Nabta Playa

Nabta Playa is a region in the Sahara Desert that lies to the west of the river Nile in modern day Egypt where a prominent civilization took rise around 7000 BC to 6500 BC.  The archeological evidence shows that not only this civilization was able to domesticate animals, farm, and create elaborate ceramic artifacts, but also had an in-depth understanding of naked-eye astronomy.  

They left behind round formations of monoliths similar to Stonehenge but predating it by about 1000 years!  One round rock formation - also known as the Calendar Circle - is a star-viewing diagram that mimics the star placements of the Orion constellation of about 6000 years ago, as it would appear just before sunrise during the few days around summer solstice.  The Calendar Circle is a part of a much larger and complex megalithic structure system - Origin Map - where the incredible amount of astronomical and equinoctial knowledge of the Neolithic Humans reigning this region at the time, is on display today.