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Please bear with me if these questions are idiotic, but as a non-UKer, these puzzle me:
Who owns Stonehenge?
Who owns the land surrounding it?
How big is the land associated with it?
Who pays for its maintenance?
Who pays for guarding or monitoring it?
How close can ordinary people get to it?
Stonehenge is owed by The Crown.

i.e. The institution of the Monarchy as a concept.

That means King Charles owns it, but only as long as he is King.
It then passes to the next monarch.

More here:

https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/en...wn Estate belongs to,it belong to the monarch.

I'll let others answer the other questions.
 
I get the feeling that some people have me 'blocked' or on 'ignore' because I have given a reasonably full explanation with references to other sites in my earlier posts 715 and 718.
Either that or people just can't be bothered to go back a few posts and read them.
Their loss.
 
Good old photo here Trev, taken roughly where the red circle is on your picture. Imagine if the A303 was still like this today;
shg.png
stonehenge-and-cafe-1930s.jpg

shg.png
 
I just went on the streetview from the same point.
The main differences nowadays are;
The road that passes closest to the stones has been lifted at this end, and returfed.
All the old buildings and signage are all gone.
The A303 has been widened just a little bit and obviously had modern white lines etc added.

But, is it just me, or does it seem like the stones are much, much further away from the junction than they were?
Either that or the placement of the roads themselves shifted significantly over the years?
Or the cameras used for the old pics and the new ones have different lenses that make the old pics have a shortened distance thing going on?
(I'm not an expert on cameras, clearly)

1669288300895.png
 
I just went on the streetview from the same point.
The main differences nowadays are;
The road that passes closest to the stones has been lifted at this end, and returfed.
All the old buildings and signage are all gone.
The A303 has been widened just a little bit and obviously had modern white lines etc added.

But, is it just me, or does it seem like the stones are much, much further away from the junction than they were?
Either that or the placement of the roads themselves shifted significantly over the years?
Or the cameras used for the old pics and the new ones have different lenses that make the old pics have a shortened distance thing going on?
(I'm not an expert on cameras, clearly)

View attachment 61060
You're right, they do seem further away than I remembered them.
 
I just went on the streetview from the same point.
The main differences nowadays are;
The road that passes closest to the stones has been lifted at this end, and returfed.
All the old buildings and signage are all gone.
The A303 has been widened just a little bit and obviously had modern white lines etc added.

But, is it just me, or does it seem like the stones are much, much further away from the junction than they were?
Either that or the placement of the roads themselves shifted significantly over the years?
Or the cameras used for the old pics and the new ones have different lenses that make the old pics have a shortened distance thing going on?
(I'm not an expert on cameras, clearly)

View attachment 61060
Yes they do seem further away.

The A303 is on the same line it always has been though, but it looks to be the more minor of the two roads in the old photo, or certainly only on an equal footing at best.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...51.18063&lon=-1.82457&layers=11&right=BingHyb
 
The very detailed LIDAR scan of the area (which shows all the old earthworks etc that can't be seen visually) indicates that the route of the road(s) has not changed over the years - if it had you would be able to still see the original layout in the ground, same as you can see the ancient approach to the stones (from where the little number '2' is).

1669292510562.png
 
Thanks, everyone, for the informative responses. Yesterday was a hectic day due to family, and I could not get back to respond the way your thoughtful and detailed posts deserved. As a non-UKer, I could not figure out who owns it, and so on. If I ever travel out of my country again, Stonehenge has been one of the few places I have wanted to visit for decades. I am surprised to see so clearly that it is close to a paved road accessible to trucks.

Are any more stones lying on the ground going to be placed upright?

In the US, the equivalent structures are owned and preserved mainly by the Federal government, then next by states, counties (which are smaller governmental units in most states), and sometimes private owners. With various degrees of success. Here, over the past 50 years, the trend has been to transfer ownership from private and county to state, and eventually to the Federal government. In the US west, private ranchers work, sometimes for decades, with Federally funded archeologists to locate, stabilize, and research ruins on their private land.
 
As a lifelong resident of Wiltshire, I have never been.

But... but... you're an archaeologist! How can you not have been there?
Probably the same as when you live at the seaside you never go on the beach.

Are any more stones lying on the ground going to be placed upright?
Nah, I reckon they're "done wiv dat shit".
As far as I know, where they are now is where they're staying, and I have a feeling that there aren't any more to re-erect, and possibly some were broken up in the past and used for other buildings in the area (I'll bet it happened) - I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are some buildings locally that are 'stone built' that contain some bluestone or silcrete.
(the 'english heritage' website which I gave a link to 'upthread' has some excellent, detailed, information about the whole site.)
 
Not my period. Im solely post Roman; Iron age at worst.

To my mind Stonehenge is pretty pointless.
 
Midsummers Eve is approaching.

Do people still run around naked at Stonehenge ?

Probably not in modern times.
 
Midsummers Eve is approaching.

Do people still run around naked at Stonehenge ?

Probably not in modern times.
Yeah, all year round actually, but they only bother taking pictures of it at midsummer.
 
Yeah but being in water too long makes your skin all wrinkly.
 
As a passing comment on American news TV, the only time people can sleep among the Stonehenge area is the night before the morning of the summer solstice.

Agreeing to conduct rules eight thousand people were given permission to sleep.

Going by the TV picture wearing a robe was the way to dress for this occasion.
 
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