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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, there's a new Crime House original you should check out. It's called the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah's an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller who's seen firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, examining the moments just before a person disappears. The routines, the timelines, the small details that often get overlooked because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal. Until it doesn't. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.
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Crime House Announcer
This is crime house.
- [01:08]
Vanessa Richardson
One of humanity's greatest mysteries can be found in a grassy field outside of London. For as long as anyone can remember, people have flocked to the village of Amesbury to mark marvel at. Well, a bunch of rocks. Of course, that's underselling it a bit. These aren't just any old pebbles. The ancient monument we call Stonehenge contains more than 60 massive stone pillars and blocks. Scientists believe construction started several millennia ago in the year 3000 BCE and bringing the structure to life was no easy task. The people who built Stonehenge didn't have trucks, cranes, or any other labor saving tool. They transported, arranged and stacked these incredibly heavy stones entirely by hand. For centuries, experts have struggled to explain how this was possible. But that's not the only mystery about Stonehenge. Because there's an even more important question up for debate. What was Stonehenge and why was it created in the first place? From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors, these aren't just theories. They're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios Every Wednesday and Friday. Today, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations. These cases are wild and I want to hear what you think at the end of each episode. Leave a comment wherever you listen. Be sure to rate, review and follow so we can continue building this community together. And for ad free access to both episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. Today, I'm taking a deep dive into one of the most iconic and mysterious places on Earth. Stonehenge. The people who built the British monument didn't have a written language, so we can only guess at why and how Stonehenge was created. However, plenty of experts and everyday people have offered their opinions. The theories range from Druid ceremonies to ancient team building exercises that involve giants, wizards and visitors from beyond. Without any firsthand evidence, we can't rule anything out. But the deeper we look, the closer we get to the truth about this enchanting monument. All that and more coming up. These days I'm really focused on quality over quantity. I'm raising my standards, especially when it comes to my closet. If it's not well made and versatile, I just don't bother. That's why I love Quince. Their fabrics feel elevated, the cuts are thoughtful, and the pricing is surprisingly reasonable. They make wardrobe staples in 100% European linen, silk and organic cotton poplin. Their cotton cashmere sweaters are light, soft and perfect for layering this season, and their spring colors gorgeous. Everything is designed to make getting dressed effortless. These are pieces built to last. Soft gauze that isn't flimsy linen that holds its shape and stitching that really stands up over time. That cotton cashmere sweater I grabbed has become my daily Go to light, luxe and exactly what I want. Stop waiting to build the wardrobe you actually want right now. Go to quint.com crimehouse pod for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling. For clothes that don't last, go to q U-I-N c e.com crimehouse pod for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com crimehouse pod Ugh. Could this vintage store be any cuter? Right. And the best part? They accept Discover. Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so. Jennifer oh yeah, huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop.
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- [05:39]
Vanessa Richardson
Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think.
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- [05:56]
Vanessa Richardson
Stonehenge was around for nearly 4,000 years before anyone started writing about it. The first time it was mentioned in print was around 1130 CE. That's when medieval historian Henry of Huntingdon discussed it in his book Historia Anglorum, which covered all of English history up until that point. And Henry described Stonehenge as one of the four great wonders of England and Just like every other historian who would write about Stonehenge over the next 896 years, he was completely mystified by it. In his account, Henry wrote, quote, no one can work out how the stones were so skillfully lifted up to such a height or why they were erected there. Six years later, another writer offered the first recorded theory of how Stonehenge was constructed. And his his explanation was a wizard did it. In his 1136 book, the History of the Kings of Britain, a cleric named Geoffrey of Monmouth discussed Stonehenge in detail. According to Geoffrey, the monument was built roughly 800 years earlier after a group of British nobles were murdered by traitorous German invaders. In Geoffrey's telling, the king of England at the time was Aurelius Ambrosius, uncle of King Arthur, raised an army and took revenge on the Saxons, driving them out of England. Then he put his trusted advisor Merlin, a powerful wizard and magician, in charge of building a memorial to the fallen nobles. Instead of using local materials, Merlin decided to use a circle of magical stones that were in Ireland at the time and had apparently been placed there by giants. Merlin enlisted 15,000 of the King's men to transport the stones from Ireland to the field where the nobles had been killed. There, Merlin used his magic to reassemble the stones around the graves of the fallen heroes. Supposedly, the rock's healing properties would preserve their memory for eternity. According to Joffrey, King Ambrosius was later buried at Stonehenge, as well as King Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. Geoffrey's book was widely read and the fantastic stories in it were generally accepted as true for the next few centuries. But eventually, historians came to recognize that most of the so called facts in history of the kings of Britain were completely made up. Still, Geoffrey's story was compelling. It cast Stonehenge, the mysterious monument and great wonder of England, as a magical symbol of national unity and pride. And it would take over 500 years for a new Stonehenge origin story to gain popularity. By the mid-1600s, advancements in education, science and genealogy gave rise to a new breed of historians known as antiquarians. They were fascinated by the relics and cultures of ancient times. And thanks to a better understanding of the natural world, they weren't willing to accept stories about giants and wizards anymore. This led British antiquarians to investigate Stonehenge using science. In 1666, an antiquarian named John Aubrey visited the site and made the first detailed drawing of the monument. While surveying the area, he discovered five small pits along the edge of the ditch surrounding the monument. Each one was approximately three feet deep. Later, antiquarians would discover 51 more of these pits, which were eventually named aubrey holes. All 56 aubrey holes are evenly spaced about one and a half feet apart, forming a perfect circle around the stones. Many of these holes had been filled in since Stonehenge was first constructed, either naturally or by humans. But during the excavation process, antiquarians discovered something interesting. 25 of the holes contained ancient ashes. In some ways, this proved Geoffrey of Monmouth right. People were buried at Stonehenge. But Aubrey and his fellow antiquarians didn't think the graves contained the bodies of medieval English kings. And they didn't think Merlin built the monument either. After doing some more research, Aubrey and his colleagues believed Stonehenge had been built by the Romans. The layout of the pillars was similar to the ruins of ancient Roman temples. Since the Romans had invaded and occupied Britain starting In the year 55 BCE, it was possible they'd built a temple outside Amesbury, too. For a while, it seemed like the mystery was solved, partially, at least. But in 1740, a doctor and antiquarian named William Stukeley took detailed measurements of the site. He came away with two important discoveries that forever changed how we think about Stonehenge. Stukeley's first revelation was that the monument was perfectly aligned with the sun during the two solstices. He observed that on the morning of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the sun rose directly behind the single stone pillar that stands outside of the circle. Then, once the sun reaches the top of this pillar, its rays shine directly into the center of the stone circle. At sunset on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the sun sets right between the monuments to two tallest upright pillars. This allows light to shine into the center of the circle until the sun dips below the horizon. Stukeley felt this wasn't an accident. The people who built Stonehenge went out of their way to precisely align the stones with the rotational axis of the earth. This was an impressive achievement for an ancient architect, and exactly the sort of thing the Romans were famous for. For. But Stukeley's second discovery proved that the Romans hadn't built it after all. Stukeley was an expert on ancient Rome, and when he took careful measurements of Stonehenge, he realized the layout didn't match Roman units of measurement. Because of that, Stukeley thought Stonehenge must have been built by the Celtic peoples who lived in Britain before the Romans arrived. Ironically, one of the best sources on the Celts was a famous Roman leader, Julius Caesar. Caesar was the Roman emperor who first ordered the invasion of Britain in 55 BCE. Later, he wrote multiple books about the culture and rituals of the Celtics he and his soldiers encountered during the occupation. In Caesar's telling, the most revered and respected people in Celtic society were a class of mysterious earth worshiping philosopher priests known as Druids. They were seen as intermediaries between the living and the spiritual realm. The Druids didn't leave any written records of their beliefs or rituals, only passing on their knowledge through oral storytelling. This was on purpose. They wanted to keep their religious practices as private as possible. And it worked. To this day, we know very little about who the Druids were or what they believed. But according to Caesar, they performed ritual sacrifices of animals and even humans. From what Caesar observed, they believed they could predict the future based on how the victims blood and entrails fell. These rituals only added to their allure. If anyone had the power to tell thousands of Celtics to build a massive stone monument, it was the Druids. And since we know the Druids made human sacrifices and it made sense that human ashes were found at Stonehenge, William Stukeley used all of this evidence to make a convincing case. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like he'd solved one of history's oldest mysteries. To this day, many modern Druids consider Stonehenge to be a holy site. There's just one problem when it comes to Stukeley's Druid theory. It isn't true.
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- [15:09]
Vanessa Richardson
Hablage espanol.
- [15:10]
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- [15:11]
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- [15:40]
Vanessa Richardson
Humans have spent thousands of years trying to explain why Stonehenge was created and and in the 1740s, English antiquarian William Stukeley came up with one of the most plausible theories. He thought Celtic Druids built the monument in 460 BCE as a temple for sacrifices. Stukeley's explanation was so popular that even today, many people assume Druids built Stonehenge. But at the start of the 20th century, a fresh crop of experts took a different approach. These weren't antiquarians making educated guesses. They were pioneers in the new field of archaeology. And Stonehenge was the perfect place to put their skills into action. One of the first archaeologists to examine the monument was William Gowland. In 1901, he was hired by an English nobleman named Edmund Antrobus to excavate the site. Antrobus family owned the land Stonehenge was built on. Years earlier, two of Stonehenge's upright pillars had fallen over during a storm. Antrobus knew some of the stones would need to be reinforced with concrete foundations. But before they started pouring concrete, preservationists wanted to be sure they weren't destroying any clues to the monument's origins. So William Gowland started digging in the dirt around Stonehenge. What he found and what he didn't find added a new wrinkle to the mystery. The Celtic Druids who supposedly built Stonehenge were members of an Iron Age civilization. The Iron Age lasted from around 1200 BCE to 550 BCE, a period when societies around the world learned how to make tools out of smelted iron. Archaeologists excavating Iron Age sites often uncovered fragments of iron tools and artifacts during their digs. But when Gowland began digging in the ground around Stonehenge, he didn't find any evidence of iron tools. Instead, he found fragments of tools made from animal bones, like antler picks or crude hammers made from chunks of stone. These kinds of tools were used during the Stone Age, which ended sometime between the year 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE when humans discovered metalworking this meant Stonehenge was built thousands of years before William Stukeley's estimate of 460 BCE. But even with proof, it was hard to believe the Neolithic tribesmen of the Stone Age had built something as sophisticated as Stonehenge. And just over 20 years later, the next major discovery at the site only raised more questions. In 1923, a geologist named Herbert Henry Thomas arrived at Stonehenge to study the rocks themselves. The outer circle is made of a series of 13 foot tall, 7 foot wide stones known as sarsens. Inside the circle of sarsens is another ring of smaller rocks, some lying on their sides, known as bluestones. And the entire stone structure is surrounded by a shallow ditch approximately 110 meters in diameter. Most experts agreed the sarsens came from a forest called the west woods, about 20 miles away. But the bluestones didn't look like any of the rocks in the surrounding area. So Thomas chipped off some samples and looked at them under a microscope. His analysis confirmed that the bluestones didn't match any nearby mineral deposits. But they perfectly matched stone samples taken from a hillside in southwest Wales, nearly west 150 miles away. His findings shocked the scientific community. There are 43 bluestones at Stonehenge. Most of them are about 13ft long and weigh between 1 and 2 tons. If Thomas was right, it meant primitive tribesmen with no access to modern technology had hauled these slabs over hundreds of miles of countryside. But. But how did they do it? And more importantly, why? Just a few years later, the mystery deepened when a second monument was discovered in the Same field. In 1926, a British Air Force pilot noticed a ring of dark patches in a field just two miles away from Stonehenge. When archaeologists investigated, they found the patches where the remains of ancient post holes. These are small human made slots in the dirt. They're usually used to support things like fence posts. And eventually experts discovered 168 of these holes arranged in six concentric circles. These experts also found wood fragments inside the holes, which indicated that they'd once supported hundreds of upright logs. The logs had long since rotted away, but when they were there, the site would have looked like an artificial forest arranged in several circles. It didn't take long for the experts to name the site Woodhenge. And the closer the archaeologists looked, the more similarities they saw to Stonehenge. On the outside of those concentric circles was a wide, flat bottomed ditch. It was 110 meters in diameter, the exact same dimensions as the ditch surrounding Stonehenge. And the same types of Stone Age tools were found in the soil around Woodhenge. This suggested that the two monuments were built in the same general time period. And just like Stonehenge, the layout of the site corresponded perfectly to the summer and winter solstice. Some archaeologists suspected the two sites played dual roles in ancient ceremonies. Woodhenge, built from organic material, was a monument to life. Stonehenge, built from cold, hard rock, was a monument to death. But more than 30 years after the discovery of Woodhenge, one renowned archaeologist proposed a different answer. Maybe Stonehenge was a monument to peace. During the Stone Age, people divided themselves into tribes based on where they lived. With populations ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred, these tribes often went to war over territories and limited resources. Archaeologists have found mass graves from this era all over Britain filled with skeletons whose skulls have been fractured by arrows and blunt weapons. But in his 1957 book, the dawn of European Civilization, Australian archaeologist Gordon Child argued that it would have been impossible for a culture at war to build Stonehenge. Moving hundreds of tons of stone across great distances and turning them into a monument takes a lot of manpower. The biggest tribes had 200 members. Even that wasn't enough people to build Stonehenge, especially if their workers were constantly dying in wars with rival tribes. Because of that, Child argued that multiple tribes must have put aside their differences and worked together to construct Stonehenge. He believed they built the monument to commemorate a sacred peace between their cultures. In his eyes, Stonehenge marked a time of more cooperation between all these tribes. This shift from combat to collaboration helped lay the groundwork for Britain to advance into the Bronze Age. Child's word carried a lot of weight in the scientific community. He was one of the world's most respected experts on prehistoric Europe and wrote 26 books on the subject over the course of his life. But just 11 years later, child would be overshadowed by a best selling book that offered a more compelling theory about Stonehenge's origins. One that had to do with aliens. Erich Von Daniken was born in 1935 and grew up in Switzerland, where he received a strict religious education at a Catholic school. And despite his teacher's best efforts, Von Daniken refused to accept the Church's view on creation and the universe. He was determined to find his own answers to life's great questions. As a young man in the 1950s, he took a job as a hotel manager and traveled the world in his spare time. For the next 12 years, von Daniken visited the ruins of ancient societies in the Middle east and South America and the Mediterranean. As an amateur archaeologist, he came away from his travels with a unique perspective on the development of ancient cultures and their monuments. In 1968, von Daniken poured his notes, findings and theories into a book with a question as its title, called Chariots of the Gods. The book's main idea is that millions of years ago, an advanced alien race came to Earth. Earth. But they weren't just visiting for fun. They engaged in a selective breeding program with primitive humans to evolve us into smarter, more capable Homo sapiens. And that wasn't all. Von Daniken believed these aliens had come back to Earth several times to give ancient civilizations more technology and wisdom. Humans who witnessed these otherworldly visits wrote about what they'd seen. Von Daniken claimed these eyewitness accounts went on to become myths, legends, and religious texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh or stories in the Bible. As evidence of this alien influence, Von Daniken pointed to a number of inexplicably advanced historical artifacts. These included ancient electrical batteries discovered in Baghdad and advanced crystal lenses found in an Egyptian tomb. But Von Daniken's most prominent examples were ancient monuments like the pyramids, the Mohai Heads on Easter island, and Stonehenge. Von Daniken believed it would have been impossible for ancient humans to build such enormous, labor intensive constructions without alien assistance. One of his main pieces of evidence was the location of these monuments. The stone used in the Pyramids of Giza came from a quarry over 400 miles away. The inhabitants of Easter island placed many of the enormous stone heads far away from their source of rock. And the bluestones for Stonehenge had been transported 150 miles from their source. Why would ancient humans go to the trouble of building their monuments so far away from the source of their building materials? Fondaniken said it was because the aliens had chosen those spots for a reason. The monuments were meant to mark the locations of more alien technology buried deep beneath the ground. The aliens who hid them knew that one day humans would discover those gifts. They hoped we would use them to unlock the secrets of interstellar travel, allowing us to join them among the stars. So according to Von Daniken's theory, Stonehenge isn't a temple for Druids, a monument to a tribal peace agreement, or even a tomb for mythical English kings. He thinks it's the marker for an ancient time capsule filled with otherworldly technology. It's a lot to take in. And at first, publishers weren't interested in Von Daniken's unorthodox take on human history history. Chariots of the Gods was rejected more than a dozen times until 1968, when a German company agreed to publish it. Von Daniken's wild theory turned out to be unexpectedly popular. His book shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller charts and eventually sold more than 8 million copies. Almost overnight, the idea that Stonehenge was a monument to alien technology had entered the mainstream. But Fondaniken had a hard time enjoying his newfound fame as a celebrity author, because by the time the book was published, he was in prison for embezzlement and fraud.
- [28:13]
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Vanessa Richardson
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- [29:14]
Vanessa Richardson
Delivery fees may apply. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, there's a new crime House show for you to check out. It's the new Crime House original series, the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah is an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller and investigator who witnessed firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, looking not only at what happened, but what led up to it. Each episode examines the moments just before a person disappears. The routines, the timelines, and the small details that often get overlooked. Because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal. A text that doesn't raise concern, A routine that goes unchanged. A door that closes just like it always has. Until it doesn't. The final hours puts those moments under a microscope. Because when it comes to justice, there's no such thing as overanalyzing. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. New episodes every Monday. In the 1920s, geologist Herbert Henry Thomas discovered that the blue stones at the center of Stonehenge had been brought from Wales, hundreds of miles away. Thomas couldn't explain why the rocks had been transported such a long distance, but Swiss hotel manager Erich Von Daniken had some ideas. In his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods, Von Daniken suggested that Stonehenge, along with other ancient monuments like the Pyramids of Giza, actually marked the location of hidden alien technology. Although archaeologists and historians dismissed Von Daniken's theories as pseudoscientific nonsense, his book became a bestseller. Thanks to the counterculture movements of the 1960s, lots of people were looking for new and exciting answers to the world's great mysteries. But just as his book was taking off, Von Daniken was in prison. Swiss police had learned Von Daniken was funding his many research trips by embezzling money from the hotel where he worked. Over the course of 10 years, von Daniken stole over $130,000, which is more than $1.2 million today. Shortly before Chariots of the Gods was published, Von Daniken was sentenced to one year in prison. At his trial, a court appointed psychiatrist described him as a liar and a criminal psychopath. None of that slowed him down. After his release from prison, von Daniken wrote 23 more books and became a renowned conspiracy theorist and pseudoscientist. Chariots of the Gods was later adapted into an Academy Award nominated documentary, and the belief that Stonehenge was built with alien guidance became an increasingly popular explanation. But Von Daniken's theory still has a lot of critics. Many people think the idea that primitive humans must have had extraterrestrial help is outlandish. Not only that, but it ignores the technical skills, creativity, and intelligence of indigenous peoples. This also ties into older colonial narratives. When European explorers visited Africa and the Americas, they refused to believe that impressive structures like the pyramids had been built without help. Thankfully, Von Daniken's word wasn't gospel. And while he and others were looking to the stars to explain Stonehenge, archaeologists were finding more answers here on Earth. During the 1990s, scientists used the new tool of radiocarbon dating to get a more precise date on when Stonehenge was actually built. They analyzed the Stone Age tools found at the site and discovered three different answers to their question. It turned out Stonehenge had been built in stages. The circular ditch and many of the aubrey holes were first constructed around 3,000 BCE researchers believe this is when the first bluestones were also brought to the site. 500 years later, around 2500 BCE, the second phase began. This is when the mass massive, upright sarzin stones were put into place, forming the now famous outer circle of the monument. In the centuries that followed, several adjustments were made. The blue stones were rearranged and placed inside of the circle of sarsens. Researchers also believe this is when Stonehenge Avenue, a primitive road leading up to the monument, was built. These findings proved ancient peoples had spent nearly a thousand thousand years building the site. It was an incredibly important discovery, but it still didn't explain the question at the heart of the mystery. What was so special about this field? In 2003, a group of university researchers established the Stonehenge Riverside Project to examine the surrounding area. Over the next few years, they discovered the remains remains of hundreds of previously unknown ancient ditches, burial mounds, and monuments. That's when they realized Stonehenge was the centerpiece of a massive spiritual complex. About a mile south of the monument were the fragmented remains of another stone circle consisting of 27 upright bluestones. Because of that, this site became known as BO Bluestonehenge. Radiocarbon dating showed these stones were placed there as early as 3400 BCE, hundreds of years before Stonehenge. Researchers believe some of these bluestones were later moved and used in the construction of Stonehenge. But that's not all. 500 meters west of Woodhenge Riverside, project staff excavated a fallen sandstone sarsen. Once upon a time, it had stood upright in the center of a field, just like the sarsens on the outer circle at Stonehenge. But one of their most exciting discoveries was about two miles away from Stonehenge and within sight of Woodhenge. Archaeologists knew there'd been a small village there, which they'd named Durrington Walls. But they hadn't realized just how large this Stone Age community really was. Experts in discovered the remnants of roughly a thousand Stone Age homes, as well as the bones of a huge amount of livestock. Based on this evidence, they estimated that as many as 4 or 5000 people lived there around 2500 BCE this would have made Durrington Walls one of the largest settlements in Britain at the time, which was strange because it didn't seem like people lived there year round. After testing the animal bones, experts found all of them had been slaughtered during the fall and winter months. Those same tests also showed that many of these animals had been transported long distances to Durrington Walls. Some came from as far away as Wales or Scotland. And carbon dating on other artifacts at Durrington Walls showed that the settlement was only used for a few decades before it was abandoned. This meant that every year, people from all over Britain flocked to Stonehenge, bringing animals with them to eat. They lived in Durrington Walls throughout the cold, dark winter months, then returned to their homes. And then, after doing this annually for between 10 and 40 years, they quit and never returned. Researchers from the Stonehenge River Project believed this yearly migration unlocked the truth about the monument. Remember the heaviest construction at Stonehenge? The placement of the 40 ton sarsen stones, which were sourced from 20 miles away, happened around 2500 BCE this would have been the same period when thousands of people were coming to Durrington Walls. Researchers now believe Gordon Child's theory that Stonehenge was a people monument is at least partially correct. The people visiting Durrington Walls came from many different tribes, but they all came together every year to join in the cooperative ritual of building Stonehenge. These visitors worked together to transport the sarsens, using sheer manpower to manage the incredible weight of the stones. The builders most likely rolled the stones onto sturdy wood wooden sleds, which were then pulled and pushed through the snow by large numbers of laborers. Stoneworkers then carved them with rock hammers In a nearby field where archaeologists have found a large amount of sandstone debris, joints were carved into the tops of the sarsens, which were then hoisted upright and stacked using ramps and counterweights. Then the participants in this great building project would return, turned to Durrington Walls, where they'd slaughter animals and feast to celebrate a hard day's work. But once construction was complete, there was no reason for them to return to Durrington Walls anymore. At long last, researchers from the Stonehenge River Project had explained how the monument was built. That left just one lingering question. Why this field? In 2008, the Stonehenge River Project's archaeologists finally found their answer. Underneath the topsoil around stonehenge, archaeologists discovered two parallel ridges in the bedrock that ran for 150 meters and ended right at the center of the monument. These ridges are known as paraglacial fissures. They're a naturally occurring phenomenon where cracks develop in the bedrock. And after millions of years of groundwater freezing and thawing, they show up all over the world, taking different shapes based on the weather conditions and the composition of the bedrock. But in this particular field. The fissures formed a straight line which coincidentally aligned with the Earth's solstice axis. These ridges aren't visible now, but they would have been around 3000 BC when the earliest construction at Stonehenge began. If you were walking through the field at the solstice around 5,000 years ago, the ridges would have looked like a giant arrow etched in the ground, pointing directly toward the sunset. Ancient Britons thought this was a divine signal telling them that this place was significant. For much of human history, Stonehenge has been an enigma, but thanks to advances in science and technology, we're starting to learn the truth about Stonehenge. Despite all of that, the idea that Stonehenge was built by Druids or aliens continues to hold weight. And I get it. Sometimes myths and legends are more exciting than reality. But I'd really love to know what you think. Do you agree with the Stonehenge river project? Was Stonehenge built by by different tribes who all traveled to Durrington Walls? Did they choose that site because of the paraglacial fissure? Or are you set on the idea that Stonehenge has a more mythical explanation? Let us know in the comments. Personally, I think the truth is even more impressive than the folklore. The reality is thousands of humans set aside their differences to create one of the most extraordinary structures in all all of world history. That level of grit and determination is more powerful than any ancient priest, extraterrestrial architect, or legendary wizard. It just goes to show that when we work together, we can accomplish anything, even something as incredible as Stonehenge. Foreign. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Come back next time. We'll decode the episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode early and ad free. We'll be back on Friday. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House Original Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Truman Capps, Leah Roesch and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.
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Vanessa Richardson
Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, check out the new Crime House original the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.
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