Stonehenge

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Stonehenge is a ring of giant standing stones on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, about three kilometres west of the town of Amesbury. It was built in stages, starting about 5,000 years ago, and is one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world. Many people regard it as a British cultural icon.

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At a glance

Country: United Kingdom
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Built: -2500
Height: 7 m
Type: Ancient site

Quick answers

Where is Stonehenge?

Stonehenge is in Wiltshire, UK, United Kingdom.

When was Stonehenge built?

Stonehenge was built in 2500 BC.

How tall is Stonehenge?

Stonehenge is about 7 m tall.

A prehistoric ring of massive standing stones, aligned with the midsummer sunrise.

The biggest stones, called sarsens, are about 4 metres tall and weigh around 25 tons each. Some are topped with horizontal stones, forming huge stone doorways. The whole circle lines up with the sunrise on the longest day of summer and the sunset on the shortest day of winter. UNESCO added it and its surroundings to the World Heritage List in 1986.

Who built it and when?

The ditch and bank came first, around 3100 BC. The great circle of sarsen stones was raised between about 2600 and 2400 BC, and the smaller bluestones were set in their current places between 2400 and 2200 BC, though they may have been at the site earlier.

The monument grew over at least 1,500 years. Nobody left written records, so no one knows for sure who built it or why. Burials found there, from as early as 3000 BC, show it was linked with the dead from early on.

A clever puzzle of stone

The builders joined the top stones to the uprights with woodworking-style joints called mortise and tenon, which is unusual among monuments of that age. Inside the big ring stand free-standing trilithons: two heavy upright stones joined by one lintel.

Stonehenge sits among hundreds of burial mounds in the densest group of Stone Age and Bronze Age monuments in England. It is owned by the Crown Estate and managed by English Heritage.

Before the stones

Under the old car park, archaeologists found large holes that held pine posts around 8000 BC, long before Stonehenge. A year-round spring called Blick Mead, a mile away, may have drawn people to the area.

The first monument was a circular bank and ditch about 110 metres across. In the ditch the builders placed the bones of deer and oxen.

Fun facts

Some of its smaller 'bluestones' were brought more than 200 km from Wales.
The word "henge" came to describe a type of ancient circular earthwork because of this monument.
Each big sarsen stone weighs around 25 tons.
Its inner ring is made of smaller "bluestones" that sit inside the big circle.
Pine posts were put up here around 8000 BC, thousands of years before the stones.