EPILOGUE

Yesterday, 24 November, I visited for the first time what is left of Arihouat. Depending on how you look at it there's not much left, mainly a few stones corresponding to circle A -Vega- now closed to the south -the area in which Altair was reflected with the Aquila- by a little stone wall in the car park with a plaque bearing the inscription: NECROPOLE D'ARRIHOUAT-GARIN VIII-VII SIECLE AVANT J.C MONUMENT-A.
No comment.
However, Arihouat is still an exceptional place of astronomical observation visible to the eye all around the horizon, as in so many other parts of the stone circle-filled Pyrenees. Whenever, within and around the necropolis, there are large stones which could serve as a reference on the basis of which to follow the move-ments of the stars on the conspicuous local horizon. Without going into detail, the North -Photograph 1-, the South -Photograph 2- and the nearby Cap de Pouy to the SE., and in general all around the horizon, offer perfect conditions for the past propitiation of a high precision construction such as that described by Müller in his work.
From among many the observations which I could make on the unfortunate loss of the Arihouat ne-cropolis, I would like to extract two:
1- When, before demolishing monuments, a conscientious and serious work is carried out in order to leave proof of what was still to be found on the terrain, all is not lost, we can recover the essence and mean-ing of what once was. And that's not bad at all.
2- Given the current state of affairs, considering the psc as nothing but a funerary monument is insuf-ficient to prevent its progressive disappearance. The interests of building a forest track, a car park or what-ever is needed by modern interests are reason enough to demolish important remains of our civilization, far more important than the best paintings in the biggest museums in the world.

Arihouat: R. I. P.

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