Stonehenge, that awesome arrangement of stones on

Salisbury Plain, has been the subject of countless studies,

poems, and legends dating back beyond the days of King

Arthur. What did this sombre group of stones signify to

its builders ? Was it a city of the dead ? A Druid altar of

sacrifice ? A temple to the sun ?

The dramatic decoding of the mystery began when

astronomer Dr. Gerald Hawkins decided to investigate the

peculiar arrangement of stones and holes at Stonehenge.

He stood at each position and measured its various align-

ments. Then he fed his measurements and the relevant

astronomical data into a computer.

All the evidence indicated that Stonehenge was a sophisti-

cated and brilliantly conceived astronomical observatory,

used by three different groups of people over a 400-year

period beginning around 1900 B.c.

As Dr. Hawkins recreates his dramatic discovery, he

tells of the mythology that has grown up around Stonehenge

and of the remarkable techniques that were used to bring

stones across 100 miles of sea and land to their present site.

GeraM S. Hawkins is Professor of Astronomy at Boston

University and a research associate at the Harvard College

Observatory.