Stonehenge Area Map, Wiltshire
White Horse, Crop Circles

Click on top or bottom pictures to go to Avebury Pictures or see Stonehenge Photos | England Tourist Map

Stonehenge to Avebury map section, courtesy of English Heritage.

There are further interesting prehistoric sites in the Stonehenge area.
First choice is undoubtedly Avebury, a larger circle of smaller stones set around a charming little village. Less than an hour's drive north of Stonehenge, you are free to walk around them, sit outside the local pub and view them over a glass of beer or hug them at your leisure with no charge at any time of the day, night or year.

Silbury Hill, just a mile or so from Avebury [see on the map, right of Avebury], is the world's largest prehistoric mound, a huge man-made hill built 4,500 years ago in a dome shape. [Go to White Horses link for more information]
Then there's West Kennet Long Barrow, a free Neolithic building, including carved Sarsens.

There are also plenty of giant White Horses carved into chalk hills and prehistoric hill forts around, though the latter only involve high grassy mounds surrounded by steep rings.

The Cherhill White Horse, near Avebury, Wiltshire county.

Not as impressive as ancient stone circles perhaps, but various White Horses canter over the Wiltshire chalk hills around Avebury and Stonehenge and are good for a brisk walk with no-problem access and great views.

Also near Avebury is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe, a 40 metre high grass-covered chalk dome, with a base diameter of 160 metres. It is estimated that moving the half million tons of chalk to construct the hill took 4 million man hours over 50 years. Silbury Hill was probably a sacred mound dedicated to the Mother Earth religion.
Climbing the mound is not permitted but photos are naturally fine, tho' the mound is neither particularly photogenic nor interesting to the common man.

Adjacent to Silbury Hill is West Kennet Long Barrow, a restored early Neolithic mound with five chambers leading off a central gallery.
Carbon dated from about 3700 BC, the chambers and roof are built from huge Sarsen stones. Recently high quality carved megaliths have been found, one shaped like a human head in profile, one like a skull and another like a sheep's head. It is thought that the barrow is another tribute to the Earth Mother since the entrance stone has an apparent 2 metre vulva carved on it and the interior is womb-like, yet when in use in the lambing season the sun would penetrate throughout the barrow, touching first the skull, then a real child's skull and finally the profiled human head.
Entry is free and reached from the main road [A4] by walking up a short track.

Buses to Avebury run from Swindon, Devizes, Marlborough and Salisbury.

And if you're lucky, it's early summer and aliens have been busy so you may stumble across some crop circles too. Wiltshire [county] is a popular alien graffiti zone, though they are hard to find as a] Extra Terrestrials have unpredictable habits and b] light planes are hard to come by. This photo was, in fact, taken of a field near Murska Sobota, Slovenia [though the Bugcrew have seen crop circles in Wiltshire fields, sadly without a camera to hand].
If you wish to have a chat about all things alien and weird graphics in particular apparently those who orbit in crop circles hang out at the Barge Inn, Honeystreet, Pewsey [town] Wiltshire, every summer, or have a look at this crop circles video.

Photos: Avebury | Stonehenge | England

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