Avebury Stone Circle

Here is Avebury Stone circle. It is a large henge and several stone circles in the countryside of Wiltshire and dates to about 5,000 years ago. It is older than the megalithic stages of Stonehenge, which is located about 32 kilometers south.

Most of the surviving structure consists of the dykes, consisting of a massive ditch and bank henge 421 meters in diameter and 1.35 kilometers in circumference.

Here is the view via GoogleEarth. You can see how huge it is - note that part of the town of Avebury is located within the circle.This is a map I found off the internet that shows the stone circles and original stone corridors, parts of which can still be seen. From the road its hard to get an idea of size, especially since the road cuts through the corridors.Many of the original stones were destroyed from the 14th century onwards to prodice local building materials and to make room for agriculture. Our guide pointed out several of the houses were built with stones taken from the site.During an excavation during the 1930s, an archeologist found, under one stone, now known as the Barber Stone, the skeleton of a man was discovered. Coins found with him dated from the 1320s, and the evidence suggests that he was fatally injured while digging the burial pit for the stone when it fell on top of him. As well as the coins, he was found with a pair of scissors and a lancet, the tools of a barber-surgeon at that time, hence the name given to the stone.

This is Silbury Hill, a man-made chalk mound near Avebury. This is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest. Its purpose is still highly debated. It stands 40 meters high and covers 5 acres. It was built about 4750 years ago and is estimated took 18 million man hours (or 500 men working 15 years).

Nearby is the Cherhill White Horse, one of the oldest of the Wiltshire Horses. It was cut in 1780 (the ground has chalk underneath).

This white horse originally had a glass eye made of upturned bottles, however, they no longer remained by the 19th century. The present eye is of stone and concrete.

A major restoration was carried out during August 2002, involving re-cutting the outling of the horse and resurfacing the horse with 160 tonnes of fresh chalk.

You can read more about these white horses at their website.

This is the view off GoogleEarth - helps to get a clearer image.

Nearby the chalk horse was a huge tower known as the Lansdowne Monument. It was errected in 1845 by Sir William Petty. Our guide told us that it was to mark the boundary of his land - he could see the obelisk from his manor house and point it out to the ladies he wanted to impress.

The interwebs point out that this obelisk sits on a very important ley line. You can read more on the BBC's website about this ley line, which you can read about here.

That's all for now! I've still got to put together and edit the photos both from London and Edinburgh, which will take a day or so. Be patient, and enjoy these photos !

Stonehenge!

Stonehenge. You know what it is. I won't bother going into any sort of big explanation or copy-pasting from Wikipedia to explain anything.

Instead, I offer you a small sample of little known facts about Stonehenge:

During the Victorian age, visitors used to be able to rent a small hammer to chip peices off the monuments as souvernirs.

Stonehenge is the most well-known among the nine hundred stone rings which exist in the British Isles.

The inner ring of Bluestones came from Wales. Just a few years ago a group from Wales tried to re-enact one theory about moving the stones and failed - the stone they were trying to move now rests at the bottom of the Bristol Channel.

And a last fact, it's surprisingly hard to find new and interesting facts about Stonehenge.

We visited Stonehenge twice during our vacations. Once, from Salisbury (we also visited Old Sarum and Amesbury that day), and again, from Bath (when we also visited Castle Combe, Lacock and Avebury Circle). I've lumped the photos from both trips together, just for the hell of it.

Located just across the street from Stonehenge is this market to indicate how many miles from London and from Amesbury you are. No idea how old it is.

It's my mom and aunt! Everyone's happy! Behind them are the barrows.

Also located around Stonehenge were just a few of the barrows in countryside. The cemetery around Stonehenge consisted of 20 barrows, the earliest being constructed in the Bronze Age - the same time that Stonehenge was being built and used. Important individuals were buried underneath, together with items such as pottery bessels, personal ornaments and weapons.

Most early Bronze Age barrows are either bell or bowl chaped. The two main mounds in the pictures are bells - distinguished by the flat, or slightly sloping area between the mound and its ditch.

The hollows on the top of many of the barrows are due to excavations in the 18th and 19th century.

The reason we go from Stonehenge to Barrows to road and back is because we visited it those two times. All the photos after the road picture were taken on the second visit. It was cloudier then.




I loved seeing Stonehenge and took 581 pictures at the site. Aren't you glad now that I didn't post them all?