So what really is this great temple of the plains? To the medieval peoples the stone circles were sometimes rumoured to be sinners who danced on the Sabbath and were turned to stone.

In the legends of King Arthur it is said his Druid magician Merlin magicked the stones from Ireland, some say by air, some by water and some that the Devil brought them, to place over the grave several hundred British nobles, slain in the fifth century by Hengist, a Saxon invader. The story goes that they were buried in a mass grave on Salisbury Plain.

The legends of the Mediterranean tell of an island in the west where a great circular Temple to the Sun God Apollo stands. And if you have read Erik Von Daniken's Was God An Astronaut you may be forgiven for wondering if in prehistory we were visited by being from another planet who constructed Stonehenge as a sighting point around the earth.

The monument was reputed to be the site of healing rites in the past. Spring water was poured over the stones and then believers washed in the charged water to cure their ailments.

At various periods of our history the pagan circle was the target of religious bigotry. During the English Civil War it is said the Parliamentary army was encouraged to go to Stonehenge and to try to destroy it by lighting fires beneath the stones and then pouring cold water over them to aid efforts to damage the circle.