dia 31

Day 31
Today I wake up decided to go to Avebury. I imagined that it could be an easier option before go to Glastonbury, where I though to have lots to see and walk. I guess I was a bit mistaken. The bus 273 lead me to Devizes, where I had to take the 49 to Avebury. The area is around a valley and it looks very fertile, by the number of cultivated crops around.

CROP CIRCLES
In one of those crop fields I’ve saw what looked like to be a crop circle, and it proved to be true. The area is crowded with these legendary drawings made on the crops that are unexplained yet. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, two english artists claims to be the authors of them, and that they’ve been working on it as a kind of art since the 70’s, but some disagree. There are much more of these strange fenomena than they could handle, especially working hidden for so many years. There are those which affirms the crop circles are made by UFOs, but one thing is right: they appear in very fancy places sometimes, strange enough to be something made by choice.
Making a crop circle in Glastonbury or Avebury is halfway to be an acclaimed ET or artist whatever.

crop circle

AVEBURY

My second surprise about the little trip from Devizes to Avebury was to see Silbury Hill. I could not imagine that it gets so close to the city, so I realized I had another visit to do in that day. The city – or village – is very small and it gets parcially located inside a stone circle. The stone circle is a very large one, with 42 big stones in circle (that would be more, because there gaps) and another two stones circles inside.

some of the mysterious stones from Avebury
the stones named Adan and Eve

the gap that surrounds Avebury

There are a certain pattern in their cut, they are all wider in the face inside and outside the circle and thinner in the side, or in the line of the circle. They are all have funny names given by the locals, for one reason or another, but there is one specific that have its name due to an excavation in which were found a skeleton from the 15th century, with a pair of scissors and some other objects. They call it the barber.

Each stone has a distinguished feature and some are quite surprising. There are some with very stright edges, and others with no edge at all. Most of them has holes, and look like the same kind of stone, probably limestone. There are some that reach the 3,5 to 4 meter high.

AVENUE
Outside the circles there is an “avenue” that leads to the remains of an old city and burial center called the Santuary. There is no straight line connecting the places, the Avenue is made of pairs of stones that would trace a path.

starting point of the Avenue

For my surprise they make a slight curve, visible enough for those who follow them. Half way to the Santuary, the Avenue ends (but it looks like it has been detroyed). If you turn right uphill you get to the Silbury Hill. I took the track and did not get disappointed.

SILBURY HILL

Silbury Hill

Silbury hill is an Neolithical artificial mountain with some 37 meters high that stands in the middle of a plain area surrounded by other hills. But Silbury hill is quite distinguished from them, and it is know since ancient times. Now it is impossible to climb it up, but excavations were hold there since the XVIII century.

Silbury Hill

WEST KENNETH

West Kenneth

Just to the other side of the road there are some other marks in the landscape, like the notorious West Kenneth burial ground, which is the most ancient of this kind in the Europe. There were found 46 skeletons and it looks that its been active as a burial place for a thousand years. There are 5 chambers in this artificial little hill.

West Kenneth

MOUNDS

burial mounds

Coming back to where the Avenue ends, I took another track to visit some round graves in the top of the mountains. They were from a posterior kind, where the mounds were construct and trees were planted on the top of the burial place. There were three of this kind, just one of them with no trees on the top.

burial mounds

On the whole, Avebury looks like its been used by many generations as a living place and sacred place too. There are monuments from virtually every period since the paleolithic, which is notable in such an small area. This makes it very tasking for studying too, because it is necessary to spare each era to understand it. For my Ley lines study is a capital site for its importance, but also showed me I got to get aware of the time vaults involved. For its importance of course there are claimed to be trespassed by a Ley or more.

PATHS
The landscape is fantastic and I had to take some photos of the paths I’ve been, and this is turning kind into a theme for my photos. I’ve selected some here, but along the blog you will notice many more.




Coming back to Bath I’ve noticed a street called Ley Place.
My camera is stinking, not to mention my clothes and myself.
I hope you appreciate my atempt in being short with the images.