We are welcoming all of you to our another article. Today, we will discuss about another interesting topic. In today's article we will know about the real history of the English Stonehenge. In this article we will try to answer all the questions like Where is stonehenge located, When was stonehenge built, Who built the Stonehenge and why, Why is the Stonehenge so famous or What is the mystery of Stonehenge and so on. So let's get started...
Where is stonehenge located?
"Where is Stonehenge located?" is really a big question that many people ask when considering for travelling there from London.
Stonehenge is nearly ninety miles or so west of central London, in the county of Wiltshire on Salisbury Plain. And The nearest town is Amesbury, the nearest public bus stop, two miles to the east.
An area rich in archaeological history, there are many other sites of interest located close to Stonehenge as well.
The Durrington Walls is just five miles to the north west, Woodhenge is just three miles away to the west, Old Sarum nine miles to the south. And Avebury is 23 miles to the north.
Why is the Stonehenge so famous?
Let's know the reason for the popularity of the English Stonehenge. Stonehenge is the most structurally sophisticated and only surviving intelled stone circle in the world. The earliest phase of the monument is one of the largest cremations cemeteries known in Neolithic Britain. The stones were brought by the people from long distances – the bluestones from the Preseli Hills which is over 150 miles (250km) away and the sarsens from West Woods which is 15 miles (25km) north of Stonehenge on the edge of the Marlborough Downs. As well as The stones were dressed using sophisticated techniques and erected using precisely interlocking joints, unseen at any other prehistoric monument.
Two sorts of stone are utilized at Stonehenge: the bigger sarsens, and the more modest bluestones. Most archeologists accept that the sarsens were brought from Marlborough Downs (20 miles away), while the bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales (140 miles). The specific strategy isn't known, yet the stones were most likely pulled across the land or conveyed to the site utilizing water organizations.
Two sorts of stone are utilized at the English Stonehenge: the bigger sarsens, and the more modest bluestones. Most archeologists accept that the sarsens were brought from Marlborough Downs (20 miles away), while the bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales (140 miles). The specific strategy isn't known, yet the stones were most likely pulled across the land or conveyed to the site utilizing water organizations. There are numerous henges in Britain, yet you can't consider Stonehenge as a real part of them. The term portrays a raised earthwork with an inward trench; Stonehenge's trench is outside its earthwork, meaning it's anything but a genuine henge. Avebury, a few miles toward the north, is presumably the most popular genuine henge. The sarsen stones at Stonehenge might look huge (they are) yet around a fourth of their mass is covered underground for help. Stone 56, the biggest enduring upstanding of the internal sarsen trilithon, stands 6.58 meters over the ground, with 2.13 meters hidden, providing it with a general level of 8.71 meters.
When was stonehenge built?
Archaeologists have now been able to express when was the English Stonehenge built. Around 2700 BC, the henge was constructed by them. By using only picks made of deer antlers, a ditch about 6 feet deep was dug. And The spoil from the ditch was used to make the bank. On the north-east of the henge, an entrance was created by a gap in the ditch and the bank. Within the bank, a circle of 56 six pits known as the Aubrey holes were dug.
Over the next two hundreds years, between 2700 and 2500 BC, a large number of wooden posts were erected. The ones at the north-eastern entrance may have served as markers for the astronomical measurements, in particular the extremes of the moonrise and moonset. Other scholars feel these and may have guided people through narrow paths to the ceremonial centre, adding a mystique to the entry. When we looked at from the centre of the monument, can see that the entrance stakes line up - these small posts are six rows deep. And The 4 larger posts furthest away are located in what was later to become the Avenue leading to the north-east. They were perhaps one meter in diameter, possibly whole tree trunks.
Who built the Stonehenge and why?
Let's know about the builder of English Stonehenge. Given the time it took to create Stonehenge, who could have accomplished such a feat? We now know that just as the monument was built in different phases, its builders belonged to different groups. The first group, the Windmill Hill people, named after one of their earthworks at Windmill Hill near Stonehenge, built the great circular streams and mounds. They had mass burials in large stone-lined tombs. Most of their burial mounds point east to west.Hailing from eastern England, they were one of the first semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer groups with an agrarian economy that maintained a strong reverence for the circles and the symmetry. The second group, the Beaker people, are believed to have originated in Spain, migrated north, and colonized northwestern Europe. It's name comes from its ancient traditions in which they buried mugs or ceramic vessels with their dead. Instead of burying their dead in mass graves, they showed more reverence for death by burying them in small circular graves marked by mounds. called burial mounds.
Archaeologists suggest that the Vase People were inherently more warlike than most tribes of their time, burying their dead with more weapons such as daggers and tomahawks. Highly organized and industrious, the Beaker Folk used sophisticated mathematical concepts and administered their society through the use of a system of chiefs.
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What is the mystery of Stonehenge?
The mystery of English Stonehenge may finally have been unravelled by the scientist's who say it is a giant solar calendar that may link the UK to the ancient Egypt.
And Professor Timothy Darvill who was from Bournemouth University, concluded that the site was created based on a solar year of 365.25 days to help people keep track of days, weeks and months.
But the interesting thing is weeks were ten days long and there were more months than we are used to today.
And the English Stonehenge site is aligned in the direction of the sunrise of the summer solstice and the sunset of the winter solstice, which has long prompted crowd suggesting that it is some kind of calendar, Professor Darvill said.
The outermost setting of English Stonehenge - a circle of 30 upright sarsen stones - was constructed at around 2,500 BC.
Conclusion
In today's article we learned about the English Stonehenge. In this article we have tried to answer all the questions like Where is stonehenge located, When was stonehenge built, Who built the Stonehenge and why, Why is the Stonehenge so famous or What is the mystery of Stonehenge and so on. Hope you enjoy today's article.
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