[logtempo]

Are they aligned because they are famous, or are they famous because they are aligned? Or are they aligned because if I pick 7 famous monuments aligned I can draw a line, look over my shoulder and say "ho look, if we draw a line it match!"

From wikipedia, the list of St Michael churches:

    St. Michael's Church (disambiguation)
    Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel (es), San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato Mexico World Heritage Site
    Sacra di San Michele (Saint Michael's Abbey), near Turin, Italy
    Pfarrei Brixen St. Michael with the White Tower, Brixen, Italy
    Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, in Brussels, Belgium
    Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy, France – a World Heritage Site
    St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica (Toronto), Canada
    St. Michael's Cathedral (Izhevsk), Russia
    St. Michael's Cathedral, Qingdao, China
    Chudov Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin
    Cathedral of the Archangel in the Moscow Kremlin – a World Heritage Site
    Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, Gargano, Italy – a World Heritage Site
    St Michael's Mount, Cornwall, UK
    St. Michael, Minnesota
    St. Michael's Basilica, Miramichi, Canada
    Skellig Michael, off the Irish west coast – a World Heritage Site
    St Michael's Cathedral, Coventry, UK
    St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv, Ukraine
    St. Michael's Church, Vienna in Vienna, Austria
    Tayabas Basilica, Tayabas, Quezon, Philippines
    St. Michael's Church, Berlin, Germany
    San Miguel Church (Manila), Philippines
    St. Michael's Jesuit church, Munich, Germany
    St. Michael's Cathedral, Belgrade in Belgrade, Serbia
    Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Gamu, Isabela, Philippines
    Mission San Miguel Arcángel, San Miguel, California, United States, one of the California Missions
    St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford, UK
    St. Michael's Roman Catholic church, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
    St. Michael's Church, Mumbai, India
    Church of St. Michael, Štip, Republic of North Macedonia
    St Michael and All Angels Church, Polwatte
    St Michael's Church, Churchill, UK
    San Miguel Arcangel Church, Marilao, Bulacan, Philippines
    San Miguel Arcangel Church, San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines
    St Michael the Archangel, Llanyblodwel, England

[Archelaos]

This Wikipedia list has a lot more St. Michael's churches:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael%27s_Church

Around 150 in Europe alone.

For the next hackaton: Write a programme to find all possible approximately straight lines between any 7 of these churches.

[mikhailfranco]

There really are many more. I know of 3 in a small area of Somerset not on the list, but 2 of them are ruined, and hence not currently dedicated:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Michael_and_All_A...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrow_Mump

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Tor

Churches were often dedicated to St. Michael when they were built over pagan sanctuaries, because St. Michael could fight the old heathen devil. Another example would be in Brent Knoll, next to the iron age hill fort:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael%27s_Church,_Brent_K...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Knoll_Camp

That is undoubtedly the case for both St. Michael's Mount (Cornwall) and Mont Saint Michel (Normandy) in the list of 7. They are both perfect defensive sites, on islands close to the shore, but accessible by causeways at low tide, and hence certainly occupied from prehistoric times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael%27s_Mount

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont-Saint-Michel

[acjohnson55]

Also, allow the map projection to vary, to produce lines of different curvatures.

[AdmiralAsshat]

See: ley lines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line?wprov=sfla1

[mikehotel]

Also: Alignments of random points https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignments_of_random_points

[aworks]

I don't particularly care if if these line up, but I find the list interesting:

Multiple churches in the Philippines presumably due to Spanish Catholicism.

I didn't grow up in California so I don't know the Spanish missions very well (standard elementary school fare). I had never heard of San Miguel.

I've also never heard of Polwatte or Miramichi.

Two churches in the "Moscow Kremlin?" What's that about? And what's the story about Qingdao?

And why just the name of a state, Minnesota, instead of a more precise location?

Then I go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael%27s_Church and it disambiguates from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael_and_All_Angels_Chur.... Finally, yet another long list in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Saint_Michael

[abrenuntio]

Definitely not ordinary places. Perhaps Stella Maris, the end point, is the most fascinating of all because of its association with the prophet Elijah.

[simonh]

There are apparently 816 churches dedicated to the saint in England alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedications_in_the_Church_of_E...

[Maken]

But only 7 of those are Cathedrals, and only those are aligned.

[tecleandor]

I think none of them are cathedrals. There's a couple islands, a mount, a shrine, a monastery, a temple...

[nabla9]

>.. are aligned.

Only on Mercator projection that is younger than many of the sites on the line.

Oder of things:

1. There were bunch of monasteries (not cathedrals), not aligned on any direct line.

2. Mercator invented a projection.

3. Someone looked at map using Mercator a projection and invented story about ley lines.