I don’t think that’s the right spot. I’ve been there twice and I remember it being very close to both roads, and looking at Tom’s link you can see it’s not very far from the 303. What you’ve pointed out looks like one of the larger henges, one that’s covered, because just north of that is a darker area that is probably trees. The last time I was there I went walking around that area for awhile and walked through those trees and remember the long walk back to Stonehenge.
My take on where it is is in the same place but the dark blob 500m from the split is the parking lot and walkway. On either side of the car park are faint lines and that should be the walkway to the monument. The other lines are stone roads to fields and other monuments.
I’m suprised that the map doesn’t have it listed at all.
As you can see from comparing it with this handy interactive map (courtesy of English Heritage), there are several larger archaeological features in the area that can be seen more clearly than Stonehenge in the photo, at least if you know where to look.
The most obvious, unsurprisingly, is The Cursus, to the north of stones. Somewhat less clear is the line of The Avenue, but it’s there as a slightly darker feature in the fields. What’s really only stands out as more than another clump of trees once you know the shape and location is the Iron Age hillfort now called Vespasian’s Camp.
About the Maryhill site, I note with approval that it’s not just an exact copy of the original Stonehenge, but rotated slightly, so as to correspond with the local direction of solstice sunrise (at the latitude of Salisbury, the solstice sunrises/sunsets are just about smack on the secondary compass points, but Washington is further south, so the angles are closer to the East-West line).
Speaking of hard-to-find British tourist spots, can anyone point me to a good shot of Hadrian’s Wall? Most of the countryside is too blurry, but I’m sure you guys can help me out!
We did figure out where Stonehenge was, but had to find it by the carpark across the street.
If you zoom out you’ll see Silbury Hill to the South and the Avenue to the East. Zoom in on the Avenue and you can make out the parallel lines of standing stones.
OYOH, they didn’t take into account the hills on the eastern horizon so by the time the sun clears the hills on summer solstice morning, it doesn’t shine past the heelstone directly into the center. The ghosts of 4 thousand year old monument builders are laughing their butts off.
Not necessarily. When Google Maps came out with satellite images, I remember seeing a street fair at Castro & Market here in SF on the image. When Earth was released, the fair was there. But a little while later, a new image was on Earth, showing normal traffic, and Maps still showed the fair. Looking now, Maps now has a normal street.
I imagine Google updates them seperately but sequentially. Or at least they did.
