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The image of Stonehenge is one known around the world, and recognized by millions. Stonehenge is a ruin made entirely of giant stones each weighing in between four and forty tons and resides on the Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire England. It is a beautiful structure that would be difficult and time consuming to build even with modern-day technology. The ancient ruins consist of an outer ring of sarsen stones and an inner horseshoe of bluestones. The outer ring is characterized by a series of trilithons, two upright stones spaced apart from one another with a third stone balancing on top in an arch shape. It is one of many similar stone structures in England, but is by far the most famous.

What I found most amazing about Stonehenge is the distance the stone traveled to get there. A people whose technology was so basic they did not even have the wheel transported heavy stones to Stonehenge from 20 to 240 miles away. The “nearby” stones, the sarsen stone, originate from around 20 miles away, though it is thought that these closer stones were in actuality far more difficult to move. Not only did the sarsen stones weigh more, they traveled uphill much of the way. Bluestone, the smaller stone typically known for being warm to the touch, is believed to be from the Prescelly Mountains. These mountains are found an astonishing 240 miles away from Stonehenge. Even Stonehenge experts are at a lost to how the stones were transported. There have been experiments to test out how the builders of Stonehenge transported the stones to the site, but so far all experiments have failed or have run out of funds.

Experts widely agree that this structure was built over a 500-year period between 3100 BC and 2300 BC. Radio-carbon dating was a key component in coming up with this date. The results of dating places the construction of Stonehenge quite appropriately within the stone age. That is where the definitive knowledge ends. The mysteries of Stonehenge are numerous and include:

• Who built it?
• What was their culture based on?
• What was its purpose?
• How did they move the stones?
• How did these people construct Stonehenge?

There are numerous theories that could answer these questions, but there is nothing concrete. According to legend Merlin built Stonehenge with the aid of magic. Obviously this theory does not hold up scientifically. It was thought by many to be built by Celtic Druids, but after dating of the rocks that theory does not line up well with the timeline and has forced many experts back to the drawing board. Some argue that Stonehenge is a calendar because it lineups perfectly with both the summer and winter equinox. It is also possible that it was a place of worship due to the large amount of burial sacrifices found around it. Personally I believe people of that time would not work so hard on something that was not related to their religion. All over the world people’s lives revolved around worship, and I believe this fact would hold true in Ancient England as well.