History of Stonehenge & Its Origin

Stonehenge is one of the most popular historic monuments in the world. It is composed of huge rocks arranged together to form a circle. Many historians believed that the structure existed around 5,000 years ago.

The Stonehenge monument can be found in Wiltshire, England, and is now under the ownership of the British government since 1918. Stonehenge and its surrounding area has been gazetted as a World's Heritage Site in 1986.

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An archeological study on this site showed that this structure has changed over the course of time. This is due to the site having been rebuilt numerous times by the past generations. In fact, the height of the structure is said to have decreased from the soil deposit.

Mystery of The Stonehenge

The function of Stonehenge and the way it was built still remains a mystery to everyone. The rocks that were arranged here were huge in size with a height of 4 meters and weighing 20 - 40 tons.

It seems almost impossible to be built by man thousands of years ago as they had no tools to lift such heavy objects. There was even a theory claiming that a mystic force helped mankind in the past to build this monument.

Interestingly enough, research that was conducted found that these rocks were moved by humans from a quarry located 32 km away from this area. There were certainly various perspectives on the function of Stonehenge.

But one of the most popular ones will be that this monument became a place for performing rituals and healing. Aside from that, some say that the arrangement of the rocks was said to be a place for studying animals.

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A study that was done showed that Stonehenge was a place of burial of the dead. Historian experts believed that there are around 200 dead bodies buried underneath Stonehenge. However, the question remains as to why such a place was made into a cemetery.

Story of Stonehenge Auction

Despite Stonehenge currently being placed under the British government, many people might not know about the previous owners of Stonehenge until it was bought by Cecil Chubb in an auction in 1915.

In 1914, the owner of Stonehenge was killed during the First World War. Due to that, this area was forced to be auctioned to the public. Many people thought a millionaire from the US will buy Stonehenge and moved the rocks back to the State.

Suddenly an individual known by the name Cecil Chubb came to the rescue and bought Stonehenge in that auction. At the time, he had paid £6,600 for the ownership, and in today's value that would be worth roughly $875,000.

He was born in Shrewton which is 6.5 km from Stonehenge and Cecil Chubb was considered a savior for keeping Stonehenge from being purchased by outsiders. But nobody actually knew the reason why he bought it in the first place.

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Some believed that it was a precious gift to his beloved wife. Yet most consider it as a way to save the monument from being bought by the Americans. This theory was even supported by Cecil Chubb donating this area to the government 3 years later.

This marked the final private ownership of Stonehenge before it was handed over to the government. But Cecil also set a requirement that this monument must be open to the public. To commemorate his contribution, the government gifted a Baronet medal of honor which gave him the Sir title.

He was the first ever to receive such honors.

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