New Apps for Archaeological Research

Historically, certain directions have special significance and may be considered auspicious, even sacred. For thousands of years these directions, which include north, south, east, and west – the cardinal directions, the directions in which the sun rises and sets on the summer and winter solstices, and the directions of extreme motion of the moon (lunar standstills), have influenced the design and alignment of churches, mosques, temples, cities, and other places of importance throughout the world.

Solar and lunar alignments at Stonehenge displayed uing Sacred Directions Mac OSX app.

Sacred Directions

Sacred Directions is a Mac OS archaeoastronomy app that displays these directions on a satellite image at practically any location on Earth for the purpose of understanding sites in terms of their relation to the heavens. 

Sacred Directions Links:

Winter solstice sunrise alignment of southeast pyramid in the Plaza of the Two Glyphs at Xochicalco, Mexico.

Sacred Directions AR

Sacred Directions AR is an iOS app that displays these same directions in augmented reality (AR) views as seen through the device’s camera.

Sacred Directions AR can be used anywhere as it does not require an Internet connection. Hold it up and rotate in a circle to find the cardinal directions, summer and winter solstice sunrise, and sunset directions, the summer, and winter major and minor lunar standstill moonrise and moonset directions. The time slider allows you to view these directions now or anytime within the past 170,000 years. 

Sacred Directions AR Links:

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