For most people, Stonehenge stands as a symbol for the most ancient of civilizations, the work of humans who had barely emerged from their hunter-gatherer origins. Those people might well be surprised to know just how many mysterious buildings survive, in one form or another, from much earlier epochs—and in places few would even dare to look.

10White Temple Of Uruk
3200 BC

A long way from the quiet shires that house Stonehenge stands a building that is yet more ancient. Perched at the top of the oldest existing ziggurat, in what is modern-day Warka, Iraq, is the weather-worn White Temple. Less known than the complexes on the ziggurat at Ur, the White Temple is only 20 meters (60 ft) in length. The name, added in modern times, comes from its whitewashed, mud-brick walls, whose sides still stand sentinel over the sands of the long-gone Sumerian empire. What the original name for the temple was, no one knows, as the early history of the site is achingly difficult to piece together. Could this building have buried within it secrets relating to a truly ancient organized religion?

What makes the White Temple especially intriguing is its connections to Anu, the oldest god of the Sumerian pantheon (and one of the stars of the Epic of Gilgamesh). It is also fascinating for the treasures it may well have housed, including the Warka Vase. This 5,000-year-old artifact was once housed in the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, before being looted in April 2003. It was later returned in a dozen pieces, months later, a sad reflection of the fragile state of Iraq’s present and its ancient past.

9Tarxien Temples
3250 BC

The Tarxien Temples are set amid the built-up neighborhood of Paola, just half an hour from Valletta, the capital of Malta. Less well-known than the Ggantija Temples and nearby underground Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni, these aboveground buildings are the most complex of all the ancient temple sites in Malta.

There are three temples at Tarxien, all different ages, with the oldest dating to 3250 BC. The mystery lies in the beliefs of the people who constructed them. Were they simply artistic structures, suggested by the intricate and beautiful animal carvings that can be seen there, or did they serve a Sun god? Perhaps they were a homage to an obese fertility goddess, whose corpulent figure crops up so often at the site.

The Tarxien temples were discovered accidentally by a farmer in 1913 and have since been carefully restored, though they are still open to the elements. A tent and flood protection have been proposed for the temples, but for the moment, they remain within view of the azure sky and the ever-staring Sun.

8Sechin Bajo Plaza
3500 BC

Everyone has heard of the legendary Inca Empire and their Machu Picchu citadel, but fewer know about the remains of Peruvian civilizations that are older—much older. Five thousand years before the Incas reached their peak in the 15th century, ancient groups in the New World were constructing Sechin Bajo. The site consists of a circular plaza 14 meters (45 ft) in diameter, 370 kilometers (230 mi) north of modern-day Lima.

Adobe friezes show a warrior holding a knife in one hand and what could be a head or a shield in the other. There are disputes over the age of the site, but carbon-dating techniques conducted by a German and Peruvian archaeological team in 2008 date the plaza to 3500 BC, making it the oldest building complex in the Western hemisphere.

Things get even more mysterious with the mention by the team of older plazas that might be buried beneath the main site. That mystery will have to be for another day, however, as the archaeologists await further grants to delve deeper. In the meantime, scientists are filling in the site with dirt to preserve it and protect it from tomb raiders.

7West Kennet Long Barrow
3650 BC

Seven hundred years before Stonehenge was being prepared, West Kennet Long Barrow was already built, just 25 kilometers (15 mi) from the famous stone circle. A barrow is a place to hold the dead, traditionally the social elite, and this barrow is one of the best preserved in Britain. It dominates the nearby area, at over 100 meters (330 ft) long and 12–24 meters (40–80 ft) wide, and it is tall enough inside to let a person stand upright. Dating from 3650 BC, it was in use for almost 1,000 years, holding the bones of 50 people.

Speculation abounds as to why the barrow was abandoned. Was it simple neglect or something more cryptic? Did a change in belief lead to a change in burial practice and a blocking up of the old barrows? Could it be something to do with the arrival of the Avebury stone circle, built around the time of the Long Barrow’s demise, just 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) away?

6Knap Of Howar
3700 BC

The two stone structures that form the Knap of Howar may at first appear insignificant, but they are in fact 5,700 years old and are the oldest known stone houses in northern Europe. The walls of these houses still stand over 1.6 meters tall but were only uncovered in the 1930s, after severe sea erosion and gales blew their cover.

The houses can be found at the northern tip of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, an archipelago of over 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited. Together with the more famous sites of Orkney, such as Skara Brae and the Ring of Brogar, the Knap is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name of the site comes from Old Norse and means “mound of mounds.”

Several curious questions linger over these prehistoric houses. What is the significance of the pottery shards and stone and flint tools found throughout the houses? Was the Knap a workshop, whose tools were traded far beyond the islands? The houses had spacious living quarters, and there are indications of yet older structures beneath. Just how ancient and advanced was the civilization that made such homes this far north?

5Monte D’Accoddi
4000 BC

If most people were asked where they could find a truly ancient pyramid, few would mention the northwestern coast of Sardinia, in the Mediterranean. But it is here that you would find Monte d’Accoddi, a 6,000-year-old building whose true purpose is still the subject of debate. With its earliest foundations going back to 4000–3650 BC, this site not only predates Stonehenge but is also more ancient than the oldest pyramids of Egypt, which arrive on the scene over 1,000 years later.

Scholars translate the name as “Stone Mount,” and the building consists of a ramp over 40 meters (130 ft) long, leading to a step-pyramid that would have been 8 meters (25 ft) tall. Uniquely, the nearby area also houses both a 4.44-meter (14.6 ft) upright menhir and a limestone sphere with a circumference of almost 5 meters (15 ft). Lonely Planet describes the site as “unlike anything else in the Mediterranean,” and for such a phenomenal place, surprisingly few tourists venture here.

Monte d’Accoddi has been defined alternatively as an altar, a ziggurat, a temple, and a pyramid. Only adding to the mystery is the “red room” at the center of the site, whose walls are smeared with red ochre. Despite repeated studies, there is no clear answer as to just what happened on this mysterious mount.

4Tumulus Of Bougon
4700 BC

The Tumulus of Bougon ranks as one of the world’s few remaining structures that would have been regarded as ancient even back in the time of Stonehenge. A tumulus is an artificial mound, usually one built over a grave site. The site at Bougon, in the Deux-Sevres department of France near the Atlantic coast, consists of no fewer than six tumuli.

The biggest is 72 meters (240 ft) long, and the tumuli vary in size and shape; some are circular, others rectangular or trapezoidal. Were these shape choices simply based on aesthetic tastes, or is there a deeper significance, perhaps related to the builders’ beliefs in the afterlife?

Other mysteries surround these 7,000-year-old buildings. A skull of a man was found inside, and it bears truly ancient evidence of trepanning. To trepan a skull meant to perforate a hole in it, with the presumed aim of curing mental disorders. Did the man survive his affliction, or was he hastily buried at Bougon? We might now regard those who carried out this procedure as mad, but we can now see just how timeworn a cure it was.

3Cairn Of Barnenez
4800 BC

A faceless portrait—repeated and mysterious U shapes—frantic zig-zags. All of these symbols etched out on stone slabs, inside vaults that have stood for over 68 centuries. These are some of the secrets that are sepulchered inside the Cairn of Barnenez, in northern Finistere, in the Brittany region of France.

The Cairn of Barnenez is not the grave site of one man but houses 11 different tombs, added one by one over centuries, starting in 4800 BC. This is such an ancient monument that as big a chasm of years separates the builders of this cairn from the writers of the Old Testament as separates those biblical authors from the 21st century.

This is no small site either. The cairn is 75 meters (250 ft) long and 25 meters (80 ft) across at its widest. The estimated weight of the stones that make up the site is 12,000 tons, making the cairn the biggest megalithic mausoleum in Europe.

2Tower Of Jericho
9000 BC

The Tower of Jericho marries mystery with biblical fame, beauty with fear, grandeur with power. The origins of the 8.5-meter (28 ft) stone tower, a staggering 11,000 years old, justify the tower being described as the world’s oldest skyscraper.

The tower marks a milestone in the history of human progress, standing tall before most human tribes had settled down into sedentary communities. Constructing the tower marked one of the first achievements of what could be called the urban human, who for tens of thousands of years previously had roamed the land without a fixed home.

The mystery lies in the tower’s purpose. Almost every year that has passed since it was discovered 65 years ago has provided a new theory for its function. The ideas span everything from the tower being a time-keeping device to constituting a flood-defense, from being a symbol of wealth to being a defensive territorial marker. Even how it was constructed remains to be deciphered. As a part of the biblical city of Jericho, whose walls were so famously to fall, the tower’s future as a monumental marker in human history is assured.

1Tell Abu Hureyra
11,000 BC

The rectangular walls of the houses of Tell Abu Hureyra truly have an epic story to tell—one with a final twist.

The story begins at the dawn of human agriculture, a remarkable chapter in the tale of Homo sapiens. Some of the earliest cultivated cereals are found among the jaw-droppingly old remains of Tell Abu Hureyra, in what is now northern Syria. The village has been radiocarbon-dated as being a mind-blowing 13,000 years old.

This may have been the first foray into full-blown farming, according to research led by Professor Hillman of University College London. “As the wild grasses and seeds that the people relied on for food died out,” said Hillman, “they were forced to start cultivating the most easily grown of them to survive.” We will never know for sure what inspired these earliest farmers to be the first to launch the human race into its latest epoch.

But what of the final twist? These ancient structures were deliberately flooded and now keep their secrets deep beneath the waters of Lake Assad.

Philip tutors in an inner-city London school and is set to have a viral educational video channel on YouTube, if only he can get round to posting more videos.

Stonehenge is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, yet it remains shrouded in mystery. There is still so much that we don’t know and may never know about its origins or function, and this mysteriousness only makes it more intriguing.

However, this isn’t to say we don’t know anything about the site. On the contrary, years of research and study have brought new insights into its long history, some of which have only added further questions. And, as we’ll see, though abandoned, history has a habit of playing out in and around these ancient stones.

With that in mind, here are ten things you might not know about Stonehenge.

Related: 10 Most Plausible Pyramid Construction Theories

10 Its Construction Was Completed in Stages

We don’t exactly know how or why Stonehenge came to be, but we do know it wasn’t the handiwork of one group of people. Instead, Stonehenge’s construction is something that occurred over hundreds of years. Furthermore, it was altered multiple times by several generations.

Initial construction on the Stonehenge site began around 5,000 years ago with the digging of a ditch and bank using primitive tools. However, the Stone circle was built several hundred years later, around 2500 BC. Work continued until around 1600 BC, with the bluestones, in particular, seeing a lot of movement.^[1]

9 Some Stones Were Sourced from Hundreds of Miles Away

Some of the bluestones that make up the inner ring of Stonehenge can be traced to Preseli, Wales, which is nearly 300 kilometers (180 miles) away. Just how these stones made it across land and water to Stonehenge still confounds archaeologists and scientists alike. Some have suggested glaciers gave a hand. Others maintain that humans did all the work.

In 2000, a Welsh group was determined to discover how ancient peoples could have accomplished this feat. To do this, they set about trying to recreate the journey of a large bluestone using only stone-age tools. Unlike our ancestors, though, they were unsuccessful. They abandoned the project shortly after the stone ended up in the water.^[2]

8 Charles Darwin Studied Worms There

When people think of Charles Darwin’s research travels, the first thing that comes to mind are the Galapagos islands and his study of the finches. However, the world’s most famous biologist, Darwin, best known for his theory of evolution, once traveled to Stonehenge to conduct research.

You might not think Darwin’s work would see him take much interest in stones, and you’d partly be right. See, it was not the stones he was interested in but the worms (a favorite subject of Darwin’s) that lived beneath them. Darwin was particularly fascinated by how the tiny worms there had caused an enormous fallen stone to sink deeper. Some of his findings from his research there ended up in his final book: The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms.^[3]

7 First-Known Direct Reference Dates to 12th Century

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

It makes sense that the ancient civilization that built Stonehenge didn’t leave us any written records. But, what’s fascinating, is that in the hundreds and thousands of years that followed, no one else did either. At least they didn’t leave any records that have survived anyway.

Stonehenge’s first-known written reference is dated to the 12th century and was written by a man named Henry of Huntingdon. He was the archdeacon of Lincoln at the time and was compiling a history of England. In the book that followed— Historia Anglorum or History of the English—he would describe the stone circle as a “manner of doorways.” Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be until the 15th century that the first-known accurate drawings of Stonehenge began to appear.^[4]

6 Stonehenge’s Function Is Still Unknown

Archaeological evidence suggests that Stonehenge served as a burial site, but what other functions it provided remain a mystery. Some scholars have theorized that the monument served a religious function, either as a ceremonial site, pilgrimage destination, or memorial to the deceased.

One theory that gained a particular amount of attention is the idea that it served as a kind of astronomical calendar, one which corresponded to the yearly equinoxes and solstices. Evidence does, in fact, show that the stones align with the sun during important turning points of the year, including Midsummer and the winter solstice. However, it is debatable whether the stones ever aligned with the moon, stars, and planets.^[5]

5 Is It a Henge or Non-Henge?

The truth is that Stonehenge is neither the largest nor the oldest henge—in fact, it’s not even a proper henge at all.

Stonehenge has become an iconic part of the British landscape and attracts around 800,000 people a year. But while it may be the most famous, it is neither the largest nor the oldest. For example, the Avebury henge, which is only 17 miles away, is both larger and older. Ironically, Stonehenge is not technically even an actual henge as it doesn’t meet the criteria, even though the term henge is derived from its name. While Stonehenge has an earthwork circle surrounding it, the location of the main ditch outside the main bank demotes it to an “almost-henge.”^[6]

4 Duke Digging for Treasure

Interest in Stonehenge isn’t exactly a recent phenomenon, and the site has been subject to several digs and excavations over the years. Most of the time, these digs were conducted in the pursuit of knowledge. But in the early 17th century, one man had something else in mind: treasure.

In 1620 the Duke of Buckingham sent his men to dig in the monument’s center in search of lost riches. Unbeknownst to them, however, they were digging into a prehistoric pit. They found plenty of bones and skulls of animals and burned charcoal, but neither the men nor the duke left the place any richer.^[7]

3 It Was the Subject of a Battle

In 1985, Stonehenge would be at the heart of a violent clash between a group of travelers and police, one that would become known as the “Battle of the Beanfield.”. Unsurprisingly, accounts of the battle vary depending on whom you ask. Some remember it as a successful operation conducted with the support of the local community. But for others, it was nothing more than a violent ambush.

The travelers, a group of some 600 people, wanted to stage a free festival at the monument. Fearing the drug use and lawlessness that had occurred at previous events, the police sought and obtained an injunction to prevent the festival. However, the traveling convoy was unswayed and tried to go ahead with their plans. It all culminated in violence between the two groups. Eight Officers and sixteen travelers would be injured in the brawl that ensued, and multiple vehicles were damaged.

Courts would later clear the police of unlawful arrest but awarded compensation to the convoy for damage caused.^[8]

2 Numerous Legends and Myths Regarding Its Origin

Whenever there are unanswered questions, there will inevitably be some myths and legends to fill the space. And such is certainly the case when it comes to Stonehenge. One of the oldest and most well-known of such myths is the folk tale that suggests the Artheriun Wizard Merlin is responsible for creating the monument. The story goes that Merlin teleported the stones from Ireland, where Giants had assembled them.

Another legend points to invading Danes as the source of its origin; others describe the monument as a Roman temple. Modern tales are no less imaginative with the suggestion that the site is, in fact, a UFO landing pad, perhaps being the most famous.^[9]

1 The Site Was Used as an Airfield

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge sits upon a relatively flat and open expanse of land, which made it a surprisingly popular site for aviation use in the past. And while you wouldn’t think to look at it now, the area once hosted military aircraft and hangers.

Planes first arrived on the site in 1909 and were civilian in nature. However, during the First World War, the British government, desperate for new airfields, took an interest in using the site. As a result, the area around Stonehenge would be requisitioned and swiftly turned into an aerodrome in 1917.

The site served as a final training ground for pilots before heading to the Western Front. Its existence would be brief, though, and in 1919 the site was handed back to the original owner. Eventually, the buildings were removed as part of an initiative to return the monument to its natural surroundings. Today, it seems almost as if the site of the airfield never existed.^[10]