Ley line

As ley lines (also Holy lines) are referred to by some writers the arrangements of landmarks, such as megaliths, prehistoric cult and churches.

The name derives (Old English for " clearing, grubbing " ) of alleged or actual stringing English towns with the endings- leigh or - ley from. Their existence was postulated for the first time in 1921 by the British amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins.

Explanations for this are scientifically controversial:

• Alfred Watkins suggested, inter alia, old trading paths, " Old Straight Track " with short -sight.
• A tentative explanation is, these lines pointed to a prehistoric system of land surveying, which was based on astronomical and religious foundations.
• There are also theories that are based on alleged force fields or Earth radiation; these theories often involve water veins and lines of energy (similar to the meridians of the earth ), see geomancy. In 1969 the writer John Michell, " Ley lines" with spiritual, and mystical theories connected and revitalized the subject.

In contrast, there have been several studies that came to the conclusion that ley lines are based only on statistically expected distributions of points. Analysis of point distributions showed that there is no significant statistical difference, which suggests the existence of actual ley lines.

The archaeologist Richard JC Atkinson showed as an example based on the location of payphones hypothetical " phone cell lines " ( telephone box leys ) on to demonstrate that the presence of connecting lines is random in nature and that such lines are not intentional artifacts - especially since is well known that telephone boxes were not distributed from such viewpoints.

Ley lines in fictional works

Various fantasy writers use ley lines in their works, where they are usually described as currents of magical energy, used the magic - users as power sources. These include Harry Turtledove Darkness series, Robert Asprins demons series, Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series, Michael Scott in The Secrets of the Nicholas Flamel, Diana Gabaldon in the Highland Saga and Robert N. Charrettes Shadowrun novel Choose your enemies wisely.