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Scientists Discover Giant Stone Monument 'Superhenge' Near Stonehenge

| Sep 07, 2015 08:19 AM EDT

This 'superhenge' or Durrington Walls are more massive than the Stonehenge, located 3 kilometers away.

Researchers have uncovered a massive Neolithic stone monument some three kilometers away from the famous Stonehenge site where this colossal "superhenge" apparently also possess some 90 large stones standing similarly to the Stonehenge but towers over the famous Stonehenge monument.

Remnants of this secret stone monument were discovered buried deep under a thick and grassy bank that has been thought to be erected into that particular position some more than 4,500 years ago.

This hidden monument boasts of 90 massive standing stones that reveals a C-shaped formation suggesting a Neolithic arena and is located bordering a dry valley which is also facing the Avon river directly.

Scientists used special ground penetrating radar instruments to create a digital map of 30 intact stones that measures up to 4.5 meters high. Fragments of these complete more than 60 massive, buried stones or massive foundation pits were they once stood, revealing the full size of the monument.

According to archaeologist Vince Gaffney of the University of Bradford who also leads the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project, they are beginning to unravel the largest surviving stone monument that is preserved underneath a bank which could possibly become the largest one in Britain and also in Europe.

The stones lying on the ground were thought to be forever lost under a huge bank which is now recovered located in a clumsily drawn linear pattern near the southern border of the circular "superhenge" called the Durrington Walls.

The Durrington Walls measure just over one and half kilometers and are known to be one of the largest monuments among the henge. A ditch surrounds the walls including a 40 meter-wide and one meter high outer bank. Scientists believe that the stones were formed at the southern edge of an arena used for special rituals that are right in the center of a natural depression.

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