Why was Stonehenge built

The Stonehenge quite literally epitomizes the aura of mystique that one generally associates with the British history. The most intriguing part about the Stonehenge is that there is a lot of ambiguity about its origin and motives even after the passage of so many ages.

Work for the Stonehenge is believed to have been started as many a 5000 years ago. A widely accepted theory is that the Neolithic population of the British Isles began the monumental task fo constructing the Stonehenge, whereas there are some theories about the Druids or the Romans being behind the construction of the Stonehenge.

There is an even bigger number of theories about the motives behind such an extraordinary construction such as the Stonehenge. A popular belief is that this was meant for religious gatherings, rites and functions. There is a tenable logic to the attribution of the Stonehenge as a religious place. The primitive architects who designed and constructed the Stonehenge were, most probably, Sun Worshippers. Considering the fact that the axis of the entrance lies along that of the midsummer sunrise, this seems a believable conclusion. This is further strengthened by the findings of Newgrange, an Irish construction from the same time period. Its axis was undeniably oriented towards the midwinter sunrise. It is easy to generalize the logic used by the architects of those times to explain the reason behind Stonehenge’s construction.

Gerald Hawkins, an America Astronomer, came up with a very different theory about the Stonehenge in 1960. He suggested that the almost strange construction of mammoth stones was actually an astronomical observatory. He asserted that the Stonehenge served as an observatory and a calendar for the ancient people, who used it to foretell with a good degree of precision the astronomical processes of those times. This theory has its takers and doubters, both of whom have valid points. Whereas some consider it a bit too far fetched to conclude that the primitive people used the Stonehenge as a tool to predict astronomical events, some continue to abide by the observations of Gerald Hawkins.