Avebury is the greatest Neolithic temple in the world. Enclosed in truly massive banks and ditches (421 m in diameter and 1.35 km in circumference) is the worlds largest stone circle, the Great Outer Ring, a structure so large that it easily accommodates a small village inside complete with a pub, a church with graveyard and a handful of houses. Within the Great Circle are two smaller circles, the Northern Inner Ring and Southern Inner Ring and two remaining stones of vast proportions which originally formed a three-stone cove. Leading up to massive enclosure were two long avenues of upright stones, assumed to have been a later addition. Only the West Kennet Avenue retains enough of its stones to demonstrate how impressive the original monumental landscape once was.

Over the thousands of years since Avebury was built, and especially in the Christian era, stones were removed, destroyed or buried to enable more intensive agriculture and also in an attempt to banish the ghosts of paganism hanging over the area.


Older and more impressive than the more famous and closely controlled Stonehenge a half hours drive south, Aveburys old stones, banks and ditches seem far removed from the ordinary, a world within a world.

Avebury is the greatest Neolithic temple in the world. Enclosed in truly massive banks and ditches (421 m in diameter and 1.35 km in circumference) is the worlds largest stone circle, the Great Outer Ring, a structure so large that it easily accommodates a small village inside complete with a pub, a church with graveyard and a handful of houses. Within the Great Circle are two smaller circles, the Northern Inner Ring and Southern Inner Ring and two remaining stones of vast proportions which originally formed a three-stone cove. Leading up to massive enclosure were two long avenues of upright stones, assumed to have been a later addition. Only the West Kennet Avenue retains enough of its stones to demonstrate how impressive the original monumental landscape once was.

Over the thousands of years since Avebury was built, and especially in the Christian era, stones were removed, destroyed or buried to enable more intensive agriculture and also in an attempt to banish the ghosts of paganism hanging over the area.


Older and more impressive than the more famous and closely controlled Stonehenge a half hours drive south, Aveburys old stones, banks and ditches seem far removed from the ordinary, a world within a world.