The first 100 people to go to blinkist.com/geographics are going to get unlimited access for one week to try it out. You’ll also get 25% off if you want the full membership.
Please do Thornborough Henge, By Far the most interesting and poorly investigated Megalithic Site in the Country, Incidently, do some Measuring at Giza and Thornborough and tell me if the Pyramids Square the Circles
I would love to see you guys do a video on Newgrange. It’s an amazing burial tomb Meath, Ireland. It’s 5,000 years old and to this day still lights up on the winter solstice and the inside remains dry, no water has ever come through it’s roof. It also has sister sites and _a lot_ of amazing art work on the outside stones. There’s plenty to do a video on 🙂
@@eugeneperstube It depends. I'm a hiker. Not every route I go on needs to be a high altitude death march. Some mountains in the UK offer enough challenge to keep it interesting while allowing you to be home for dinner. Not to mention my favourite view is close to the Scottish boarder and it really doesn't matter how high or how challenging it is, it's the prettiest ever and it doesn't cost a penny to climb. Opposed to places in the UK where you're charged admission
Hey Simon you should do Newgrange next. It's a massive Neolithic structure in Ireland that's older than the Pyramids (the oldest one being the Pyramid of Djoser at 2600 bc)and Stonehenge(3000bc) being built in 3200 bc. It has a door with a roof box above it that perfectly aligns with the sun on the Winter solstice and a roof so well made that it's still waterproof to this day. Archaeologists are baffled on how these people were able to build such a sophisticated structure before the advent of writing and the crane and how advanced their knowledge of the cosmos and the exact alignment of the sun was. Shows how skilled my ancestors were in construction techniques,lapidary design, mathematical calculations and astronomical observation.
@AScottishOdyssey meanwhile I've never even left small-town North Carolina, as a basic white American three generations removed from Scotland (with a lil Irish mixed in) -_- America does not truly feel like home, although the South does have its comforts
You're telling me this isn't about a gigantic man-made defense mechanism designed to shoot down incoming meteorite with an oversized railgun that can also be used for anti-air warfare by launching area denial rounds to keep enemy air forces at bay?
They haven't had spare parts to maintain ye olde earthe defense system for roughly 4000 years.. so now hippies dance around it naked while chanting crap in bad Celtic.
@@5Andysalive railguns can fire off center, very precisely. In addition you have gravitational effects that allow you to fire actual curves... However it actually is an early version of tesslers death ray, which uses a combination of relativistic effects and spooky particles to hi a target anywhere in the visual universe. Unfortunately the contacts corroded and it was abandoned and the wiring used for jewelry.
It was actually a cold fusion reactor which was used to power the Stonehenge Mechanoid. The Stonehenge Mechanoid originally was powered by burning wood but was not efficient enough and with time running out as the alien Yeekotor's approach. Britain's top scientists were task with creating a new source of power in order to save the kingdom in time. There were mutiple types of primitive engines built. From burning a type of explosive cow manure to using flopping fish to push a device like hamsters on a wheel to actually using millions of hamsters on wheels to power the Stonehenge Mechanoid. After many failures one scientist came up with the Stonehenge we are familiar with which utilized cold fusion. And just in time because the Yeekotor's had arrived and had begun their rampage but King Arthur's son was prepared to fight the invaders with the Mechanoid even though he was only a teenage boy who detested piloting the machine. But King Arthur's son had his own objective and that was to win over his father and earn his love. After the battle the Stonehenge Mechanoid and Stonehenge were no longer needed. Many years later the battle was forgotten and Stonehenge begin to fall into disrepair and the cold fusion reactor was lost to time. It is rumored the Easter Island's had a similar situation and had to fight their own alien invaders. I wish people would get the history of Stonehenge correct. I am constantly out there speaking with tourist telling them the true story.
1:15 - Chapter 1 - The dawn of time 3:50 - Chapter 2 - The work of giants 7:25 - Mid roll ads 8:55 - Chapter 3 - Here comes the beakers 11:45 - Chapter 4 - The medieval henge 15:10 - Chapter 5 - The king of stonehedge 18:45 - Chapter 6 - The people's henge
Well the Neolithic farmers who came from Anatolia and preceded the Celtic invasions would by default be “pagans” too, a rather broad term that glosses over literally thousands of religious cultures.
We have very little idea of the route the Neolithic people of Europe took to get here. Even the Indo-Europeans, who are much more recent migrants and are thought to have the plains of Ukraine as their initial dispersal site, are still controversial as to where they originated. And Europe's Neolithic population go back much further than them.
@@differous01 if you accept Abrahamic definitions any faith with more than one (or three) gods are "pagan" and any non-yahweh single God worshiped like Atenism is pagan . So Celtics and anatolia people or hunter gatherer are 'pagan' . Lot of diversity amongst pagans in Europe and world of course
The Judeo-Christian tradition preserves its pagan roots; the Judean temple with YHWH in place of the the Pole Star, the 'host of heaven' circling about, the 7 wanderers (planetoi) preserved in our weekday names (Jove/Thurin's-day, Venus/Fria-day, Saturn-day...). There can be little doubt that Neolithic henge-builders, from Gobekli Tepe onwards, were similarly preoccupied with finding the patterns in both the constellations above and cultural diversity below. Some might use 'pagan' as a "gloss", but I regard it as an honorific.
In my novel currently being written, the ancient world conquerors use the word Andova to describe all the lands they have yet to 'enlighten' with their civilized way of life.
"The stone came from the Preseli mountains, a colletion of small hills with an inflated sense of self importance..." Clutch dig at the Welsh there, Simon.
I was there as a kid in 1960. We drove right up to it and got out and walked among the stones. Being a kid I had to touch them of course. I didn't even think of damaging any or stealing anything. Just admired everything, and after all one piece of rock looks a lot like another. That was before I became a geologist.
But seriously, when you point out the fact about any such structure, that is aligned with the stars or the constellations or the poles the way they were like at least 10 000 years earlier than it was supposedly built, the answer is essentially "well at that time, according to generally accepted concepts, as people were little more than up-right monkeys, with no language, no writing, and no pottery, never mind metalworking, there is no way they could have built them, so they did not. So it was not. So... you are a lying pseudo-scientist and trying to get a rise out of me."
yes i thought he was going to mention woodhenge and durrington walls. Also - i think the preseli bluestones were (and still are in some areas) thought to have healing properties if you pass water through it
I've often wondered what SH looked like at its peak. It's been thousands of years of it existing as ruins, but clearly it was very important for a long, long time - and not as a historical ruin.
Stonehenge is considered the outsiders choice while Avebury, the locals choice. Averbury has so much more to offer than Stonehenge partly because its massive and that theres other stuff close by like the West Kennet long barrows and Silbury hill that's walking distance away... Plus it's free and you can literally touch the stones. Both sites are truly amazing and mysterious but Avebury can give you day to explore and take in while Stonehenge can be taken in in less than 10 minutes lol
I drive through Avebury several times a week, it's such an amazing site, but it really angers me that there is a road right through, surely they could reroute the road and reinstante the full ditch ? Seems like sacrilege to me to have a road through it. Also alot wealthier people in the area with huge gardens have huge stones that were obviously pillaged from megalithic sites in the area.
Your shows are great. I can't believe a TV network hasn't picked up your show. In depth research, different points of view and interesting topics. Keep up the good work.
The "ownership" of Stonehenge is amazing and it's an incredible structure. However Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland are much older and more intricate due to the Winter Solstice. Check them out.
Video was great 👍 I got the chance to visit Stonehenge in the mid 90's and seeing it in person can be life changing. Despite the amount of tourists, it truly is awe inspiring... Closest thing to having a time machine. Great job.
I drove through the back roads to there a week and a half ago. Loved the tank crossing signs. Will say I'm Australian and stonehenge was an afterthought visit on our way back to Heathrow just to pass the time.
This channel deserves so much more recognition and you too simon you deserve much more recognition for your multifaceted job from stoic history teacher to near sociopathic memery you can really make your different sides truly characters and all of them are entertaining thank you simon whistler keep it up man.
Bacon underpants? Preposterous! ....bacon lingerie however... Seriously though this is probably one of my favorite pieces of ancient history, might be something about how even with what we do know about it, its still a massive mystery giving way to wasting days daydreaming about the possibilities of what it could have once been used for.
Göbekli Tepe: I built the first temple in the world 10th millennium BCE, I predate you by 6,000 years, baby! Stonehenge: would you like me, to hold your beer, please?😬
Kudos for covering topics we all know but still finding a way to make it interesting while revealing lesser known information. I learn something new every time.
Given the sizes of the stones and the overall scale, it seems likely that Stonehenge will stand virtually forever, as only a large, deliberate and well-organized effort could truly 'de-construct' it entirely! For which, three cheers!
Holy Hanna couldn’t be more excited!! Thank you all of the ways! In fact for at least the 3rd time I was telling my child about Merlin & Stone Henge about 3 hours ago. Get out of my head!!!
Blue Stone was used to make some of the now most expensive objects for home furnishings during the 19th C. and early 20th C.. Including Urns, boxes, and vases. It is now basically an extinct rock as all of the mines dug for it are now depleted.
Were any of those ancient communities based on farming? I could see where a local calendar based on the sun's position would be very handy to have around. Lots of ancient cultures have monuments based on those types of things.
Hey Simon! Love the videos! You bring history with a flair of comedy to satisfy my curiosity! “Beeker” reference cracked me up, I was thinking the same thing before you showed it!!
and, ironically, Stonehenge isn't really a henge at all. Technically a henge is a stone circle with a ditch inside the bank, but Stonehenge's ditch is outside the bank - or it's the other way round. I remember this point coming up in a Time Team episode but can't remember which way round it was - Google was no help.
You didn't mention the part of the coordinates on which Stonehenge is built. How it's coordinates are super mysterious too. Great video, a lot of history I had not much background on, thank you!
Recent research and archeology by the BBC shows that it is likely that the blue stones were placed in a circle on the Welsh hills for hundreds of years before being slowly moved by sleds to the Salisbury plain as part of a greater migration, as it would have been as huge part of these people's identity and link to ancestors
I live about 5 miles away from Stonehenge, out on Salisbury Plain... Its an interesting thing, just one of many wierd attractions in Wiltshire. The giant chalk Kiwi is my favourite!
Stonehenge is simple- it marks a box known as the Pandorica, the origin of the tale of Pandora's box, and it is used to lock away the Doctor for roughly two millennia. It was breached only by paradox
I always said if I ever make it to England I’m going to Stonehenge first!!! Aaaaaamazing video! Love love loved it! Channel getting better all the time!! Keep doing what you do best Geo! 💕
Tasia Tyler to be honest with you, it really doesn't matter where you go in the UK chances are you will be surrounded by millennia of history in one form or another.........
When I did my trek to the UK from OZ, stonehenge was on my bucket list, there is something about that place that just makes you sizzle, I still have a pewter stein from the gift shop & it gets regular use.
I feel so smug seeing the modern pictures with the visitors being kept a considerable distance away. I visited in the early 1970's, when you could walk right up to the stones, walk all around them, and even touch them. If I'd thought to bring a can of spray paint I probably could have written my name on one.
Stonehenge, where the demons dwell Where the banshees live and they do live well Stonehenge where a man is a man And the children dance to the pipes of pan
Check out Randall Carlsons youtube channel on really interesting stuff about Americas ancient past, there are a few henges that he covers and many other fascinating things,most of the interesting anceint things now have churches on them and are totally destroyed unfortunately.
Recently discovered your channel and have become a big fan. Every video I've seen has been great and I've learned a lot. I don't believe you've done an episode on the Library at Alexandria. I'm very interested in the topic but too busy to dive deep into it myself. So ya know...get to it
Anyone else get the impression that going from wooden totems to barrows and then to a massive stone circle was simply a game of one upmanship through the generations?
Thank you for the video! we also have some pre Beaker Folk very early stone circles (c. 6000 bc) in the deep south of Portugal, luckily they made a point of not having a asphalt road leading to it, making it much less of a tourist trap.... Cromeleque dos Almendres, love the place, check it out ;)
There were wooden circles nearby. Fun fact: Around 3000 BC, the climate was shifting, making Britain drier, less forested. And that's the era in which Stonehenge was built. So it's my guess that, like many mainland civilizations, they built circular structures, and when forests died back, stone was necessary. Sacred sites even today generally are about religion and/or sacred spaces for safe meeting places between neighbors (churches, the UN, whatever), but the circles extend into what we now call France. There were stone circles elsewhere ---- Israel (Atlit Yam) and of course Gobleki Tepe (Turkey). FYI, stones were floated in the Andes (Lake Titicaca). So... There you go. No mystery but this: How'd you get that many people to agree? What cataclysm were they suffering or hoping to avoid?
Simon.Great vid but was disappointed you didn't cover the 1980's Stonehenge campaign and the traveller movement, a huge part of the history of Stonehenge
The Egyptians: We built The Pyramids. The Romans: We built The Colosseum. The Chinese: We built The Great Wall. The Brits: We... stacked large rocks in a circle. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Thank you for the content you provide. It is amazing, humbling, and greatfull in this time. I only wish I found you earlier. With the greatest respect, thank you.
Phone was quick and I did not finish my comment. Very interesting presentations, as I sad.Lots to learn and discover. Sadly. for me,the speech was too speedy to fully enjoy such good clips. This rush in life by many,even in talking, takes the pleasure of listening and fully understanding the expose.
Another great and informative video!!! Maybe a somepoint you can make a video on a monument just across the sea in Ireland in Newgrange and the other large passage tombs in the area.
The first 100 people to go to blinkist.com/geographics are going to get unlimited access for one week to try it out. You’ll also get 25% off if you want the full membership.
Please do Thornborough Henge, By Far the most interesting and poorly investigated Megalithic Site in the Country, Incidently, do some Measuring at Giza and Thornborough and tell me if the Pyramids Square the Circles
Do a video about Gobekli Tepe.
I would love to see you guys do a video on Newgrange. It’s an amazing burial tomb Meath, Ireland. It’s 5,000 years old and to this day still lights up on the winter solstice and the inside remains dry, no water has ever come through it’s roof. It also has sister sites and _a lot_ of amazing art work on the outside stones.
There’s plenty to do a video on 🙂
you should double-check your fax Simon I've been watching a lot of your content and a lot of the stuff you present is very biased and untrue.
My hunch tells me Stonehenge was not only the first power plant but also City Hall with a wood frame construction.
Simon is quarantined in the studio, not his decision. Simon's a hostage to producers. Simon give us a signal.
(Blink)ist if you're safe Simon? 🤭
I think that's a good thing more video(s) please, here in these United States you have a captive audience.🤓
yay! more videos!
Do you ever leave the studio 😂
He’s been quarantined in the studio for about 7 years now
He is the producer
"A collection of small hills with an inflated sense of self importance" that really got me 🤣🤣
To be fair, that pretty much describes Britain as a whole pretty well (shots fired)
I think it's just an overpriced destination for hikers. Not much really see there. Much better places all around.
@@eugeneperstube It depends. I'm a hiker. Not every route I go on needs to be a high altitude death march. Some mountains in the UK offer enough challenge to keep it interesting while allowing you to be home for dinner. Not to mention my favourite view is close to the Scottish boarder and it really doesn't matter how high or how challenging it is, it's the prettiest ever and it doesn't cost a penny to climb. Opposed to places in the UK where you're charged admission
The blaze blazes through
Silly comments. It could be a good channel otherwise
Hey Simon you should do Newgrange next. It's a massive Neolithic structure in Ireland that's older than the Pyramids (the oldest one being the Pyramid of Djoser at 2600 bc)and Stonehenge(3000bc) being built in 3200 bc. It has a door with a roof box above it that perfectly aligns with the sun on the Winter solstice and a roof so well made that it's still waterproof to this day. Archaeologists are baffled on how these people were able to build such a sophisticated structure before the advent of writing and the crane and how advanced their knowledge of the cosmos and the exact alignment of the sun was. Shows how skilled my ancestors were in construction techniques,lapidary design, mathematical calculations and astronomical observation.
Newgrange was lost to humanity for a really long time (it became a hill with soil and grass covering it)... and is daunting and beautiful once inside.
Newgrange is amazing. I've been inside it and it took my breath away.
@AScottishOdyssey meanwhile I've never even left small-town North Carolina, as a basic white American three generations removed from Scotland (with a lil Irish mixed in) -_- America does not truly feel like home, although the South does have its comforts
Imagine, you're a Neolithic englishman, and suddenly you wake up, and say to your other fellow neobois "oi bruv, let's build a fokin' sick monument"
Is this your favorite UA-cam channel on UA-cam?
"By Jove, that's a cracking good idea, wot wot. Jolly good, indeed, sir. Bob's your uncle and so forth."
I'm commander Shepard and this is my favorite channel on Citadel
@@tarquilkorris2563 You say that about every channel on the Citadel, what are you getting some kind of endorsement? Lol
@@matthiasnagorski8411 splendid
They're doorways, ancient doorways, that lead to a slightly different part of the field... :P
twocvbloke they are nether portals
@@oktheneggscape5759 to another part of the field
Shit im late
The Guardians of... another part of the field.
“Bunch of semi-motivated, Neolithic hicks”. I needed that laugh today.
Chef_PC as a semi-motivated hick I took a little offense to that...
@@jamesscot8560 ooooof xD burn
@@jamesscot8560 He said SEMI motivated, not SELF motivated!
You're telling me this isn't about a gigantic man-made defense mechanism designed to shoot down incoming meteorite with an oversized railgun that can also be used for anti-air warfare by launching area denial rounds to keep enemy air forces at bay?
WatcherMovie008. I’m disappointed too. Lol
They haven't had spare parts to maintain ye olde earthe defense system for roughly 4000 years.. so now hippies dance around it naked while chanting crap in bad Celtic.
a realy unflexible weapon. You'd have to wait til your railgun more or less directly undernath the meteors.
@@5Andysalive railguns can fire off center, very precisely. In addition you have gravitational effects that allow you to fire actual curves...
However it actually is an early version of tesslers death ray, which uses a combination of relativistic effects and spooky particles to hi a target anywhere in the visual universe. Unfortunately the contacts corroded and it was abandoned and the wiring used for jewelry.
It was actually a cold fusion reactor which was used to power the Stonehenge Mechanoid. The Stonehenge Mechanoid originally was powered by burning wood but was not efficient enough and with time running out as the alien Yeekotor's approach. Britain's top scientists were task with creating a new source of power in order to save the kingdom in time. There were mutiple types of primitive engines built. From burning a type of explosive cow manure to using flopping fish to push a device like hamsters on a wheel to actually using millions of hamsters on wheels to power the Stonehenge Mechanoid. After many failures one scientist came up with the Stonehenge we are familiar with which utilized cold fusion. And just in time because the Yeekotor's had arrived and had begun their rampage but King Arthur's son was prepared to fight the invaders with the Mechanoid even though he was only a teenage boy who detested piloting the machine. But King Arthur's son had his own objective and that was to win over his father and earn his love. After the battle the Stonehenge Mechanoid and Stonehenge were no longer needed. Many years later the battle was forgotten and Stonehenge begin to fall into disrepair and the cold fusion reactor was lost to time. It is rumored the Easter Island's had a similar situation and had to fight their own alien invaders.
I wish people would get the history of Stonehenge correct. I am constantly out there speaking with tourist telling them the true story.
Anyone else remember using Stonehenge as a desktop background in the early 2000's? :P
1:15 - Chapter 1 - The dawn of time
3:50 - Chapter 2 - The work of giants
7:25 - Mid roll ads
8:55 - Chapter 3 - Here comes the beakers
11:45 - Chapter 4 - The medieval henge
15:10 - Chapter 5 - The king of stonehedge
18:45 - Chapter 6 - The people's henge
Well the Neolithic farmers who came from Anatolia and preceded the Celtic invasions would by default be “pagans” too, a rather broad term that glosses over literally thousands of religious cultures.
We have very little idea of the route the Neolithic people of Europe took to get here. Even the Indo-Europeans, who are much more recent migrants and are thought to have the plains of Ukraine as their initial dispersal site, are still controversial as to where they originated. And Europe's Neolithic population go back much further than them.
The broad term Pagan seems appropriate; the builders of henges left little other evidence of their particular customs.
@@differous01 if you accept Abrahamic definitions any faith with more than one (or three) gods are "pagan" and any non-yahweh single God worshiped like Atenism is pagan . So Celtics and anatolia people or hunter gatherer are 'pagan' . Lot of diversity amongst pagans in Europe and world of course
The Judeo-Christian tradition preserves its pagan roots; the Judean temple with YHWH in place of the the Pole Star, the 'host of heaven' circling about, the 7 wanderers (planetoi) preserved in our weekday names (Jove/Thurin's-day, Venus/Fria-day, Saturn-day...).
There can be little doubt that Neolithic henge-builders, from Gobekli Tepe onwards, were similarly preoccupied with finding the patterns in both the constellations above and cultural diversity below. Some might use 'pagan' as a "gloss", but I regard it as an honorific.
In my novel currently being written, the ancient world conquerors use the word Andova to describe all the lands they have yet to 'enlighten' with their civilized way of life.
"We now know the builders had Welsh connections..."
The Welsh Mafia, I knew it!
"The stone came from the Preseli mountains, a colletion of small hills with an inflated sense of self importance..." Clutch dig at the Welsh there, Simon.
Cymru Rhydd!
Stonehenge remains the most successful rock group to come out of Wales, although Manic Street Preachers had a good run
Everybody knows it was built by pissed up Welsh Rugby supporters,on their way home after beating England at Twickenham 😂
Tafia
I was there as a kid in 1960. We drove right up to it and got out and walked among the stones. Being a kid I had to touch them of course. I didn't even think of damaging any or stealing anything. Just admired everything, and after all one piece of rock looks a lot like another. That was before I became a geologist.
Merlin did it!!
Medival version of 21 century lazy explenation, the Aliens did it!
We locals all know it's just a feck off large sundial
with laser cutters and anti-gravs
But seriously, when you point out the fact about any such structure, that is aligned with the stars or the constellations or the poles the way they were like at least 10 000 years earlier than it was supposedly built, the answer is essentially "well at that time, according to generally accepted concepts, as people were little more than up-right monkeys, with no language, no writing, and no pottery, never mind metalworking, there is no way they could have built them, so they did not. So it was not. So... you are a lying pseudo-scientist and trying to get a rise out of me."
We're not saying it was Merlin...
But it was Merlin...
In case anyone wants to know, a "crap-ton" (11:10) is 288 units because it's just two gross.
Ok, but as an American, I still can't tell a Fuck ton from a metric fuck ton.
@@petercarioscia9189 a fuck ton is 2,000 lbs, a metric fuck ton is roughly 2,200 lbs
a crap ton, is a regular ton but made of crap. true story
_Augh_
Damn it, give it to us in the universal unit for crap-tons: courics!
But how many Stone is it?
I feel there should be a part 2 of this episode. There is so much more on what excavation has brought up regarding stories that surround the site.
Like what? I’m intrigued
yes i thought he was going to mention woodhenge and durrington walls. Also - i think the preseli bluestones were (and still are in some areas) thought to have healing properties if you pass water through it
@@tootyfruity69 Yes, bring on some infomation about the wooden henges that are known to predate stongehenge.
I've often wondered what SH looked like at its peak. It's been thousands of years of it existing as ruins, but clearly it was very important for a long, long time - and not as a historical ruin.
I've wondered this too. If I had a TARDIS one of the things I wanted to do was to see what certain ruins looked like when they were new.
The Beaker/Muppets bit elicited an honest LOL, thank you for that.
It's a hugely impressive structure.
BUT I prefer Avebury circle, Avenue, Hill and area. Just easier to get closer, less crowds and less commercial.
Stonehenge is considered the outsiders choice while Avebury, the locals choice. Averbury has so much more to offer than Stonehenge partly because its massive and that theres other stuff close by like the West Kennet long barrows and Silbury hill that's walking distance away... Plus it's free and you can literally touch the stones. Both sites are truly amazing and mysterious but Avebury can give you day to explore and take in while Stonehenge can be taken in in less than 10 minutes lol
@@crackajacka87 Did you see the Ancient Architects channel theory on Silbury Hill? Not sure he is correct but very interesting
I drive through Avebury several times a week, it's such an amazing site, but it really angers me that there is a road right through, surely they could reroute the road and reinstante the full ditch ? Seems like sacrilege to me to have a road through it.
Also alot wealthier people in the area with huge gardens have huge stones that were obviously pillaged from megalithic sites in the area.
And a good deal more authentic too.
Commercial? It’s run by the National Trust.
I used to live in Salisbury and I can confirm it’s isn’t commercialised
I don't understand why everyone is so impressed.
It's just an 18" model in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.
I wish more people understood this
Haha spinal tap
Spinal tap
Your shows are great. I can't believe a TV network hasn't picked up your show. In depth research, different points of view and interesting topics. Keep up the good work.
Your closing is great!!!! We will never know why. And we never should. Just appreciate that it is there.
They believe know how it was used and quiet a bit about why but it'll always be educated guesses until they invent a time machine. 😉
What was said: Inigo Jones
What I heard: Indiana Jones
What I heard: Inigo Montoya
The "ownership" of Stonehenge is amazing and it's an incredible structure. However Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland are much older and more intricate due to the Winter Solstice. Check them out.
King Tut and Stonehenge on the same day. Nice!
Video was great 👍 I got the chance to visit Stonehenge in the mid 90's and seeing it in person can be life changing. Despite the amount of tourists, it truly is awe inspiring... Closest thing to having a time machine. Great job.
I spent 4 years in the army 20 minutes from here. The closest I got was the road going past it, it's now a tourist trap.
Who's to say that isn't what it's always been? A Paleolithic tourist trap for far-flung traders or nomadic tribes from across the isle.
I drove through the back roads to there a week and a half ago. Loved the tank crossing signs.
Will say I'm Australian and stonehenge was an afterthought visit on our way back to Heathrow just to pass the time.
@@Mrsquiggley Had a few close calls at the tank crossings, hope you enjoyed the UK!
Really FELLAH
You just have to love the English sense of humour where even the hills can have an inflated sense of self worth :~)
It's impressive. But the Spinal Tap version is a sight to behold.
that one went up to 11 right?
@@trwsandford the one that was in danger of being stepped on by midgets.
Where the children play and the cats meow!!!!
That scene still makes me laugh every time.
Sex farm!
This channel deserves so much more recognition and you too simon you deserve much more recognition for your multifaceted job from stoic history teacher to near sociopathic memery you can really make your different sides truly characters and all of them are entertaining thank you simon whistler keep it up man.
Bacon underpants? Preposterous!
....bacon lingerie however...
Seriously though this is probably one of my favorite pieces of ancient history, might be something about how even with what we do know about it, its still a massive mystery giving way to wasting days daydreaming about the possibilities of what it could have once been used for.
@drew pedersen mmmmmmm bacon!
Video had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
Brings new meaning to the question: "....what are you wearing?"
@@LukeBunyip Breakfast!
It was used for ceremonial purposes.
Göbekli Tepe: I built the first temple in the world 10th millennium BCE, I predate you by 6,000 years, baby!
Stonehenge: would you like me, to hold your beer, please?😬
Kudos for covering topics we all know but still finding a way to make it interesting while revealing lesser known information. I learn something new every time.
“The Preseli Mountains, a collection of small hills with an over inflated sense of self importance” brilliant line!
Stonehenge was built so I had something to look at when I'm stuck in a traffic jam on A303
And the only reason you are in traffic is tourists slowing to take pictures on a main a road 🤦🏻♀️
@@narrakasa81194 it's almost worth building a fence round it
Given the sizes of the stones and the overall scale, it seems likely that Stonehenge will stand virtually forever,
as only a large, deliberate and well-organized effort could truly 'de-construct' it entirely! For which, three cheers!
A storm knocked one of the stones over. This was part of the reason the 1950s restoration reinforced the stone bases with concrete.
Man, you're my new teacher. Been finding different channels of yours tonight and they're all enlightening
Holy Hanna couldn’t be more excited!! Thank you all of the ways! In fact for at least the 3rd time I was telling my child about Merlin & Stone Henge about 3 hours ago. Get out of my head!!!
hey that’s my name
Can you do a video on Skara brae and neolithic Orkney?
Thanks a lot! Now I can't get that Spinal Tap song out of my head
Blue Stone was used to make some of the now most expensive objects for home furnishings during the 19th C. and early 20th C.. Including Urns, boxes, and vases. It is now basically an extinct rock as all of the mines dug for it are now depleted.
Ty for a lil normal daily stuff in this abnormal time
I don’t know how you can have so many channels and always knock your content out of the park.
Were any of those ancient communities based on farming? I could see where a local calendar based on the sun's position would be very handy to have around. Lots of ancient cultures have monuments based on those types of things.
Isn't it interesting that he completely left this out?!?! Unbelievable! He loses all credibility.
Another belter Simon!! I grew up next to that place!!!!
Fantastically comprehensive loved every minute. Had a good chuckle more than once...so thank you for your humorous erudition.
Hey Simon! Love the videos! You bring history with a flair of comedy to satisfy my curiosity! “Beeker” reference cracked me up, I was thinking the same thing before you showed it!!
Stonehenge: The greatest henge of all
and, ironically, Stonehenge isn't really a henge at all. Technically a henge is a stone circle with a ditch inside the bank, but Stonehenge's ditch is outside the bank - or it's the other way round. I remember this point coming up in a Time Team episode but can't remember which way round it was - Google was no help.
Dude, let's build a henge or two!
All I wanna say Simon, is I'm glad you're staying healthy. Stay safe out there🙏🏾
Please do a video on the Grand Guignol theater.
You didn't mention the part of the coordinates on which Stonehenge is built. How it's coordinates are super mysterious too. Great video, a lot of history I had not much background on, thank you!
Recent research and archeology by the BBC shows that it is likely that the blue stones were placed in a circle on the Welsh hills for hundreds of years before being slowly moved by sleds to the Salisbury plain as part of a greater migration, as it would have been as huge part of these people's identity and link to ancestors
Thank you for the Muppet reference. I can't hear the term "Beaker People" without that popping in my head for a second.
Beard looking good! love the channel - thanks for the great content!
Gobekli tepe makes stone henge looks like child's play & it's 12,600 years old
Great video! It is always nice to learn more about the mysteries of Stonehenge.
It’s incredible that people that knew nothing but what others said even through of this. Love watching this feeling smooth...
I live about 5 miles away from Stonehenge, out on Salisbury Plain... Its an interesting thing, just one of many wierd attractions in Wiltshire. The giant chalk Kiwi is my favourite!
Stonehenge is simple- it marks a box known as the Pandorica, the origin of the tale of Pandora's box, and it is used to lock away the Doctor for roughly two millennia. It was breached only by paradox
I always said if I ever make it to England I’m going to Stonehenge first!!! Aaaaaamazing video! Love love loved it! Channel getting better all the time!! Keep doing what you do best Geo! 💕
Tasia Tyler Snowdonia National Park in Wales is much more worth it
Sheep Rider Oh ok! Thanks so much! 😊
Tasia Tyler to be honest with you, it really doesn't matter where you go in the UK chances are you will be surrounded by millennia of history in one form or another.........
Shaun lenton I agree and thank you for being so kind!!
Tasia Tyler you're more than welcome, good luck & god bless........
"Stonehenge was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf!"
Do Göbekli Tepe. Would be thematic series of videos.
When I did my trek to the UK from OZ, stonehenge was on my bucket list, there is something about that place that just makes you sizzle, I still have a pewter stein from the gift shop & it gets regular use.
Imo it is some sort of spiritual hotspot. The place just feels mystical and connected.
Spinal Tap truly made Stonehenge famous today.
I feel so smug seeing the modern pictures with the visitors being kept a considerable distance away. I visited in the early 1970's, when you could walk right up to the stones, walk all around them, and even touch them. If I'd thought to bring a can of spray paint I probably could have written my name on one.
The Muppets reference made my entire morning😂😅
There is also some smaller rock circles with a bigger circumference in a village near to Stonehenge
“Long dead dudes” has a nice ring to it.
It's either a giant granite birthday cake, or a prison far too easy to escape.
Stonehenge, where the demons dwell
Where the banshees live and they do live well
Stonehenge where a man is a man
And the children dance to the pipes of pan
I wonder if the five people who liked this comment know what you wrote?
Big shout out to Simon! I'm spending more time with him during this quarantine than I am my own husband!
"Long Dead Dudes." Now there's a band name. lol
Do Angkor Wat.
There is a similar structure to Stonehenge at the bottom of Lake Michigan I heard about not too long ago.
Hadn't heard of that but yeah there's a discussion on Reddit.
Check out Randall Carlsons youtube channel on really interesting stuff about Americas ancient past, there are a few henges that he covers and many other fascinating things,most of the interesting anceint things now have churches on them and are totally destroyed unfortunately.
Yeah only the stones are like tiny. Its only similar in the sense that its basicslly circular. But in terms of scale theres no comparison.
Damn I just clicked off a biographics video for this and it was the video from today about tuten kamen
When you commented that this video was uploaded 60 secends ago
Recently discovered your channel and have become a big fan. Every video I've seen has been great and I've learned a lot. I don't believe you've done an episode on the Library at Alexandria. I'm very interested in the topic but too busy to dive deep into it myself. So ya know...get to it
Anyone else get the impression that going from wooden totems to barrows and then to a massive stone circle was simply a game of one upmanship through the generations?
Australian version of Stonehenge. Is near Esperance in Westen Australia. You can walk around the stones. What a feeling.
Thank you for the video! we also have some pre Beaker Folk very early stone circles (c. 6000 bc) in the deep south of Portugal, luckily they made a point of not having a asphalt road leading to it, making it much less of a tourist trap.... Cromeleque dos Almendres, love the place, check it out ;)
Simon, you mentioned the four wonders of Britain. Would you, of have you done a video on them?
There were wooden circles nearby. Fun fact: Around 3000 BC, the climate was shifting, making Britain drier, less forested. And that's the era in which Stonehenge was built. So it's my guess that, like many mainland civilizations, they built circular structures, and when forests died back, stone was necessary. Sacred sites even today generally are about religion and/or sacred spaces for safe meeting places between neighbors (churches, the UN, whatever), but the circles extend into what we now call France. There were stone circles elsewhere ---- Israel (Atlit Yam) and of course Gobleki Tepe (Turkey). FYI, stones were floated in the Andes (Lake Titicaca). So... There you go. No mystery but this: How'd you get that many people to agree? What cataclysm were they suffering or hoping to avoid?
That was fantastic Simon, no BS, just the basic facts. Loved it 👍😊
Simon.Great vid but was disappointed you didn't cover the 1980's Stonehenge campaign and the traveller movement, a huge part of the history of Stonehenge
So good. I'd love to learn more about Avebury and the prehistoric monuments around there, if you're looking for topics.
The Egyptians: We built The Pyramids.
The Romans: We built The Colosseum.
The Chinese: We built The Great Wall.
The Brits: We... stacked large rocks in a circle.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Well technically that’s all the colosseum and the Great Wall and pyramids are. Large rocks stacked.
Rest In Peace to those that passed away.
Thank you for the content you provide. It is amazing, humbling, and greatfull in this time. I only wish I found you earlier. With the greatest respect, thank you.
Do a video on Newgrange in Ireland next....I believe it’s even older than Stonehenge
Phone was quick and I did not finish my comment. Very interesting presentations, as I sad.Lots to learn and discover. Sadly. for me,the speech was too speedy to fully enjoy such good clips. This rush in life by many,even in talking, takes the pleasure of listening and fully understanding the expose.
Every time I see Stonehenge, the Spinal Tap song pops in my head.
I think of Ylvis
When he said the orginal builders had connections to Wales I genuinely thought he meant whales and got very confused 😂
As a Welsh person, you are forgiven
200 km= 120 mi.
1.6 km= 0.99 mi. or 1,700 yd.
32 km= 20 mi.
25 ton(ne)s= . . . Well, what KIND of ton? There's, like, three.
Those are not dovetail joints, but rather mortise and tenon joints.
3.0 km= 1.9 mi.or 1 mi. 7 fur.
At 2:00, i was real sure you were gonna say "Aliens" 😂
A beautiful show. Thank you
Another great and informative video!!! Maybe a somepoint you can make a video on a monument just across the sea in Ireland in Newgrange and the other large passage tombs in the area.
Watched 20 episodes of this mans show in my 110 inch home cinema.
Wife is wondering why I'm so fascinated with this man on the big big screen
It IS fascinating to note that you can still be used as an Observatory
Whiskey, Ramen Noodles and your channel = Good Life
So how did they raise the stone?
I love for Geographics videos !!!