MEGALITHIC BUILDINGS(THE MYSTERY OF THE HUNEBEDS)

A mystery which has puzzled scientists for centuries is the presence of the 54 megalithic so-called ‘hunebeds” in the north-east of the Netherlands. At higher points of the landscape there are dolmen-like megalithic constructions. Though dolmens usually consist of a few standing stones with one cover stone, a hunebed consists of an average of 10 standing stones, covered by a number of huge boulders. The standing stones are flat on the inner side, as are the cover stones on the ceiling side. They seem to be split stones since often the flat mirrors an adjacent stone. Whoever built these megalithic constructions, how and for what reason are entirely unknown facts. An unproven hypothesis states that they once served as graves, but Another explanation might be that they served as hiding places against catastrophic natural disasters. Mostly the hunebeds are oriented east-west with the entrance always at the south side. It is unknown whether there is a specific reason for this orientation. The name, hunebeds, refers to the Hunen but those people certainly had nothing to do with these buildings

Hundreds of hunebeds have been discovered, even across the border in Germany, but they have been dismantled over the course of time to be used as building materials for churches, roads and sea walls. Today, they are protected by law though no measures have been taken to prevent damage. The biggest hunebed is in Borger and consists of 28 standing stones and 9 covering stones.

Since there are indications that a hunebed might have been covered with sand, a reconstruction has been made, now named the ‘Papenloze Kerk’.