Duration: | 2 Day(s) - 1 Night(s) |
Tour Category: | Archaeological Tours |
Visiting Stonehenge, Bath, and Oxford during a stay or cruise stop in Southampton by yourself means either renting a car or a multi-day rail trip. This private 2-day tour eliminates the hassles: with a private car, driver-guide, and overnight 3-star accommodation. Visit UNESCO-listed Stonehenge, take guided tours in Bath and Oxford, and see the Cotswolds, with selected entry fees and drop-off in Southampton, London, or elsewhere in the region included.
View Stonehenge, Bath, and Oxford on a 2-day private tour from Southampton Visit each site and Cotswolds easily by private car, with a guide for insight See Stonehenge, tour Bath, and Oxford, and overnight in 3-star Cotswolds hotel Includes hotel or port pickup and drop-off at your chosen location in the region.
HISTORY OF STONEHENGE
Stonehenge is perhaps the world’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was built in several stages: the first monument was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago, and the unique stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic period about 2500 BC. In the early Bronze Age, many burial mounds were built nearby.
Today, together with Avebury, Stonehenge forms the heart of a World Heritage Site, with a unique concentration of prehistoric monuments.
The earliest structures known in the immediate area are four or five pits, three of which appear to have held large pine ‘totem-pole-like’ posts erected in the Mesolithic period, between 8500 and 7000 BC. It is not known how these posts relate to the later monument of Stonehenge.
THE STONE SETTINGS
In about 2500 BC the stones were set up in the center of the monument. Two types of stone are used at Stonehenge – the larger sarsens and the smaller ‘bluestones’. The sarsens were erected in two concentric arrangements – an inner horseshoe and an outer circle – and the bluestones were set up between them in a double arc.
Probably at the same time that the stones were being set up in the center of the monument, the sarsens close to the entrance were raised, together with the four Station Stones on the periphery.