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  • Day 22

    Stonehenge

    October 7, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We left our Airbnb to drive back to Godalming via a few significant locations - Stonehenge and the town of Salisbury.
    We first had breakfast in Bath, and a last walk through the amazing old town, before piling back into Jo and Asher’s diesel Puegot that has carried us faithfully through southwestern England.
    We arrived at Stonehenge in late morning on a beautiful sunny warm Autumn day. We paid for our tickets and then went through the information centre before catching the shuttle bus to the stones.
    I was unprepared for the extent of the site. I thought it was just a few stones but it is a complex of ancient monuments which cover kilometres of ground.
    There are burial mounds and structures that we really don’t understand.
    Stonehenge itself is about 5000 years old, built at about the same time as the pyramids of Giza and about 1000 years before Moses.
    The stones were central in the religious and cultural lives of those who lived here. The stone circles were oriented towards the rising and setting sun on the solstices, and possibly at other times too. It was like a huge sundial as well as fulfilling other purposes. And there was a huge processional way leading up to the henge.
    Many of the stones were brought from Wales, hundreds of kilometres away.
    It was amazing to stand in this place and see for myself what I had only ever seen in photos. It would be great to see the sunset on the summer or winter solstice.
    Amazing archaeological site that requires hours to explore.
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