English Club Activities - Secrets of Stonehenge. By Sona Hovhannisyan

Stonehenge is surely Britain’s greatest national icon, symbolizing mystery, power and duration. Its original goal is unclear and uncertain, but some have the theory that it was an Asro-Archaelogy temple made for worshiping the ancient earth Gods. It’s one of the most ancient monuments in the world .It has been called an astronomical observatory for making important events on the prehistoric calendar. Others think that it was a sacred place for the burial of high-ranking citizens from the old societies. Still we can’t say for sure what it was for; we say that it wasn’t built for casual purposes. The stones we see today represent Stonehenge in ruin. Many of the original stones have fallen or been removed by previous generations for home construction or road repair. There has been serious damage to some of the smaller bluestones resulting from close visitor contact. Nowadays the construction of Stonehenge was an impressive engineering feat, requiring 3 million hours of time and huge number of manual labor. Stonehenge is probably the best known stone circle in the world

Theories

There are a lot of alternative Theories that have ranged from its being a clock to a calendar, here are some alternative theories

A burial ground, many archaeologists previously believed that people had been buried at Stonehenge only between 2700 and 2600 BC

Edward Duke was the first person to associate astronomy with Stonehenge, describing it as a planetarium full of significant astronomical alignments- although he named none.

A place of healing; it is one of the major places people gather at the time of the summer solstice for healing

Who built Stonehenge?

The question of who built Stonehenge is largely unanswered, .the question that this construction has been built by ancient people have always attributed to Druids. This connection was first made around 3 centuries ago by the antiquary, John Aubrey. Caesar and other Roman writers told of a Celtic priesthood. But this version didn't find any conferment as by the time the stones which had been standing for 2000 years, and now they partly lay in a ruined condition. Besides, the Druids worshipped in forest temples and had no need for stone structures.

The best theory seems to be that the Stonehenge site began by the people of the late Neolithic period (around 3000 BC) when people began to use metal instruments and live in a more communal fashion than their ancestors. . Some think that they may have been immigrants from the continent, but that contention is not supported by archaeological evidence. It is likely that they were native people doing the same old things in new ways.

It needed a lot of power and energy which could be exerted only by a lot of people altogether, also by using some ropes and metal instruments, and after all, the biggest stone weighed about 50 tones and it should be erected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pXtHqAGN6E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2hpNCfag8A