JAPAN: The monumental burial mounds known as kofun are said to contain the remains of Japan’s semilegendary early emperors, who ruled between the 3rd and 7th centuries A.D. Because they are considered sacred, access to the mounds is limited, and archaeologists still know very little about them. However, a new study used high-resolution satellite images and revealed that all the entrances to the keyhole-shaped tombs are aligned with the rising sun. Japanese tradition holds that the first emperors were direct descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu.