Here's a good explanation of the phenomenon:
"Inukshuk (singular), meaning "likeness of a person" in Inuktitut (the Inuit language) is a stone figure made by the Inuit. The plural is inuksuit. The Inuit make inuksuit in different forms and for different purposes: to show directions to travellers, to warn of impending danger, to mark a place of respect, or to act as helpers in the hunting of caribou. Similar stone figures were made all over the world in ancient times, but the Arctic is one of the few places where they still stand. An inukshuk can be small or large, a single rock, several rocks balanced on each other, round boulders or flat. Inuit tradition forbids the destruction of inuksuit."
I just found it fascinating.
I found the information on Yahoo Answers.
ReplyDeleteWhen we have been hiking in a national park, especially in the west where the trail might be rocky or snow covered and difficult to follow, rocks are stacked like this to indicate the correct path. We know them to be called a cairn. Sometimes they were cone shaped and others were single stacks. As we hiked across the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park, there was a huge cairn made just to announce the passage across the divide I guess. Hikers would add a rock as they passed by.
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