Sunrise at Stonehenge draws druids, pagans, revelers to celebrate summer solstice

Sun roseate connected the longest time of the twelvemonth successful the Northern Hemisphere.

LONDON -- As the prima roseate Saturday connected the longest time of the twelvemonth successful the Northern Hemisphere, a assemblage erupted successful cheers astatine Stonehenge wherever the past monument successful confederate England has clocked the summer solstice implicit thousands of years.

The orangish shot crested the northeast skyline down the Heel Stone, the entranceway to the chromatic circle, and shone its beam of airy into the halfway of 1 of the world’s astir celebrated prehistoric monuments. The solstice is 1 of the fewer occasions each twelvemonth erstwhile visitors are allowed to locomotion among the stones, which are different fenced off.

The assemblage gathered earlier dawn astatine the World Heritage Site to people the commencement of summertime successful the Northern Hemisphere, beating the vigor during the U.K.'s archetypal amber heat-health alert issued since September 2023. Temperatures aboriginal topped 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) successful Surrey, 80 miles (128 kilometers) eastbound of Stonehenge, the hottest somesthesia recorded successful the U.K. truthful acold this year.

About 25,000 prima devotees and different revelers, including druids, pagans, hippies, locals and tourists, showed up, according to English Heritage which operates the site. More than 400,000 others astir the satellite watched a livestream.

“This greeting was a joyous and peaceful juncture with the astir beauteous sunrise," said Richard Dewdney, caput of operations astatine Stonehenge. “It is fantastic to spot Stonehenge continuing to enchant and link people.”

Stonehenge was built successful stages 5,000 years agone connected the level lands of Salisbury Plain astir 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of London. The unsocial chromatic ellipse was erected successful the precocious Neolithic play astir 2,500 B.C.

Some of the alleged bluestones are known to person travel from the Preseli Hills successful southwest Wales, astir 150 miles (240 kilometers) away, and the altar chromatic was precocious discovered to person travel from bluish Scotland, immoderate 460 miles (740 kilometers) away.

The site’s meaning has been vigorously debated. Theories scope from it being a coronation spot for Danish kings, a druid temple, a cult halfway for healing, oregon an astronomical machine for predicting eclipses and star events.

The astir mostly accepted mentation is that it was a temple aligned with movements of the prima — lining up perfectly with the summertime and wintertime solstices.

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