Ireland's Newgrange is about 500 years older than both Stonehenge in its present form and the Great Pyramid.
Once a year, at the winter solstice sunrise, light pours through a 'roofbox' above the entrance into its inner chamber.
The events
- Building of Stonehengec. 3000 BC–2000 BC · Salisbury Plain. Neolithic Britons began a circular sanctuary on Salisbury Plain, raising its giant sarsen stones around 2500 BC. Aligned with the solstice sunrise and sunset, it is the most famous prehistoric monument in Europe.
- Great Pyramid of Gizac. 2560 BC · Giza. The Great Pyramid, built for Pharaoh Khufu at Giza, rose about 146 metres high. It remained the tallest human-made structure for nearly four millennia and is the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World.
31st century BC · 26th century BC
More amazing facts
- 3200 BC Possibly the first personal name ever written belongs not to a king but to an accountant.
- 3180 BC · 1850 A village older than the pyramids was uncovered by a storm.
- 3000 BC · 1915 Stonehenge was once sold at auction, for £6,600.
- 3000 BC Stonehenge's bluestones were hauled from Wales, 240 km away — and may even be recycled.
- 3000 BC · 2560 BC Stonehenge is older than the Great Pyramid.
- 3000 BC · 100 BC The druids did not build Stonehenge: it went up around 3000–2000 BC, some two thousand years before druids appear in Britain.