A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
Dolmen at Ganghwa Island, South Korea (c. 300 BC)
Megalithic Batu Brak in Batu Brak District, West Lampung Regency, Lampung Province, Indonesia (c. 2100 BC)
Megalithic grave Harhoog in Keitum, Sylt, Germany (c. 3000 BC)
The largest megalith of the ancient world, found in Baalbek, Lebanon, was quarried during the Roman Empire
Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli.
Stonehenge in July 2007
Plan of Stonehenge in 2004. After Cleal et al. and Pitts. Italicised numbers in the text refer to the labels on this plan. Trilithon lintels omitted for clarity. Holes that no longer, or never, contained stones are shown as open circles. Stones visible today are shown coloured.
Stonehenge 1. After Cleal et al.
Graffiti on the sarsen stones include ancient carvings of a dagger and an axe.
