Avebury

I am a prehistoric site in England consisting of an enormous henge and stone circles surrounding a village of the same name. I am one of the finest and largest Neolithic monuments in Europe dating to around 5000 years ago. I am older and much larger than the megalithic stones of Stonehenge, which is located about 20 miles to the south of me and was probably (my memory fails me...it was so long ago) built by a local king/queen wanting to show my king and queen that they were "more important". Humans are like that....Most of my surviving structure consists of earthworks, known as the dykes. A massive ditch and external bank henge 421 m in diameter and 1.35 km in circumference encloses an area of 115,000 square metres (28.5 acres). The only known comparable sites of similar date (Stonehenge and Flagstones in Dorset) are only a quarter of the size of me. My ditch alone was 21 m wide and 11m deep with its primary fill carbon dated to between 3400 and 2625 BC. Within my henge is a great Outer Circle constituting prehistory's largest stone circle with a diameter of 335 m (1100 ft). This is contemporary with or built around four or five centuries after my earthworks. Originally I had 98 sarsen standing stones some weighing in excess of 40 tons. They varied in height from 3.6 to 4.2 m. Carbon dates from the fills of the stoneholes are 2800 – 2400 BC. Nearer the middle of me are two other, separate stone circles.My Northern inner ring measures 98 m in diameter although only of two of my standing stones remain with two further, fallen ones. A cove of three stones stood in the middle, its entrance pointing north east.My Southern inner ring was 108 m in diameter until those Christians destroyed it. Almost all of it has been smashed with sections of its arc now beneath the village buildings. A single large monolith, 5.5 m high, stood in the centre along with an alignment of smaller stones until they were also destroyed in the eighteenth century.The Stone AvenuesI also have a beautiful avenue of paired stones, the West Kennet Avenue, leading from the south eastern entrance of my henge and traces of a second, the Beckhampton Avenue lead out from the western one. My henge had four entrances, two opposing ones on a north north west- south south east line and two on an east north east- west south west line. Despite being an artificial structure, I was featured on the 2005 TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the West Country.I am currently claimed to be "owned" by the tax avoidance quango known as the "National Trust".Click Here to get a tiny myspace layout!