Stonehenge

There is nothing quite like Stonehenge anywhere in the world and for 5000 years it has drawn visitors to it. We shall never know what drew people here over the centuries or why hundreds of people struggled over thousands of years to build this monument, but visitors from all over the world come to marvel at this amazing feat of engineering just like me.

How did they get these stones to stand upright? The truth is nobody really knows. It required sheer muscle power and hundreds of men to move one of these megaliths, the heaviest of them weighing probably about 45 tons.

Before Stonehenge was built thousands of years ago, the whole of Salisbury Plain was a forest of towering pines and hazel woodland. Over centuries the landscape changed to open chalk downland. What you see today is less than half of the original monument, some of the stones have fallen down, others have been carried away to be used for building or to repair farm tracks and over centuries visitors have added their damage too. It was quite normal to hire a hammer from the blacksmith in Amesbury and come to Stonehenge to chip bits off. As you can imagine this practice is no longer permitted!

It's thought that the name Stonehenge originates from the Anglo-Saxon period – the old English word ‘henge' meaning hanging or gibbet. So what we have is literally ‘the hanging stones', derived probably from the lintels of the trilithons which appear to be suspended above their massive uprights. Today the word ‘henge' has a specific archaeological meaning: a circular enclosure surrounding settings of stones and timber uprights, or pits.

Stonehenge is under the guardianship of English Heritage, who was charged with the preservation and conservation of this important prehistoric monument.

I recommend Stonehenge as on top of the list to visit if anyone got the opportunity to travel to England.