Stone Henge dates to around 3,000 BC!! That means that it is over 5,000 years old!! That is pretty impressive when you consider how it was constructed all of those years ago... I was extremely excited to see Stone Henge.... I was like a little kid bouncing up and down in my seat! I couldn't wait to see it...
Then our tour bus had a little bit of mechanical problems. Ok not a little bit of problems... the bus actually died on the side of the road and wouldn't start back up!! Luckily this happened during our lunch stop so we were kind of in the middle of no where with this one little family run restaurant in the whole area. We had to wait three hours for another bus to come!!! This is because it was two days after the volcano had erupted and all extra buses were being used to get people to other places.... so there wasn't an extra one for us when we broke down. Nyree was laughing at me, because I was pointing at this sign going nooooo we were sooo close!! We ended up getting to go to Stone Henge in the end! Yippee!! But unfortunately we didn't get to go to the other section of our tour which was Roman baths... which I really wanted to see. They ended up refunding 1/3 of our tour... which I guess was alright.
Here is Nyree walking onto our rescue bus!
Surrounding the Stone Henge area are large man made mounds. These mounds are ancient burial grounds. It is thought that it might be a royal burial ground, because upon further inspection it was found that all of the people buried there were from the same family line, but they weren't buried there at the same time. So it would be like someone going to West Minister Abbey in London and comparing all of the graves there. They would all come from different time frames, but they would all share the same bloodline, because they are from the same family and have similar DNA. Researchers believe that the graves surrounding Stone Henge might have a similar story that we just aren't aware of.
Here is a better view of all of the mounds. You can see some in the distance by the trees.
And that leads us to.... STONE HENGE! Henge means hanging... so Stone Henge literally means hanging stone, and you can see how the top stones are just placed right on top of the larger stones, and are basically hanging inbetween the two pillars.
You might ask what is so special about Stone Henge... Stone Henge is not the largest arraignments of circular stones in Great Britain, but it is the most decorated. There are two different types of stones used to create Stone Henge. The stones that adorn the top are the smaller stones called Blue stones... even though I couldn't detect any blue color in them... I guess when it rains they change color so you can't tell in these pictures. Anyways, these stones weigh approximately 4 to 5 TONS each!! And they come from Wales with is over 150 miles away from the site that Stone Henge is built!!!! The larger stones that you can see on the bottom weigh 40 tons each, are about 18 feet tall, and are from a place about 20 miles away from the site. How impressive is that?? You can tell that Stone Henge had a lot of significance because of all of the effort it most have taken to create it! Imagine people 5,000 years ago moving those stones to this location! I can't even imagine how back breaking, and how much effort must have gone into getting the stones to the place, and then in shape. Imagine lifting the "small" 4 to 5 ton stones on top of the larger one!! 
Despite the effort that went into making it Stone Henge's claim to fame is really what happens there on the summer solace. Now I'm not to sure how familiar everyone is with myth and magic knowledge so I'll give you a brief background so that you can understand why this is significant. They say that summer and winter solace are extremely powerful days to Wiccan/magical people. To us these are the longest and shortest days of the year respectively. The summer solace being the longest day of sunlight is supposed to be the most powerful day of the year. This middle section of Stone Henge that you can see in this picture is illuminated by the sun on the summer solace. It is the first place on Earth that the light touches as it rises on the summer solace. Therefore, possibly the most powerful place on Earth during this time. Still to this day on the summer solace over 100,000 Wiccans/Pagans meet at Stone Henge to celebrate and do rituals.
The exact purpose of Stone Henge has long been debated. Since it has been found people have been fasinated with it, and have wanted to know about it's origins and purpose. Obviously a great deal of effort and care went into building it, and I have a feeling that it's location is not a concidence. The most popular theory as to why Stone Henge was built was that it was a temple to worship the sun and the moon. Others say that is a giant calendar, and that people used the shadows that it cast as a marker as to what time of the year it was. Some say that is was built by Merlin, or the devil, or even aliens... Others think that it has healing powers. Personally, I think it has something to do with religion, and most likely Paganism. And along that line of thinking I also think that it has some kind of power aspect to it. Pagans celebrated life and nature and the sun... so to me it seems likely.
Here is a picture of the trail that you walk on to see Stone Henge.
It is roped off so that you can't actually go inside of it, and walk around the stones... You have to stay from a distance. Only once a year are the boundaries lifted... Yes you guessed it on the summer solace it is reclaimed and used for rituals.
In the 19th century people WERE allowed to walk amongst the stones. They could also buy a chisel for a small price, and get to take a part of the stone away with them as a souviner. Now a days we are given audio guides!! As you can see in this picture.
When we were on the bus on our way to Stone Henge, Nyree had fallen asleep, and our guide was telling us some facts about Stone Henge. He mentioned that there was a military base near by, and that if we saw any plans not to be alarmed... and that a war or terrorist attack hadn't started/occured. Well... we get there and are walking around for a while and five fighter jets fly over us (you can see one in this picture) and I'm pretty sure they alarmed poor Nyree!! So I had to tell her that no it's alright... just a base near by. :)
Here is a distance shot of Stone Henge. :)
Here is Nyree and I. The sun was sooo bright while we were there!! It cast shadows all over my pictures. But overall I enjoyed seeing Stone Henge. It's not a place that you go to for all day long. An hour or so there is a good amount of time. The audio guides were interesting to listen to, and it was very peaceful there. I found it pretty fascinating, and I'm glad that I had the chance to go there. :)
