Stonehenge

Stonehenge is the ultimate historical mystery that has baffled many and till today we are not sure about the details of this and many theories propound. Built on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, this is the largest human made circle of erected stones. This consists of thirty stones in an outer circle in a horse shoe shape and the stones are called Sarsens. Inside is an inner circle and then an outer circle called blue sarsens. The lightest stones weigh 3600 kg. and the heaviest one weigh 22 tons which is equivalent to the weight of four African Elephants. These stones were brought from 32 km. and 225 km. from Wales and this is a mystery as to how they were brought and for what purpose. Some say they were dragged through wooden made sledges and other say through wooden rafts flown across the river.The next mystery is that after being brought here, how were they made to stand. It is believed that a deep hole was dug and using wedges and ropes these stones were then made to stand erect. The very imagination of this boggles one's mind and this looks beyond one's imagination and one is no longer sure. However, what is known that all this was built in about 1000 years in several stages. Most probably all this began about 5000 years back as a simple earth work enclosure where pre historic people buried their cremated dead. The stone circle as per carbon dating is said to have begun around 2500 years in the late Neolithic period. Some theories propound that this was for measuring time with the shadows falling on earth, some say this was a healing place where early period people came for healing, to some this is a ritualistic place and others think it is a burial place. What ever the reason, it continues raise the awe factor and attract a large number of people. Even today on Summer Solstice, 21st June where the sun is at the highest point, 15,000 to 20,000 people gather at this site to observe the sunrise, which is said to be really beautiful. The first rays of sun fall on the Heel Stone a single stone that stands outside the main circle of rocks. However, I had visited this site earlier in 2005 or 2006, when I was in Bristol and had rented a room with a British Lady. Her son and his friend had come down from London and we had driven to this place. It was empty, there were no tickets and I am sure, I have a face book post some where or at least pictures, where we went inside, touched the stones and took pictures standing next to these stones. My only memory is that there was a lot of cow dung around and we had to be very careful where we were stepping but we went around taking a number of pictures standing near each stone and looking like pygmies. We were the only four people in the place. I have a very vivid memory of this visit for on our way back they decided they wanted to eat Indian cuisine for they loved Indian food and were looking for an Indian restaurant. I had then suggested to them that if they help, I would cook a meal which would be better than the restaurant for here ever Indian restaurant (be it of a Pakistani, Ceylonese or Bangla desi, they all called it Indian and add a lot of sugar in dishes). They very happily drove me to the market, we shopped and there was so much excitement in learning to cook an Indian meal. To me what was needed was a lot of onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and each dish was done in a similar fashion. The two boys had helped in cutting, peeling, crushing and we did indeed have a wonderful Indian vegetarian meal with Lassi added minus Haldi, which I could not find in the market. Every one had enjoyed the meal very much and the son had also noted down some Indian recipes and told me he would cook them back home. However, today, when we visited this site in 2019,there were thousands of tourists, we had to buy tickets, buses took us to the spot and the whole area is cardoned off and we cannot go near the stones. May be this is required to protect this cultural heritage for posterity. But this site always raises a lot of curiosity and one wonders as to how the earlier humans managed to drag these stones to this distance and place them erect.