Avebury

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury. The site contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world.


Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown.


During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, eventually extending into it. In the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones.