Day 7 We got even older with Stonehenge and the Roman Baths

This is from Day 7, when we went to some of the oldest locations in the U.K., both of our main attraction locations were made in the B.C. years. We started off with Stonehenge. This was built in stages roughly between 3,000 and 2,500 B.C. Some people have theories that they were built to worship either the sun or the moon. This is since the direct middle that is on the access of the heel stones (on the outside of the circular area) lines up with both the summer and winter solstices. Though there are ditch like holes dug in the same quantities as there are days in a lunar month dug around the structure. Other thoughts include they were dug to honor the dead since there are mounds in the fields surrounding Stonehenge with what appeared to be the highly influential with their possessions, and what appeared to be more of commoner gravesites with many people buried widthwise in a linear fashion. Others say it is for the Gods since Woodhenge was built in a different location and things made of wood are for humans and like us are made to be temporary. On the other hands, Stonehenge was made out of stone, and like the Gods things made of stone is made to be permanent. The other big theory was that aliens made it. Why? Well, why not? If I remember properly, it was said the larger stones (sarsens) were brought from about 25 miles away and weighing about 40 tons. The smaller blue stones weigh about 5 tons and were brought from over 150 miles.

Next, we went to Bath, U.K. Bath started as a place lived at and enshrined by local natives (reason why to come later. It was then settles by the Romans, and then vacated as the Roman Empire fell. Then as time went on, and the area was resettled later on, when architects rebuilt the town to bring back the look it had during the roman times. We then looked specifically at some specific locations within the town before going to the main attraction, the Roman baths.  The Roman Bath was built on a hot spring worshipped by the people who already lived there since it is the only hot spring in the U.K. The locals associated the spring with their goddess Sulis, and the Romans associated it with their Goddess Menuva, so they combined the names to make it to be for the Goddess Menuva Sulis.  They built the springs and full pipework for it to flow making hot rooms (essentially saunas, cold rooms, the bath (hot tubish area) and other facilities. The stones were lined with led sheets to make them water tight, it had an overflow area, and all of the water drains into a local river. Not bad for people who didn’t have access to electricity.