Photos: Thousands celebrate summer solstice at Stonehenge
Summer solstice is a mystical day for some cultures, and the festival at Stonehenge dates back thousands of years. The 5,000-year-old stone monument was carved and constructed at a time when there were no metal tools, and it symbolizes Britain’s semi-mythical prehistoric period.
Today marks summer solstice, the longest day in the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Thousands of people gathered at sunrise in Stonehenge, in southern England, for a festival marking the occasion.
Stonehenge’s structure is aligned with the sun’s movement. If you stand in the middle of the monument on a summer’s day, “you would see the sun rise just to the left of the Heel Stone, an outlying stone north-east of the circle,” according to English Heritage, a charity that manages hundreds of historic sites in England.
Source: The Washington Post
