Stonehenge’s famous megalithic pillars are located in the county of Wiltshire, about 140 km west of London. The site was built in several stages, the first of which saw the presence of a first monument called Henge, built about 5,000 years ago. At that time, when much of the rest of southern England was largely wooded, the chalk soil in the Stonehenge area may have been an unusually open landscape. It is therefore possible that this is the reason why it has become the ideal place to rest the first megalite. During the second phase, the Neolithic people used primitive tools made of deer horns to dig a circular moat around the terrape and an embankment in the Salisbury Plain. Deep graves dating back to that time and located within the circle have been discovered, known as Aubrey holes. It is thought that several hundred years later, the builders of Stonehenge hoisted about 80 non-indigenous blue stones, 43 of which remain today. These stones are placed in an upright position and in a horseshoe or circular formation. During the third phase of construction, ​ which took place around 2000 BC, several Sarsen sandstone slabs were placed in an outer crescent or ring; Some were assembled in the iconic three-fold structures called triliths that rise high in the centre of Stonehenge.

About 50 Sarsen stones are now visible on the site, which may have contained many more. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the works continued at Stonehenge until 1600 BC. With the bluestones in particular being repositioned several times and the single stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic about 2500 BC. Its construction is even more puzzling because while the sandstone slabs (sarsens) of its outer ring come from quarries located 25 miles north of the Salisbury Plain and transported with the help of sledges and ropes. Scientists have found that the blue stones that make up the inner ring, come from the hills of Preseli in Wales, about 200 miles from where Stonehenge is located. According to an authoritative theory, Stonehenge builders used sleds and rollers made from tree trunks to drag the blue stone boulders from the hills of Preseli to ancient navigable canals. Once placed on enormous rafts, these would transport them first along the Welsh coast and then along the River Avon to the Salisbury plain and their final settlement. What is striking most of all is how they managed to accomplish this work with the few means at their disposal.

Avebury’s monoliths are located in a circular area intersected by two roads, surrounded by a moat and enriched by a picturesque village inside. The archaeological site is located in an open and fenced area and unlike Stonehenge there is no ticket to pay and it is completely free. The gates are usually always open and you can walk freely between the stones which you are allowed to touch. Visiting the site does not fully realize its size, more understandable through the consultation of a map. Inside the large outer circle is part of the pretty village of Avebury, where you can visit the Avebury Manor, a manor house owned by the National Trust and the Alexander Keiller Museum, founded by Keiller himself in 1938. The ​ museum is divided into two sections: The Gallery of the Stables, when exposed finds from the excavations of the site, including tools in flint of 4000 years ago, skeletons of domestic animals up to 5,500 years old, some of the oldest European ceramics ever found, and the Barn Gallery. The Barn Gallery is a child-friendly 17th-century straw barn with interactive screens that contextualize Avebury Henge.