Let the Universe find You

What makes the Dreketi Sky Circle a unique experience?

Most of the world's famous sky monuments, like Stonehenge, the pyramids of Giza and Jantar Mantar, sit far north of the tropics. Dreketi sits in the southern tropics, and that changes the whole sky. Here the sun passes straight overhead twice a year and the moon does so every month, something none of those great sites will ever see. The Southern Cross wheels around the south pole above you. Inspired by the ancient sky watchers who came before us, we are setting every stone for Dreketi's own sky. The circle honours their wisdom, opens a stargate to the Pacific heavens above us, and looks to a future where people everywhere slow down, look up and feel connected to the universe and to each other.

An instrument of stone and sky

Part monument, part observatory, part stargate to the southern skies, the circle will let anyone read the heavens with their own eyes, just as our ancestors did, and carry that knowledge forward to the generations still to come.

• Solar gatesIn the spirit of Stonehenge, four pairs of 4.5 metre stone pillars will frame the sunrise and sunset on the longest and shortest days, marking the turning of the seasons as people have for five thousand years.
• Equinox stonesMark the two days of balance each year, in March and September, when the sun rises due east and sets due west.
• Zenith needleInspired by the great sundials of Jantar Mantar, a 4.5 metre stone needle stands at the heart of the circle. Twice a year, at noon, it casts no shadow at all.
• South pole tubeA sighting tube aimed at the south celestial pole, the still point the whole southern sky turns around, honouring the Pacific voyagers who read these same stars to cross the ocean.
• Moon stonesEight stones for the moon's 18.6 year cycle. A child who visits today can return around 2043 and watch the moon rise at these stones, further north and south than the sun can ever reach.