Welcome to WL's Home Page!

Back in 1981 I had the unique opportunity to visit this special place!

I've made a little research on the subject and I thought you might like to

learn a bit about this mysterious stone group....

Stonehenge , group of standing stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. Preeminent among megalithic monuments in the British Isles, it is similar to an older and larger monument at Avebury. The great prehistoric structure is enclosed within a circular ditch 300 ft (91 m) in diameter, with a bank on the inner side, and is approached by a broad roadway called the

Avenue. Within the circular trench the stones are arranged in four series:

The outermost is a circle of sandstones about 13.5 ft (4.1 m) high connected

by lintels; the second is a circle of bluestone menhirs; the third is horseshoe

shaped; the innermost, ovoid. Within the ovoid lies the Altar Stone.

The Heelstone is a great upright stone in the Avenue, northeast of the circle.

It was at one time widely believed that Stonehenge was a druid temple, but

this is contradicted by the fact that the druids probably did not arrive in

Britain until c.250 B.C. In 1963 the American astronomer Gerald Hawkins

theorized that Stonehenge was used as a huge astronomical instrument

that could accurately measure solar and lunar movements as well as eclipses.

Hawkins used a computer to test his calculations and found definite

correlations between his figures and the solar and lunar positions in 1500

B.C. (However, as a result of the development of calibration curves for

radiocarbon dates, the main structure at the site, Stonehenge III, is now

believed to have been built c.2000 B.C.) Some archaeologists object to

Hawkins's theory on the basis that the eclipse prediction system he proposed

was much too complex for the Early Bronze Age society of England.

Most archaeologists agree, however, that Stonehenge was used to observe the motions of the moon as well as the sun. Research by the archaeologist Alexander Thom, based on the careful mapping of hundreds of megalithic sites, indicates that the megalithic ritual circles were built with a high degree of accuracy, requiring considerable mathematical and geometric sophistication.

The Legend of Merlin

The legend of King Arthur provides another story of the construction of Stonehenge. It is told by the twelfth century writer, Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his History of the Kings of Britain that Merlin brought the stones to the Salisbury Plain from Ireland. Sometime in the fifth century, there had been a massacre of 300 British noblemen by the treacherous Saxon leader, Hengest. Geoffrey tells us that the highking, Aurelius Ambrosius, wanted to create a fitting memorial to the slain men. Merlin suggested an expedition to Ireland for the purpose of

transplanting the Giant's Ring stone circle to Britain. According to Geoffrey

of Monmouth, the stones of the Giant's Ring were originally brought from

Africa to Ireland by giants (who else but giants could handle the job?). The

stones were located on "Mount Killaraus" and were used as a site for

performing rituals and for healing.