Stonehenge
Well we’ve already featured an astronomically correct copy and a reconstruction in the medium of fridges. But we can now see the actual Bronze Age megalithic monument, Stonehenge.
Stonehenge has an incredible 5,000-year history that I won’t even attempt to summarise here, as the theories surrounding it are as varied and complex as its history is long. However, the most commonly discussed aspect of this legendary monument is probably how it was built, and Wikipedia has some interesting figures which put the whole thing into perspective:
Estimates of the manpower needed to build Stonehenge put the total effort involved at millions of hours of work. The first stage probably needed around 11,000 man-hours (or 460 man-days) of work, Stage 2 around 360,000 (15,000 man-days or 41 years) and the various parts of the third stage may have involved up to 1.75 million hours (73 000 days or 200 years) of work. The working of the stones is estimated to have required around 20 million hours (830 000 days or 2300 years) of work using the primitive tools available at the time.
If you’re interested, then I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia page on Stonehenge, and if you already know all of that, then check out the page of Stonehenge replicas instead!
Thanks to Tim, Jim Geurts, Dave Edmunds and Kelly.
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Awesome. I’ve been checking in on the google earth forums and stuff and they’ve updated so much. Great to see it.
By the way, like the new design
I also just realized I’ve been visiting this site for over a year.
Great image, and very revealing. You can see how this World Heritage Site is surrounded by roads: a national disgrace (and those aren’t my words – http://www.thestonehengeproject.org/history/nationaldisgrace/index.shtml )
‘Course, I submitted this when it was in low-res and all you could find were the roads. If you wanted to see the circle of stones you had to use your imagination a little.
Frankly, I don’t see what all the hoopla is about. It’s a pile of rocks.
Dude its more than a bunch of rocks
The British Army look like they have been spending some useful time on Salisbury Plain making some very nice pictures for us. My favorite is this one that appears to have a Playboy bunny logo:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
If you like this subject, I’m pleased to say that we have created a download of the locations of all 15582 prehistoric and other ancient sites worldwide that we have listed on the Megalithic Portal. The KMZ includes summary descriptions and thumbnail image, where available.
More at
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412594
What is that other perfect circle in the east?
@Ron: It would be helpful if you posted a link to the object you are referring to. The faint round outline about 400 ft east of the middle of Stonehenge (right next to the road) is a barrow. But I’m not sure if that is what you mean …
Alliens DIDN’T make stoneheage HUMANS did