Avebury, Stonehenge, And A Lot Of Sheep!

I finally did it, I went to Stonehenge. I've been hearing about it since elementary school and its nice to finally join the thousands of other people that can say, "Stonehenge? Yea, I've been there."

As the title might suggest I also went to Avebury. For anyone who may not know, Stonehenge is just one of at least one hundred such stone circles and henges located throughout England. Avebury is another such place. As with Stonehenge, no one knows exactly who built it or why but archeologists have managed to piece together a significant amount of its history. Since Avebury was the first stop on my trip, which was planned by the American Studies Office, we'll begin there. I don't have many pictures from Avebury but I'll give you what I do have and I'll make a pathetic attempt to be as informative as our guide was.

I suppose that I should begin by explaining what a henge is. Henge is basically a term for the man made ditches that surround the stone circles. At Avebury there are three circles, each with their own henge. I don't have any pictures of the biggest henge but in the middle of the town (the town built up around the henge) there are two more stone circles and henges both of which are in a sheep pasture. Exciting stuff isn't it? Above is a picture of one of the interior circles and yes all of those little white things are sheep! We had to exercise a lot of caution to prevent our shoes from picking up what the sheep left behind and there was a lot of that stuff too.

This would be Marta, Nicole, me, Rachel, and Megan in front of the, "Mamma Rock," at Avebury. Okay, so supposedly the more round the rock the more feminine it is thought to be. This is the most round one in the interior circle. There is a very tall, rectangular rock straight behind the camera and at certain times of the year, particularly during the solstice, the masculine rock's shadow, "pierces," the Mamma Rock. Is anyone else thinking Freud yet? Moving on...




Look what I did. I built Avebury! And to think that archeologists spent all those years wondering how they moved the stones, it was me.


























Here is a view of one of the interior circles. It is the most complete one that can be found at Avebury. I can't remember the specific date, I want to say the 1300's but I'm not certain, anyways a priest ordered that the circle, "disappear." Well what do you do with over a hundred half ton stones? You bury them of course. That's right, the townspeople wanted to keep the henge and the circle so they just dug holes in the ground next to each stone and pushed them over into the hole. Ingenious, I thought. Fast forward to the 1930's when an archaeologist discovered one stone and decided to erect the rest of them. Unfortunately, World War II began and the project was never finished. What you see above is the product of an unfinished job, but as they say here, "good effort mate!."

Above is a picture of Nicole and I on a wall beside the street to Avebury.

Avebury Chapel. That right there is the difference between Britain and the States. At home a, "chapel," is a charming word for a one room church from the late 1800's, not a sanctuary and cemetery from the 1500's or earlier.

One last view of Avebury for you, please don't remember it this way. Now on to Stonehenge (and better pictures)!

For any of you who like to entertain yourselves with the thought that Stonehenge is a bunch of rocks in the middle of no where, you would be correct, but do not make the mistake of thinking that it is vacant and that you can just walk up and touch the stones like the Travel Channel shows you, its not true. They say that the camera adds a couple of pounds well reality adds a couple of hundred people. That would be the awing mass that greeted us upon our arrival. If you've ever wandered what it was like to be famous, here's your chance, just place a picture of you where the rocks are.

Me and Stonehenge (and a million other people).

Marat, me, and Stoney. See she does look normal when she's not being a facial contortionist.

A closer view of Stonehenge. I bet you didn't know that the rocks are blue stones and they can only be found in Wales. Perhaps a big red dragon built Stonehenge instead of druids or wizards.

Nicole and I with the entire henge in the background. Kudos to Marta, great picture, thanks!

This is the less seen side of it. Look at the sky, its blue, I almost forgot that I was in England that afternoon.

Group shot. Nicole, me, and Marta. My, "us shots" are improving, see I actually got the henge in the picture.

Ah yes, a familiar sight. See how disgusted we were with all the people.

One last view of Stonehenge for you. That ditch to the left is the actual henge.

I know, I promised that the posts would be shorter and this one wasn't. To be honest I began working on this post about a month ago but then I got sick and I never had the chance to finish it. Well that's one down with about four more to go. To tell you the truth, Stonehenge itself isn't really all that exciting. Its the mystery behind it, I think, that attracts people. It is worth a visit though should you ever be lucky enough to find yourself on this side of the globe. I hope that my pictures and pathetic commentary did it justice.