A Wale of a Tale: Avebury and Stonehenge

Avebury

Today's adventure, put on by the International Development Office, included a trip to Avebury and Stonehenge. Despite being windy at both of the sights of interest, the weather was great for a day of sightseeing; the sun even came out while we were at Stonehenge! On the bus to Avebury (the first stop), I met a nice girl from Germany who is studying at Swansea. Our group split into two tour groups, so we had some free time to look around the museums at Avebury before going on the second tour. It amazes me to think that the stones that form the Avebury henge were transported and put into place about 4,500 years ago. It is believed that over 1.5 million hours of work went into building the stone circle. The circumference of the stone circle is one mile long, and there is currently a town (Avebury) located in the stone circle. There are some smaller and newer stones that mark the places of where the old stones used to be; the stones were removed because the church believed them to have been placed there for pagan reasons. To remove the stones, fires were started around the stones and kept hot for 4-5 days. The rocks would then be splashed with cold water, causing the stone to break (according to our tour guide). The henge is located in a place of high magnetic energy, and it is believed that this attracted the people who built the henge so long ago. Today, people suffering from arthritis come to the spot because it is believed that magnetic energy helps relieve the symptoms of arthritis.

Flowers at Avebury

Part of the stone circle

More stones...

A large part of the circle

We boarded the bus again for an hour's drive to Stonehenge. We got to do individual audio tours there, which was great because each person could move at his/her own pace. I learned a lot about the ancient stone circle; it is aligned with the midsummer sunrise (the summer solstice) and the midwinter sunset (winter solstice). No one know the exact purpose of the stone formation. I found it fascinating that 1/3 of each of the stones is underground! The heaviest of the rocks weighs about 45 tons, which is approximately equivalent to the weight of 7 full-grown elephants! One stone, which originally stood upright but is now laying flat on its side, is called the Slaughter Stone. When it rains, the water brings out the red color of the iron oxide in the stone, which is how it got it's name. I enjoyed getting to circle the entire stone circle and listening to the audio tour. While I was at Stonehenge, I kept thinking of Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Tess spends her last free night with Angel at Stonehenge, and I was very excited to be at the location of the endings of one of my favorite books! I was also very excited when the audio tour mentioned the novel and even quoted part of it. On Monday I think I'll check out the book so I can re-read it! :)