Kokino

The megalithic observatory Kokino is placed on a neo-volcanic hill, known as a Tatichev Kamen, with altitude of 1013 m., which erects above the village Kokino. To his base leads an asphalted road that connects the villages Dragomance and Arbanashko, part of the municipality Staro Nagorichane. The research on this locality started in 2001 and represents one of the richest sites with archeological material from the pre-historical period of Republic of Macedonia (from XIX until the VII century B.C.). The newest archeological research confirmed that this locality was used as a sacred mountain, where the pre-historical inhabitants of the region performed several mountain cults, most of them dedicated to the Great Mother Goddess, main pre-historical divinity.

The largest part of the archeological material originates from the so called early bronze age (from XIX till XVII century B.C) and the late Bronze Age (from XIV until XI century B.C.). The archaeo-astronomical analysis have shown that the locality was used as an archaeo-astronomy observatory, where are marked with specially carved (in stones) markers the characteristic positions of the Sun (summer solstice, spring and fall equinox, and the positions of the moon characteristic for the summer and in winter). In 2005 on the occasion of the day devoted to the old observatories in the world, the American Space Agency created a list of 15 old observatories in the world, placing the Megalithic observatory Kokino in the fourth place.