Stonehenge

Stonehenge History   Around 2000 BC, when the priests in Babylon were conducting, and recording, their observations of the celestial bodies, the building of the first phase of Stonehenge was begun. Over the next six hundred years a series of successive structures were erected and Stonehenge as we know it finally arose around 1400 BC.....read more

The Construction of Stonehenge    The building of the first phase of Stonehenge was begun around 1800 BC; at a time when the priests in Babylon were conducting, and recording, their observations of the celestial bodies......read more

The Bluestones, Stonehenge   The  'bluestones' consist of over 80 stones weighing up to five tons each and form part of Stonehenge.  The much maligned early historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his  'History of the kings of Britain', recounts how, at the request of Ambrosius Aurelanius, Merlin used his magic arts to transport enormous stones, the 'Choir of the Giants', from Ireland to form Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. ...read more

The Hele Stone, Stonehenge   Unlike earlier stone circles oriented on natural features like prominent hills, Stonehenge aligns with no natural features all the alignments being man-made. The builders had to provide an outlier to mark the rising of the sun at midsummer as seen from the centre of the circle. The Hele stone....read more

Helios  'And now, O Muse Calliope, daughter of Zeus, begin to sing of glowing Helios whom mild-eyed Euryphaessa, the far shining one, bare to the Son of Earth and starry Heaven. ....read more

Archeoastronomy is the study of the various astronomical achievements of the past,  combining the knowledge of archaeologists, astronomers and other scientists.......read more

Temples of Apollo  The author of the journal of Pytheas' travels (Diodoros Siculus, Bibliotheca quoting Hecateus of Abdera as one of the writer's authorities). wrote that there were two temples to the god Apollo on the British Isles. There was ‘both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape’ ..... read more

Precession and the Ecliptic The Ecliptic is the path the sun follows across the sky. The name comes from the fact that the only time eclipses can occur is when the path of the moon approaches the path of the sun .....read more