A Candle in the Dark: 9 Rules for Combating Bulls#!t
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VISITING STONEHENGE is a magical experience: you can’t help but be influenced by its iconic status as one of the world’s most recognisable ancient monuments. But the stone circle also radiates a kind of mystical aura of its own.
What brought the ancients to this place as early as 10,000 years ago? Four large Mesolithic postholes were erected there around 8000 BC, three of them in an east-west alignment, uncovered by archaeologists beneath the modern-day carpark.
The stone circle we see today was probably erected around 2500 BC, although the crescent of bluestones at the centre may have been transported from 250 km away and installed in their present alignment as early as 3000 BC. This makes it as old (or maybe older) as the first Egyptian pyramid, the step pyramid of Djoser, built around 2620 BC.
Unlike the Egyptians, we know almost nothing about Stonehenge and its creators, or even how it was used. That is part of its attraction: it is an enduring enigma, a riddle shrouded in the mists of time.
