in Southwest Wales, 130 miles away. However, water travel alleviated much of the hassle of moving stones that great of a distance so that only a short land journey remained, from Avesbury to Stonehenge along the avenue. Phase III lasted from about 2,000 BC to 1,100 BC, and consisted of the removal of the bluestone circle and the erection of a ring of 30 sarsen-stone uprights, linked by stone lintels. The ring is about 16 feet high and was approximately 30.5 meters (100 feet) in diameter. Inside are five taller trilithons. The sarsen-stones came from the Marlborough Downs, a 30 kilometers (20 mile) distance away. Lastly the bluestones were re-erected in the center in an oval structure that contained at least two miniature trilithons, and the rest were to be set in two concentric circles located around the sarsen circle. The plan was later abandoned, and in approximately 1,550 BC the bluestones were rearranged again in the circle and horseshoe. Phase IV (1,100 BC) involved the extending of the Avenue to the River Avon, 2 km (1.25 miles) from Stonehenge. Researchers have estimated that Stonehenge took about 1,500,000 working days (working days being: number of workers times the number of days worked) to construct, and that it involved about 1,000 workers at a time (ratio 1000 workers working for 2 days amounts to 2000 working days).C. Stonehenge TodayToday, visitors only see the substantial remnants of the last in a sequence of monuments erected between c.3000 and 1600BC. Each was a circular structure, aligned along the rising of the sun at the midsummer solstice. III. The History of StonehengeA. Myths and LegendsThe legend of King Arthur provides another story of the construction of Stonehenge. It is told by the twelfth century writer, Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his History of the Kings of Britain that Merlin brought the stones to the Salisbury Plain from Ireland. Sometime in the fifth century, there had been a massacre of 300 British nobl...
