Secrets Of Lost Empires 1. Stonehenge (1 of 21)

Secrets Of Lost Empires 1. Stonehenge

It's one of the most mysterious places in the world.
A strange set of stones, arranged like no other, stands silently above the plains of southern England.
Stonehenge.
For centuries, no one knew who built it.
According to medieval legend, it was the work of Merlin, the wizard of King Arthurian court.
Later, credit for the construction went to the Romans, And then to an ancient pagan cult, the Druids.
Only in recent years have archaeologists finally begun to discover who really built Stonehenge - and when.

Scientists now believe that these stones were erected almost 4,500 years ago - long before King Arthur or the Romans at the end of the Stone Age.
It was an amazing achievement.
Each of the colossal uprights weighs between 50,000 and 80,000 pounds.
The stones are harder than granite.
But most were carefully shaped and joined together - as if they were made of wood.
And although the monument stands on sloping ground, a line of the horizontal stones - called lintels - runs almost perfectly level.
All this was done in an age without machinery, without writing, and without any metal tools.
Even after 15 years of studying the area around Stonehenge, archeologist Julian Richards is still impressed by this ancient wonder.
This is the biggest stone at Stonehenge.
It 's absolutely enormous.
It towers over 20 feet above me, and there's eight feet of it buried in the ground.
I get really fed up when people come to Stonehenge and say it's smaller than they expected.
I mean this is a massive stone.
It used to have a pair standing there as well.
That one, unfortunately only buried four feet in the ground, fell over a couple of centuries ago.
And these two stones, these two massive uprights with a great lintel on top, form a trilithon, one of the most...
the biggest and most impressive elements of Stonehenge.