I was really excited to finally visit Stonehenge, though for me even though it was impressive it was a little disappointing-- it's right on the side of the motorway which detracts a little from its mystical nature. And you can't get too close because other naughty tourists have messed up the site by carving out "souvenirs." There are four concentric circles of stones, two of the large dolmens and two circles of smaller stones. What's really impressive about this site, thought to be an altar to a sun god as well as a calendar, is the fact that the large stones come from about 25 miles away in Marlborough Downs and the smaller blue-ish stones from Wales, nearly 240 miles away!
The creators of this marvel hauled the rocks for miles, dug holes and placed (haha, delicately placed) the stones in to keep them steady. For the triliths (2 vertical, 1 horizontally on top), they used stones to carve bumps and wells to make the stones fit together and not to move.
The stone's arrangement is such that at the summer solstice the sun sets directly behind the opening of one of the triliths. Directly across from this about a hundred meters away is the "heel stone," (hence me pointing to my heel) and at the winter solstice the sun sets directly behind that, creating a long shadow.
No Clark Griswold around to knock down the stones...
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