On a sloping hill on England’s Salisbury plain about 4500 years ago some people placed a very large stone. They continued to add stones to create a "henge." These “sarsen trilithons” towered over the humans who brought them there.
Archaeologists have studied this place that came to be known as Stonehenge for a few hundred years and believe it was visited for religious or spiritual reasons. But the question of where these bluestones originated and how they were brought to that plain has not been answered.
As of now, the Preseli Hills of Wales has been identified as the source of the henge’s smaller bluestones, which form a ring and a central horseshoe shape inside the larger henge structure. But where did the bigger sarsen rocks (duricrust silcrete) get quarried and how were these huge stones transported to Salisbury.
The most recent study proposes that 50 of the 52 megaliths came from Wiltshire which is only about 15 miles north of Stonehenge. They determined this using a stone core that was extracted in 1958 for restoration but has been lost since then to researchers.
How these huge stones were brought and set in place is still a mystery. The weight of the largest sarsen stones (the uprights of the Great Trilithon) are 35 tonnes and the estimated weight of the heel stone is 40 tonnes.
This mystery reminds me of the many theories about how the Great Pyramids were built. They just don't seem doable for the ancients - which is why aliens have often been unscientifically suggested as helpers.
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