Stonehenge

Stonehenge

The world heritage site, Stonehenge was built as a temple, a place of ceremony, a place of burial (built 3000 BC to 2000 BC). The word henge denotes a particular type of Neolithic earthwork consisting of hanging stones, a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch. I discovered that there are different classes of henges:
Class I henges have a single entrance created from a gap in the bank 
Class II henges have two entrances, diametrically opposite each other 
Class III henges have four entrances, facing each other in pairs.
Stonehenge is not a true henge as it has an internal ditch with a banked enclosure opposed to a ditch on the outside of the banked enclosure.  I learnt that Stonehenge was atypical because it was more than 7.3 meters (24 feet) tall, and the extant trilithons supporting the lintels are held in place with mortise hole and tenon joints.  (A joint used for thousands of years by woodworkers round the world) It is certainly imposing and there were many foreign visitors wanting their photograph taken in the foreground of the stones. 
The day I visited the press announced that the government was planning to build a tunnel under Stonehenge to divert traffic from the A303.  As I walked around, the press were busy filming and interviewing Simon Thurley, head of English Heritage,  I missed a photo opportunity! It was bitterly cold and no one seemed to be hanging about.