NEOLITHIC MONUMENTS IN

EUROPEWhere, why and How.

Avebury Stone Circles Avebury is the largest stone circle in the world: it is

427m (1401ft) in diameter covers an area of some 28 acres (11.5 ha)

It is an extraordinary site formed by a huge circular bank (a mile round), a massive ditch now only a half its original depth, and a great ring of 98 sarsen slabs enclosing two smaller circles of 30 stones each and other settings and arrangements of stones.The outer bank, still very impressive, was originally 17m (55ft) high from ditch bottom to bank top. The stones, each weighing about 40 tons or more, were left rough and not dressed as were the Stonehenge blocks.

Avebury Stone Circles, England

NewGrange, Ireland Burial Mounds

Built around 3200 BC, during the Neolithic period.

There is no agreement about what the site was used for, but it has been speculated that it had some form of religious significance because it is aligned with the rising sun, which floods the stone room with light on the winter solstice.

Newgrange is also older than Stonehenge and the great pyramids of Giza

“Roofbox” at Newgrange

Megaliths at Carnac, France

] The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac. The more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local

The stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period, probably around 3300 BC, but some may date to as old as 4500 BC.[2]

The Megalithic Temples of Malta are the oldest free-standing structures on Earth, even older than the Pyramids.[1] Eleven prehistoric monuments, of which seven are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, were built during three distinct time periods between 5000BC and 700BC approximately.[2] Archaeologists believe that these megalithic complexes are the result of local innovations in a process of cultural evolution.[3][4] This led to the building of several temples of the Ġgantija phase (3600-3000 BC), culminating in the large Tarxien temple complex, which remained in use until 2500 BC. After this date, the temple building culture disappeared

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Malta_Hal_Tarxien_BW_2011-10-04_12-42-32.JPG