While on the subject of "touching the stones". Can't you just park your car on the shoulder right there and walk over to them. Someone mentioning having to pay to get closer, I thought this was a free historical site. Who guards the stones, the English Government, or local security peopelYeah, when I was a kid you could, then you couldn't, then you could. Not sure about now. Last time I went we couldn't be arsed to pay the money to go in closer than you can see from parking by the side of the road for free. It's something everyone should see once in their lives, but for some people they don;t really need to go right up to them.
I remember the huge crop circle that was there in 1996 as well:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-23026522
Work to permanently close a main road running alongside Stonehenge has started.
Traffic has been stopped from using a section of the A344 next to the stones, in Wiltshire. It will now be dug up and grassed over.
The road has been closed in both directions between Airman's Cross and the A303 at Stonehenge Fork.
Drivers are advised to follow the diversion via the A360 Longbarrow roundabout.
English Heritage wanted to close the road to "restore the dignity" of the World Heritage Site.
Actually, Stonehenge is managed by the English Heritage:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/
It would be nice if it were run by the National Trust. I and my family are members and could visit it for free.
Stonehenge is managed by English Heritage but National Trust members are admitted free to the visitor centre and stone circle during normal opening hours (please book ahead).
Thats good to know TJ, thanks, but I was talking about the road in the foreground with the trucks on it..
That road is the A303, one of the main routes to the West Country. Past Stonehenge it is a single-carriageway and notoriously bad for traffic jams with holiday traffic. It does give a decent view of the stones but you wouldn't want to try and stop - there are no real shoulders anyway. (When I was a child it marked the halfway point on the journey to my grandparents' house, so it's a view I know well.)Thats good to know TJ, thanks, but I was talking about the road in the foreground with the trucks on it..
But it's a moot point since I was adequately given answers, thanks.
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Vandals were just cheesed-off that Stonehengers came about 6,000 years before 'em...
Pretty exciting if you ask me.
An astonishing complex of ancient monuments, buildings, and barrows has lain hidden and unsuspected beneath the Stonehenge area for thousands of years. Scientists discovered the site using sophisticated techniques to see underground, announcing the finds this week.
Among the discoveries announced Wednesday are 17 ritual monuments, including the remains of a massive “house of the dead,” hundreds of burial mounds, and evidence of a possible processional route around Stonehenge itself.
There’s also evidence of a nearby mile-long “superhenge” at Durrington Walls that was once flanked by as many as 60 gigantic stone or timber columns, some of which may still lie under the soil.
The discoveries result from the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, a four-year effort to create a high-resolution, 3-D underground map of the landscape surrounding Stonehenge.
Just a note, that's not the rule everywhere. CA, yes, and I believe some other areas, but not all.
