Stonehenge is an extensive ring of stones that stands in the southern portion of England approximately one hundred and forty kilometers southwest of London. It is acknowledged as one of Earth’s great mysteries and is visited by millions annually. Very little is known about the U.K. treasure, but show anyone a picture of the one hundred large stones presented in their circular arrangement and it is immediately recognized. “The famous ring of standing stone pillars has been the subject of dozens of excavations by researchers hoping to uncover the perennial riddle behind its mysterious origins” (Lauw).
I personally visited Stonehenge on a family trip to England when I was seven years old. As a child I remember feeling the energy that existed as I walked around the outskirts of the circle and looked up to the sky. The energy felt different, almost unearth like. The energy that I felt that day prompted my interest in the extraterrestrial related theories surrounding its creation.
Over the years I have read books and watched documentaries that have reinforced the view that I am not alone in believing that Aliens were the most likely candidates to have built this massive, sturdy piece of architecture.
Stonehenge is a shrine that studies indicate “was built between roughly 5,000 and 4,000 years ago and is presumed to be part of a very large sacred area” (Jarus). The formation consisted of two varieties of stone with the first being sarsens. The sarsens are the larger of the two stones composed of sandstone and “weighing approximately twenty-five tons and standing thirty feet high (Jarus)”.
There is some archaeological evidence indicating the sarsens came from a location that was roughly thirty-two kilometers north of the present Stonehenge location. Also used in the erection of this shrine were “smaller stones, referred to as “bluestones” weighing four tons but coming from several different sites in western Wales being transported as far as 140 miles away from the site” (Jarus). Given the specifications of the building components and the relative distance of them from the build site, the question at hand is how could this shrine have been built by humans in an age when tools or formidable modes of transportation did not exist?
One hypothesis theorizes that there was help from “ancient alien astronauts”. Ancient alien astronauts, which stems from theories embedded in pseudoscience, indicates forms of alien life landed on earth and interacted with humans during ancient times. It is believed that these same aliens were responsible for the creation of other mysterious phenomena in addition to Stonehenge. Some such items include the Egyptian pyramids as well as the Easter Island statues. In fact, Erich von Daniken author of “Chariot of the Gods” alleges that not only did ancient aliens build Stonehenge, but they built it is an exact replica of the planets orbiting the sun. von Daniken also believed that “ancient art and iconography throughout the world depicted air and space vehicles, non-human intelligent creatures, and artifacts of advanced technology that weren’t seen to fit within the Neolithic period” (Hun). Finally, there is speculation by other supporters of this specific pseudoscience that Stonehenge was assembled by the aliens so that their spaceships would have a safe place to land and have a spot as a lookout for other alien movement in the sky above.
In addition to von Daniken, there are several other backers of the theory surrounding ancient alien astronauts. Giorgio Tsoukalos, host of ‘Ancient Aliens’ on televisions History Channel has presented that previous prehistoric humans believed that visiting aliens were actually gods. Next in line, Azerbaijan author Zecharia Sitchin wrote several books emphasizing that human evolution included a start from alien astronauts. Finally, the American born author Robert Temple has written several books on theories that aliens travelled from the Sirius Star and made contact with humans in the Dogon tribe of Africa.
As a young boy being educated at a catholic boarding school, Erich von Daniken was known to openly discuss his beliefs about God, religion, technology and extraterrestrials. His beliefs grew stronger at the age of sixteen when academic explainations of the bible convinced him that the “technologies and religions of many ancient civilizations were given to them by extraterrestrials” (Conterio). These beliefs became the impetus for a lifelong mission of proposing theories and writing books aimed at convincing society (believers and non-believers) that alien astronauts had come to earth. Once on earth, these aliens contributed to mankind by providing the technology needed to assist in the building of monuments such as Stonehenge. As for evidence of his claim, von Daniken points to drawings found in caves and conclusions drawn from the ‘Book of Enoch’ where specifically “he treats these texts as scientific data because he says they deliver empirical information about the sun and moon and that the universe people in 1,000 BCE couldn’t possibly have gathered themselves by observance of nature and the night sky” (Conterio).
Several alternative explanations exist for how Stonehenge may have come into being. The first, which was construed in the middle ages, was that it was assembled by the wizard Merlin. It was annotated that after a battle during the middle of the fifth century, King Aureoles Ambrosias wanted to build a memorial to honor lost noblemen. To do this he and his men went to Ireland and started a new war aimed at defeating the incumbents and bringing the necessary stones, in their circle, back to England. Ambrosias and his men won the war, but were not able to remove the stones. Speculation has it that Merlin stepped in, using his magical powers retrieved the stones and delivered them to the Stonehenge location. A second view, backed by scientists, indicates that it was the work of glaciers that moved the sarsens and the bluestones from Wales to their location in England. Support for this theory is based on evidence that this same sort of glacial movement has been found elsewhere in the world. A third theory states that Stonehenge was built by the Druids. The Druid theory was introduced by the archaeologist John Aubrey during the 17th century. Aubrey based his theory due to the unearthing of druid graves at the location. Finally, there is a more modern day view which is supported by both historians and archaeologists, which indicate several different groups of people participated in building of Stonehenge over many years. “Bones, tools and other artifacts found on the site seem to support this hypothesis” (Cohen).
The biggest pro to support the fantastic claim that ancient alien astronauts constructed Stonehenge (and several other large scale monuments) is purely based on their size. As previously indicated four and twenty-five ton stones would have been impossible to move given the tools and technology that existed during the timeframe that Stonehenge was built. Additionally, in 2017 a report was published by George Mason University doctoral student, Sam Monfort, outlining 104,947 reported UFO sightings being recorded over the past 100 years (Fox News). That represents an average of over 1000 sightings per year. Based on this number of sightings, it is safe to assume that it has been going on since the beginning of time and likely to have resulted in actual landings and inhabitation at a time when there were fewer civilizations on earth. Unfortunately, believing does not make something real and therefore unless Elon Musk or Tim Bezos speed up their processes for space travel, it is going to be very hard to test whether the universe is inhabited by others and if there is any evidence that they previously travelled to earth and made contributions such as Stonehenge.
Additional cons for the fantastic claim directly relate to the sources by which most of the information about Alien visitation is derived. An author with a wild imagination and a television host fixated on such claims does not make for legitimate refereed sources. While both have presented interesting theories based on their own research, none of it can be scientifically proven. Additionally, most evidence presented in support of Stonehenge being built aliens can be explained away by an action other than ancient alien astronauts. Applying Occam’s razor it is easy to reject the theory that Stonehenge was built be ancient alien astronauts.
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