The crowd gathered to watch the winter solstice sunset Sunday in Marietta moved up on the top of the Turtle Mound to watch the sunset a second time from a higher vantage point after initially watching it in Sacra Via Park. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

MARIETTA – Many people came out to Sacra Via Park in Marietta Sunday for the Winter Solstice Watch hosted by The Castle to commemorate the longest night of the year and the official beginning of winter.

A crowd of well over 75 people gathered in the park to watch the sunset. The park is uniquely situated to view the occurrence from its earthworks, created by Native American builders 1,500-2,000 years ago, said Wes Clarke, archaeologist with The Castle.

Large prehistoric earthwork complexes, like the one found in Marietta, were designed in part to track the passage of the seasons through astronomical observations.

The earthworks’ designs were used to mark these astronomical cycles and events in the sky and the people who built them took that knowledge and embedded it into the design of the earthworks where the park now sits, Clarke said.

“The winter solstice sunset is the day and night when our location here is tilted farthest away from the sun so we have the longest period of darkness and it traditionally marks the beginning of winter,” he said. “There are alignments built into the earthworks (within the park) that line up with the winter solstice sunrise and sunset as well as the summer solstice sunrise and sunset.”

A crowd of more than 75 people gathered in Sacra Via Park in Marietta Sunday for the Winter Solstice Watch hosted by The Castle. The park is uniquely situated to observe the winter solstice sunset due to the knowledge of the Native American builders who designed earthworks in the area to highlight the winter and summer solstices. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The winter solstice sunset is most visible now, due to the way the city is built and the houses in place around the area.

The crowd watched the sunset from within the park and then moved to the top of the Turtle Mound to be able to observe the sunset a second time from a higher vantage point.

People took pictures and videoed the sunset as Clarke recounted the history.

The Castle has hosted the watch for about 15 years. Clarke felt they had good weather Sunday, which resulted in more people coming out.

“Even in the years when it has been snowing and raining, there have been people out here,” he said.

There are people who are fascinated to see the alignment.

“There is a strong public interest in these sites and their connections to these astronomical events,” Clarke said, adding there are cultures all over the world who observed them and have specific sites where they observed them. He cited Stonehenge in England as one of the most famous sites.

“This site shares that with Stonehenge with a focus on the solar solstices,” Clarke said.

He gave the first European settlers of the Marietta area credit for preserving the site.

“A lot of the earthworks (themselves) are gone and disappeared as the city developed,” Clarke said. “They did set aside some of these larger mounds and it is a great thing that they did that and they are still here today.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com