Travel to Stonehenge
August 8, 2008 – 1:40 pm
One of the New Wonders of the World: Stonehenge
Stonehenge located in Salisbury, England is one of the New Wonders of the World; it is also accepted as a UNESCO world heritage site. National Trust owns Stonehenge, and it is one of the most important parts of English heritage. It is one of the oldest historical sites of the world, Stonehenge was used for religious ceremonies and the site was built for a group Celtic priest. Being used by these priests is a possibility; however the site goes back to the Neolithic ages. Excavations show that the site was used as cemetery, burials were found in the area, yet it was not used only for this reason.
The circular situation of Stonehenge with standing stones creates a charming scene. The stones are well designed, they were taken outside of the area to there, they are in the standing position and when it was built there were 30 stones, today only 17 of them are still standing. Over these standing stones, there are flat ones, so the site looks like there are doors.
An interesting feature of Stonehenge is its position; the entrance of Stonehenge is located towards the sunrise of summer tropic. On the contrary, another similar statue, Newgrange tombs in Ireland are located towards the sunrise of winter tropic. The relationship between them is still a mystery for our modern world.
When there were not written records, how human being shared their lives with coming generations? Stonehenge is a good example of this, a culture; a life style was inherited via stones, of course there are not clear explanations telling their stories, there are still constant debates about their content and function, but it is undeniable that Stonehenge tells the story of Neolithic days.
How Stonehenge was built? Which techniques were used? Who made it? Taking the conditions of such old days into consideration, building such a great site looks like impossible, but it is there. Speculations did not come to a halt, some researchers say that supernatural powers built it; some others claim that technology of the day was enough to do such a masterpiece, whatever the explanation is Stonehenge was built and came to our age with its charming atmosphere. Why it was built? As a religious site, as an observation place,
it has an astronomic usage or not, all these are still ambiguous and researches to find the answer to all these questions are going on.
History of Stonehenge
Even from the name “Stonehenge”, the historical background of the site can be understood. “Henge” means prehistoric circle with standing stones, it is predicted that Stonehenge was built in 2 BC. The site was not built at a time; the construction period went on for centuries.
The ownership of Stonehenge is a long story, whenever the state changes hand, the ownership of the site changed, too. In 19th century, Family Antrobus had the estate, and then it was sold to Cecil Chubb in an auction, Chubb gave it to the nation as a historical heritage.
The first excavation began in 17th century, since then, it has been continuing still in our century. In these works, avenues, animal bones, woods, pottery and some other historically important things were found.