Stonehenge Model Project

This is a fun and satisfying project for kids; building a scale model of Stonehenge out of cheap sponges, a Spongehenge.
It's easy to do and only requires sponges, paint and glue.
The kids will love it as the mysterious structure emerges from simple and cheap building materials.
Stonehenge, this is a very strange and mysterious place in the county of Wiltshire in England. There is evidence of activity and wooden post structures on the site as long ago as ten thousand years.
The site has many stages of development. It was nothing more than a circular ditch and embankment from 3100 BC (5100 years ago).
Next, came a circular ring of wooden posts from 3000 BC (5000 years ago). At around the same time some smaller Bluestones (basalt) were thought to have been transported from Wales, 150 miles away (240km). How they were moved that far is still a source of speculation. Why they went to such lengths is anybody's guess. Maybe because the Bluestones were thought to have mystical healing properties as well as acoustic properties, possibly used as rudimentary instruments.
The major construction that we see in partial ruin today was carried out about 2600 BC to 2400 BC (4600 years ago). The outer ring was made up of 30 vertical columns and 30 lintels or beams. The columns were 13 feet high (4.1m), 6.9 feet wide (2.1m) and the beams linked the columns to create an elevated ring, 108 feet (33m) in diameter. This ring is made of Sarsen stones (sandstone). They came from 25 miles away (40 km) and some weigh as much as 25 tons.
Although the structure appears to be very simple; just beams sitting on posts, it is actually quite sophisticated with “mortice and tenon” joints to locate the beams on the posts and “tongue and groove” joints to align the beams. This makes the structure very strong but it is not known why the builders went to such extraordinary detail in the construction.
The inner horseshoe is made up of 5 trilithons. (we built 3 of them in our model) A trilithon is a pair of vertical stones with a lintel (or beam) bridging between them. They are also Sarsen stones (sandstone) and weigh up to 50 tons each. They are up to 25 feet high and there is another 8 feet below ground. They are taller than the outer ring and therefore seem to have greater importance or significance.
The purpose of Stonehenge is not really understood although there appears to be some astrological function as the large central trilithon stones are aligned to the midwinter sunset at the winter solstice and the midsummer sunrise at the summer solstice.