Stonehenge Facts and Tours
Stonehenge tours, perhaps Britain's most famous prehistoric monument, remains an enigma to this day. We know that this vast, complex stone structure was a religious centre, but what actual ceremonies took place here and what precisely the participants believed we will probably never understand; we do know that it was begun in the Neolithic era, about 2950BC, and worship went on here for nearly 15 centuries, up to about 1500BC.
This familiar stone circle stands high on Salisbury Plain, its sanctity disturbed today by the rush of traffic. It was constructed in phases, beginning with a circular bank and ditch, with cattle skulls buried at the entrance. The first stones were not erected until about 2500BC (these were bluestones brought all the way from the Presely mountains in Wales), and the complex monument that we see now is the end result of several stages of building, culminating in the Bronze Age era.
Its various ditches, pits and stones indicate that Stonehenge was built first in awareness of the phases of the moon, and later of solar events; some people have therefore theorised that Stonehenge theories was built as a huge astronomic observatory, or as a calculator. Today most archeologists believe that this was not Stonehenge's primary purpose; rather, it was a centre where many people gathered for ceremonies and to celebrate their ancestors. All around it there are hundreds of barrows (burial mounds) - we can see examples of these in the illustrations in the Victorian Picture Library, one of which depicts a Neolithic long barrow in the foreground, and also various types of Bronze Age round barrows.
This familiar stone circle stands high on Salisbury Plain, its sanctity disturbed today by the rush of traffic. It was constructed in phases, beginning with a circular bank and ditch, with cattle skulls buried at the entrance. The first stones were not erected until about 2500BC (these were bluestones brought all the way from the Presely mountains in Wales), and the complex monument that we see now is the end result of several stages of building, culminating in the Bronze Age era.
Its various ditches, pits and stones indicate that Stonehenge was built first in awareness of the phases of the moon, and later of solar events; some people have therefore theorised that Stonehenge theories was built as a huge astronomic observatory, or as a calculator. Today most archeologists believe that this was not Stonehenge's primary purpose; rather, it was a centre where many people gathered for ceremonies and to celebrate their ancestors. All around it there are hundreds of barrows (burial mounds) - we can see examples of these in the illustrations in the Victorian Picture Library, one of which depicts a Neolithic long barrow in the foreground, and also various types of Bronze Age round barrows.