Other pole-style dials

The Sun Ship, Tavel (France)

When you have traveled 1500 km already on your way to your favorite holiday resort, and still another 1000 km to go, your mind may slip into the autopilot mode. But when this enigmatic structure gets in view, you certainly straighten your back. This probably also occurred to Filip Lindeman, my photo dealer in Roden. Anyway, he turned into the parking area of Tavel-Nord, along the A9 near Avignon, and took pictures of this extraordinary structure.

What a pity I didn't know about this object earlier! At about that time we actually visited Avignon while on sundial safari!
This dial really is a feast. From an architectural, gnomonic as well as a construction viewpoint this certainly is an unequalled project! (Except perhaps the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur...)

The four planes, the 'sails' of the Sun Ship, lean two by two against each other. Three of them serve as (declining and inclining) dials. The total height is 17 m (56 ft). Pole-styles on both sides cast the shadows. The above picture shows the west side, with two sails. The north sail has hour lines from 12 to 17 (local time), the south sail from 14 to 19 hr.

The southeast sail has hour lines from 5 to 12. Unfortunately, two hour numbers have disappeared already.
The orientation and tilt of the sails has been chosen so as to obtain interesting hour line patterns. They diverge on the southwest sail, are more or less parallel on the northwest one and converge on the southeast sail.

The dial has been set on a large concrete base, 26 m (85 ft) in diameter. The base holds in addition two horizontal dials, centered at the footpoints of the pole-styles.

A number of pillars around the base plate provide information about the relationship between the sun and the earth, the development of sundials, the history of civil time in France, etc. There is also a table yielding the combined correction for EoT and longitude, which varies between 25 and 55 minutes.

Thank you, Filip Lindeman, for the close-up photos. The other pictures come from the brochure "La Nef Solaire", published by the company that operates the Autoroute A9. I am grateful to Marten Hugenholtz for donating me his own copy!

Location: 44.0° N, 4.7° E
Design: Odile Mir (architecture) & Denis Savoie (gnomonics)
Inauguration: October 1993