***RIP!*** In July 2022, the Guidestones were severely damaged due to an attack by vandals. This wasn’t the first attempt to destroy the Guidestones but it did end up being the most fatal. By the end of the month, the city had taken down the rest of the structure for safety reasons. It is unlikely they will be rebuilt. The Guidestones have long been a source of controversy but there’s no denying the fascination they inspired. 

2020, 2018, 2016

A striking set of granite monoliths on a lonely hill in Elberton, the Guidestones have been called Georgia’s  Doomsday Stonehenge. By the end of 2020, it felt like a fine time to revisit them. I drove out into a clear, black-skied pre-dawn to catch the sunrise. As the light started to creep in, there were miles of starling murmurations overhead. The swarms started to leave just as the sun finished rising- an eerie and magical morning.

This was my third time visiting the Guidestones, I didn’t plan it but I guess I go every two years. Here’s 2018 and 2016:


The stones went up in 1980, with principles inscribed in eight different languages (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian). They advise:
• Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
• Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
• Unite humanity with a living new language.
• Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
• Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
• Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
• Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
• Balance personal rights with social duties.
• Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
• Be not a cancer on the Earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

Every day at noon, the sun shines thru a hole in the granite and illuminates the day’s date on an engraving.