Stonehenge

Introduction

Man has habitually been involved in mystery. Stonehenge is one of the most secret locations that man has been involved in. Construction started on Stonehenge at about 2200 B.C. (Aveni 14-21). The origin and benefits of Stonehenge are still a great secret.

Stonehenge is a wreck of a stone building. Stonehenge is the oldest pre-historic structure in Western Europe. The name "Stonehenge" is Saxon in source and means hanging pebbles. Stonehenge is evident from round one to two miles (Chippindale 267). It has a simple structure and at first glance Stonehenge seems to be a large pile of rocks. But when looked at more nearly, it is a structure of large mystery. (Aveni 14-21)

Structure of Stonehenge

Stonehenge contains close to one century and sixty-five stones. All of the pebbles are arranged in a simple and easy manner. Stonehenge is not very large. It is only about thirty five strides or eighty feet wide. Stonehenge is three hundred and thirty feet overhead ocean level and is eighty miles west of London. Stonehenge is established in Wiltshire in south central England. The nearest town to Stonehenge is Amesbury. It is in the center of Salisbury flat lands (Chippindale 267).

The pillars at Stonehenge are extraordinary. All of the stones emerge gray in color, but their natural colors alter from mostly orange to dark or blue. Many lichens augment all over the stones. About one half of the initial pebble pillars are missing today. All of the joints that join the stone pillars together are dry stone joints. There was no damp sand or clay used to join the pillars simultaneously(Chippindale 267).

At Stonehenge there are five distinct types of pebble circles. The five kinds are: outside sarsen around, outside bluestone circles, inward sarsen trilithons, inward azure horseshoe, and the altar stone. The outer sarsen around is one hundred feet in diameter. Each stone is about thirteen and a half feet tall and seven feet wide. The space between each of the pebbles is roughly four feet apart (Chippindale 267). The outer bluestone around is close to seventy-five feet in diameter. Most of the pebbles size are six and a half feet or taller. The stones width is between three and four feet. The hue: pebbles are blue. Only six of the initial sixty pebbles still remain standing straight. The others either thin or lie on their side. The inner sarsen trilithons lie just interior of the bluestone circle. Some call the inward sarsen trilithon the sarsen horseshoe. The trilithon is organized symmetrically in a horseshoe shape and is about forty-five feet across. Their general size is about twenty-four feet high. Three of the initial trilithons still stand in tact today. All of the original pebbles that make up the trilithons are still at Stonehenge today (Chippindale 267).

Just interior the inward sarsen trilithon is the inward bluestone horseshoe. The stones start out at round six feet and increase in dimensions moving south-west until they come to a greatest of eight feet. Six of ...