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  Stonehenge bypassed by a tunnel, will this improve the area or destroy it?

  Posted by Nigel Brown on 1 December 2020 at 12:10 pm

  Revered by pagans, hard-rock bands, and hordes of tourists each year, Stonehenge symbolizes our connection to the Earth—and the heavens. Now this 4,500-year-old monument is at the center of a struggle between preservationists and the gods of modern-day traffic patterns.

  Developers want to tunnel under the area to widen and improve a nearby highway to alleviate traffic backups. Historians say the big dig, which is intended to remove the noisy and dangerous surface traffic, might crunch up evidence of a broader ancient settlement and a series of ceremonial sites,

  The Neolithic developments began north of Stonehenge 5,500 years ago with the construction of a massive trench, nearly two miles long and several hundred feet wide. “Archaeologists believe the landscape was first regarded as special because retreating glaciers hollowed out furrows in the ground that, by coincidence, aligned with significant positions of the sun at the June and December solstices,

  The Stonehenge bluestones, each weighing around four tons, were moved 140 miles from quarries in Wales to the site. These days, it is so close to the highway that you can hear the traffic on video streams of the summer solstice.

  Tunnel supporters argue that moving traffic underground will return the UNESCO World Heritage Site to its original landscape. “Visitors will be able to experience Stonehenge as it ought to be experienced, without seeing an ugly snarl of truck traffic running right next to it,” says Anna Eavis of English Heritage, the charity that looks after Stonehenge and more than 400 historical monuments around England.

  Given the precarious state of the nations finances, background noise on a video is preferable to the millions a tunnel would cost and potential damage to the area.

  

  Nigel Brown replied 3 years, 10 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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