The Parnidis Dune is a true wonder of nature, and nobody who has been there doubts its magic. The renowned author Patricia Schultz even included this unique spot in her book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”. Here you can forget about phones and watches, and if you do wonder what time it is, the granite sundial will tell you precisely. The sundial was not placed on the Parnidis Dune by chance: astronomically, this is the ideal – and the only – site in Lithuania suitable for a sundial, because it offers an absolutely mathematical horizon. From here you can watch the sun rise out of the water and sink back into it, while the history of nature unfolds before your eyes with the wind-blown sand. The unique sundial was designed in 1995 by the architect Ričardas Krištapavičius. Professor Libertas Klimka assisted him as an expert in ancient astronomy, and the artistic part of the project was created by the sculptor Klaudijus Pūdymas. Sadly, four years later a hurricane damaged the sundial, but it was restored in 2011. Today it stands more than 13 metres tall. Raised to a height of 52 metres on the Parnidis Dune, the structure is simply ingenious: the sundial shows true local solar time. The shadow – the sundial's pointer – falls from the stele onto the hour lines carved into semicircular steps that rise out of the white sand and are faced with granite slabs. There is one for each month, plus four more for the solstices and equinoxes. Step by step, the semicircles rise towards the equinoxes and fall towards the solstices. The longest semicircle belongs to June, and the two shortest to December and January. The granite records the schedule of the sun's endless journey across the sky, and every line on the scale is dictated by the rhythms of nature. Even the geometry of the granite steps resembles the layers of sand in old dunes exposed by the wind. On the Parnidis Dune you can feel the passage of time almost physically, and at the solstices and equinoxes, as the shadow steadily creeps along, you can determine the astronomical start of spring, summer, autumn and winter, just like ancient priests and priestesses.