Others: Unknown (Anonymous) Balancers

The image to the left arrived, with no identifying text, in an email which mysteriously self-deleted after being opened. The only clue to its source comes from its filename (presumably the title of the image): "Waving You In".

Having visited this website, Jacob Toft Pedersen knew what he was looking at when he found these balanced stacks on a beach near Århus, Denmark, took several shots with his camera phone and sent them via email. There were several sites, and they are the first balances reported from a Scandanavian country, despite a long tradition of immense cairns and towering "standing stones" throughout the region.

Although the residents of Great Cranberry Island, Maine, don't "blast and boast" about their skill with stacking and balancing the abundant material beneath them, Wini Smart and Bruce Komusin have documented the artistic achievements of the islanders and raised a question:

"But why pile rock upon rock? What purpose does it serve? Intellectuals may say it's a cri de coeur of the lonesome island soul, an individual's quest for immortality and recognition from an otherwise uncaring world, like the hand prints on the cave walls of Altamira. Perhaps..."

Elaine and Dale Sandberg came upon these "Sentinels" in their journeys along the Illinois River Road by the Green Bridge. As Dale writes, "I do not know who made this , nor do I wish to know. Not knowing is part of the mystique. All around this site was human-caused damage but the delicate balance of these watchers were left alone."

Near Barga, in the Tuscan hills of Italy, balanced rocks recently began to appear outside of town and were reported in the press.

The photographer writes, "When I took those images there were hundreds of these sculptures standing down by the river bed... word had leaked out and many people were coming down to see these standing stones and then try their own hand at balancing some of the rocks. It was a great time. Some were still standing even after the winter storms. Then the following year there were groups of people arriving whose only intention was to knock down the stones. It was not such a great time. The stones are still being created but further up in the mountains and in secret.."

(Webmaster's hint: translate "ImpilatoreDellaRoccia"™)