Carnac
village, Morbihan departement, Bretagne region, western France, near the Atlantic coast, just southwest of Auray. It is the site of more than 3,000 prehistoric stone monuments. The single stone menhirs and multistone dolmens were hewn from local granite, now worn by time and weather and sheathed in white lichen. Venerated by the Bretons until fairly recent times, the stones were adopted by the Romans for religious purposes, and Roman deities were carved on some. When Christianity came, the local attachment to the megaliths was diverted to the new faith by the addition of crosses and other symbols.
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