One of the world's most magical and mysterious places, Stonehenge, in the southwest of England,
is nearly 5000 years old. And there are still many questions about what
it was used for. Although it's believed that for 1500 years people were worshiping their
gods here and most likely using it as an astronomical calendar that marked the arrival of the summer
and winter seasons. Stonehenge was created so long ago that the
culture that built it left no written record. So there are many mysteries, which of course
is part of the magnetic charm of this monumental site. What was it for? Who built it? And,
when was it in use? Another reason the site is so interesting
is just the physical beauty of the stones and their elegant arrangement in concentric
circles of standing stones, some of them connected at the top by horizontal lintels, and the
massive size of these rocks that were carried here from far away.
The immense worldwide interest in Stonehenge has made it so popular that this one site
gets a million visitors every year, or each day, 3000 people show up to have a look.
And it's twice as busy in the summer time where you could have as many as 10,000 people
in a single day. There is one way to avoid these crowds that
we' re going to share with you in this special movie, where you'll actually get to walk into
the site. Stonehenge in the evening.
That's right for one hour each night just before sunset, it is possible to go beyond
the barriers and walk among the stones, if you get permission by paying an extra fee.
It's a very special experience and you have to reserve it well in advance because the
demand for this is extremely high. We are at Stonehenge, inside the circle at
sunset. It's an amazing experience. It' s a beautiful picture. The cameras really mean
nothing compared to being here. It's really quite astonishing.
You can walk around the different inner circle and the outer circle. You can walk inside
and outside the complex and get views all around.
It's really an amazing experience and there are only 30 people allowed in at one time
in the special private, twilight visit. And you could spend one hour at the site,
so you can get some pictures of the sun shining on it, the last rays of the sun as we just
caught, and then hopefully little bit of sunset, especially if you're lucky with the weather
as we are right now. It's a perfect situation for it.
If you can possibly arrange to get to Stonehenge in the evening on a private tour, where you're
allowed access inside the circle, it's definitely worthwhile.
It's great to see it, even if you're walking on the normal path. You do have a very good
view from that path. But if you pay little extra charge, like about twice the regular
ticket, you can arrange to come in the evening and walk within the circle. You don't touch
the stones. You treat them with the greatest respect. Of course, this monument has been
here for over 4000 years. And it attracts tremendous numbers of visitors.
It's a very powerful and spiritual place for many people and there is undeniable magic
about it. As you're walking inside the site you get
a better feeling for the overall layout and you realize that there's an outer circle of
the huge stones and an inner circle of the five Trilothons, the pairs of big stones,
And in between there are circles of smaller stones.
It helps to look at the arrangement on a map, and you can see here the sequence of construction
starting with the smaller Blue Stones, then the large Sarsen stones on the outer circle.
Years later the next phase, giant stone pairs called Trilothons, arranged in a horseshoe-shaped.
Finally another ring of smaller Blue Stones added in the center. All around the outside
is an earthen ditch created much earlier. A gradual process that took several centuries,
finishing about 2000 BC. It's believed this site may have been in use for as much as 2000
years, from about 3700 BC until 1600 BC, starting out probably as a wooden structure with a
group of tall timbers arranged in a circle, ultimately developing into this megalithic
monument that we admire today. Walking all the way around outside the circle
gives you a good perspective, first on those tall Sarsen stones ringing the outside, with
the lintels joining them together, placed horizontally on top. And look beyond you'll
see smaller stones. Those are the Blue Stones arranged in a circle.
In the middle, the tallest stones, called Trilithons, arranged in a horseshoe shape
which may have been the inner sanctum of the temple, or maybe not, because we really don't
know anything about what actually happened here or what the function of these stones
was, other than it's a colossal megalithic monument, beautiful to see, and probably had
astronomical purpose to predict the change of seasons, maybe even such things as eclipses,
while various religious and spiritual ceremonies were undoubtedly conducted. But there's still
a lot of conjecture about the nature of Stonehenge, which makes it all the more interesting to
visit, letting your imagination run freely as you wander around.
The biggest stones are 24 feet tall, weighing up to 50 tons.
And they were dragged here from about 25 miles away, then hand carved with hammer stones
into the shapes that we see today. The smaller Blue Stones were brought from
even further away, in Wales, 150 miles distant. When UNESCO designated Stonehenge a World
Heritage Site, they described it as: "The most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric
stone circle in the world. It is unrivaled in its design and unique engineering, featuring
huge stone lintels, capping the outer circle and the trilithons locked together by carefully
shaped joints." Ever since the 12th century, Stonehenge has
been considered one of the wonders of the world.
Another advantage of the private visit is you get to see Stonehenge at sunset.
Up until the mid-1970s, it was possible for everybody to freely walk among the stones
because there were just not that many visitors. That's me in front in our home movies from
the early 1950s walking around – no admission fee and no other people there. We were able
to climb all over the place and jump on the stones.
As we've seen, you can still get close, just don't touch.
This tour was organized for us by Mad Max, a company operating out of the city of Bath.
And the itinerary also includes a visit to Avebury, which has the largest prehistoric
stone circle in the world. The stones at Avebury are not as big as those
at Stonehenge. And also they are not carved into shape. These are natural rocks that were
just hacked out of a quarry and dragged here. The total impression is one of the vast size
and great beauty. The circle is about 1200 feet in diameter,
and while many of the original stones have been plundered and looted, they're gone. From
the late medieval and early modern periods, centuries ago, people destroyed many of the
standing stones and reused them for construction purposes. We still have enough left to show
the original significance of the amazing site. The map shows the circular arrangement of
the remaining stones and you can also see there was an earthen ditch that went around
the entire site, very similar to Stonehenge. And over time, part of the modern village
developed right in the middle of the stone circle.
But a difference here for the visitor is, you are free to walk around among the stones.
There is no admission charge, and you can walk anywhere.
Some researchers believe that these megalithic stone circles had some kind of extra energy
fields, creating a magnetic force in the environment, or some such spiritual filed, like a vortex,
where you can enter an altered state of consciousness. You might feel such claims are pretty far-fetched,
but others maintain there have been scientific studies with electrodes and readings of magnetic
levels that justify it, so who knows? It's a possibility.
There is no doubt you get a special feeling, being among these giant stones.
Perhaps it's just an appreciation of all the work that was done and the beautiful product
that resulted. Or it might be something deeper. They have convenient steps going up the small
hillside next to the site so that you can stand high and look down across the entire
terrain. When you can walk right next to these big
rocks, like we did at Stonehenge and Avebury, you get a more accurate feeling for how truly
colossal and impressive these stones really are.
If you have the time to visit one of the sites, then make every effort to visit both of them.
Each one is profoundly beautiful. We have many more movies about the British
Isles that you can find in our collection. We upload a new movie every week so please
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