Stonehenge is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain and has attracted visitors from earliest times

The Stonehenge we see today is the final stage that was completed about 3500 years ago.

Speculation on the reason it was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.

Stonehenge was built in three phases.
The first stage was a circle of timbers surrounded by a ditch and bank. The ditch would have been dug by hand using animal bones, deer antlers which were used as pick-axes to loosen the underlying chalk and then the shoulder blades of oxen or cattle were used as shovels to clear away the stones. That was around 3,100 BC. That's where the mystery begins. So this was the first stage built about 5,000 years ago: wooden post circle surrounded by a deep ditch and bank.

Then about 4,500 years ago it was rebuilt. This time in stone. These came from Wales, 380km away, dragged down to the sea, floated on huge rafts, brought up over land to where they are today. It was an amazing achievement when you consider that each stone weighs about five tons.

Before the second phase of Stonehenge was complete, work stopped and there was a period of abandonment. Then a new, bigger and better Stonehenge began, the one that we know today. This was approximately 4,300 years ago, about 2,300 BC.

The stones were dug up and rearranged and this time even bigger stones were brought in from the Marlborough Downs, 32 km. Each pair of stones was heaved upright. It was all cleverly designed on the alignment of the rising of the mid summer sun.

How did they get these stones to stand upright? The truth is nobody really knows. It required muscle power and hundreds of men to move one of these megaliths, the heaviest of them weighing probably about 45 tons.