Stonehenge 1:250

 

 

Stonehenge is a circular stone monument near Salisbury in southern England. Presumably it was built at the beginning of the Bronze Age, around 3,000 BC. The oldest part of the complex consisted of a circular earth wall and a moat. The stones that make the monument so famous to this day were only added a few centuries later.

 

Stonehenge consists of two different types of rock: volcanic bluestone and sarsenstone, a hard sandstone. Some of the stones had to be transported very long distances to the site. The largest of them were up to 7 meters high and weighed up to 45 tons. So the transport was a very difficult job. Researchers suspect that people back then used sleds made from tree trunks for transport. The monument had a very closed character. A total of over 170 stones were built and set up in several large circles. Inside, large stones were arranged in a horseshoe shape. There was an altar stone inside the horseshoe. This leads to the conclusion that the monument was used for ritual purposes.

Many different theories and legends have grown up around the use of Stonehenge. There are no precise findings. Often the monument is referred to as the sanctuary of druids. However, the time of the English druids only began after the establishment of the complex. Stonehenge is also said to have played a role in the famous Arthurian legend. It reports that the magician Merlin had the stones brought to England from Ireland because they were supposed to have a healing effect. It is also assumed that the stone formation served astronomical purposes, for example to determine the phases of the moon, with which the sowing and harvesting times were to be calculated. To this day, Stonehenge attracts a particularly large number of visitors at the summer and winter solstice.

Today only a small part of the entire complex can be seen. The horseshoe and one of the inner circles can still be seen. The present model depicts Stonehenge as it probably once looked.