JFM Photography

Stonehenge is on the Salisbury Plain in the county of Wiltshire, near Amesbury, England.  It is a UNESCO’s World Heritage site of a circular pattern of mysterious collection of ancient stones, arranged into a man-made structure believed to be approximately 5000 years old. It currently consists of a circular bank of earthworks where concentric rings of standing stones majestically rise from the Plain. The standing stones (sarsens) consist of massive blocks up to nine (9) metres tall weighing around 25 tons, set vertically into the earth. Sitting horizontally across the sarsens are ‘blue stones’ (due to their colour when wet or cut) weighing up to four (4) tons. These blue stones are cut and crafted, and then dovetail joined together. Researchers agree that the blue stones originated from Wales, 250klm away. Though there are differing theories as to how they came to be in Wiltshire.

The henge stones appear to mark and accentuate important stages of the year such as the passing of seasons and particular sunrises and sunsets. This has led many experts to surmise the site was a religious or spiritual landmark used as an astrological observatory. It is believed that Stonehenge also sits proudly on the most prominent Ley line in Britain.

Cremated human remains have been located in and around the site, and the surrounding area contains numerous burial mounds. Leading away from the Stones are paths to these burial mounds and an avenue ends in a rock slab known as the ‘Slaughter Stone’.

The saker falcon (Falco cherrug) is a large species of falcon. This species breeds from eastern Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China. The saker falcon is a raptor of open grasslands preferably with some trees or cliffs. It often hunts by horizontal pursuit, rather than the peregrine's stoop from a height, and feeds mainly on rodents and birds. In Europe, ground squirrels and feral pigeons are the most common prey items. This species usually builds no nest of its own, but lays its 3–6 eggs in an old stick nest in a tree that was previously used by other birds such as storks, ravens or buzzards. It also often nests on cliffs.

Throughout English history people have promoted differing theories as to who constructed this Neolithic henge - Stonehenge. These range from myths about the magician Merlin, through to Celtic Druids and local shepherds and even alien visitors!

Stonehenge is not a unique structure within Great Britain, more than 900 stone circles have been located in the British Isles; however Stonehenge is the largest and most well-known. Whilst it is not fully understood how and why this henge was important for ancient people, it is obvious that the site was relevant and for thousands of years it was built, modified, utilized and honored.

In the 17th century, archaeologist John Aubrey made the claim that Stonehenge was the work of the Celtic high priests known as the Druids, a theory widely popularized by the antiquarian William Stukeley, who had unearthed primitive graves at the site. Even today, people who identify as modern Druids continue to gather at Stonehenge for the summer solstice. However, in the mid-20th century, radiocarbon dating demonstrated that Stonehenge stood more than 1,000 years before the Celts inhabited the region, eliminating the ancient Druids from the running.

The European Eagle Owl or the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Eurasia. Their pumpkin orange eyes and feathery ear tufts make them one of the most striking owls in the world.  It combines fast and powerful flights with shallow wing beats and long, fast glides. Besides being one of the largest living species of owl, it is also one of the most widely distributed. The Eurasian eagle-owl is found in a number of habitats but is mostly a bird of mountain regions, coniferous forests, steppes and other relatively remote places. It is a mostly nocturnal predator, hunting for a range of different prey species, predominately small mammals but also birds of varying sizes, reptiles, amphibians, fish, large insects and other assorted invertebrates.

In the 1960s, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested that the cluster of megalithic stones operated as an astronomical calendar, with different points corresponding to astrological phenomena such as solstices, equinoxes and eclipses. While his theory has received quite a bit of attention over the years, critics maintain that Stonehenge’s builders probably lacked the knowledge necessary to predict such events or that England’s dense cloud cover would have obscured their view of the skies. More recently, signs of illness and injury in the human remains unearthed at Stonehenge led a group of British archaeologists to speculate that it was considered a place of healing, perhaps because bluestones were thought to have curative powers.

Stonehenge’s sarsens, of which the largest weighs more than 40 tons and rises 24 feet, were likely sourced from quarries 25 miles north of Salisbury Plain and transported with the help of sledges and ropes; they may even have already been scattered in the immediate vicinity when the monument’s Neolithic architects first broke ground there. The smaller bluestones, on the other hand, have been traced all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles away from Stonehenge. The theories about how the prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering moved these boulders, which weigh up to 4 tons, over this distance are fouled. 

Stonehenge was built between 3100 – 1100 BCE. The circle was aligned with the midsummer sunrise, the midwinter sunset, and the most southerly rising and northerly setting of the moon. The ground plan and structural engineering of Stonehenge incorporate sophisticated mathematical and geometrical understandings on the part of its builders.

Full body image of this raptor. The saker falcon is a large hierofalcon, larger than the lanner falcon and almost as large as gyrfalcon at 47–55 cm (19–22 in) length with a wingspan of 105–129 cm (41–51 in). Its broad blunt wings give it a shadow similar to gyrfalcon, but its plumage is more similar to a lanner falcon's. 

It has been estimated that the construction of Stonehenge required more than thirty million hours of labor.

More than nine hundred stone rings exist in the British Isles. Of these, Stonehenge is the most well known. The megalithic monuments of Britain and Europe predate those of the eastern Mediterranean, Egyptian, Mycenaean and Greek cultures.