The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: Silbury Hill

I have exhibited this before, but not previously without cropping it smaller. Now I can see how attractive and historically sympathetic the National Trust car park gate actually is, I must post afresh. It was shot with the equivalent of 300mm focal length. That's why Silbury Hill looks so close and imposing. It's not really like that when viewed with the naked eye. Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G.

Silbury Hill is a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow and the Sanctuary). It was built around 2,600 - 2,400 BC, which is later than the other sites in the area. To design, organise, and construct this mound shows the technical skill of the age and reveals strong and prolonged control over labour and resources. At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. The flattened top is 100ft in diameter. The area immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land around it. The presence of natural springs indicate a moat or reservoir. In fact, the mound sits in a dip in the landscape; it would have been an unusual choice for a strategic defensive site. Perhaps the site itself was important to the builders. Nikon D2Xs and AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP (67DN) lens.

Can you imagine toiling for 15 years with hundreds of other unfortunate pressed men to build this. And gazing upon it just before you die from overwork wondering what it was all for.

Silbury Hill is a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow and the Sanctuary). It was built around 2,600 - 2,400 BC, which is later than the other sites in the area. To design, organise, and construct this mound shows the technical skill of the age and reveals strong and prolonged control over labour and resources. At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. The flattened top is 100ft in diameter. The area immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land around it. The presence of natural springs indicate a moat or reservoir. In fact, the mound sits in a dip in the landscape; it would have been an unusual choice for a strategic defensive site. Perhaps the site itself was important to the builders.

Silbury Hill is a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow and the Sanctuary). It was built around 2,600 - 2,400 BC, which is later than the other sites in the area. To design, organise, and construct this mound shows the technical skill of the age and reveals strong and prolonged control over labour and resources. At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. The flattened top is 100ft in diameter. The area immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land around it. The presence of natural springs indicate a moat or reservoir. In fact, the mound sits in a dip in the landscape; it would have been an unusual choice for a strategic defensive site. Perhaps the site itself was important to the builders.

Silbury Hill is a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow and the Sanctuary). It was built around 2,600 - 2,400 BC, which is later than the other sites in the area. To design, organise, and construct this mound shows the technical skill of the age and reveals strong and prolonged control over labour and resources. At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. The flattened top is 100ft in diameter. The area immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land around it. The presence of natural springs indicate a moat or reservoir. In fact, the mound sits in a dip in the landscape; it would have been an unusual choice for a strategic defensive site. Perhaps the site itself was important to the builders.

At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete.

At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. I used an AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G lens to photograph the mound. I have owned two of these lenses and sold both. They are not designed for demanding standards of quality, and not very well built either. Yet within their limitations they can turn in a decent image. They need to be well stopped down, and not used beyond 200mm. Here, the focal length is 78mm and the aperture f/11, with a shutter speed of 1/640th to ameliorate the effect of shaky hands being magnified. The main advantage of this lens is its light weight, useful when tramping over fields for three or four miles. Camera: Nikon D90.

Photographed during a misty day from near the entrance to the National Trust car park serving Avebury. Focal length 200 mm (35 mm equivalent: 300 mm).

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire. Nikon D2Xs + AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED lens.

Near Silbury Hill, Avebury, Wiltshire. Nikon D90.