KOKINO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE (ЛОКАЛИТЕТ КОКИНО КОКИНО)

This rocky promontory, which rises more than 1,000 m above sea level, is presented as the "Kokino Megalithic Observatory" (Кокино Мегалитска Обсерваторија): according to the local official version, it would have been used for astronomical observations during prehistoric times. As such, it has been included in the Unesco World Heritage Tentative ("secondary") list since 2009. Excavations conducted from 2001 have brought to light a hundred objects left by man between the ^nineteenth and ^seventh century BC and presented in the museum of Kumanovo. However, no serious study came to support the theory of "the observatory". If Nasa supported this thesis for a time, the American space agency retracted in 2015, describing the site of Kokino as "a particularly problematic case". This one owes its name to its reddish-hued rocks: in Greek, κόκκκινο/kokkino means "red". Placed at the top of the hill of Tatićev Kamen, between 1,010 and 1,030 m above sea level, it extends about 90 m in length and 50 m in width. The complex dominates the hamlet of Kokino, to the southwest, across the road. In addition to the remains of an enclosing wall to the north of the promontory, the "observatory" would be made up of four platforms spreading out towards the west and of stones presented as strategically placed to follow the movements of the sun and the moon. But the visit proves to be disappointing, because the place - as beautiful as it is - does not shelter very "telling" vestiges.