Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire.

Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones.
Archaeologists believe that the standing stones were erected around 2200 BC and the
surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the
monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. After 3000 BC the Chalkland people started to
build great circles of earth banks and ditches. They built wooden buildings and stone circles.
These henges were centres of religious, political and economic power. Stonehenge was built
in separate stages over a period of more than a thousand years. Purposes of Stonehenge
remain a mystery but during the second phase of building after about 2400 BC huge
bluestones were brought to the site from south Wales. Stonehenge was almost certainly a sort
of capital to which the chiefs of the other groups came from all over Britain. Earth or stone
henges were built in many parts of Britain. The importance of these places in folk memory far
outlasted the builders of the monuments. The site and its surroundings were added to the
UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire. It is a

national icon and a symbol of mystery, power and endurance. It was built on a plane in the
Neolithic period. There were great public works at that time with huge organisation skills,
this is how they could built it. Chalkland people started to build great circles of earth banks
and ditches. Inside, they built wooden buildings and stone circles. These henges were the
centre of religious, political and economic power. It has 3 phases: the Earth, the Bluestones
and the Sarsen Circle. There are speculations if it was a temple, a prehistoric calendar, a burial
place or an astronomical observatory.
In the present the centre consist of two kinds of rock. The larger blocks are all of sarsen,
natural sandstone, and the smaller ones are from Wales, they are called Bluestones because of
their colours. Inside the Sarsen Circle there is the horseshoe of five Sarsen Trilithons, each
pair is about 45 tonnes.
Originally Stonehenge consisted of a lintelled stone circle, which enclosed an inner horseshoe
arrangement of stones, and it is open on the north-east side. Around the stone circle were an
earth bank and ditch. The entrance is marked by the fallen Slaughter Stone and beyond it the
famous Heel Stone (above which the midsummer sun rises when viewed from the centre.