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Stonehenge is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the
whole of Britain and has attracted visitors from earliest times. It stands as a timeless monument to the people who built it.
The stonehenge that we see today is the final stage that was completed about 3500 years ago, but first let us look back 5000 years.
| |The First Stage |The first Stonehenge was a large earthwork or Henge, comprising a ditch, bank, |
| |The Earthworks or Henge |and the Aubrey holes, all probably built around 3100 BC. The Aubrey holes are |
| | |round pits in the chalk, about one metre wide and deep, with steep sides and flat|
| | |bottoms. They form a circle about 284 feet in diameter. Excavations have revealed|
| | |cremated human bones in some of the chalk filling, but the holes themselves were |
| | |probably made, not for the purpose of graves, but as part of the religious |
| | |ceremony. Shortly after this stage Stonehenge was abandoned, left untouched for |
| | |over 1000 years. |
| | | |
| |The Second Stage |The second and most dramatic stage of Stonehenge started around 2150 BC. Some 82 | |
| |The Arrival of the Bluestones |bluestones from the Preseli mountains, in south-west Wales were transported to | |
| | |the site. It is thought these stones, some weighing 4 tonnes each were dragged on| |
| | |rollers and sledges to the headwaters on Milford Haven and then loaded onto | |
| | |rafts. They were carried by water along the south...