Stonehenge. What is there left to say about Stonehenge? I don't like it. Frankly, it's just a pile of rocks in between two motorways. I know that there are people who'd get all up in arms over that but it's just not my thing. Neolithic remains don't interest me, which is a shame really because that's what the rest of the trip was.
Getting to Stonehenge is real easy. It's located right at the junction of two highways. You don't even need to get out of your car, you can just look out the window as you drive by and see as much of them as I would want to. If you do go in for a visit you take the right fork (if you're coming from London) and there is a parking lot and small visitor centre there. There is a fee to get in, though I don't know how much, and they give you audio guides to help you walk around the circle. You can't go into the circle you just walk around the outside. They do let certain people in on rare occasions. Those crazy new age druids from Glastonbury demanded to be let in here because this is an ancient druidic holy site. Never mind that the henge predates the druids by at least 2000 years, they know better than those pesky archaeologists what this site was used for. Turns out it's for staring at the moon and chanting. How disappointing. On a slightly more realistic note Doctor Who came here last season. Somehow all those echo surveys that they make of the ground failed to pick up the giant cavern underneath the stones that the Doctor went in. Probably an oversight on their part. Anyways, to get to the henge from the visitor centre you go under the highway and a set of stairs will take you past some rather nice paintings of the henge people and up to the henge itself. Then you do a circle round the thing and come back and you can say you've done it. Hooray! Moving on...
I don't know why the henge is connected with Arthur except that it's really old and mysterious and therefore must be connected with him somehow. Merlin supposedly built it as a healing circle by raising the blocks with magic. In reality the entire site dates from the neolithic era and was built between 2600 and 2400 BC. For reference, this was the same time that the Egyptians were building the pyramids. So the Near East has pyramids, and Britain has circles of rocks. Huh. Anyway, when you get past all of the confidant guidebooks and brochures you find that there really is next to nothing known about what they were for or why they built them. There do seem to have been burials there from the earliest date, but does that mean that this was a burial ground or a place of human sacrifice? They do have big burial mounds nearby which are kinda interesting, but is that connected with what went on in the circle? There are nothing but unanswered questions and when things get that murky they just can't hold my interest. I need a little bit more to grab onto.
Getting to Stonehenge is real easy. It's located right at the junction of two highways. You don't even need to get out of your car, you can just look out the window as you drive by and see as much of them as I would want to. If you do go in for a visit you take the right fork (if you're coming from London) and there is a parking lot and small visitor centre there. There is a fee to get in, though I don't know how much, and they give you audio guides to help you walk around the circle. You can't go into the circle you just walk around the outside. They do let certain people in on rare occasions. Those crazy new age druids from Glastonbury demanded to be let in here because this is an ancient druidic holy site. Never mind that the henge predates the druids by at least 2000 years, they know better than those pesky archaeologists what this site was used for. Turns out it's for staring at the moon and chanting. How disappointing. On a slightly more realistic note Doctor Who came here last season. Somehow all those echo surveys that they make of the ground failed to pick up the giant cavern underneath the stones that the Doctor went in. Probably an oversight on their part. Anyways, to get to the henge from the visitor centre you go under the highway and a set of stairs will take you past some rather nice paintings of the henge people and up to the henge itself. Then you do a circle round the thing and come back and you can say you've done it. Hooray! Moving on...I don't know why the henge is connected with Arthur except that it's really old and mysterious and therefore must be connected with him somehow. Merlin supposedly built it as a healing circle by raising the blocks with magic. In reality the entire site dates from the neolithic era and was built between 2600 and 2400 BC. For reference, this was the same time that the Egyptians were building the pyramids. So the Near East has pyramids, and Britain has circles of rocks. Huh. Anyway, when you get past all of the confidant guidebooks and brochures you find that there really is next to nothing known about what they were for or why they built them. There do seem to have been burials there from the earliest date, but does that mean that this was a burial ground or a place of human sacrifice? They do have big burial mounds nearby which are kinda interesting, but is that connected with what went on in the circle? There are nothing but unanswered questions and when things get that murky they just can't hold my interest. I need a little bit more to grab onto.
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