Few monuments left by a vanished people are more impressive -- or more enigmatic -- than Stonehenge. Archaeologists speculate that the ring of immense stones on southern England's Salisbury Plain served as an observatory to mark the seasons and as a ceremonial center to celebrate the sun. Even today during the summer solstice, you can stand at the central Altar Stone and witness the sun rising precisely over the Heel Stone, located 250 feet away. Certainly, Stonehenge was a sacred place.
Famous Landmarks Image Gallery
©Photodisc These massive stones were shaped by people of the Bronze Age using stone hammers the size of footballs. See more著名地标的图片. |
Standing in the morning light like a portal to another world, the silhouetted trilithons -- the structures with two vertical stones supporting a horizontal stone laid on top -- only open a doorway to further questions. Who built this monument? And why?
Building began around 3000 B.C., when Neolithic people dug a circular ditch about 320 feet in diameter, using deer antlers as picks. In the second phase, about 2000 B.C., a double circle of at least 60 bluestones was erected. The stones came not from nearby quarries but from Wales, 240 miles away -- an amazing feat ofwaterand overland transportation for Bronze Age people, especially because the stones weigh four tons apiece. Available transport probably included rafts, log rollers, and sledges. Over time, though, the circles were dismantled.
一个世纪后，巨石阵的第三阶段创造了我们今天看到的石头的安排。距马尔伯勒唐斯（Marlborough Downs）20英里的石头体重高达50吨。它们被直立的圆圈，并带有连续的石材lintel。里面是其他三利座的马蹄形安排。后来，一些早期的蓝石是在里面的马蹄形中竖起的。
The questions about Stonehenge remain. Despite mystical notions that the Druids built Stonehenge, these Celtic people didn't reach Britain until long after the last stone was put in place. "Most of what has been written about Stonehenge is nonsense or speculation," says one eminent British archaeologist. "No one will ever have a clue what its significance was."
Here are links to dozens of other world-famous landmarks:
| Abu Simbel, Egypt | 埃菲尔铁塔，法国 | The Leaning Tower of Pisa,Italy | Roman and Georgian Bath, England |
| The Alhambra, Spain | Ellora Caves, India | Machu Picchu,Peru | St. Mark’s Basilica, Italy |
| 柬埔寨吴哥窟 | The Forbidden City, China | Mont-St.-Michel, France | St. Paul’s Cathedral, England |
| Arc de Triomphe, France | The Golden Pavilion, Japan | Neuschwanstein Castle,Germany | St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, Italy |
| Borobudur, Indonesia | The Great Buddha, Japan | 凡尔赛宫，法国 | Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar |
| 法国大教堂 | The Great Wall of China, China | The Pantheon,Italy | Stonehenge,England |
| 基督救世主雕像，Brazil | Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain | The Parthenon and the Acropolis,Greece | Sydney Opera House, Australia |
| CN Tower,Canada | Hagia Sophia, Turkey | 彼得，约旦 | The Taj Mahal,India |
| The Colosseum, Italy | Houses of Parliament, England | Pompeii,Italy | The Temple at Karnak, Egypt |
| The Dome of the Rock, Israel | 沙特阿拉伯的Kaaba和Al-Haram清真寺 | Potala Palace, China | The Terra-cotta Army, China |
| Easter Island Statues, Chile | Krak des Chevaliers, Syria | The Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx,Egypt | |
| Edinburgh Castle, Scotland | The Kremlin and Red Square, Russia | 墨西哥Teotihuacán的太阳和月亮的金字塔 |
To learn more about other landmarks and vacation destinations, see:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., has worked with the National Geographic Society for more than 20 years, starting as a staff editor, writer, and columnist at Traveler magazine, then writing travel guides. His latest work is National Geographic Traveler: San Francisco. Dunn’s Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Rocky Mountain States has sold more than 100,000 copies. His travel pieces appear in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe. Jerry Dunn's stories have won three Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers -- the highest honor in the field. He also wrote and hosted a pilot episode for a travel show produced by WGBH, Boston's public television station.Advertisement
