If you’re like me, you’ve got a list of places you’d like to see sometime in your life — Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Great Wall of China, etc. and possibly also Stonehenge.
Well, I’m so happy I could take Stonehenge off the list because we took a tour to see it during our visit to London. It took about an hour and a half to get there, but it was worth the trip since we got to see the English countryside and then went on to see Bath (more on that in another post).
Some interesting things about Stonehenge. The word “henge” derives from either “hanging” or “hinge” which makes sense considering how the stones hang on each other.
Even before Stonehenge was built, the area was used as a burial place and there are several burial mounds in and around Stonehenge. Eventually, the closer you got to be buried next to the stones, the more important you were. In this shot from the bus (a little blurry), you can see a burial mound off to the right of the photo. The mounds are known as barrows.
It’s believed that construction at this site began around 3100 BC and continued until about 1600 BC. Archaelogists believe the site was constructed as a monument by early civilizations and the connection to Druids apparently comes much later in the history of the monument.
This shot was taken from what is known as the “Heelstone” (which you can see in the album as the one lone stone apart from the monument). The smaller stone laying down in front is the “slaughter stone.”
Sadly, you can no longer touch the stones or get very close to them. It would have been nice to get in the center and see what kind of energy, if any, exists there. Unfortunately, that was not possible and so the only thing we felt was the cold wind blowing along the fields.
Here are some more photos for you! If you can’t see the slideshow below, you can also click on this link for pictures of Stonehenge:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057499&id=1130005412&l=e7e3468533
For more information on Stonehenge, you can visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge
Unesco Stonehenge World Heritage Site
English Heritage Site