Stonehenge...

There is much debate as to whether Stonehenge is actually on the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It's definitely one of Britain's Wonders, and some call it a Medieval Wonder, but one thing is for sure - when you visit it, you are left wondering. What the heck is this thing? Matt and I didn't really know how to feel about it. Impressed? Yes, of course. Stupefied? A little bit. Really, who put this there and why? Honestly, it's on the verge of being frustrating. How do we not have a concise theory with all our technological advancements?

The points that most historians/archeologists/scientists agree on:
- It is some type of calendar because you can see the winter and summer solstice sunrises and sunsets through certain spots at certain times of the year.
- Its construction began around 3500BC. Wow!
- They have just discovered the archaeological remains of a relatively large city very close by with ancient roads that lead to the Stonehenge site.
- It was something of importance because it took a lot of effort to build. The stones had to be hauled from miles away, and then they must have shaped them to make the corners so squared. They must have built elaborate pulley systems to hoist the connecting horizontal stones on top of the vertical ones.

The ideas that are left up to debate and can never be proven entirely accurate or inaccurate (hence, the frustrating part):
- It could be a temple, but there is no record to indicate that the ancient Britons were particularly religious. The stone slab in the innermost center of the circle has taken the label of "Altar Stone" anyway.
- It could be a burial ground, a sort of land of the dead. Stone could be symbolic for the permanence of death, and the peoples could have spread the ashes of their ancestors there.
- Aliens built it as a monument to the dinosaurs.
- God just put it there as a joke so that humans would waste centuries worrying about its origin and purpose.
Blah, blah, blah.

By the end of our visit, which lasted just under an hour, I walked away with a stirred up mixture of thoughts: "That's so crazy. Silly. Bizarre. Kind of stupid. Or maybe it makes me feel stupid... Don't really know why it's there. It's weird that it's such a mystery. Why can't we figure it out? The only correct way to refer to the structure is to call it an 'it' since we don't really know what it is.... I expected it to be a bigger circle, not just 100 yards in diameter... I can't believe I just walked around a place that I've only seen in textbooks... I'm going with the theory that God put it there for a good laugh... I find it strange that we are only a few feet from a highway, and I've heard more American English here than anywhere we have visited so far... Why are there so many sheep grazing around us? Do those birds that are pooping on Stonehenge have any idea what they are pooping on?" etc.

Like I said before, it just leaves you wondering and feeling unsettled. But, we got some pretty good pictures. Here are some of the best.

In case you were just driving in the middle of nowhere and didn't know what these huge rocks on the side of the road were.

You can't get very close to the stones, so they have a nicely designated path for you to stay on. At one point in time, you used to be able to rent a hammer and chip off part of the stone as a souvenir. They finally got smart and figured out a more sustainable business plan in which you could charge people more for admittance and not let them touch it. You just walk counterclockwise once around, and you're done. That's it. I got an audio guide that was supposedly in English but was actually in Russian or something. So, I stole Matt's. He didn't care. He was taking pictures.

Here I am!

Here's hubby!

Here's us together (thanks to the two eclectic Canadian middle-aged women who took this one)!

See the knob the bird is sitting (and probably pooping) on? That is how the horizontal stones stayed in place on top of the vertical ones. There is kind of a ball-and-socket joint on each connection point.

This is one of the better ones we got of the entire site. It reminded me of the Colosseum in that you wish you could have seen it before it was ruined.

Oh, hey sheep. You got birds on your back. And grass in your mouth.

This guy was taking it pretty easy and having a nice snooze.

That mound is one of many burial mounds that surround Stonehenge. They have found one body per mound, meaning that each person buried in these was well-to-do somehow. In one, they supposedly found a Swiss man with his weapon, indicating that Stonehenge was incredibly important if someone was willing to travel so far to see it. (This leads me to wonder how many of these stories are purely fictional. I vaguely felt like I was ingesting a big ol' bologna sandwich when I heard that one.)

The "Heel Stone." I can't really remember its made-up function. I think the solstice sunlight shines on it or something. Also worth mentioning is that this is as close as the footpath ever came to the stones. The main circle would be out to the left of the people on the path. You can also see how close the Heel Stone is to the road on the right.

Taken from the path near the Heel Stone, this picture shows more of the intact side of the circle.

And finally, I thought this was the most epic of the pictures we got. It is currently my laptop screensaver. I would like to properly claim it as one that I took because otherwise Matthew will claim that it was his. He laughs at me for squatting down on the ground and employing photography's "Rule of Thirds," but I think the end result turns out nicely.

That's all from Stonehenge. Have any of you been there and also felt confused? Stay tuned to bathe in the beauty of Bath tomorrow. (Sorry, couldn't help myself with that little pun.) Cheers!