enos that they’ve tried keeping tabs on the horses. At last count there were at least 150 of them, but they can’t be sure.
Enos is indeed wearing the unmissable red and black jacket he described, but we meet at a fork in the road and manage to slip past him. It is only his piercing whistle that alerts me. He is easily likeable, affable, well-spoken and a font of knowledge.
He has the key to the gate that will allow us onto the Blue Swallow National Heritage Site, where you will find Adam’s Calendar. Enos is also one of the local bird guides for the heritage site, which is how he started out in the business. Known affectionately as Adam’s Calendar, the standing stones are called the Johan Heine Stone Calendar. They have been dated by astronomer Bill Hollenbach to between 25 000 and 150 000 years old.
The authors (Michael Tellinger lives just around the corner in Waterval Boven and also gives tours of the stones, if you’re prepared to fork out quite a hefty fee) place the date closer to around 75 000 years, which they base on the movement of people in southern Africa at that time. But it could, they state, be even older.
Enos spends over an hour and a half taking a group of us (another couple and their children have joined us) through the stones. He explains how the stones probably came from a source of dolomite roughly two kilometres from the site. This is based on a geology report that indicates the rocks were moved here and worked with human hands.
He points out what the authors consider ‘The Workshop’, a scattering of loose dolomite stones that could be the remains, particularly as there appear to be chiselling grooves in evidence, of where the stones were worked.
He walks us to ‘the Stone Altar’, indicates the pathway hewn in the grass from the altar to Adam’s Calendar that Credo Mutwa (and many other sangomas and shamans) has confirmed was used as a path of initiation. Enos points to the Barberton valley below and indicates the meteor impact crater and the two pyramid-shaped hills (the third is buried) that the authors postulate are pyramids, and there do seem to be two connical shapes that do not seem to fit into the rest of the natural hillside.
All of this, Enos alludes, ties into the Anunnaki/Sumerian history of the deep Abzu and gold mining. It is difficult to follow his train of thought. Much of his talk he has learnt at the knee of Michael Tellinger, and he admits that a tour with Michael would make it all that much clearer. Standing out here with only the stones for company, it isn’t hard to believe most of what Enos is saying, no matter how tenuous the claim.
Could this African Stonehenge, Adam’s Calendar, be the special place of observation built by Enki 260 000 years ago in the deep Abzu ([link_sa]South Africa[/link_sa]) described in Sumerian tablets? Michael Tellinger certainly seems to think so.
There is something distinctly mystical about the stones. Call it an energy or a sense of the sacred. One cannot but be awed by the stones, their presence and the incredible scenery around here.
Now within the circle of rocks with the late afternoon sun leaving long shadows on the ground ahead of us, Enos explains where the stone man he showed us upon entering the gate of the heritage site, the stone that had been moved from the circle, would originally have stood – here at the western mark where the sun always rises just above the middle rock.
One would have entered the stone circle from the southern edge, the north being the direction of the sky where our creators were believed to have come from. He indicates the summer solstice line and the equinox line, and then finally the third line, that of the winter solstice.
I’m mesmerised by the circle.
The authors, Johan Heine and Michael Tellinger, have recently released another book about Adam’s Calendar entitled Temples of the African Gods, which goes a step further. They link the entire valley, filled with stone circles and ancient roads, to Enki’s Calendar, and the dawn of humanity.
Whatever your take on the claims by the authors, Adam’s Calendar forms a beautiful space on the plateau alongside the town of Kaapsche Hoop, overlooking the Barberton Valley, a peaceful space filled with open sky, incredible views and the spiritual atmosphere of ancient standing stones.
Useful Links:
- Waterval Boven Attractions
- Waterval Boven Accommodation
- Mpumalanga Accommodation
- South Africa Accommodation
Contact Details:
Enos Zulu gives tours on the history of Kaapsche Hoop, local birds, and Adam’s Calendar. You can contact him on 072 331 1197.
