Georgia Guidestones (Elbert County, Georgia)

Planning to spend Christmas with my wife's Family in the mountains of western North Carolina and knowing that we were going to drive there after landing in Atlanta, I couldn't help but plan a little diversion or two during our trip - the first? The Georgia Guidestones.

I first heard about this modern and mysterious landmark on one of those top 10 lists somewhere and it sparked my curiosity. These massive granite monoliths were erected on the tallest point in Elbert County in 1980 under mysterious circumstances. The group responsible remains anonymous, though they claim to be seeking an age of reason and offer these words of wisdom to that age:

• 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.

These ten directives are inscribed in eight different languages (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian), each on a different face of the upright guidestones. There are additional writing on the edges of the capstone in various languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphics. The entire monument is also designed in such a way to observe astronomical phenomena, to add further mystery to the site.

While these directives have drawn a fair amount of ridicule and hatred, I can't say that anything there strikes me as unreasonable, but I won't go into the politics of it here. For now, just consider this stop if you are ever in the Atlanta, GA area.