More than 4,500 years ago, people gathered in what is now Wiltshire in southwest England. 400 years before that, for the first time in history, the bones were enclosed, cremated and buried here. But the gathering was not for another funeral service. They are about to embark on a grand project to transform this place into an architectural marvel.

Today, their work has become one of Britain's most famous and mysterious archaeological sites - Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain, about 100 kilometers southwest of London, England. It consists of several large concentric circles of stones surrounded by a boulder moat. The stone stands tall, standing in the vast wilderness between, from a distance, the gray brown of the stone and the light green of the grassland seem to be integrated, in the endless time to blend with each other, and eventually become inseparable.

Some scientists believe that this is a sacrificial temple, through the acoustic measurement of Stonehenge, scientists found that Stonehenge has a relatively excellent echo, can gather around the sound into the middle of the Stonehenge, has the potential to become a sacrificial temple. The British antiquarian Opore believes that Stonehenge was the sacrificial place of the Druids during the rule of Rome and the temple of the Celts. In addition, the idea that Stonehenge was a cemetery for nobles, a healing center, and a festival stage has been repeated. Despite centuries of exploration, Stonehenge remains a mystery.

Stonehenge was built long before written records existed in Britain, and the motives for its original construction and the technology used to build it have long been lost to history. For centuries, the exact facts about Stonehenge have been a mystery, which has also turned Stonehenge into a myth. The oldest surviving legend dates back to 1136 AD. The legendary Merlin is said to have shipped the giant's Irish stone circle back to Britain.

The method and purpose of Stonehenge's construction are still unknown, so there are various myths, including the story of Merlin transporting it here

Scientific investigation

Radiocarbon dating was introduced in the 1960s, and it was only then that the true builders of Stonehenge were revealed. The origins of the monument have finally emerged after researchers measured the decay rate of radiocarbon in organic material discarded at the time of Stonehenge's construction and compared this data with data obtained from tree rings.

Stonehenge was neither transported here by Merlin nor built by the Romans, but was created much earlier.

Traces of a dagger have been found on one of the boulders, which some see as an imitation of the Mycenaean dagger and as evidence of assistance from Gentiles

The first megalithic circle was built around 2600 BC, which is the end of the Stone Age in Britain, during the Neolithic Age.

Since the 1960s, scientific methods for studying Stonehenge have matured, and further radiocarbon dating, combined with the use of geomorphology and laser scanning, have revealed more details about the age and method of construction.

But could these details bring us any closer to solving the mystery of Stonehenge? What was Stonehenge built for?

Stonehenge was rebuilt in 1958, with three of the Sarsen stones erected on a concrete foundation

"I think it's a bit naive to try to explain why Stonehenge was built." Professor Tim Darvill, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University and a well-known Stonehenge expert, said: "I believe Stonehenge has many different uses and meanings, and we can grasp the clues by analyzing some of the archaeological material at the site.

Stonehenge is very old. As such, it is also the embodiment of many symbolic meanings. Originally, it was a cemetery, but when people started building these giant stone circles, that all disappeared. I think it became a temple. But like the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages, temples should not exist for only one purpose. Instead, it's like a melting pot with lots of activities."

Stonehenge, like many Neolithic monuments, is linked to the path of the sun through the sky.

On the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, the entrance to Stonehenge is on the same axis as the rising sun. During the winter solstice, the largest stones at Stonehenge held up just enough frames to capture the sunset plunging into the horizon.

The arrangement of Stonehenge takes into account the position of the sun on the summer and winter soles

In 2008, excavations led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London showed that Stonehenge's connection to the sun may not just be the product of human genius.

"It's just amazing." Professor Pearson said: "Our anthropologists realised that Stonehenge was located using two natural connections in the ground. So it's possible that the earth and the earth merged here in some extraordinary way, and that Stonehenge was built here."

Stonehenge was built at a time when metal was not used to cut stones, so Stonehenge builders used hammers and antler hammers to shape the stones. Even if it takes time and effort, the amount of work to shape it is difficult to compare with the fixed stone.

The Sarsen stone is the most unique formation at Stonehenge

The Sarsen stones that make up Stonehenge's iconic formation had to be transported from a distance of 30 kilometers or more. It is generally assumed that the builders of Stonehenge chose the nearest and most convenient stone in the quarry suitable for Stonehenge construction. But this is not the case. The source of another stone used at Stonehenge does not fit this example.

"Such stones are often referred to as' bluestone boulders. '" "But this rock includes different kinds, such as coarse basalt, volcanic rock and sandstone. Bluestones are much smaller than Sarsenite and very unique. It wasn't until the 1920s that people realized that most bluestones came from the Presley Mountains in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, about 220 kilometers northwest of Stonehenge."

The Presley Mountains of Wales - a long way from Stonehenge

Why was the stone transported from such a distant place to Wiltshire? "We may have been too focused on bluestones." "Bluestone is only one stage in the use of Stonehenge, but it lasted for 400 or 500 years, through the height of Stonehenge as a temple, so it was also an important stage," Darvill said.

In addition to Sarsenite, there are relatively small bluestones

"In more recent times, the springs of the Priori Mountains were considered holy water because of their healing properties. These springs were also one of the focal points of Neolithic activity, so I believe that bluestones were selected for therapeutic purposes during the construction of Stonehenge.

But the Sarsen stone is the foundation of Stonehenge as a temple, and everything is based on that."

Another perspective

Darvill's interpretation of the bluesstone is that Stonehenge was a place of activity for the living, and Parker Pearson has proposed another perspective.

Lamirisonia, a famous archaeologist in Madagascar, said that in Madagascar, rocks are for the dead and wood is for the living. Inspired by this, Parker Pearson suggested that Stonehenge might have been built as a memorial site for the dead; A ring of stakes has been excavated at Durrington Walls, about 3km from Stonehenge, a site built around the same time as Stonehenge, which was built for the living.

The heel stone of Stonehenge is about 20 meters high and lies outside the circle

"It was a whole new perspective." Parker Pearson said, "Lamilisonia came from a different world and just made simple observations. Ancestors are eternal, so they need to be associated with something eternal (the rock), and the living are just passing guests, so they are symbolized by wood." The meaning of Stonehenge has most likely changed over time, but whatever the facts, the site remains significant.

"The Romans arrived in Britain more than 2,600 years ago, after Stonehenge was built. It was once thought that the events at Stonehenge were nothing more than a few picnics. But excavations in 2008 showed that the builders were also adding to the structure in the middle of Stonehenge, most likely moving the stones.

A 1771 plan of Stonehenge showing the location of the boulders

Stonehenge is still revered today. More and more people are coming to see and pay their respects. Stonehenge has been a sacred place in some way since it was built."

Perhaps the mysteries surrounding Stonehenge will never really be solved, and the debate around them will never cease. But like George who climbed Mount Everest. Mallory said, "Because that's where the mountains are!" Stonehenge is the same, when a thousand years later, all the noise has been reduced to the dust of history, into the depths of memory, Stonehenge will still be there.

"Time crushes everything; Everything grows old by the power of time and is forgotten in the passage of time.