Jul 29, 2013
I wrote about Stonehenge on my friend's travel blog. culturalxplorer.com
While in England, most people would agree that Stonehenge is a must-see attraction. I did the Stonehenge Direct Afternoon Tour for £ 31.00 from Premium Tours as a day trip. It took about 2hrs to drive to Wiltshire and 2hrs to drive back to Victoria Coach Station. My tour group spent about an hour with the prehistoric monument. There isn't much else nearby except grass and burial mounds. Our bus driver was pretty funny and entertaining. He had jokes both laugh-out-loud funny and awkwardly corny.
Right before our bus parked, we passed some construction going on, according to our bus driver, they are building a sort-of museum that will showcase more info about the stones. I thought that was cool until I got my audio guide and realized that there is a lot of info on there too. The audio guide is supplemented by numbers on markers all along the stones. You basically circulate the stones while stopping at each marker. Simple. Just like any audio guide.
Before I get to the historical stuff which might be boring, I wanted to go see Stonehenge because there are so many myths surrounding it. I also promised my friend Inge, that I would solve the mystery of Stonehenge when I see it.. If only. There is a rope surrounding the stones, it was placed there because people graffiti-ed on the stones, some chipped parts of it to take home, some even have bullet holes for the battles that were fought nearby.
Some popular myths are: aliens (of course), a giant helping Merlin build Stonehenge, the devil bought the stones from a woman in Ireland, and druids using their magic.
On my 45mins(ish) walk, I learned a lot more about Stonehenge than I really needed to know. But I guess it can't hurt to know more than to know less, right? Here goes my best explanation about these giant stones.
Apparently there are 9 phases(?) to what we now know as Stonehenge. Yea, I was surprised to hear that as well. I don't know if "phases" is the right term but that's what I'll use here since I don't know any better. How can there be 9? Lemme try to explain without being too boring..
Phase 1 - Before it was Stonehenge: archaeologists found 4 postholes beneath where the cars now park. Postholes? They are just holes dug in the ground for posts to be put in. They think that these postholes might have had ritual significance because of the way they were aligned.
Phase 2 - Stonehenge 1: consisted of a circular bank and ditch. There were bones of deer and ox at the bottom of the ditch. They also found 56 pits that are called Aubrey holes named after the one who discovered them. These pits held 63 cremated individuals buried at Stonehenge.
Phase 3 - Stonehenge 2: they think that there was a timber structure built within the stones. This was the time Stonehenge became a cremation cemetery.
Phase 4 - Stonehenge 3: this is when the builders started using stone instead of timber. It is said that there used to be 80 stones but now there are only 43. The bluestones were thought to have been brought from Wales. The entrance was widened to match the direction of the midsummer and midwinter sunsets.
Phase 5 - Stonehenge 3.2: 30 giant stones were brought to the site. A total of 75 stones would have been needed to finish the circle. 60 standing stones and 15 horizontal stones.
Phase 6 - Stonehenge 3.3: new stones were brought in (bluestone) to complete the circle. All the stones were formed well-spaced and without any of the linking lintels (horizontal stones) touching.
Phase 7 - Stonehenge 3.4: the new stones used in Phase 6 began to fall over
Phase 8 - Stonehenge 3.5: the new stones from Phase 6 were removed
Phase 9 - Afterwards: roman coins and medieval artifacts have been found in and around the stones but no one really knows what the monument was used for if it was used at all.
There you have it, my history lesson of Stonehenge that is to the best of my memory and notes of which I wrote down. Yes, I scribbled some sentences while listening to the audio guide. It was interesting and I thought I was going to solve it's mystery..
While in England, most people would agree that Stonehenge is a must-see attraction. I did the Stonehenge Direct Afternoon Tour for £ 31.00 from Premium Tours as a day trip. It took about 2hrs to drive to Wiltshire and 2hrs to drive back to Victoria Coach Station. My tour group spent about an hour with the prehistoric monument. There isn't much else nearby except grass and burial mounds. Our bus driver was pretty funny and entertaining. He had jokes both laugh-out-loud funny and awkwardly corny.
Some popular myths are: aliens (of course), a giant helping Merlin build Stonehenge, the devil bought the stones from a woman in Ireland, and druids using their magic.
On my 45mins(ish) walk, I learned a lot more about Stonehenge than I really needed to know. But I guess it can't hurt to know more than to know less, right? Here goes my best explanation about these giant stones.
Apparently there are 9 phases(?) to what we now know as Stonehenge. Yea, I was surprised to hear that as well. I don't know if "phases" is the right term but that's what I'll use here since I don't know any better. How can there be 9? Lemme try to explain without being too boring..
Phase 1 - Before it was Stonehenge: archaeologists found 4 postholes beneath where the cars now park. Postholes? They are just holes dug in the ground for posts to be put in. They think that these postholes might have had ritual significance because of the way they were aligned.
Phase 2 - Stonehenge 1: consisted of a circular bank and ditch. There were bones of deer and ox at the bottom of the ditch. They also found 56 pits that are called Aubrey holes named after the one who discovered them. These pits held 63 cremated individuals buried at Stonehenge.
Phase 3 - Stonehenge 2: they think that there was a timber structure built within the stones. This was the time Stonehenge became a cremation cemetery.
Phase 4 - Stonehenge 3: this is when the builders started using stone instead of timber. It is said that there used to be 80 stones but now there are only 43. The bluestones were thought to have been brought from Wales. The entrance was widened to match the direction of the midsummer and midwinter sunsets.
Phase 5 - Stonehenge 3.2: 30 giant stones were brought to the site. A total of 75 stones would have been needed to finish the circle. 60 standing stones and 15 horizontal stones.
Phase 6 - Stonehenge 3.3: new stones were brought in (bluestone) to complete the circle. All the stones were formed well-spaced and without any of the linking lintels (horizontal stones) touching.
Phase 7 - Stonehenge 3.4: the new stones used in Phase 6 began to fall over
Phase 8 - Stonehenge 3.5: the new stones from Phase 6 were removed
Phase 9 - Afterwards: roman coins and medieval artifacts have been found in and around the stones but no one really knows what the monument was used for if it was used at all.
There you have it, my history lesson of Stonehenge that is to the best of my memory and notes of which I wrote down. Yes, I scribbled some sentences while listening to the audio guide. It was interesting and I thought I was going to solve it's mystery..
