Hi all
recently the book of Simon Winchester, Atlantic, is available in italian, so
reading it I found some news about Elmina Castle, Ghana, also famous for a big
sundial.
This castle was one of the many fortresses build on the West cost of Africa,
sadly famous as the gates where to ship the slaves through the Atlantic.
Elmina is one of the most famous, it is located about 10 km West of Cape Coast,
in the Gulf of Guinea, it was built by Portuguese (Feitoria da Mina) on 1482,
it became Dutch on 1637, then English on 1872 until the indipendence of Ghana
(Gold Coast) on 1957. It was declared World Heritage Site by Unesco.
I looked for more info about its sundial and I found other sources that
indicate the sundial. Some websites write about a sundial, others about a
compass used as a sundial, I also found: used by Portuguese; used by Dutch; the
most ancient sundial of Africa.
I registered it on Sundial Atlas (www.sundialatlas.eu/atlas.php?so=GH1)
reporting these info and some photos. The ‘sundial’ is a compass in a square
pool (images 1 and 7), there isn’t a gnomon (disappeared ?) but even the
indexes, simply it seems to show only the cardinal directions.
I wonder how it worked and if it was really a sundial or however used for a
similar purpose. I can imagine it can work like an analemmatic sundial to mark
the noon but I’d like to have other info if anyone knows anything.
Thank you, Fabio
Fabio Savian
[email protected]
www.nonvedolora.eu
Paderno Dugnano, Milano, Italy
45° 34' 10'' N, 9° 10' 9'' E, GMT+1 (DST +2)
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