Avebury neolithic henge

A henge is an earthwork - circular hill around a deep ditch. The Avebury one is huge - about a mile in circumference, and we are told that our ancestors built it 6,000 years ago with only the aid of primitive tools like antlers from the local deer. It must have taken a lot of stone age men a long long time to complete. It looks like a defense to me, but the orthodox idea is that it is a religious site.

This gives you an idea of the steep slope and the depth. 

This gives you an idea of the circumference.

But some time later, the fashion for putting up large stones caught on, and the ancient people added a large number of these - 150 when the thing was complete. They came from Marlborough Down, 3 miles away.

The stone circles are a long way from complete these days, I imagine people used them as building materials over the long centuries since they lapsed into disuse. It is possible that when the Romans came and took an interest in the native sights, the natives no longer had the faintest idea what the stones were put there for. also, perhaps due to the action of earthworms, a number of stones are completely buried under the ground and only recently were found using geophysics technology.

It is believed that when they were enjoying their heyday, the monuments looked like this.

Note the avenues of stones in and out of the circle.

But over the centuries a small village has spread into the middle of the stone circle, so the image of it is now - plenty of walkers detouring to have a look, and go for a beer or a cream tea, and there are also druids and pagans saying their prayers to the stones, and ordinary people feeling them to see if they pick up any ancient vibrations. 

And in short, I would recommend it to anybody. There is more to see in Avebury than Stonehenge, which is not very far away, and there are more sheep.