Destruction of Stonehenge by medieval farmers and vandals and the ban on entry since 1977

Even before the ban of 1977 nobody was forbidden to walk inside Stonehenge, but the fact that thousands of people laid hands on the megaliths caused considerable erosion. Nowadays, on ordinary days, the megalithic complex cannot be entered, but on the day of the summer solstice thousands of people gather here: druids, witches, hippies, lovers of history and astronomy, the merely curious and the eccentric. Visitors to the monument are obliged to observe certain rules for their own safety and for the protection of the prehistoric structure, which, however, amount to little more than common sense and public order: no speakers or subwoofers, no leaping about on the stones, no drunken brawls and no orgies.

To appreciate the scale of the destruction the complex has suffered over the millennia of its existence, it is enough to imagine what a colossal structure it once was: the first Stonehenge, built in the Chalcolithic, consisted of a ditch 105 m in diameter; the second Stonehenge added to the existing constructions no fewer than 82 large stones; the third Stonehenge was completed around 1400 BC.

Since then it has been not so much nature as man that has ruthlessly ravaged the monument. A similar fate befell other megalithic structures of the ancient world: the megaliths of the rings at Avebury were held to be the dwelling of evil forces, so they were toppled, bonfires were lit around them, and when the stones grew hot they were doused with cold water, and once they had cracked they were smashed into small pieces. Medieval farmers carted Stonehenge off for building material, and in the nineteenth century the monument became a place of pilgrimage for vandals: in the villages nearby they even hired out sledgehammers, so that one might knock off a little piece of Stonehenge and take it home.

More on the history of the study and preservation of the monument: http://vorchun.media/istoriya-voprosa/samyj-dlinnyj-den-zahodil-vchera-letnee-solntsestoyanie-21-iyunya/