STONEHENGE

 Stonehenge is a circle of 17 upright stones called sarsens which stand on Salibury plain in South West England. The stones weigh up to 50 tonnes and have other stones, called lintels, laid across the top. There is also inner circle of smaller blue stones weighing up to 4 tonnes each. Stonehenge is only stone circle in the world with lintels across the top of the stones and experts think it was completed in about 1500 BC. They believe that sarsen stones were transported from 32 Km away and the blue stones came from the incredible 250 Km away. In that old period with out transport facilities at least 600 men would have been needed to move each sarsen stone on some of the steepest parts of the journey. Nobody knows exactly why Stonehenge was built, but it may have been a druids' temple or even a kind of astronomical calendar.

There is a folk story that tells the origin of at least one stone, the Heel Stone. The Heel Stone lies just outside the main entrance to Stonehenge and leans towards the stone circle as if it is directing the way to the monument. The story goes that the devil built Stonehenge in a devious plot to preoccupy human beings using their own curiosity against them, but a holy man saw the devil building the monolith and swore to tell the world of the devil’s evil plot. The devil hurled one of the stones at the holy man as he ran away. The stone struck the holy man’s heel and then stuck in the ground. This story is obviously just folklore, due to all the judeo-Christian elements as the structure is dated back before the rise of Judaism and Christianity in Europe.

Along with other theories of aliens and living Nordic gods, is a macabre theory that suggests that the site was used as a place of human sacrifice and sexual rituals by a heathenistic pagan civilization. This theory though has very little evidence to support it and seems to be based more on prejudices of early humans before modern religion than anything else.

It seems that the purpose of this structure can only be theorized. The true purpose of Stonehenge seems to be lost to time.