Summer solstice at Güímar Pyramids Tuesday 21 June

[Janet]

The Tenerife Cabildo has announced that the Güímar pyramids ethnographic park will again play host for summer solstice celebrations on Tuesday, 21 June. Doors will open at 6.45pm to allow the public access to the pyramids themselves. There, weather conditions hopefully permitting, they will be able to observe the orientation of the pyramids with the sunset on the horizon, and the famous "double sunset".

It was this phenomenon which started the research that resulted in three IAC researchers discovering the alignment of the pyramids with the summer and winter solstices. After studying the orientation of the complex, they determined that the two principal lines were aligned with great precision, one to sunrise on the winter solstice on 21 December, and the other to sunset on the summer solstice on 21 June.

Others think the pyramids are "just" agricultural terraces, but whatever the real origins are, they're lost in time, but the double sunset solstice celebrations at Güímar continue year by year. Entry is free, and special approved protective glasses are always provided by the organizers. This year, however, the park says that since the event has grown in popularity over the years, it is limiting numbers for security reasons, and tickets, which are now available, must be obtained in advance, from the park's reception, with a maximum of four per person. For more information, contact Pirámides de Güímar by phone to 922 514 510, or go online to the main website at www.piramidesdeguimar.es or the park's Facebook page HERE.

[Perikles]

After studying the orientation of the complex, they determined that the two principal lines were aligned with great precision, one to sunrise on the winter solstice on 21 December, and the other to sunset on the summer solstice on 21 June.

Oh please - anybody with a basic knowledge of spherical geometry will tell you that for anywhere on Earth outside the arctic circles, sunrise on the winter solstice and sunset on the summer solstice are exactly 180 degrees apart. So if there is a line to one, it must be a line to the other, in the opposite direction.

Nothing special about Güímar AT ALL.