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With City Wonders it's not just facts, our passionate guides tell you the stories that bring the sights to life. London Top Attractions Day Trips. Mystery Surrounds It One of the most exciting things about Stonehenge is the mystery surrounding it. Experience the Extraordinary Visiting Stonehenge is almost an ethereal experience, perhaps because of the mysteries surrounding it.
The Special Exhibitions At the Stonehenge exhibition, you can see models depicting the history of Stonehenge. Get in Touch. Phone Number. Good Work :. There is lots of information about Stonehenge on the internet but this is a good website for children — click here […]. See all. Stonehenge Facts! Discover the secrets of this incredible ancient monument…. Then check out our fascinating Stonehenge facts… What is Stonehenge?
When was Stonehenge built? How was Stonehenge built? Brand new discovery! It seems that Stonehenge may have originally been built in Wales! Add to this the five trilithons in the central horseshoe, that gives us 75 sarsens in total. Beyond the centre there are four additional sarsens standing today, but there are recorded holes, for those moved or taken away, for at least another ten.
In addition to the sarsens, there is the large sandstone monolith now fallen known as the Altar Stone, and an unknown number of bluestones. The outer circle of bluestones may originally have contained 60 uprights, although there is only certain evidence for 28 and, of those, only seven are still standing.
The inner bluestone horseshoe may have contained 19, of which only six still stand. A conservative guess would suggest something in the region of stones on the site at any one time. Today, Stonehenge is managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust members of either organisation get free entry to the site, as do local residents.
A new visitor and exhibition centre was opened in 1. Inside the visitor centre, you can enjoy a virtual tour of Stonehenge. Book your ticket to visit Stonehenge with English Heritage. Geologically speaking, two discrete sources can be identified for the stones used in the construction of Stonehenge. The most impressive uprights, the sarsens, were sourced locally, possibly from somewhere near the Marlborough Downs, approximately 20 miles to the north.
Here, naturally occurring sarsen can still be found and, although none are today as big as those recorded from Stonehenge, it was probably from here that they were originally dug out of the ground — quite an effort considering most weigh between 30 and 40 tonnes. From Marlborough, it is likely that the roughly shaped blocks were transported across the undulating landscape of Wiltshire to their resting place on Salisbury Plain.
Quite how this was achieved, given the technology and resources available to Neolithic people, continues to perplex, intrigue and annoy academics to this day. The smaller bluestone dolerite and rhyolite pillars are of volcanic and igneous origin. The most likely source of them are outcrops in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, miles to the west, where recent archaeological work suggests the presence of prehistoric quarries.
It is possible that the stones were cut direct to order; alternatively, they may have been part of a Welsh stone circle, moved wholesale to Salisbury Plain. The military Salisbury Plain has been a training ground for more than a century.
Today the army is mindful of the monument, but it was not always so. Mine tests during World War I, together with tank and artillery firing practice, caused some stones to move and fracture. Then came the arrival of the Royal Flying Corps in , whose aircraft skimmed the tops of the lintels as they came in to land. Hands-on tourists Until the late 19th century, visitors regularly chipped off pieces to take home and engraved their initials into the monument.
Campers set up within the circle, digging fire pits that undermined the stability of the stones. Human-made eyesores Unrestricted access to the interior of Stonehenge in the midth century resulted in significant erosion and an increase in picnic-related litter. Festivalgoers The Stonehenge Free Festival, timed to coincide with the summer solstice, brought thousands to Salisbury Plain in the s and s, causing significant damage to the landscape.
Archaeologists also discovered evidence of a large settlement of houses nearby, suggesting that Stonehenge was at the centre of a large ancient ceremonial complex that ran along the River Avon. Researchers have studied the standing bluestones at Stonehenge, and believe they were carefully placed in their surroundings based on early astronomical knowledge.
The team of researchers studied Stonehenge, as well as several other stone formations across the UK, and came to the conclusion that Stonehenge was likely built to track the movement of the sun, moon and stars thousands of years ago. An analysis of the position and orientation of the stones, compared with well-known astronomical alignments, has revealed a strong alignment with the movements of the sun and moon in particular.
To add to this theory, Stonehenge famously aligns to the Summer Solstice longest daylight time and Winter solstice shortest daylight time.
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