In 2003, South African pilot Johan Heine was flying over the hills of the gorgeous Mpumalanga region of South Africa when he crashed his plane into the mountainside. After exiting the plane, Heine saw before him three monolithic, five-ton dolomite stones sticking out of the ground, and behind them a giant stone circle. The befuddled pilot didn't know it yet, but he had just discovered what is arguably the oldest manmade structure in the entire world.
Known to only a select few and accessible solely by rough dirt roads past the wild horses of Kaapschehoop, Adam’s Calendar is possibly the world's only megalithic stone calendar, and, according to controversial archaeologist Michael Tellinger, it may also be the first mark ever made by humankind.
With the shape of a circle and a diameter of 100 feet, it is nicknamed the “Birthplace of the Sun.” As the sun casts shadows on the rocks, the calendar tells what day of the year it is. The stone circle is also aligned with the world’s equinoxes, solstices, and the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west.
According to Tellinger, of more than 100,000 ancient stone structures in the Mpumalanga region, Adam’s Calendar, dubbed “Africa’s Stonehenge,” is the oldest. Tellinger notes that the stones of Adam’s Calendar were built in alignment with Orion's Belt, which follows a 26,000 year long cycle around the Earth. This leads Tellinger to believe that the calendar is as much as 250,000 years old, although the most commonly used figure is 75,000 years—a full 16 times older than the Great Pyramids of Giza.
As of now, the true age of Adam's Calendar is highly disputed, and it remains a mystery that is yet to be solved.