Interesting facts about Stonhenge

Interesting facts about Stonhenge

Stonehenge, with its stone circles and awe-inspiring arches, the trilithons, has stood over Salisbury Plain, in the centre of southern England, for over 4000 years; it is said to be the largest and most complete megalithic monument in Europe, and is probably older than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. For most of the past thousand years it has been a centre of mystery, and at least three kings and two notable physicians have taken serious interest in it and the lost people who built it.

Stonehenge can be found to the SW from London, at 137 km from it.

It isn’t known right now who the builders that created Stonehenge are. Some of the possibilities which are discussed include Aliens, druids and the Greeks.

In 1986, Stonehenge became a World Heritage Site of UNESCO, which is protected as an ancient monument. English Heritage are the ones which manage it and the owner of the monument is the British Crown.

Stonehenge has a flawless design from a geometrical and mathematical point of view. It is extremely precise and it’s designed to mark the alignment of the moon and the sun, as well as the weather period.

The stones used in the construction vary from a couple of tons to up to 25 tons, depending on the type which was used. They were brought from distances which varied between a couple of miles and two hundred and forty miles away.

In total, over 900 stone rings can be found in the British Isles. Stonehenge is the most known and the most impressive but it’s not the only one.

Scientists say that thousands of people worked on the construction of Stonehenge and that over 30 million hours of labor were involved.

The construction started with an encircling ditch. It consists of 2 earth banks, a high internal bank with an exterior one encircling the inner one. There are at least 2 entrances into the 2 earth banks. The main entrance is to the Northeast, while a much less significant one is to the South.

Inside the ditch, the builders dug 56 holes. They are called the Aubrey Holes after John Aubrey, the 17th century antiquarian.

Bluestones were the first stones to be placed in Stonehenge. The first bluestone arrangement was placed in the centre of the ditch. Instead of a stone circle, bluestones were concentrated more on the Northern and Eastern sides.

During the next 100 years, the former bluestone arrangement was dismantled and huge sarsen stones were erected.

Stonehenge was built in three parts over a period of 1000 years. The first part was just a mound, ditch and aubrey holes that were dug to make a circle. The second was when timbers were erected systematically all inside the circle. The third was when the lentel stones were erected and the bluestones set up into the Stonehenge we see today.