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Stonehenge consists of two circles, the outer one composed of sandstone pillars formerly supporting lintels (six remain),
and the inner one of bluestones. Inside the latter circle are two series of standing stones, each in the shape of a
horseshoe. None of the circles or horseshoes are complete, because some of them have fallen, and others are missing
altogether. Inside the innermost horseshoe is a single stone, broken in half, called the Altar Stone, and surrounding the
outermost circle is a ring of 56 holes called the Aubrey holes. Intersecting these some 80 yards from the Altar Stone is the
Heel Stone.

The sandstone are or local origin, but the bluestones are generally believed to have been transported somehow from the
Prescelly Mountains in the far south-west of Wales. According to more radical ideas, intermingled with legend, they were
brought to Wiltshire from Ireland, via the magical powers of the magician Merlin, and to Ireland from Africa, by giants.

It is popularly but erroneously believed that Stonehenge was constructed by the druids. In fact, Stonehenge was first
constructed around 4000 years ago, during the Neolithic "New Stone" Age. It has been modified several times since then,
most recently around 1400 BC, during the Early Bronze Age, producing the version that exists in incomplete form today.
This much is fairly clear, but far less certain is the precise function of this structure. Just what is stonehenge's purpose:
solar temple, lunar observatory, source of healing energy, or possible all of the above? A great deal has been written about
the supposed alignments of certain of its stones with celestial events, leading to the conclusion that Stonehenge was
created as a complex astronomical observatory; and it is true, for instance, that the line between the Heel Stone and the
Altar Stone extends to the precise point of the midsummer sunrise. More recently, however, as pointed out by Janet and
Colin Bord in Ancient Mysteries of Britain, researchers have exposed flaws in some of these alignments, thus
necessitating a re-examination of the role of Stonehenge in this capacity.

A very different theory about Stonehenge owes its origin to folklore, which claims that, just like those of many other
megaliths, its stones have healing properties. This belief was first documented as far back as the twelfth century AD, in
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. Moreover, during the "Dragon Project" research program initiated
in 1978 by earth energy investigator Paul Devereux, it was demonstrated that at least one of the Rollright standing stones
in Oxfordshire exhibited rapid fluctuations of magnetic energy and a high magnetic field. What is so interesting about this
is that for centuries local people with broken or fractured limbs have visited the Rollright Stones in the belief that the stones
will mend them- and modern hospital therapy has revealed that electromagnetism does accelerate the healing process of
bone fractures.

Perhaps such forces were known to the builders of Stonehenge and other megalithic structures, who erected them in sites
that could tap into the earth's natural energy sources for this purpose. Again the "Dragon Project" has shown that many
megaliths are situated on or near to geological faults, associated tectonic intrusion or areas releasing radiation.
Considerations of earth energy lead inevitably to the subject of lay lines- straight lines linking prehistoric or pre-Christian
monuments, sacred sites and ancient magical localities, and which many visually delineate a vast network of underground
channels of earth energy. Although such ideas were first seriously applied to the British Isles as recently as 1921, by
amateur investigator Alfred Watkins, in China the reality of lung mei or "dragon paths" has been accepted for countless
centuries. Not only that, if provides an intriguing parallel with the concept of energy meridians fundamental to the practice
of acupuncture, another ancient Chinese tradition.