Solstice Sun
It begins around the time of the winter solstice and can be seen for only a couple of weeks. As the sun sets on Pfeiffer Beach at Big Sur, it shines through the natural Keyhole Arch offering a spectacular light show.
Civilizations around the world have built observatories that align with solar events…
On the dawning of the summer solstice, the Sun rises directly above the Heel Stone—at Stonehenge in England.
At Machu Picchu in Peru, there is a giant stone at the top of this sacred mountain called Intihuatana which means “the place when the sun gets tied.” This stone is perfectly positioned so that each corner sits at the four cardinal points (north, south, east, and west) and at an angle of about 13 degrees northward. At exactly noon on the spring or fall equinox date, the Sun’s shadow disappears indicating the precise date of the two equinoxes.
The Chichen Itza pyramid in Mexico is perfectly positioned so that at the spring equinox the light looks like a snake slithering down the steps.
In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, the Ancestral Puebloan people carved spiral designs into rock to track the seasons and record the passage of time.one of the petroglyphs is called the “Sun Dagger” because of how the Sun’s wedge-shaped beams strike it midday during the summer and winter solstices.
The ancient people of Ireland built a huge mound of dirt and surrounded it with stones—known today as Newgrange. For 5 days around the winter solstice, a beam of sunlight illuminates a small room inside the mound for 17 minutes at dawn.
If you stand directly in front of the Great Sphinx in Egypt at sunset on the spring or fall equinoxes, you’ll see it settle directly onto the Sphinx’s right shoulder.
The difference in the light play at Big Sur is that the phenomenon is not man-made. Nature herself created this one.
https://www.travelcaffeine.com/keyhole-arch-pfeiffer-beach-big-sur/