Читать книгу Universe: The story of the Universe, from earliest times to our continuing discoveries - Peter Grego - Страница 50

Megalithic monuments dating back 5,000 years can be found across parts of western Europe and the British Isles. Weathered by the elements and damaged by people over the millennia, these battered grey stone circles and other prehistoric monuments make an eerie sight, but their former grandeur can be imagined. Perhaps the most famous of these ancient sites, Stonehenge, on the windswept Salisbury Plain in southern England, dates back to at least 2950 BC. Of unknown religious and ritual significance, Stonehenge and other megalithic constructions appear to have been used to make astronomical sightings of the Sun and Moon and to provide a means to calculate future solar and lunar solar events.