Stonehenge is a collection of prehistoric stones in the English county of Wiltshire.
It is one of the most famous sites in the world situated in the midst of the Neolithic
and Bronze age movements, amongst several hundred burial mounds.
It’s heaviest stone, scientifically known as sarsens weighs around 50 tons. That’s
around the same as 12 Range Rovers. The stones were brought down from Marlborough Downs,
20 miles from their final resting place and it took 600 men to move just one stone.
The smaller stones are called bluestones, weighing 4 tons each. These rocks were dragged
and pulled for over 150 miles from the Preseli Hills in Wales. It’s believed water transport
was used for some of the journey but your guess is as good as ours as to how men carried
this monstrosities. It took 1,600 years to build Stonehenge. There
are over 20 different types of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks including bluestones,
sarsons and welsh sandstone. After years of extensive research the reason behind and how
Stonehenge came about remains a mystery.
It’s over 5,000 years old and became a world heritage site in 1986. The national lottery and the government pledged £57million back
in 2002 to bring it from a state of a national disgrace to meet its world heritage site status.
Stonehenge has been an official place of worship for Druid and pagan religions. It’s for
this reason that it is closed to the public at Solstice so pilgrims can perform ancient
religious practices.
Over two million people have visited Stonehenge in the last two years. It’s most recent big name to pop by was President Obama who
called in after the NATO summit held in Wales last week. For years, visitors could touch
and walk around the stones, but this came to a halt in 1977 when scientists discovered
that they were seriously eroding. Visitors can now walk around them from a short distance
with the exception of the winter and summer solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes
as well as special bookings throughout the year when they can get close by. 20,000 people
stay overnight on the day of the summer solstice on June 21st each year.
Stonehenge also has another name. Giant’s Dance because the stones were thought to be
erected by the devil himself. Who knew? Gold star for those of you who got that one. In
the 18th century, people used to rub scrapings from the stones on their wounds because they
said the rocks had healing properties. Do you have something you want to know more
about? Let me know below and I’ll pick one for next week. In the meantime, don’t forget
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