The Face of Arthur

www.clannarthur.com is about the Scottish roots of King Arthur and the Brethonic (British) peoples of Strathclyde
We seek a better picture.

To the west of Ben Arthur on the west flank of Glen Kinglass is a massive rock outcrop known as Agaidh Artair ~ The Face of Arthur. As one crests the Rest and Be Thankful on the A83 and rounds the corner into the descent, straight ahead in the distance, the entire left flank of the glen portrays the profile of the legendary man. The face lies at an angle of about 30° projecting from the hillside. At the top a furrowed brow and long shaggy hair streams back into the hillside, with an arched eyelid clearly defined immediately below. The nose is long and shallow, almost absent, underlined with a craggy moustache and a full craggy beard that tumbles towards the valley floor. Frozen in time, Arthur stares back at his mountain The Lake and his kingdom beyond.

Duncansby Head, Caithness

Looking west, at Duncansby Head, is this face. Just around the corner is the lighthouse above and John O'Groats. North beyond, are the islands of Orkney with their Megalithic complexes, villages in stone and iron-age brochs (round towers). Caithness has similar Megalithic hardware in the form of cairn-like tombs and stone rows.

The Stone of Caithness and Orkney is mainly layered sandstone, used for stone construction. Caithness stone had the strange fate of paving almost every railway platform in the British empire, to the betterment of the Earl of Sutherland (and Caithness) but not his people, who were generally cleared from the land.

Mimetoliths of Canada

Here is a link to stone faces I have found 1 hour north of Montreal.
Called Stone Faced Sober these mimetoliths called me until I searched them out in the forest.

http://www.pbase.com/alkeme/stonefaced_sober

Sincerely yours
Algis Kemezys-Kirk
(film by him)

The Secret Face of Nature reveals the extraordinary variety of art-forms in nature. Here we enter another world created since the beginning of time and formed by extremes of weather such as wind, frost and shifting sands.

A keen walker and photographer, Jürgen Krönig became fascinated by the ancient sites and sacred landscapes of the British Isles. Out of this encounter with Britain and Ireland's rich prehistoric heritage, grew an insatiable search for remote landscapes, ancient monuments and the remnants of ancient civilisations. [more]
[buy from Amazon.co.uk]

Girnar Hills, Gujarat, India

Paavan Solanki offers a cool Flash presentation on the Mystery of Girnar, The Girnar Hills being a major Jain and Hindu pilgrimage site, with an array of earth mysteries. Located near Junagadh in Gujurat, NW India scene of recent tension. This is seen from the Bhavnath Temple in Junagadh Saurashtara. Visitor's story. Search Page.

The Face on Mars

"For those not familiar with the topic, several Viking images show features on the surface of Mars that, in the eyes of some people, resemble "faces," "pyramids," and other such "artifacts." The most famous of these is the "Face on Mars" and associated features "The City," "The Fortress," "The Cliff," "The Tholus," and "The D&M Pyramid." A fairly substantial "cottage" industry has sprung up around these features, with several books having been written about them, newsletters published, public presentations, press conferences, and, of course, "supermarket tabloid" published reports." taken from NASA Site.

Discussion

Face Mountains, or other features resembling features, are all likely to be based on natural structures, themselves shaped by extrusion, wind, water and ice flow erosion. Variations in hardness will play a factor. However, it is possible to modify a landscape feature either by directed erosion or direct removal of material. Also, it is possible for a natural face, as at Antequerra, to represent the sacred concepts of the Earth evident in prehistoric cultures, and the alignment of buildings such as burial dolmen naturally develops a sacred complex. The face on Mars illustrates, at least, how prone we are to find faces, having an entire, emotional side to the brain devoted to this task or "reading" the meaning of a face. It has also been pointed out that the face on mars is an epistomological event in the mind of mankind, like a reflector of all we could see in why it is there, telling us what we think or like to think.

But the evidence is growing that humanoid landscape features are part of Earth Mysteries and also, in the case of the Dolmen of Antequerra, a part of any thorough archeaological investigation of that site.

Gypsy Amulets Natural forms resembling human or animal faces were used as powerful charms by gypsies - from Exhibition at Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland

Rosslyn Glen has a little stone dragon on the descent from the Castle, also called the "Deva of the Glen".

Bill Sullivan has been shown at least one face in the sides of mountains, adapted natural structures created by the Incas alongside a pyramid that appears out of flat field structures on the summer solstice. Some of this will be seen by those on his Recent Tour. Channel 4 Microsite called Secrets of the Incas has summary of how Bill decoded the precessional myths of the Incas over many years. Photo not currently available, but shown on part 2 of documentary.
The face in question is almost certainly an adapted landscape feature.