Wednesday Weird: The Georgia Guidestones

In northeastern Georgia stands a bizarre and mysterious monument. But it wasn’t created during ancient times. Known as the Georgia Guidestones, this stone structure of five, 16-feet-tall, 20-ton slabs of polished granite is inscribed in eight modern languages with instructions for post-apocalyptic survivors attempting to rebuild civilization (as well as a shorter message in 4 ancient languages Babylonian, classical Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Sanskrit)

In June, 1979 a man by the name of R.C. Christian (a pseudonym) hired a granite company to build the slabs. To this day, no one knows the identity of this man (except a banker who is sworn to secrecy)

The guidestones are oriented to track the sun’s east-west migration and have holes to allow gazers to locate the North Star.

A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines is engraved in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

The guidelines read:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

And of course, the guidestones have led to plenty of conspiracy theories, most of them focusing on the supposed satanic nature of the guidelines. The stones have even been vandalized.

There you have it. Have you ever heard of the Georgia Guidestones?