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• Stonehenge is one of the world’s most famous monuments.
• It stands on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire, and its giant stones can be seen from miles around.
• Stonehenge took many hundreds of years to build.
• Work began in the late Neolithic Age, around 3000BC.
• Over the next thousand years, people changed parts of the monument. The last changes were made in the early Bronze Age, around 1500BC.
• We may never know exactly why Stonehenge was built, but people probably gathered there for religious ceremonies.

• Archaeologists believe that the ancient Britons hammered wood into cracks in the stone.
• The wood was soaked in water. It expanded and split the stone.
• Next, the builders used chisels and hammers to shape them.
• The stones were probably carried on rafts down rivers to the building site.
• Then it's believed that the stones were pulled along the ground. People used giant wooden sledges, log rollers and oxen.
• The builders raised the stones with ropes. Then they packed big ditches with rocks to hold the stones in place.

Why did the ancient Britons build such a massive monument at Stonehenge? What went on at this important place?

Some people think that Stonehenge was used to look at the movements of the Sun and Moon. Other people think it was a place where people could rest and get better from illnesses.

The ancient Britons believed that the Sun and Moon had special powers. They probably held special ceremonies at Stonehenge on Midsummer’s Day (the longest day of the year) and on Midwinter’s Day (the shortest day of the year).

Many experts believe that Stonehenge was used for funerals. They think that people carried the dead along the River Avon and then walked up to Stonehenge in a big group. The most important funeral ceremony of the year was probably held on Midwinter’s Night at Stonehenge. This may have been because it is the longest night in the year.

Stonehenge is just one of hundreds of stone circles that have been found in Britain. During the early Bronze Age, circles built from stone or wood were very important places where the ancient Britons held religious ceremonies.

• Avebury stone circle is actually three circles in one! Two rings of stones stand inside a much bigger ring, known as the Great Circle. When it was finished in the early Bronze Age, there were around 100 stones in the Great Circle.

• Woodhenge is only two miles away from Stonehenge. It was a circle of 168 wooden posts. People believe that animal sacrifices were performed here. There may even have been some human sacrifices, too.

• This is the Ring of Brodgar on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Today, only 27 stones are left standing, but when it was built in the early Bronze Age it had 60 standing stones.

• Seahenge was uncovered on the Norfolk coast in 1998. It’s a circle of wooden stumps made from oak. Seahenge was first built on marshes close to the sea. Bronze Age people probably gathered here for funerals.