Stonehenge

Stonehenge was constructed in multiple phases between approximately 3000 and 1500 BCE. The first phase was a circular earthwork; the bluestones — igneous rocks averaging 2–4 tonnes — arrived around 2500 BCE from the Preseli Hills of Wales, 250 kilometres away, via a route that required both overland and sea transport. The larger sarsen stones (up to 25 tonnes) were sourced from Marlborough Downs, 25 km north, and shaped with stone hammers.

The monument's primary astronomical alignment is the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset along the northeast–southwest axis — confirmed by the Avenue, a processional approach built in alignment with this axis. Excavations at Stonehenge have revealed it served as a cremation cemetery for at least 500 years. Whether its primary purpose was funerary, calendrical, or connected to ancestor veneration is unresolved; the builders left no texts. The nearest settlement, Durrington Walls, 3 km away, housed hundreds of workers and shows evidence of midwinter feasting.