Stonehenge is a Prehistoric Megalithic Structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 4 meters high, 2.1 meters wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones which are held in place with mortise and tenon joints. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside, these are free-standing trilithons. The whole monument, now in ruins, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England.
Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones was placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.
One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown Estate and managed by English Heritage. Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings.Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.
Μαμαλουκάκης Στέλιος Β2
