- More than a million people visit Stonehenge every year – but it has been roped off from the public since 1977
- A new £27million centre nearby will contain a 360-degree cinema screen with a 100ft circumference
Visitors to Stonehenge will again be able to experience standing inside the ancient stone circle thanks to a 360-degree cinema.
The battle for access to the World Heritage site has been fought for many years, with campaigners wanting to be allowed into the world-famous monument.
At last, protestors may partially get their wishes, as English Heritage is developing a solution – a virtual visit in a panoramic cinema
New evidence: Studies of cremated human remains show that a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard
The picturehouse will be the jewel in the crown of a new £27million centre and will include a 32ft landscape wall, on to which computer generated images of the countryside around the circle and other ancient earthworks will be projected.
The new auditorium’s 100ft circumference is smaller than the actual stone circle, which is around 300ft. It’s expected to be built just over a mile from the stones.
Also planned are films providing information about the monument and prehistoric items, exploring theories over the uses of Stonehenge.
The picturehouse will be the jewel in the crown of a new £27million centre and will include a 32ft landscape wall, on to which computer generated images of the countryside around the circle and other ancient earthworks will be projected.
The new auditorium’s 100ft circumference is smaller than the actual stone circle, which is around 300ft. It’s expected to be built just over a mile from the stones.
Also planned are films providing information about the monument and prehistoric items, exploring theories over the uses of Stonehenge.
New studies of cremated human remains excavated from the site suggest that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard, researchers said.
‘These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups,’ University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team, said.
‘We’d thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community, a different kind of power structure.’
The virtual visits may not win over all campaigners including Pagans and Druids who want open access to Stonehenge, which was created about 5,000 years ago.
When it was first opened to the public, it was possible to walk among and even climb on the stones. However, they were roped off in 1977 due to problems with erosion.
However, English Heritage does permit access during the summer and winter solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox.
British researchers have proposed a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge: It may have started as a giant burial ground for elite families around 3,000 B.C.
By Fiona Keating Daly Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2298923/Panoramic-virtual-views-Stonehenge-wow-visitors-32ft-landscape-wall.html
STONEHENGE TOUR GUIDE
The visitor centre is expected to open in late 2013
