The Georgia Guidestones began in June 1979 when a stranger calling himself "Mr. Christian," later "R.C. Christian," visited Jo H. Fendley, Sr., president of Elberton Granite Finishing Company, Inc., saying he represented a group of loyal Americans living outside Georgia who wanted to build a monument centered on conservation. Using a pseudonym because he was a Christian, he named Wyatt C. Martin, president of the Granite City Bank, as intermediary to hold project funds in escrow, and said the anonymous Guidestones Group had chosen Georgia for its excellent granite, mild climate, and his great-grandmother's Georgian heritage. He agreed to place it in Elbert County if a suitable remote site could be found, and one was located on the highest point in the county, on the farm of Mildred and Wayne Mullenix north of Elberton on Highway 77. Fendley's company carved the six-part monument from Pyramid Blue Granite. It consists of four granite megaliths set in a paddlewheel arrangement around a central stone topped by a flat capstone. At its highest peak it stands 19 1/4 feet tall, measures 17 1/3 feet in width, has a diameter of 65 feet, and uses 951 cubic feet of granite weighing 237,746 pounds. A ground marker west of the structure gives additional data and covers a buried time capsule. The four sides of the capstone carry the statement "Let These Be Guidestones to Reason" in Babylonian Cuneiform, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Below, ten guidelines are carved on the eight faces of the four outer stones in English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, including calls to maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature, guide reproduction wisely, unite humanity with a living new language, govern passion, faith, tradition, and all things with tempered reason, protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts, let nations rule internally while resolving external disputes in a world court, avoid petty laws and useless officials, balance personal rights with social duties, prize truth, beauty, love, and harmony with the infinite, and leave room for nature. The monument also includes a number of astronomical features. Owned by Elbert County, it was dedicated March 22, 1980, and has remained a source of mystery and intrigue for many visitors and distant observers.