Unearthing The Mystery of Stonehenge‏

On a bright, crisp day in November, our year of exploring the wonders on our doorstep - well, within a few hundred miles of home - took us to the site of one of the world's great mysteries; Stonehenge. It had taken nearly two hours to drive there, on pretty good roads. So it was mind-boggling to think that the enormous stones we were looking at had been transported a similar distance some 4,000 years ago.

By who, how and why, no one knows. Whoever they were, they had a knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and engineering unparalleled anywhere in Europe at that time. They also controlled a vast area of the country and a work force that was prepared to cut out and drag huge bluestones, some weighing up to 50 tons, from South Wales to the Salisbury Plains. 

Whether the ring of massive trilithons - two upright stones with a cross lintel on top - were built as a temple, an observatory or a calendar, we don't know but they were built with precision. Sunrise on the summer solstice and winter solstice are both in the middle of trilithons as viewed from the centre of the circle. 

 Your entrance ticket comes with a free audio guide. It takes you to various points of interest on the track around the stone circle, explaining what you are seeing. Keith wished he'd brought his gloves to hold the phone to his ear as it was perishing cold. 

Jan remembered visiting many years ago when you were allowed to walk among the stones. Hundreds of years ago it was even fashionable to visit Stonehenge and hack off a chip as a souvenir! Fortunately now the stones are well protected and even some limited restoration (reconstruction) work has been undertaken so you can see better what it used to look like.

As we left the site, we passed the new Visitors Centre which looked close to completion. When open, it should enhance the experience for the thousands of tourists Stonehenge attracts and perhaps shed a bit more light on why and how it was built. Developments in technology have very recently been able to identify the exact quarry the bluestones came from, so who knows what they might discover about it in the future.