England:
Wales:
Avebury is a place of mystery and is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. Larger than Stonehenge, covering twenty-nine acres and surrounded by an earth bank over fifteen feet high, this Neolithic monument is a World Heritage Site. An avenue of great standing stones leads to an outer circle which contains two smaller formations. Unlike those at Stonehenge, none of these stones has been worked by man. They were obviously chosen for their natural shape and symbolic importance, some being bulging diamond shapes whilst others are slender and upright, representing female and male figures. The stones are massive, the Swindon Stone weighing over sixty tons. |
Partly within the earth bank is the lovely village of Avebury, with its thatched pub and Saxon church of St. James. |
Avebury is surrounded by chalk downs, which themselves contain equally impressive sites of interest. |
Silbury Hill is Europes largest man-made mound, 130 feet high, which was built before the Romans. Despite much excavation and investigation, it is not known why it was built. |
West Kennet Long Barrow is the largest burial chamber in Europe, over 350 feet long and built about 5,700 years ago. |
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Photographs of Wiltshire
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