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By Tessa Laframboise

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This video is talking about the unsolved mystery of the Stonehenge. It has a lot of information on how they believe that the Stonehenge was built. It’s a little believable that thousands of human beings had built the Stonehenge together because back in those days they didn’t have the type of machines that we do today. A red flag for this video could be red herring because I find it a bit misleading that they were able to haul many huge stones from a long way.

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Secrets of Stonehenge | National Geographic

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Just like the other picture this one is a great example of how the stones are perfectly aligned to meet the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset. This picture helps out a lot in the aspect of the possible reasoning for the alignment of the stones.

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In this website they take us down a path on why so many people like to visit the Stonehenge and how archeologists and geologists see an interest in it as well. It also explains the different types of stages that the builders have went through in order to make the monuments, as well as what it was constructed out of. I think that this is an interesting read because it gives a great amount of information. It is hard to tell if all this information is true so I would say that the red flag here is red herring because some of the information could be misleading.

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A tale of glaciers, man, rocks and North America Out of the mist that blankets the gently rolling hills of Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge rises above the horizon like a haunting beacon. Whatever its original purpose, one thing is certain: The stone monument draws visitors in and stays with them forever.

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This video has some information on the Stonehenge such as the size, weight and formation of the stones. It also has some insight on how the stone could have been transferred to the spot in England from Wales. They also talk about prehistory and where it all started. I however find it misleading due to the fact that they believe magic was involved in the making. This red flag would be red herring.

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This picture was a side picture to one of the websites. This picture is an excellent example of how the stones were arranged to face the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset. Some reasons of belief on this photo and why it is matched with the sunrise and sunset could be simplicity. We are giving it the simple answers because we don’t know exactly how assign meaning to it.

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This video also talks about the details of the the Stonehenge. They also talk about how people thought they were made by magic in the middle ages. They also mention how the historians were wrong about the date that the Stonehenge was built and it dates even further back. I find that it’s hard to believe a lot of this information because we don’t necessarily have proof. I think that this could be the reason for belief of conformation bias, because people are favouring their beliefs.

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Stonehenge was built in phases.

Around 3000 B.C. a circular earthwork was constructed at the site, consisting of a ditch (dug using tools made from antlers) with an inner and outer bank. Inside the bank were 56 pits, which became known as the Aubrey Holes, after antiquarian John Aubrey, who identified them in 1666. Archaeologists estimate Stonehenge was home to 150 or more cremation burials from approximately 3000 B.C. to 2300 B.C., and they've called it Britain's biggest known cemetery of the time.

The two types of stones at the center of the monument, the large sarsens and smaller bluestones, arrived at the site sometime around 2500 B.C. Afterward, they were shaped using various stoneworking techniques and arranged in formations. The final stage of construction was a ring of pits now referred to as the Y holes, dug sometime between 1600 B.C. to 1500 B.C. The Y holes encircled another ring of pits called the Z holes, which were dug at an earlier time and surrounded the sarsens. Researchers are unclear as to whether the Y and Z holes served any purpose. It's also unknown how long Stonehenge continued to be used after the Y holes were dug.

It's a mystery how some stones got to the site.

Among the remaining riddles about Stonehenge is how its builders, who had only primitive tools, managed to haul all the massive stones to the site. The sarsen stones, which each weigh an average of 25 tons, are thought to have been brought to the site from Marlborough Downs, about 20 miles to the north. The bluestones, which weigh between 2 tons to 5 tons, were transported to Stonehenge from the Preseli Hills area in West Wales, a distance of more than 150 miles. Most archaeologists believe that humans moved the bluestones over water and land to Stonehenge, although it's also been suggested these stones could've been pushed to the site by glaciers.

In 2000, a Welsh group called Menter Preseli attempted to use only Stone Age tools and methods to recreate the prehistoric journey made by the bluestones. The project involved dragging a bluestone weighing across land on a large wooden sled then transporting it over water by boat. However, various problems arose along the way, including the theft of the sled (it was soon found but a crane was needed to get the stone back on it). Later, as the stone was being carried in a sling between two long rowboats, it fell into the water and sank (after divers located the stone, it had to be raised by a salvage crew). Eventually, the entire project was scrapped.

Stonehenge once was put up for auction.

Starting in the Middle Ages and for centuries afterward, Stonehenge was privately owned. By the late 1800s, crowds of visitors had taken a toll on the site. Sir Edmund Antrobus, owner of the land on which Stonehenge is situated, resisted calls from preservationists to sell the property to the British government. In the early 1900s, Antrobus's son put up a fence around the prehistoric monument and for the first time in its history visitors were charged an admission fee. Meanwhile, the British military began establishing training facilities in the surrounding area, resulting in an influx of soldiers, equipment and, eventually, aircraft, some of which crashed near the site. However, the passage of the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act in 1913 protected Stonehenge from being intentionally demolished. In 1915, after the Antrobus family heir was killed during World War I, Stonehenge went up on the auction block, where local resident Cecil Chubb successfully bid on the site, on a whim, for £6,600. Three years later, Chubb donated Stonehenge to the national government. In recognition of this deed, he was knighted by Prime Minister Lloyd George.

Theories abound about Stonehenge's purpose.

Stonehenge's builders left no known written records, so scholars (and non-scholars) have long speculated about why it was constructed. In the early 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth, one of the first people to write about the ancient site, claimed it was erected as a memorial to hundreds of Britons who were slayed by the Saxons. According to Geoffrey, the wizard Merlin supposedly directed that the stones for the monument be procured from the Giants' Ring, a stone circle with magical healing powers said to be located in Ireland. Another theory, suggested by John Aubrey and 18th century archaeologist William Stukeley, is that Stonehenge was built as a Druid temple. Modern scholars say Stonehenge's construction predated the Druids; however, present-day Druids view it as a sacred spot.

Another theory, introduced in the 1960s, holds that Stonehenge was an astronomical computer used to predict eclipses. And in 2008, archaeologists suggested that Stonehenge was a center for healing, a prehistoric version of Lourdes that attracted the sick and injured. Meanwhile, there's a contingent of people who believe Stonehenge is a landing pad for ancient space aliens, and British authorities have received reports from the public about UFOs hovering near the famous monument.

Summer solstice gatherings were banned at Stonehenge.

First held in 1974 during the summer solstice, the Stonehenge Free Festival started as a counter-culture gathering that grew significantly in size over time. After tens of thousands of people showed up for the 1984 festival, authorities, concerned about such issues as open drug use, banned the event for the following year. Nevertheless, on June 1, 1985, a long convoy of vehicles filled with would-be festival goers (who were part of a movement called the New Age Travellers) made its way toward Stonehenge.

About seven miles from the ancient site, police stopped the convoy. Accounts of what happened next vary: Law enforcement officers claimed they were attacked by people in the vehicles, while those in the convoy said the police dragged various individuals, unprovoked, from their vehicles and beat them. The Travellers fled to a nearby beanfield, where they were surrounded by police, and more violence ensued. Two dozen people were hospitalized, and numerous arrests were made. In the aftermath of the so-called Battle of the Beanfield, summer solstice gatherings at Stonehenge were prohibited until 2000.

Darwin studied worms there.

In 1877, naturalist Charles Darwin traveled to Stonehenge to conduct research on a subject that had long fascinated him: earthworms. During his visit, Darwin, who was interested in the impact that worms had on objects in the soil over time, observed how a fallen stone at the ancient monument had sunk deeper into the ground as a result of the activities of the lowly creatures, who continually churn through the soil. Darwin's research was included in what would be his final book, "The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms," published in 1881.

Stonehenge is just one of several prehistoric stone circles in Great Britain.

While Stonehenge has been referred to as the most architecturally sophisticated ancient stone circle, the largest of them is Avebury, located 25 miles north of Stonehenge. Constructed between 2850 B.C. and 2200 B.C., Avebury today consists of a massive circular bank and ditch enclosing 28.5 acres. Inside the ditch is an inner stone circle that encloses two smaller stone circles. During the Medieval era, a number of the stones were knocked over and buried by local Christians who believed they were pagan symbols. Later, some of the stones were broken up and used as building materials. In the 1930s, archaeologist Alexander Keiller, heir to a British marmalade fortune, purchased the site. Keiller cleared away old cottages and farm buildings and re-erected many of the stones. As with Stonehenge, it's uncertain for what exact purpose Avebury was used by ancient people.

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7 Things You Should Know About Stonehenge

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Around 3000 B.C. a circular earthwork was constructed at the site, consisting of a ditch (dug using tools made from antlers) with an inner and outer bank. Inside the bank were 56 pits, which became known as the Aubrey Holes, after antiquarian John Aubrey, who identified them in 1666.

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This picture is an interesting diagram of the Stonehenge. It gives us some insight on the making of the monument and it also gives the sizes of the rings and it carefully labels the different parts of the stones and the other stuff around it. I think that this is a straight forward picture and is easily understandable. I think that the red flag with this picture would be ideological support because there is lots of information that could confirm that this is how it looks.

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This article has many details on the Stonehenge such as the size and distance. They have information on when the monument was roughly built as well as the type of stones that were used in the making of it. They also have some theories on why it was constructed. This website has many theories and information that I think it is suitable to say that the red flag is proof of verbosity.

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The stones of Stonehenge have endured centuries of weathering and erosion.

Credit: ivanovsky | Shutterstock

Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on a chalky plain north of the modern-day city of Salisbury, England. Research shows that the site has continuously evolved over a period of about 10,000 years. The structure that we call "Stonehenge" was built between roughly 5,000 and 4,000 years ago and was one part of a larger sacred landscape that included a massive stone monument that was 15 times the size of Stonehenge.

The biggest of Stonehenge's stones, known as sarsens, are up to 30 feet (9 meters) tall and weigh 25 tons (22.6 metric tons) on average. It is widely believed that they were brought from Marlborough Downs, a distance of 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the north.

Smaller stones, referred to as "bluestones" (they have a bluish tinge when wet or freshly broken), weigh up to 4 tons and come from several different sites in western Wales, having been transported as far as 140 miles (225 km). It's unknown how people in antiquity moved them that far. Recent experiments show that it is possible for a one-ton stone to be moved by a dozen people on a wooden trackway, but whether this technique was actually used by the ancient builders is uncertain.

Scientists have also raised the possibility that during the last ice age glaciers carried these bluestones closer to the Stonehenge area and the monument's makers didn't have to move them all the way from Wales. Water transport by raft is another idea that has been proposed but researchers now question whether this method was viable.

No one knows why ancient people built Stonehenge, but it seems to have been arranged to face the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset.

Credit: Pete Strasser nasa.gov

Stonehenge is just one part of a larger sacred landscape that contains many other stone and wooden structures as well as burials. Archaeologists have also found evidence for widespread prehistoric hunting and a road that may have led to Stonehenge.

From what scientists can tell, Salisbury Plain was considered to be a sacred area long before Stonehenge itself was constructed. As early as 10,500 years ago, three large pine posts, which were totem poles of sorts, were erected at the site.

Hunting played an important role in the area. Researchers have uncovered roughly 350 animal bones and 12,500 flint tools or fragments, just a mile away from Stonehenge, the finds dating from 7500 B.C. to 4700 B.C. The presence of abundant game may have led people to consider the area sacred.

Dozens of burial mounds have been discovered near Stonehenge indicating that hundreds, if not thousands, of people were buried there in ancient times. At least 17 shrines, some in the shape of a circle, have also been discovered near Stonehenge. A " House of the Dead" was recently discovered near Stonehenge that dates to 3700 B.C.-3500 B.C.

Around 5,500 years ago two earthworks known as Cursus monuments were erected at Stonehenge, the longest of which ran for 1.8 miles (3 km). By 5,300 years ago two massive eyeglass-shaped wooden palisades, which were set ablaze during ceremonies, were constructed at Avebury, near Stonehenge.

At Stonehenge, more construction occurred around 5,000 years ago with postholes indicating that either bluestones or upright timber posts were propped up on the site. Then, around 4,600 years ago, a double circle made using dozens of bluestones was created at the site.

By 4,400 years ago, Stonehenge had changed again, having a series of sarsen stones erected in the shape of a horseshoe, with every pair of these huge stones having a stone lintel connecting them. In turn, a ring of sarsens surrounded this horseshoe, their tops connecting to each other, giving the appearance of a giant interconnected stone circle surrounding the horseshoe.

By 4,300 years ago, Stonehenge had been expanded to include the addition of two bluestone rings, one inside the horseshoe and another between the horseshoe and the outer layer of interconnected sarsen stones.

Construction at Stonehenge slowed down around 4,000 years ago. As time went on the monument fell into neglect and disuse, some of its stones fell over while others were taken away. [ In Photos: A Walk Through Stonehenge]

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There is an interesting connection between the earlier Cursus monuments and the later Stonehenge. Archaeologists found that the longest Cursus monument had two pits, one on the east and one on the west. These pits, in turn, align with Stonehenge's heel stone and a processional avenue.

"Suddenly, you've got a link between [the long Cursus pit] and Stonehenge through two massive pits, which appear to be aligned on the sunrise and sunset on the mid-summer solstice," said University of Birmingham archaeologist Vincent Gaffney, who is leading a project to map Stonehenge and its environs.

Some of the people who built Stonehenge may have lived near the monument at a series of houses excavated at Durrington Walls. Recently, archaeologists discovered evidence that people who lived in these houses feasted on meat and dairy products. The rich diet of the people who may have built Stonehenge provides evidence that they were not slaves or coerced, said a team of archaeologists in an article published in 2015 in the journal Antiquity.

Many theories have been put forward so to why Stonehenge was constructed.

"It's part of a much more complex landscape with processional and ritual activities that go around it," Gaffney told Live Science, noting that people may have traveled considerable distances to come to Stonehenge.

One theory about Stonehenge, released in 2012 by members of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, is that Stonehenge marks the "unification of Britain," a point when people across the island worked together and used a similar style of houses, pottery and other items.

It would explain why they were able to bring bluestones all the way from west Wales and how the labor and resources for the construction were marshaled.

"Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labor of thousands to move stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them. Just the work itself, requiring everyone literally to pull together, would have been an act of unification," said professor Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield in a news release.

Additional resources

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Stonehenge: Facts & Theories About Mysterious Monument

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Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on a chalky plain north of the modern-day city of Salisbury, England. Research shows that the site has continuously evolved over a period of about 10,000 years.

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This website has very good insight on the making of the Stonehenge. They talk about the construction of the monuments as well as the mystery of why and how the Stonehenge came to be. Some known red flags would be appeal to authority, because we hear about all these historians and archeologists with their views but we are never too sure of what the truth could be.

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For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that took Neolithic builders an estimated 1,500 years to erect. Located in southern England, it is comprised of roughly 100 massive upright stones placed in a circular layout.

While many modern scholars now agree that Stonehenge was once a burial ground, they have yet to determine what other purposes it served and how a civilization without modern technology-or even the wheel-produced the mighty monument. Its construction is all the more baffling because, while the sandstone slabs of its outer ring hail from local quarries, scientists have traced the bluestones that make up its inner ring all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles from where Stonehenge sits on Salisbury Plain.

Today, nearly 1 million people visit Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, every year.

Stonehenge's Multiphase Construction

Archaeologists believe England most iconic prehistoric ruin was built in several stages, with the earliest constructed 5,000 or more years ago. First, Neolithic Britons used primitive tools-possibly made from deer antlers-to dig a massive circular ditch and bank, or henge, on Salisbury Plain. Deep pits dating back to that era and located within the circle-known as Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the 17th-century antiquarian who discovered them-may have once held a ring of timber posts, according to some scholars.

Did you know? In 1620, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, dug a large hole in the ground at the center of Stonehenge looking for buried treasure.

Several hundred years later, it is thought, Stonehenge's builders hoisted an estimated 80 non-indigenous bluestones, 43 of which remain today, into standing positions and placed them in either a horseshoe or circular formation.

During the third phase of construction, which took place around 2000 B.C., sarsen sandstone slabs were arranged into an outer crescent or ring; some were assembled into the iconic three-pieced structures called trilithons that stand tall in the center of Stonehenge. Some 50 sarsen stones are now visible on the site, which may once have contained many more. Radiocarbon dating suggests that work continued at Stonehenge until roughly 1600 B.C., with the bluestones in particularly being repositioned multiple times.
READ MORE: What Made Stonehenge's Builders Collect Massive Stones from 180 Miles Away?
The Megaliths of Stonehenge

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. How, then, did prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering haul these boulders, which weigh up to 4 tons, over such a great distance?

According to one longstanding theory, Stonehenge's builders fashioned sledges and rollers out of tree trunks to lug the bluestones from the Preseli Hills. They then transferred the boulders onto rafts and floated them first along the Welsh coast and then up the River Avon toward Salisbury Plain; alternatively, they may have towed each stone with a fleet of vessels. More recent hypotheses have them transporting the bluestones with supersized wicker baskets or a combination of ball bearings, long grooved planks and teams of oxen.

As early as the 1970s, geologists have been adding their voices to the debate over how Stonehenge came into being. Challenging the classic image of industrious Neolithic builders pushing, carting, rolling or hauling the craggy bluestones from faraway Wales, some scientists have suggested that glaciers, not humans, did most of the heavy lifting.

The globe is dotted with giant rocks known as glacial erratics that were carried over long distances by moving ice floes. Perhaps Stonehenge's mammoth slabs were snatched from the Preseli Hills by glaciers during one of the Ice Ages and deposited a stone's throw away-at least comparatively-from Salisbury Plain. Most archaeologists have remained cool toward the glacial theory, however, wondering how the forces of nature could possibly have delivered the exact number of stones needed to complete the circle.

Who Built Stonehenge?

According to the 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose tale of King Arthur and mythical account of English history were considered factual well into the Middle Ages, Stonehenge is the handiwork of the wizard Merlin. In the mid-fifth century, the story goes, hundreds of British nobles were slaughtered by the Saxons and buried on Salisbury Plain.

Hoping to erect a memorial to his fallen subjects, King Aureoles Ambrosias sent an army to Ireland to retrieve a stone circle known as the Giants' Ring, which ancient giants had built from magical African bluestones. The soldiers successfully defeated the Irish but failed to move the stones, so Merlin used his sorcery to spirit them across the sea and arrange them above the mass grave. Legend has it that Ambrosias and his brother Uther, King Arthur's father, are buried there as well.

While many believed Monmouth's account to be the true story of Stonehenge's creation for centuries, the monument's construction predates Merlin-or, at least, the real-life figures who are said to have inspired him-by several thousand years. Other early hypotheses attributed its building to the Saxons, Danes, Romans, Greeks or Egyptians.

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.

Many modern historians and archaeologists now agree that several distinct tribes of people contributed to Stonehenge, each undertaking a different phase of its construction. Bones, tools and other artifacts found on the site seem to support this hypothesis. The first stage was achieved by Neolithic agrarians who were likely indigenous to the British Isles. Later, it is believed, groups with advanced tools and a more communal way of life left their stamp on the site. Some have suggested that they were immigrants from the European continent, but many scientists think they were native Britons descended from the original builders.

Stonehenge's Function and Significance

If the facts surrounding the architects and construction of Stonehenge remain shadowy at best, the purpose of the arresting monument is even more of a mystery. While historians agree that it was a place of great importance for over 1,000 years, we may never know what drew early Britons to Salisbury Plain and inspired them to continue developing it.

There is strong archaeological evidence that Stonehenge was used as a burial site, at least for part of its long history, but most scholars believe it served other functions as well-either as a ceremonial site, a religious pilgrimage destination, a final resting place for royalty or a memorial erected to honor and perhaps spiritually connect with distant ancestors.

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 Today

One of the most famous and recognizable sites in the world, Stonehenge draws more than 800,000 tourists a year, many of whom also visit the region's numerous other Neolithic and Bronze Age marvels. In 1986 Stonehenge was added to UNESCO's register of World Heritage sites in a co-listing with Avebury, a Neolithic henge located 17 miles away that is older and larger than its more famous neighbor.

Stonehenge has undergone several restorations over the years, and some of its boulders have been set in concrete to prevent collapse. Meanwhile, archaeological excavations and development of the surrounding area to facilitate tourism have turned up other significant sites nearby, including other henges.

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For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that took Neolithic builders an estimated 1,500 years to erect. Located in southern England, it is comprised of roughly 100 massive upright stones placed in a circular layout.