lith was decorated with hands of the chevron pattern
running halfway round, with images of the
sun and other geometrical patterns placed between
the bands. It seems probable that it served as
a gnomon, and that means had been provided for
measuring the length of its shadow at midday.
The foundation of the monolith is twenty-five feet
higher than the site of the altar, and the monolith itself
was ten feet long, so that we have a total height for its
s u m m it, of thirty-five feet above the base of the altar,
and it stood fifty feet true north of the altar. At
Zimbabwe the altitude of the upper limb of the sun at
midday, at the winter solstice, is about 46-|-0, so that the
top of the monolith would then throw its shadow in the
direction of the altar, and to within about seventeen
feet of its centre. Probably some arrangement had
been made near the altar for observing the length of
its shadow ; and were the shadow received on an inclined
plane or staircase, as seems to have been done
with the dial of Ahaz, mentioned in the Old Testament,
it might be lengthened to any extent and its
variations in length increased in magnitude ; and so
the change in declination of the sun could be observed
with considerable accuracy. The sun is little more
than three degrees south of Zimbabwe at midsummer,
and it would be difficult to measure with accuracy the
short shadows then cast, and we do not find anything
to show that they had been observed, and the means
provided in the two other temples for observing the
position of the sun on the horizon would be much
more effectual for fixing this solstice.