LONDON (AP) – Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and others just waiting for the arrival of spring dawned on the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument Saturday.
On the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night in the Northern Hemisphere, revelers cheered and drummed as the sun rose over the giant standing stones at 8:09 a.m. GMT. I hit it. Although no one could see the sun through the low winter clouds, they still beat drums, chanted, and sang songs as night fell.
There will be less than eight hours of daylight in the UK on Saturday, but then the days will get longer until the summer solstice in June.
The summer solstice is the only time tourists can get up close to the stones of Stonehenge, and thousands of people try to rise before dawn to soak up the atmosphere.
Chris Smith, 31, a civil servant, said: “This is all a time of renewal, renewal and we're in a new year, but it's also a good time to recognize what has happened over the past year.” he said. I mean, if you look around, everyone's here and there's so much energy in the space. ”
Wiltshire, UK – December 21: Tourists celebrate the winter solstice at Stonehenge on December 21, 2024 in Wiltshire, England. The winter solstice occurs around December 21st each year and is the shortest day and longest night of the year. (Photo by Finbarr Webster/Getty Images)
This stone circle, which required 1,000 people to move the giant pillars, was built by the Neolithic sun-worshipping culture around 5,000 years ago. Its full purpose is still being debated. Was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or a combination of all three?
In a paper published in the journal Archeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University say the site, located on Salisbury Plain, about 128 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of London, has the potential to be a spiritual site. He said that it is possible that there was not only political significance but also political significance.
This follows the recent discovery that one of the stones at Stonehenge – a unique stone called the “altar stone” that lies flat in the center of the monument – came from Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site. I am. Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in southwestern Wales, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west.
Lead author Mike Parker-Pearson, from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, said the geographical diversity meant Stonehenge served as a “monument to the unity of the British people, celebrating our eternal connection with our ancestors and the cosmos”. He said it implied sex.
