Stonehenge

After I learned what a "heath" was in Hampstead, I had to learn about a "henge". And here I thought it was just part of the name of the rocks in England! A henge is a roughly circular or oval-shaped flat area enclosed by a berm of earth - usually a ditch with an external bank. The bank of earth was made from the dirt taken from the ditch.

My travel companion had already been to Stonehenge so I was on my own. I arranged for a bus tour with a specific company that allowed me to enter the Stonehenge circle. People used to have free access until 1977 when the government roped it off to prevent destruction and erosion. Now, unless you get the special tour, you're limited to walking about 20 feet outside of the circle of stones.

We had about an hour walking freely inside the stone circle and listening to our guide, a former English history professor. It was quite an experience knowing the stones were placed there between 2000 and 3000 year B.C. Experience or not, it started raining, got quite windy and cold and most of us headed back to the bus!

We also went to another lesser known, but older (5000 B.C.), site at the small village of Avebury. This circle of stones is much larger in diameter than Stonehenge and completely encircles the village. Many of the stones have been lost over the years though and concrete markers were placed to indicate where they were supposed to have been.