(Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

Imagine you are walking on a lush green beautiful country side, and abruptly you come across giant stones arranged in concentric circles. Do you think such a place exists?

There is such a place that is 90 miles from the city of London in United Kingdom there lies a pre-historic monument called ‘Stonehenge’. Stonehenge was built more than 3,000 years ago, anywhere between 3000 BC to 2000 BC. How do we know that? Scientists have used various techniques to find out how old the stones are. The monument has giant stones arranged in concentric circles. 

The outermost circle of stones is almost 100 feet in diameter. Large stones of the outer circle are made of sandstone. Two standing stones have 10 feet long curved stone across the top called lintels. Inner semicircle is formed by even larger blocks of sandstone and lintels. Within this inner circle,  there are smaller stones called bluestones that are also arranged in a circle.

A stand alone stone called Heel stone stands some distance away from the main structure. On the morning of the summer or winter solstice, seen standing from the center of the structure, the sun rises directly over the Heel Stone.

How were the stones dragged to the location in those ancient times is a big mystery. Each stone was probably brought from over 200 miles away and weighs about 25 tonnes. There were no carts invented by then, so one wonders how.

Another mystery is why these massive stones were arranged in such a peculiar manner. May be it served as an astronomical calendar. Maybe it was an ancient burial ground since archaeologists have discovered bones buried at the site. Nobody knows for sure.

Stonehenge will remain a mystery untill we have a way to go back in time to see for ourselves as to what actually happened !!

Watch a captivating video about how Stonehenge must have been created