Figure: A useful map of Stonehenge

Caption: This is a modern, useful map of Stonehenge. It shows the various stone circles, the Altar Stone, the Heelstone, and the alignment from Altar Stone to the Heelstone which gives the approximate direction to the rising of the Sun on the day of the summer solstice.

Further Explication:

1. Stonehenge exhibits alignment astronomy, and thus it is a astronomical site (i.e., a site of archaeoastronomy) among other things (see Wikipedia: Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge).

2. The map shows the suggested aligments. Most of the alignments are probably just accidental and intentional by the Stonehengers (AKA Neolithic Britons).

3. The most certain intentional alignment astronomy embodied in Stonehenge is embodied by the Heelstone.

4. On the map, you see the Heelstone off to the northeast (NE) on the ancient Stonehenge Avenue---but NOT exactly in the middle as the map shows. At the summer solstice, the Sun rises approximately in the direction the Heelstone as seen from the Altar Stone. This is the farthest northward rising direction that the Sun reaches before its rising direction heads south again. The Sun, of course, on the summer solstice is at its maximum declination of 23.4°.

5. The alignment with the sunrise on the summer solstice is also, mutatis mutandis, that of the sunset on the winter solstice. Mike Parker Pearson (1957--) (during a public lecture: Stonehenge Archeology Lecture, 2016 April 19, Mike Parker Pearson) suggested the winter solstice alignment may have been more important than the summer solstice alignment to the Stonehengers (AKA Neolithic Britons).

6. Note the word "approximately" in the description of the Sun's rising direction on summer solstice. The alignment of the rising direction may be more exactly with the middle of the Stonehenge Avenue. There may once have been a companion to the Heelstone on the other side of the middle Stonehenge Avenue from the Heelstone. The hypothetical companion is indicated by the empty oval just northwest of the Heelstone. The 2 menhirs (AKA standing stones) (Heelstone and companion) would have frames the rising direction. See Wikipedia: Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge: Early work.

   What happened to the companion? Oh, probably quarried over the centuries to make dry stone stone walls by local farmers (AKA vandals though NOT actual Vandals).

7. For Stonehenge keywords, see Stonehenge keywords below (local link / general link: stonehenge_keywords.html).

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