Stonehenge: N51 10.728 W001 49.572
Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site consisting of a prehistoric temple aligned with movements of the sun. It was built in approximately 2,500 B.C. It is the most architecturally sophisticated stone circle in the world. In 2020, plans to build a tunnel under Stonehenge were approved.
Torontohenge:
In 1997, American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson coined the term "Manhattanhenge", a twice yearly phenomenon when the setting sun aligns perfectly with the East-West grid of Manhattan streets, blinding westward-facing motorists and pedestrians but allowing for some amazing photographs, especially when framed by skyscrapers on each side. In photos, you will get awesome long shadow effects. In following years, other large cities such as Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto all got onboard with Chicagohenge, Montrealhenge, and Torontohenge. The street grid layout of the particular city and also the latitude of the city will determine the two dates each year that each city experiences its own "henge". The Autumn Torontohenge will occur at sunset (6:18PM) on Monday, 25 October, 2021. Each city also has its own dates for two sunrises per year when the sunrise perfectly aligns with its grid and latitude.
Although Stonehenge was built long before Toronto was even a city, Toronto has beaten Stonehenge with its tunnel system - The Path under downtown Toronto consists of 30km of tunnels, walkways, and shopping areas and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the World's largest underground shopping network.
To view Torontohenge, face West along any East-West running street in Toronto on 25 October around sunset. The effect is greater downtown where tall buildings frame and reflect the sun. For a few days before and after this date, the sunsets will also be spectacular, but for TO's particular grid/latitude, 25 October is the optimal date for this phenomenon.
While geocaching, we rely on latitude and longitude...hopefully this latitudinal event will be of interest to all cachers out there, especially the ones who love to take photos of their caching adventures!
To participate in the Torontohenge Community Celebration Event, join cachers anytime between 4:45PM and 6:45PM on 25 October, 2021 on the SW corner of King and Simcoe, outside of Roy Thomson Hall. If you'd like, grab a caching friend to find a few of the local urban caches, and make it to GZ to witness this spectacular sunset.
This event will be fully outdoors - enjoy Toronto's first Community Celebration Event!
Update 23 October: A week ago, it was looking like a promising sunset for Torontohenge. Now it seems that the fickle fall forecast is predicting 0 hours of sunlight for Monday evening plus a little rain thrown in for good measure. But, fear not! - the Torontohenge Community Celebration Event is still on at the posted place and time. Please drop by even just to say, “hi” to other cachers for a few minutes or for the whole 2 hours! Meanwhile, if you did want to see the Torontohenge effect, the alignment should still be pretty good at sunset anytime now for about a week as long as the sun makes an appearance! And, if you wanted to enter the Torontohenge Geocaching Photo Competition, take a photo at sunset over the next week (23 October – 30 October) and post it to your “Attended” log after the event. All attendees may enter the contest and all attendees (whether they entered the contest or not) will have a chance to vote on their favourite photo.
To enter the competition:
- Take a photo at sunset in the Toronto area on any date between 23-30 October, 2021. Even a cloudy photo is eligible!
- Attend Torontohenge (GC8HJDA) anytime between 4:45-6:45PM on 25 October, 2021.
- In your “Attended” log, post your photo (max 2 entries per cacher). Include a title and date of your photo. Deadline for posting photos is 30 October, 2021. Note: Photos do not need to be taken at the GZ of the event – any location in Toronto is fine.
- All attendees will be given a chance to vote on their favourite photos after the entry deadline.
- Winners will be announced the 1st week of November and prize delivery will be arranged for the winners.
See you on the 25th!
Community Celebration Events - 2020
This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 20 years of geocaching. Geocachers hosted events between May 2, 2020 and December 31, 2022. Learn more about Community Celebration Events on the Geocaching Blog.