Salisbury Plain is an extensive area of grass upland in Wiltshire. Much like the Marlborough Downs to the North, the whole area is rich in prehistoric monuments, including 350 barrows - more than any other area of similar size in Britain. Due to much of the area being used for Army training, many of the archaeological features are protected from the plough and civil projects such as roads and housing. However, this kind of protection is a doubled edged sword. Although they are free of commercial threats and tourism, the use of some areas as firing ranges has caused its own damage to some sites.
The Stonehenge area of Salisbury Plain is bounded by the River Avon to the east and the River Till to the West. To the north of the region runs the Packway, an ancient track much like the Ridgeway. This track leads from Larkhill to Wilsford Down and the MOD land lies mostly to the north of it. The monument itself is located about halfway between Salisbury to the north and Avebury to the south.
Like other landmarks such as the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids, Stonehenge has been recognized as a world class monument and is therefore classified as a World Heritage Site. Like the others it draws visitors from around the world. It is an enduring mystery to us all as no one truly knows what it was used for or why or how it was built.
The name "Stonehenge" has been around since the Saxon period. The word "henge" comes from the Old English word "Hengen" which meant "Hanging or Gibbet". Therefore Stonehenge means "Stone Gallows", perhaps so called due the shape of the trilithions. Work was started at Stonehenge 3500 years ago and took 1,500 years to complete. Stonehenge forces us to review our views of our Stone Age ancestors as this structure could not have been built by barbarians, but only by a well-organised culture. All megalithic monuments would have been constructed with the whole of the society participating. The monument originated during the Neolithic with a henge monument built by people who were agricultural and would have had few ranks apart from a chief or skilled priest class who had detailed knowledge of engineering. They would not have been Druids as popularly thought.
There was no use of metal in the early Neolithic and they would have used bone picks to dig out the earth. Later in this period they would not have been able to mobilise the populace to build such structures, as they had begun to fight each other with metal weapons over decreasing resources. However, the famous stone circle we see today is not their work, but was added later to their site. As a megalithic monument Stonehenge is still impressive, but it is certainly not representative of the megalithic culture as a whole. The stone circle is a unique Bronze Age addition built by the incoming metal workers and is a statement to their power.
More about Stonehenge and Sailisbury Plain:
Stonehenge Past, Present and Future
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