A massive pentagram etched into a remote corner of northern Kazakhstan, discovered by satellites and viewable on Google Maps, has left many stunned and creeped out by its mysterious and possibly Satanic meaning, but according to the New York Daily News, its origins have been revealed.
The pentagram is 1,200 feet in diameter, located 12 miles west of the city of Lisakovsk. The baffling design has left many wondering if it was meant to be symbolic of Satanic or cult worship, but the truth is far less sinister in nature.
In actuality, the "pentagram" is merely a remnant of a former Soviet-era summer camp whose grounds were reportedly never completed. During the rule of the Soviet Rule, stars were frequently used to decorate the country's building facades, flags and monuments, though this fact has not stopped conspiracy theorists from speculating on possible devil-worshipping in the region. Historians and scholars of religion, however, maintain that this is a popular misconception, as the star symbol was used by Mesopotamians, Greek Pythagoreans, Christians, Freemasons and Wiccans for a number of innocuous reasons.
"Whats so 'devil' about it?" one YouTube user commented over the weekend. "Ancient cultures used this simbol (sic) for luck and protection, long time before anybody heard about satan, devil or lucifer. It has nothing to do with evil, actually pagans (everybody who's not judeo-christian) used it as defence (sic) against all sorts of evil."
It doesn't help, perhaps, that the massive star has been highlighted as being near two places on Google Maps, a spot called Adam and another called Luficer, a name commonly associated with the devil.
Archaelogist Emma Usmanova, who has years of experience working in the Lisakovsk area, has a logical explanation for the star that appears to be a five-pointed pentagram.
"It is the outline of a park made in the form of a star," Usmanova told LiveScience. Other users on YouTube wrote that the outline may be of an abandoned lakeside campground.
Click here to see photos of the park which contains the massive star many believe to be a Satanic pentagram in Kazakhstan.