  Star counts, obtained from a 2 x 2 degree area centered on NGC 6822 have
revealed an optical image of this galaxy composed of two components: in
addition to the well-known HI disk with its young stellar component, there is a
spheroidal stellar structure as extensive as its HI disk but with its major
axis at roughly right angles to it which we traced to at least 36 arcmin.
Radial velocities of over 100 intermediate-age carbon stars found within this
structure display kinematics contrasting strongly with those of the HI disk.
These C stars belong to the spheroid. Although devoid of gas, the spheroid
rotation is consistent with the I-band Tully-Fisher relation.
  The orientation of the rotation axis which minimizes the stellar velocity
dispersion coincides with the minor axis of the stellar population ellipsoid,
lying very nearly in the plane of the HI disk. We conclude: that the HI disk is
a polar ring and the spheroidal component an erstwhile disk, a fossil remainder
of a past close encounter episode.
