Stonehenge: the mystery of the prehistoric monument

Stonehenge; Kodak 200, Nikon F65

Heyyy,

The world is full of unexplained mysteries left by ancient cultures. Today we will write about one of them: the Stonehenge. I asked you on my Instagram page (@ritamraimundo) what would you like me to talk about on this post and the majority of you voted on the Stonehenge mystery! So here we go 😜

MYSTERY: something not understood or beyond understanding | whatever resists or defies explanation  |  profound, inexplicable, or secretive quality |  a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand  

Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit London for a week. We decided to take a day trip to Stonehenge and get to know one of the most enigmatic prehistoric monuments of all time. People come from all over the world just to stare at the iconic stone pillars and wonder how, and why, they were put in place. This famous landmark is regarded as a British cultural icon and one of the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.

Arriving to London; Kodak 200, Nikon F65

Stonehenge didn't begin as a ring of stones. Some of them date back to about 3100 BC, while others are believed to have been raised at the site between 2400 and 2200 BC. Over the next few hundred years, the stones were rearranged and new ones added, culminating in the formation we know today (created between 1930 and 1600 BC). 

On our way to Stonehenge; Kodak 200, Nikon F65

The most obvious question is how did people living in such a primitive age, without tools and techniques of mothern engineering, manage to move those big stones over large distances and put them into position? Some archeologists argue that the stones could have been moved on a rolling carpet of logs and erected using sophisticated techniques, like interlocking joints. 

But why was this monument constructed? Its massive scale suggests that it was really important to the ancient people who built it, but its purpose has been the subject of widespread speculation for centuries.

• One hypothesis suggests that ancient astronomers may have used the monument as a solar calendar to track the movement of the sun and moon and mark the changing season;
• New excavations in recent years found hundreds of human bones at the site, dating across 1000 years and showing signs of cremation before burial, suggesting that Stonehenge could have served as an ancient burial ground as well as a ceremonial temple of the dead.

If you're planning to visit Stonehenge, leave a comment here 😛

The road; Kodak 200, Nikon F65