Stone Circle (Avebury)
The Stone Circle at Avebury in Wiltshire is one of the most amazing sights in England. Along with Stonehenge it is now a World Heritage Site.
The circle is so vast that it encircles the original part of the village.
It was built about 2500 BC. The antiquarian John Aubrey, one of the first to give it serious attention, remarked in 1648 that it is "as much surpassing Stonehenge as a cathedral doth a parish church", and William Stukeley of Stamford also conducted a survey.
There is a massive circular earthwork, 15 feet high and nearly a mile in circumference. Around the inner edge is a circle of about a hundred unhewn stones, brought from the Marlborough Downs, and there are the remains of two smaller concentric circles.
The largest stones weigh approximately 60 tons.
Near Avebury are many other prehistoric monuments, notably West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.