Interesting facts about Stonehenge

A trip to Great Britain would not be complete without a trip to Stonehenge. For several thousand years, huge stone blocks have been rising on a plain in Wiltshire, 130 km from London and 13 km from Salisbury. This place has been shrouded in mystery and legends for many centuries. You can get to know some of them right now.

Name
The word "Stonehenge" has its roots in Old English. In the Middle Ages, it sounded like Stanheng and was translated as "suspended stones", "stone loop" or "hanging stones". The modern name has the translation "stone circle".

Location
During the study of the cromlech, two more ancient structures were discovered - Avebury - a cluster of stones arranged in a certain sequence, and Silbury Hill - a fairly large hill, piled up by hand. They were erected 2 thousand years before Stonehenge. Interestingly, all three structures are the vertices of an equilateral triangle, the side of which is 20 km. There is a hypothesis that the three ancient monuments used to form a single ensemble.

Construction
Stonehenge was built in three stages.

First, the ramparts were erected and the main ditch was dug. Stones were installed on the outer rampart, creating the outline of the sanctuary. The first burial grounds, discovered by the scientist Aubrey in the 17th century, date back to this time. The first period dates back to about 3000 BC.

Then ancient people created wooden structures. This happened around 2500 years BC. Time destroyed wooden structures, and no trace remained of them.

2300-1500 BC — stone rings with a diameter of 33 meters were built. Blocks in the form of crossbars were laid on vertically standing monoliths. The arch-shaped structure is called a "trialite". There were 13 of them in the outer ring, and 5 trialites inside, standing in the shape of a horseshoe. In the very center was an altar.

Two types of stones images by dots wallpaper were used to build the cromlech. The vertical stones and arches are made of sarsen, a material resembling sandstone. The smaller slabs are the so-called "bluestone", which takes on a bluish tint when wet with water.

The building material was mined quite far away. The Salisbury plateau is a marshy plain, there are no stone deposits there. Sarsen was brought from the north of Wessex (about 30 km), bluestone (bluestone) - from East Wales (about 250 km).

The blocks from which Stonehenge is built are distinguished by their enormous weight. 82 megaliths of 5 tons each, 30 blocks of 25 tons each, 5 trialites, which weigh about 50 tons. According to the latest estimates, at least 30 million hours of work were required to build the structure. The methods of delivering the blocks from the quarries to the construction site of the cromlech remain a mystery to this day.

Initially, Stonehenge formed a closed circle. The question arises - where did the rest of the stone blocks go? Some researchers claim that they gradually went underground.

Legends of Creation

There are several legends about the builders of Stonehenge. According to one of them, the legendary sorcerer Merlin created the amazing structure in one night. In this way, the sorcerer paid tribute to the king of the Britons, who had defeated the Saxons.

The second myth is that the concentric stone circles are the result of the devil's mischief. An old English tale says that he bought some stones from an Irish widow and played with them on the plain.

Purpose
There are several main versions.

Stonehenge is a burial site, the remains of 64 people have been found. The most interesting skeleton is that of a man who lived in the 7th century AD. This man was executed, his head was cut off. It is assumed that he was a criminal, but belonged to a noble family. Many of the people buried there were cremated.

The center of the structure is the altar stone, a 6-ton green sandstone slab. This layout is typical for places of worship where religious rituals were held. According to the second version, Stonehenge is a religious building.

The strict geometric design suggests that the monument was used to mark the solstice. This is the version that thousands of people flock to Stonehenge on the day of the winter solstice. It could also be used as a huge observatory or an accurate astronomical clock. Scientist Hawkins assumed that each pair of stone blocks recorded a specific position of the Moon or the Sun. He believed that the purpose of creating Stonehenge should be grandiose.

One theory is that Stonehenge was built by the ancient Romans and that the structure is the ruins of a temple. Supporters of this version cited ancient Roman coins found in the ground on the cromlech site.

It is no longer possible to determine with certainty the purpose of Stonehenge. It is likely that the purposes of its construction changed over time.