On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Ian Jelf wrote:

Interesting thread this, isn't it?!

In message , Roland Perry
writes
In message , at 21:04:36 on Mon, 11
Feb 2008, Ian Jelf remarked:

Although Stonehenge is often described as "disappointing",

It is *much* smaller than most people imagine.

The circle may be. The monument is much more. And much bigger.

And sufficiently less visible and less well described that the average
tourist (not someone on one of your tours) will generally be unaware of
it. All they see are the standing stones.

Absolutely.

You may call it megalithic culture, I call it vandalism!

there is a reason it is so famous.

It is very old.

Actually, compared to other monuments, the present stone circles isn't
especially old. The earthwork on certain other features are indeed much
older, though.

It's older than Roman, which is the oldest constructions most people get to
see elsewhere. (Outside Egypt etc).

The oldest Earthwork, notwithstanding you perfectly valid point above,
dates from ore than 3000BC, so is not only pre-Roman but also pre-Greek.
This is the circular ditch which is pretty much clearly visible.

The oldest of all the monuments in the landscape, the delightfully-named
"Robin Hood's Ball" (not accessible) and The Cursus (on the open access
land only half a Kilometer or so North of Stonehenge) go back much
further, even predating the Pyramids of Egypt.

Oh, well if you compare it to Johnny-come-lately cultures like the Greeks
and Egyptians, of course it's going to look old! You want to get over to
Knocknarea or Carnac, they know a thing or two about 'old'.



It is, as far as I am aware, absolutely unique among the stone
circles of Western Europe for having the lintels across many of the
stone uprights. This represents the absolute pinnacle of what
Neolithic to Bronze ages peoples achieved.

Very few people seem to go to Stonehenge to wonder over the architecture.

Mine do! ;-))

I'm afraid I find it's all a bit "why did they build Windsor Castle so
close to the Heathrow flightpath".

For the record that really *does* happen. I've also been asked where
Windsor Castle was, while standing at the entrance to the Central Station
with the Castle directly behind me and in full view of the questioner (who
wasn't one of my clients but someone who'd interrupted me!).

I take it you told her she was at the wrong station, and that she'd need
to take a train to Paddington, make a tube transfer to Waterloo, and then
go to the Riverside station?

A slight variant on this was a lady who gave me a *lot* of grief about
Stonehenge a few years ago because when she came before "it was on the
ocean". Never worked that one out, although she also said the same about
her "previous visit to Bath".

Maybe she'd last been there a really, *really* long time ago ...

tom

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