Stonehenge.
With so much recent sunshine and summery vibes here in the UK, it was only right to do a little day trip over the weekend to somewhere nearby. Having lived in the UK for over 12 years, I have never been to the historical site of Stonehenge. I have always thought of it more of a pile of rocks in the countryside that didn't really interest me. But the more I read up on the history around the Stonehenge, the more interested I became. So I decided to do a quick day trip from London down to Salisbury for a quick tour of this historical site!
Road Trip
With the UK seeing so much sun and heat in recent weeks, the drive down South was easy and met with lots of bright rays. The drive was really quick and easy on the weekend and you will be by the entrance in no time. You will need to park the car, get the tickets and then get on a free shuttle bus that ferries you to the main site. Essentially the whole site is literally in the middle of nowhere! Those flat green fields are gorgeous and you can see miles from there.
The structure was believed to have been built around 5000 years ago, between the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. The current structure is believe to be just part of what it used to be, which was 15 times larger! What is really interesting is how these stones got here, especially with some of the largest structure at 9 meters tall and weighing around 25 tonnes. The first question in my mind is how did they transport some of these large stones from Marlborough which is 32 km away? In fact some of the smaller stones (4 tonnes) were from Western Wales, around 225 km away!
Some people claim that they used wooden tracks on the ground to roll it and pushed it along all those miles while others think ice aged glaciers helped move them. This remains a mystery. But even if you answered that question, my next one would be how did they stack the big stone on top? This would really give interesting insight to the tools they used 5000 years ago!
The final and probably the biggest mystery is why did they do this? Since the entrance of the monument faces the rising sun on the summer solstice day, some people believe that ancient astronomers use the Stonehenge as a solar calendar to track the movement of the sun and moon. This could potential help track season changes. In fact, every year during summer solstice, hundreds of people gather here at sunrise to see this incredible phenomenon! The last time I woke up in the middle of the night to see an attraction was at Masada in the Jordanian dessert and I was not going to be getting up so early again! But just imagine how beautiful the sunrise would look, over those expanding fields.
Another theory is that the Stonehenge used to be a burial site, with archaeological evidence of burial mounds near the stones. These bones were from around 1000 years ago.
All in All
So the mystery continues to be unresolved around why the Stonehenge was built and how the stones got there. A little day trip down South certainly was entertaining and thought provoking. The trip was easy and you can even pop into one of the local towns for a nice weekend pub lunch! We popped into Salisbury to The Haunch Of Venison for an incredible bit of meat! A great day trip from London!