Avebury Stone Circle of Wiltshire U.K.

Avebury stone circle
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The Avebury stone circle is situated near the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, 4000 years old and one of the largest Henges in Britian. The Avebury circle is thought to have been built before Stonehenge.

The West Kennet Avenue runs for 2.5km with two rows of stones, linking the Avebury Circle with the Sanctuary. There seem to be two different shapes of stone - pillars and diamonds - which may believe represents aspects of male and female.
Some believe Avebury's stone formations could have been a monument dedicated to a fertility cult, with seasonal symbolic rituals celebrating the Solar year - ensuring the fertility of man, animals and the crops.

The Avebury Outer Circle is 421 metres in diameter and partly encloses the village. Surrounding the circle is a ditch and bank which form a henge - nearly a mile in circumference. The monument would have been a stunning sight with its white banks and ditch of exposed chalk. Within the main stone circle are two inner circles - northern and southern.

The great Swindon Stone - thought to weight 65 tonnes - marks the northern entrance and is one of the few Avebury megaliths that has never fallen.
The Cove - consisting of two standing stones which were thought by antiquarian William Stukeley to have been aligned to the moon`s most northerly rising point. He named the northern inner circle - Luna circle.

Other believe it is aligned to view the midsummer solstice of the sun. There used to be a third stone at the north side, which faced the existing tall 'male' stone.

Rites of destruction
It is thought that 98 huge stones once made up Avebury's outer circle, now only 27 remain. Many standing stones were removed over the centuries by locals for building material and to make way for crops. The missing megaliths are now represented by concrete plinth.

Such as in the centre of the Southern inner circle where a tall 20ft menhir weighing near 80 tons - The Obelisk - once stood. This towering stone is thought to have been the ceremonial central point of Avebury.

This mystical place attracts many thousands of visitors every year each for their own personal reason and for some just to be close to the stones, many individuals have felt good fortune and health and many have even experienced financial luck soon after touching these ancient stones. It has been suggested that these ancient stones hold a mystical secret, an intriguing thought that remains unexplained and unanswered but definitely one to ponder over.
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2008
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  AUGUST - OCTOBER 2008
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International Contemporary art and sculpture
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