Located in England
Stonehenge is a monument located near Salisbury in southern England. It is nearly as old as the pyramids, though on a smaller scale. It was built with a sophisticated understanding of geometry and the movement of the sun.
Layout
Stonehenge is a vast arrangement of concentric circles of stone and holes that were perhaps intended to hold posts or other stones. The remains of Stonehenge, which was built in three phases over a period of about 1,000 years between 3000-2000 BC, consists of huge standing stones, some surmounted by stone lintels (horizontal blocks).
(overhead view)
The arrangement of the stones shows an ability to work with circles in space, and the curved lintel stones demonstrate an understanding of arcs of a circle – when all were in place, the lintel stones would have formed a true circle, not a series of straight lines.
Summer Solstice
The only tools available to the builders were picks made of deer antlers and stone hammers, yet they were able to calculate and measure portions of a circle and distances. The northeast axis aligns with the position of the rising sun at the summer solstice (longest day of the year), suggesting that some form of calendar had been developed.
How the World Works: Mathematics: From Creating the Pyramids to Exploring Infinity
Anne Rooney
Background on Anne Rooney
