STONEHENGEBy Morgan Sondgeroth

Brooklynne Thielen

Stonehenge was built in the English county of Wiltshire on the Salisbury

Plain approximately 5,000 years ago or around 1500 BC

Stonehenge was built on a mound

with 56 holes forming a ring around the perimeter, small

packing stones were placed at the

base

It is believed that the ditch was built with tools made of red deer antlers and wood

2000 B.C. – The first stone circle (inner) was made with small blue

stones but was abandoned before it was completed

Many believe that the blue stones are from the Prescelly Mountains on

the southwest tip of Wales

Stones were believed to be dragged from inland mountains, then along the

southern coast of Wales and then up the rivers Awn and Frome, then down the River Wylye

About 80 stones in all wereused to make Stonehenge. Each

small stone individually weighs about 4

tons the giant stones (sarsen stones)

weigh about 50 tons each

Studies show that 600 men would have been needed to get each

stone passed obstacles along the way

Levers would lower stones into the hole and the stones stood at

about 30° angles from the ground until men pulled ropes around the

stone to put it in proper, upright position

The stones are aligned almost perfectly with the sunrise on the summer

solstice

No one knows who actually built Stonehenge, but the best guess is the people of the Neolithic Period

(3000 BC)

One Legend: Merlin brought stones to Salisbury Plain from Ireland and was

built, maybe, as a memorial

Stones were believed (by Geoffrey of Monmwa) that Giants brought the

stones from Africa to Ireland and them

shipped back to britain

Prehistorians attributed Stonehenge to Egyptian, Mediterranean and Greek

cultures during the 19th century

It is also

believed that S

tonehenge

was used for p

erform

ing rituals,

worship

and healings

Another legend is that the stones were stones from an Irish woman

by the Devil and rebuilt on the Salisbury Plain for the king

Credits

http://www.britannia.com/history/h7.html http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneheng

e?wasRedirected=true http://www.sacred-destinations.com/engl

and/stonehenge http://www.christiaan.com/stonehenge/in

dex.php http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/stoneh

enge/megaliths.html