The stone monument of Stonehenge, dating from 3100 years BC to 2075 years BC, is the best preserved vestige of the Neolithic period, a construction around 5000 years old. The circular formation is made of large stones, estimated to weigh around 50 tons each, up to 5 meters high. Located 130 km west of London, on Salisbury Plain, the massive arches are strategically positioned according to the sunrise and the phases of the moon.
– Book your tour to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath
Anthropologists have identified three construction periods, with more than 30 million hours worked, or around a thousand years.In its original construction, Stonehenge had thirty vertical blocks, on top of which another thirty horizontal blocks were supported, forming a circular structure thirty meters in diameter and five meters high, with some portals nine meters high.Many studies even refer to human evolution, such as the peoples who gave rise to “European man”.
The concentric circle of stones aligns with the sunrise on the summer solstice, rising under the main stone in the same way as it does during the winter solstice. The reason for the monument’s construction is not technically explained by history. There are those who say it could have been a marker (calendar) used for the agricultural cycle, there are also those who reinforce the theory that it was used for religious rituals, and even as a cemetery, since graves with more than 60 cremated bodies were found at the site.
The construction may also be associated with astrological observation, due to the positioning of the Sun and Moon. A lot of mystery surrounds Stonehenge, especially as to how it was built, since the stones that make up the monument were taken from a quarry in the Marlborough Plateau, about 30 km away from Stonehenge, others up to 200 km away, located in a mountainous region of Wales, where there would even have been a sea crossing. The question is how the stones were transported and properly positioned. There is even mythology that the site could have been built with the help of extraterrestrials, and was even a landing site for spaceships.
Getting to know the Hanging Stones, as the Saxons used to say, goes beyond visiting the stone block. The site has become an important tourist destination, receiving thousands of visitors from all over the world. It is only possible to visit the site with a ticket booked in advance, and at some of the busiest times of the year, such as June 21, on the summer solstice. There are a number of attractions on site: the Stone Circle, Neolithic Houses (houses reconstructed according to the historical period), Standing in the Stones (projection of the Stone Circle, according to the original construction), Making Connections: Stonehenge in its Prehistoric World (a place where you can learn a little more about the prehistoric period in relation to the building, including a documentary Stonehenge Exibicion), AncientLandscape (a space for anthropological exploration), Shop (with themed items and souvenirs) and Museum (more than 250 treasures and archaeological objects from the Neolithic peoples, 3000 years before Christ, which demonstrate mathematical, astronomical and architectural knowledge).
