Philosophy
Is this too much whining about an ancient site...doesn't appear to be a problem concerning the ancient Egyptian monuments. But in fairness, there has been some concern about foot traffic at the Parthenon.
Traffic at Stonehenge has put Britain's most famous prehistoric monument on a list of the world's most threatened sites.
The traffic-choked roads still roaring past Stonehenge in Wiltshire have earned the world's most famous prehistoric monument a place on a list of the world's most threatened sites.
The government's decision to abandon, on cost grounds, a plan to bury roads around Stonehenge in a tunnel underground and the consequent collapse of the plans for a new visitor centre, have put the site on the Threatened Wonders list of Wanderlust magazine, along with the 4x4-scarred Wadi Rum in Jordan, and the tourist-eroded paths and steps of the great Inca site at Machu Picchu in Peru.
Lyn Hughes, editor in chief of Wanderlust, said the A303 and A344 junctions near Stonehenge meant the site was "brutally divorced from its context". She said: "Seeing it without its surrounding landscape is to experience only a fraction of this historical wonder. The fact that the government and various planning bodies cannot agree on implementing a radical solution to this problem is a national disgrace."
The first great earth banks and ditches of the monument date back 5,000 years, and it was then repeatedly remodelled, with the addition of the circle of sarsen stones the size of doubledecker buses, and smaller bluestones brought from west Wales, and said to have healing powers.
Hughes was echoing the words 21 years ago of the parliamentary public accounts committee, which in 1989 damned the presentation of the site and the facilities for tourists as "a national disgrace".
Since then millions have been spent on alternative road plans and architectural designs for the visitor centre, on exhibitions, consultations and public inquiries, without a sod of earth being turned.
Argument about how to care for the site raged throughout the 20th century: the circle itself is in the guardianship of English Heritage, while the National Trust owns thousands of acres of surrounding countryside, studded with hundreds more henges, barrows and other prehistoric monuments.
At the moment the best hope is that a much simpler and cheaper visitor centre can still be created, two kilometres from the site, in time for London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics.
Wanderlust has also named three places that need more visitors and their spending power: Zimbabwe, north-east Thailand and Madagascar.
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- Astronomy Portal
"UN launches 'Heritage of Astronomy' portal" OBSERVATORIES in Britain, France and the United States, a Pharaonic temple in Egypt, a 3000-year-old pillar in China and a 1920s tower in Berlin have been inscribed on a UN-backed heritage list for...
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An excuse to drink and get naked. "New Agers, neo-pagans see Stonehenge solstice" Thousands wait for dawn at the Heel Stone, a pillar just outside the circle, which aligns with the rising sun. June 21st, 2010 latimes.com Thousands of New Agers and neo-pagans...
- Gerald S. Hawkins...stonehenge
Gerald S. Hawkins April 20th, 1928 to 26 May 26th, 2003 Gerald Stanley Hawkins was an English astronomer and mathematician who identified Stonehenge to be a prehistoric astronomical observatory. He identified 165 key points in the Stonehenge complex...
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"Stanhengues": French term coined by 12th century chronicler Wace meaning "hanging stones"--that’s the earliest recorded reference to the megalith stone erections in Salisbury Plain Wiltshire, England. The mid 17th Century brought the first archeological...
Philosophy
Stonehenge--too much whining?
Is this too much whining about an ancient site...doesn't appear to be a problem concerning the ancient Egyptian monuments. But in fairness, there has been some concern about foot traffic at the Parthenon.
"Stonehenge on 'most threatened' world wonders list"
Britain's failure to deal with road traffic around the prehistoric stone circle is condemned as 'a national disgrace'
by
Maev Kennedy
January 12th, 2010
guardian.co.uk
Britain's failure to deal with road traffic around the prehistoric stone circle is condemned as 'a national disgrace'
by
Maev Kennedy
January 12th, 2010
guardian.co.uk
Traffic at Stonehenge has put Britain's most famous prehistoric monument on a list of the world's most threatened sites.
The traffic-choked roads still roaring past Stonehenge in Wiltshire have earned the world's most famous prehistoric monument a place on a list of the world's most threatened sites.
The government's decision to abandon, on cost grounds, a plan to bury roads around Stonehenge in a tunnel underground and the consequent collapse of the plans for a new visitor centre, have put the site on the Threatened Wonders list of Wanderlust magazine, along with the 4x4-scarred Wadi Rum in Jordan, and the tourist-eroded paths and steps of the great Inca site at Machu Picchu in Peru.
Lyn Hughes, editor in chief of Wanderlust, said the A303 and A344 junctions near Stonehenge meant the site was "brutally divorced from its context". She said: "Seeing it without its surrounding landscape is to experience only a fraction of this historical wonder. The fact that the government and various planning bodies cannot agree on implementing a radical solution to this problem is a national disgrace."
The first great earth banks and ditches of the monument date back 5,000 years, and it was then repeatedly remodelled, with the addition of the circle of sarsen stones the size of doubledecker buses, and smaller bluestones brought from west Wales, and said to have healing powers.
Hughes was echoing the words 21 years ago of the parliamentary public accounts committee, which in 1989 damned the presentation of the site and the facilities for tourists as "a national disgrace".
Since then millions have been spent on alternative road plans and architectural designs for the visitor centre, on exhibitions, consultations and public inquiries, without a sod of earth being turned.
Argument about how to care for the site raged throughout the 20th century: the circle itself is in the guardianship of English Heritage, while the National Trust owns thousands of acres of surrounding countryside, studded with hundreds more henges, barrows and other prehistoric monuments.
At the moment the best hope is that a much simpler and cheaper visitor centre can still be created, two kilometres from the site, in time for London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics.
Wanderlust has also named three places that need more visitors and their spending power: Zimbabwe, north-east Thailand and Madagascar.
- Real Estate And Fame
"The man who demolished Shakespeare's house" by Denise Winterman March 6th, 2013 BBC News Magazine Britain hasn't always been in love with its heritage. It took some shocking acts of destruction, and some very near misses, to help shape the...
- Astronomy Portal
"UN launches 'Heritage of Astronomy' portal" OBSERVATORIES in Britain, France and the United States, a Pharaonic temple in Egypt, a 3000-year-old pillar in China and a 1920s tower in Berlin have been inscribed on a UN-backed heritage list for...
- Summer Solstice
An excuse to drink and get naked. "New Agers, neo-pagans see Stonehenge solstice" Thousands wait for dawn at the Heel Stone, a pillar just outside the circle, which aligns with the rising sun. June 21st, 2010 latimes.com Thousands of New Agers and neo-pagans...
- Gerald S. Hawkins...stonehenge
Gerald S. Hawkins April 20th, 1928 to 26 May 26th, 2003 Gerald Stanley Hawkins was an English astronomer and mathematician who identified Stonehenge to be a prehistoric astronomical observatory. He identified 165 key points in the Stonehenge complex...
- Stanhengues...early Astronomy?...and New Digs
"Stanhengues": French term coined by 12th century chronicler Wace meaning "hanging stones"--that’s the earliest recorded reference to the megalith stone erections in Salisbury Plain Wiltshire, England. The mid 17th Century brought the first archeological...