Stone-bothering in England

I visited Stonehenge yesterday and it was so much different than I expected.

I've read a lot about it, to the point that it almost felt like I had already seen it.

But I'd heard that the reality of visiting it was underwhelming. It had begun to feel like a cringe-y thing that tourists did. I didn't want to ruin the magic by having a bad experience.

Despite all that, I decided that I couldn't pass up the chance to see these stones in person. We arrived by shuttle bus on a day that was blue-sky sunny and very windy. The 2-km walk from the visitor centre was a perfect way to enter the experience. Walking through the landscape gave me time to imagine what it might have been like for the people who built Stonehenge and the many burial mounds within sight. Distances would have felt different then, and would have always been travelled on foot. There might have been more trees then. There would have been no roads, no cars, no fences.

When the stones came into view, I just stopped and stared. It was like that first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower - the though that “this thing is actually real and it's right in front of me.”

The stones are set in a small field by themselves, almost like a lawn. The people are roped off enough that you can get the feeling of the stones without having to edit out the rest of the world. They are rough and weathered and far bigger than I expected. I was in awe.

Imagine living 5000 years ago. We can hardly comprehend it. I assume that the act of just surviving took a lot of time and energy. And yet, those people had this rich and meaningful spiritual life.

We will never know why or how they brought the bluestones from Wales. How did they even know those stones existed? What was so special about them that the effort was made to bring them all that way?

Stonehenge formed part of an avenue that we believe was a part of a ritual around the equinox.

But we know nothing, really.

I was afraid that seeing the stones would ruin how I perceived them, but it actually deepened it. It's a reminder that history is a continuum, and the things we leave behind will be interpreted in the future in ways we can't comprehend. What else existed at the time of Stonehenge of which we have no knowledge?

I'm interested in history, but I'm even more curious about the history we don't know. The mystery continues.