Stonehenge!

Above: a view from inside the henge. On the evening of the first day of our feidltrip to Wessex, we visited Stonehenge with an archaeologist who had worked on the Stonehenge Environs Project and could get access for us to the entire monument - including the area inside the henge!

Stonehenge was constructed over the course of the 4th and 3rd millenia BC. Two types of stone were used in the monument, bluestones (dolerite) for the shorter uprights and brown-ish sarsen stones (sandstone) for the larger uprights and lintels. The difference in these two stones is now obscured by lichen growing on the stones, but would have been pronounced at the time of construction.

Stonehenge is part of a larger Bronze Age monumental landscape, including barrow mounds, a 3km-long cursus, Woodhenge, and Durrington Walls. See the past few entries for more on the Stonehenge landscape.