The verziau of Gargantua (or vierzeux of Gargantua), also known as ''Haute-Borne'', is a

menhir A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found ...

at Bois-lès-Pargny in Aisne,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Description

This is a

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often ma ...

of hard

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

4.35 meters high and 1.50 m wide.''Bulletin de la Société archéologique et historique de Vervins et de la Thiérache'', Volume 21, page 28. This stone is chipped at the top, retains its base width to about half of its height, and tapers to its upper end, just over a meter wide

Location

The menhir is north of the town of Bois-lès-Pargny, a few meters from a small copse, near Sons-et-Ronchères.

History

At the beginning of the 19th century, the menhir had a twin sister, which was destroyed to extract a large amount of

. It is claimed that the depth of the menhir below the ground is the same as its above-ground height, giving a total height of 9 meters. It is likely that this menhir came from the nearby forest of ''Berjaumont'', where the blocks of sandstone are quite numerous. It must have been rolled onto this hill by a large number of men. Legend has it that a man of immense size was using it to sharpen his

scythe A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor mac ...

, and left the rock on the site in a gesture of anger. The monument was listed as a '' monument historique'' in 1889.

Appendices

References

{{European megaliths Archaeological sites in France Neolithic France Prehistoric sites in France Megalithic monuments in France Stone Age Europe Buildings and structures in Aisne Menhirs

Description

Location

History

Appendices

See also

References