A monument of stone and earth situated on the Salisbury Plain some eight miles north of the modern city of Salisbury, Stonehenge is the largest megalithic structure in the world. It is also, quite possibly, the most studied, discussed and theorized remnant of a civilization which we know very little about. It is visited by millions of tourists every year, leaving a permanent imprint on each one who stands in silent awe of what was built with simple tools between 5,000 and 3,500 years ago.




The building of Stonehenge was started some 4,950 years ago. A circular ditch was dug, 320 feet in diameter, 20 feet wide, and 4.5 to 7 feet deep. The soil and chalky rubble from the digging was mounded up on the inside to form a high bank. Just inside the bank, a ring of 56 wooden pillars was installed. The bones of cattle and other animals were buried in the bottom of the ditch. The fact that these bones are some 200 years older than the ditch, itself, suggests they may have been brought from some other "ritual burial" site. The main entrance to the ring was in the northeast.

Approximately fifth years later, the earthworks were remodeled and an auxiliary entrance was made in the south. A timber structure was built over this entrance, and another at the one at the northeast. By this time, the original ring of posts had rotted away. The resulting holes were used for burial of cremated bodies. Over the next 350 years, at least 200 bodies were honored in this manner.


The final phase of construction was begun approximately 4,550 years ago, and continued for nearly a thousand years. Some 80 "bluestone" pillars were quarried in the Preseli Mountains of Wales, and transported to the site. They were set into two concentric circles. A gap was left as an entrance way, again oriented on the midsummer sunrise. This sufficed for a time, then the bluestone circles were dismantled and a ring of thirty sandstone pillars was erected. These megalithic blocks are approximately 22 feet high (with another eight feet in the ground) and weigh around 45 tons each. These were capped by a ring of carefully mortised blocks called "sarsens". Inside the sarsen circle, a horseshoe-shaped structure of five "trilithons" (two pillars with a capstone) was erected. The open end of the horseshoe is again oriented to the northeast. Later, the bluestones were used to form an oval within the horseshoe, but were shortly rearranged into a duplicate of the horseshoe shape. The remaining bluestones were used to form a circle inside the sarsens but outside the trilithons. Four "station stones" were added, just inside the embankment. One pair are oriented on a northwest - southeast axis while the other pair is just slightly west of north and east of south. An "avenue" was extended from the northeast, aligned with the summer solstice sunrise. A massive rock called the "heelstone" was added in the center of the formal approach from the northeast, some 60 feet outside the earthen embankment.


All of this raises a very large list of questions. WHY? Why at that location? Why the massive stone work? Why the changes over time? We know the ancient Celts were worshippers of he sun. What of their predecessors? Is it from them that we learned to rise each morning and greet the Day-Star with a song of praise and welcome? If true, that would make Stonehenge one of the oldest Temples in the world.

And what of the circle of 64 posts. Can this truly be used to calculate the occurrence of solar eclipses? The inner circles, the so-called "Y" and "Z" holes, divide the circle into exactly 30 parts. Could this have been the equivalent of a large sun-dial? Or were these rings used to mark the positions of certain stars? Could the ancients track the seemingly erratic movement of the planets? Surely, they observed that some stars were "fixed" in the heavens while others appeared to wander about.


And why here, at this particular spot? Mystics and neo-Pagans claim this is one of the "Places-of-Power" which are scattered about the earth. The archaeo-astronomers will say that the flat terrain provides an unobstructed vies of the horizon, all the way around. There is also the possibility that it was simply a convenient gathering spot for those families, clans or tribes in the general area.

Whatever the answers to these questions, we know that Stonehenge was one of the most important sites in the general area. Within a five-mile radius, you will find over two hundred burial mounds and some eighteen to twenty settlements. One can imagine throngs of people converging on this mystical place to celebrate the various festivals...



...so come join the Druids of old and wait for the rising of the sun on midsummer's morn.