Neolithic Passage Tomb

Today we took a full-day tour* to visit the monumental Newgrange Passage Tomb  (an hour north of Dublin), which dates from ca. 3200 BC, in the Neolithic period. It’s older than the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in England.  It’s a huge mound covering a narrow passage built of rocks to a larger central burial area. There are hundreds of burial tombs from this era in Ireland and several other Western European countries, but relatively few of them are passage tombs, and this is the largest of them all.  The main blip shows the entrance, with a smaller rectangular opening above it oriented exactly to the sunrise on the winter solstice on December 21st, permitting the sun’s light to illuminate the passage—all the way to the central burial chamber, for just a few minutes that day. Our group went all the way into the chamber, and saw a simulation of the sun coming through. The extras include Neolithic rock art on boulders at the entrance and the opposite side of the mound.  It was altogether an impressive experience. 
*We went with Mary Gibbons Tours.  Mary herself led the tour and she was absolutely excellent.

In the evening:   The USA women survived against England in the World Cup semi-final--very nail-biting, with several key VARs (replays for the referee and judges).
Posted late next morning