Europe

Tours to Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries, it is prehistoric site, which houses inexplicable circle of standing stones, and this place is situated at Southern England. The monument was constructed over five thousand years ago; those stones still stand strong today even today. One of the oldest monument and huge scale of mysterious principle of Stonehenge attract approximately eight lakh visitors every year, during summer solstice, hundreds and thousands gather near the monument to have a glimpse of the sunrise from this ancient site.

These stones are arranged in a unique way, it is almost perfectly aligned accompanying the summer solstice along with sunrise, who ever built the monument and when ever it was, it is almost clear that it was built for the purpose of worship. Even though the belief of the people who built Stonehenge comes before any acknowledged religion on the planet, this monument is the place of worship and pilgrimage for Neopagans, they call themselves other Celtic paganism forms or the Druids. Well this place is now also well known among the new age worshippers, and many people powerful energies and sprits at the spot.

The site of the Stonehenge is quiet rousing as it is, it is the element of the unique Stonehenge. The unique edifice has been through a grand deal of suffering from both the weather and also human plunder for hundred and thousands of years. It has been a hot topic of scientific inquiry and archeological additionally research too, especially during the preceding century. The new account of construction of the Stonehenge is basically based on excavations which are done since early 20th century to the mid of the century. Many archeologists conclude that edifice of this site was divided into three phases and were labelled Stonehenge I, Stonehenge II, and Stonehenge III

Stonehenge I : Well the native of Neolithic people from England, started the erection of Stonehenge I, got started after a circular ditch was dug by using the deer antlers to remove the mud. The circle which they dug up was three hundred twenty feet diameter wise and ditch of approximately 20 feet broad and it was approximately seven feet deep. After the use of chalky rubble is made, taken from the ditch, in order to build circle of a steep bank which is just within the bank circle, and after that fifty six shallow holes were dug by them, and the holes were called as Aubrey Holes. Finally two stones in parallel direction were brought to upright position at the opening of the circle. Among the two stones, one was the stone slaughter, which still survives. The other stone surviving are the 2 Station Stones, which are positioned across the opposite sides encompassing on each other of the circle; it is believed that the two stones might have been set up at the same time. Well it is believed that the Stonehenge I, was used approximately for over five hundred years and it was derelict.

Stonehenge II : The construction of this new Stonehenge began approximately in 2100 BC. In the monument, a semicircular of stones of granite popular as bluestones was used to assemble the unique bank and also ditch circles. However various views of this Stonehenge are intriguing.

Basically the bluestones arrived all the way from the Preselu batches in South Wales, which is more that two hundred fifty miles form the monument. Well there were approximately eighty of them, and each stone weighed more than two tons each. Well it is still not clear how the transported the stone all the way to the site. On the transportation part there are various theories, which have been offered by the scholars. It is however a great puzzle, why the construction of the Stonehenge was so important to them that they brought the stones all the way 250 miles even before the discovery of wheels.

Stonehenge III : It is a stone circle, which could even be seen today, well during this time, which started approximately 2000 BC, the people who were building the Stonehenge built a circle of erect sarsen stones, all the pairs of that was exceeded with the stone lintel which is a orientation capstone.

There be basically close to thirty erect stones, seventeen of them still stand in their position.

Inside this ring of the stone was erected a horse shoe formation belonged to the same edifice, for this they used ten erect stones. Here the set of 2 upright stones along with the lintel are standing separated from one another, and they are situated in the pairs of five. In them eight of the original ten stones still survive and the horse shoe shape opens directly towards the slaughter stone facing down the avenue, and it is aligned with summer solstice sunrise. After over a hundred years, over twenty bluestones, which were gathered from the Stonehenge II were placed in a horse shoe shape inside the sarson horse shoe. However half of it remains, some mixing around the blue stones and digging holes may be for introduction the bluestones, which are not completed, this happened approximately just about 1500 BC. The biggest among the new blue stones remaining is the Alter. Well approximately during 1100 BC, the avenue was stretched right up to river Avon, which is situated over 9000 feet from the site of Stonehenge, which is the proof that the site was being used during this period.

The Stonehenge stands in a grassy fields across the country side of Wiltshire, it could be imagined that it must have been highly used site for hundred and thousands of years. However the monument has lost a great deal of its charm in the modern age, thanks to the intersection of two major highways, which are situated near by and as the monument is a famous attraction for tourists, the infrastructure provided for the tourists have taken away a great deal of its original splendour. In this regards Avebury is far better than the Stonehenge. Well Stonehenge is such as wonderful monument it would impress any one, no matter where it is situated. The amazing size and the beauty of the stones, the great care and ordeals during the construction of the monuments along with the mysteries behind the purpose of constructing the monuments, all these reasons attracts hundreds and thousands of visitors each year. It is among the most popular sights in England. It is among the sights which are visited through out the year, under the stormy skies, snowfall, summer sun, or even full moon. This site is for sure mystical indeed.

Well there are various services offered to travellers visiting the Stonehenge. There is an efficient Visitor’s centre, for assistance and information. There is a nominal fee for parking as well as for the admission for the monument; you will get facilities such as optional audio guide, a pedestrian passage way, which leads to the Stonehenge itself, even the view is amazing all through the way. Tourists are not allowed to approach very close to the Stonehenge other than on the day of Summer Solstice; however you can get an access by making a prior arrangement.