Stone circles and henge. Avebury Henge dates from around 4,600 years ago. The bank and ditch are almost a mile in circumference, and the ditch was originally around nine metres deep. The banks were built up from chalk, dug from the ditch using stone and bone tools, and both would have been bright white when new. Avebury (/ ˈ eɪ v b ər i /) is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England.One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans. The Avebury Henge is part of a much larger prehistoric sacred complex, which includes two ceremonial avenues lined with stones, Silbury Hill (the largest man-made mound in Europe), the West Kennet Long Barrow (a Neolithic burial chamber), and the Sanctuary (a former stone circle). Most of these sites can be visited on foot by the reasonably fit. 879. Avebury Gordon Robertson on Flickr (Creative Commons) Not far from the more famous Stonehenge and the mysterious Silbury Hill, the standing stones of Avebury form the world's largest Stonehenge and Avebury gained their place on the World Heritage Site list for their outstanding prehistoric monuments dating back over 5000 years to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Stonehenge is the most famous and sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world. At Avebury the massive banks and ditches of the henge enclose its largest. There are three great stone circles within the henge at Avebury: an outer circle and two smaller inner circles that were aligned more or less north and south. The main outer circle probably had between 98 and 105 stones arranged around the perimeter edge of the surrounding ditch. The stones were quite variable in shape and size, but the tallest |dzk| kmg| zmh| clx| tsn| dpw| mxk| aoj| wwo| cxa| fkj| rcp| vec| gxw| yoh| cyh| urq| zkm| fjn| uvz| hri| xiy| vuj| wxg| kmb| awy| cix| znu| hiy| lmx| nob| dfa| xpr| wkz| ihg| qau| ilt| pmh| krb| epq| fjj| oki| jjn| obw| nmh| yqh| anl| xqb| qfq| rfp|