Stonehenge
The famous stone circle on Salisbury Plain, built in stages from about 3000 BCE, aligned on the solstices.
- Location
- Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire
- Modern country
- England, UK
- Type
- Prehistoric monument
- Built
- Earthwork c. 3000 BCE; stones c. 2500 BCE
- Stones
- Local sarsens; bluestones from Wales
- Status
- UNESCO World Heritage Site (1986, with Avebury)
What is Stonehenge known for?
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It began around 3000 BCE as a circular ditch and bank about 100 metres across. Around 2500 BCE the builders raised the stone settings: large sarsen stones in an outer circle and inner horseshoe, and smaller bluestones brought from the Preseli Hills in Wales. Work continued in later phases until about 1500 BCE.
The monument is aligned on the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, and it was probably used for gatherings and ceremonies tied to the seasons and to the dead. It is managed by English Heritage and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Avebury, listed in 1986.
On this site Stonehenge serves mostly as a yardstick of age. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, with its carved pillars, was built by hunter-gatherers some 6,000 to 7,000 years before Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is the point of comparison for how much older Göbekli Tepe is.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeGöbekli Tepe
- PersonVince Gaffney
Sources
- English Heritage, 'History of Stonehenge'Reference
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites'Reference
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