Stonehenge is, with the sole exception of Big Ben, the most famous monument in the British Isles. Stonehenge is surely unique among British monuments in having sparked a modern religion, druidism. The most influential current theory is that of Prof Mike Parker Pearson, who argues that Stonehenge was built as a monument to the dead. Now the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has given consent for a £1.7bn scheme to build a 3.2km tunnel. If there must be a tunnel, it ought to be one whose creation does not deface the incalculably precious landscape that surrounds it.

Source: The Guardian November 22, 2020 18:22 UTC