Stonehenge

The Druids

The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or Druids, seem to have been particularly important and powerful members, religious leaders. These Druids could not read or write, but they memorized and accumulated all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history, medicine and other knowledge necessary in Celtic society. The Druids from different tribes all over Britain probably met once a year. They had no temples, but they met in sacred groves of trees, on certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. We know little of their kind of worship except that they worshipped different gods and magical forces practicing human sacrifice.

This ancient monument of huge stones solitarily standing on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, is in Southern England. Stonehenge has captured imaginations for centuries. Theories about who built it have included the Druids, Greeks, Phoenicians, and Atlanteans. Speculations on the reason why it was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.

These theories include the legend that huge giants were dancing in a circle and then froze into place to create the stone structure; that Stonehenge is an ancient astrological tool that allowed those, from 5000 years ago through the time of the druids, to tell when a solar or lunar eclipse would occur; that Stonehenge was built by the Devil who wanted to surprise the people by such a huge construction which appeared in one night.

Stonehenge is incredible. The pictures are breathtaking, the history is amazing. Constructed in 3100 BC, Stonehenge tells us how smart and ingenious the builders were because its construction seems impossible without modern day tools. Similar to the construction of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, one must wonder how they moved such giant stones.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11