Stonehenge

England

Stonehenge is located in in southern England in Wiltshire. It is considered among the world's most iconic archaeological sites. The megalithic circle on Salisbury Plain was built some 4,600 years ago by ancient Britons who left no written record.

Stonehenge consists of a ring of standing stones. Most agree it was built between 2000 and 3000 BC. Today Stonehenge is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World. Stonehenge was built at least 300 years before the Egyptians built the pyramids.

Those who built Stonehenge had to have had great knowledge of mathematics and geometry. The stones are aligned with the midwinter and the midsummer sunsets. It was also aligned with the most northerly setting and most southerly rising of the moon.

The stone used to build Stonehenge consisted of Sarsen stones that weighed 25 tons and were about 18 feet tall. They also used Bluestones, a type of volcanic rock, weighing up to four tons each. Bluestones are only found in a few places, the closest being from an area about 240 miles away. It took at least 30 million hours of labor to build and some say it took approximately 1500 years.

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