Avebury Stone Circles

Viewing the complex of Neolithic stone circles at Avebury today it is hard to imagine how they must originally have looked. Extending over an area of about 11ha/27ac, the site was surrounded by a 49ft/15m-high earth rampart and a ditch, with breaks at the four points of the compass. A hundred massive sandstone blocks (sarsens) each weighing up to 50 tons, hauled all the way from the Marlborough Downs 5.5mi/9km away, stood in a circle around the inner perimeter of the earthworks. Two further stone circles, both with diameters in excess of 330ft/100m, flanked the holy of holies, the inner sanctuary. Enclosed by the northern ring was a U-shaped arrangement of huge stone blocks, while the southern ring encircled equally large stones in a