More than 5,000 years ago Europeans were building spectacular stone monuments. Many of these are still standing today, as mysterious relics of a long-gone society. The huge stones that were used are called megaliths (meaning 'big stones'). Some were set up on their own, and others in groups or circles. Stone Henge is a very famous Neolithic stone monument which was built in several stages between 1800 and 1400 BCE on Salisbury Plain. No one really knows why it was built. It is a series of concentric rings of standing stones from the around an altar stone at the centre. During the second stage, blue stones from the Preseli Mountains in Wales were hauled onto the site in an astonishing feat of organization and transport. The construction was highly accurate for the period. The standing stones are up to 6.7 m (22 ft) high and weight up to 40 tonnes (45 tons) each.
Fact file
Rock tombs, slab tombs, such as this dolmen, and stone circles and temples lie scattered across Europe, even on the island of Malta.
