Stonehenge Avenue

Stonehenge Avenue

The Avenue at Stonehenge looking NEE towards Old and New King Barrows
Stonehenge The Avenue The Avenue, shown within the Stonehenge section of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site
Region	Wiltshire
Coordinates	51°10′44″N 1°49′31″W / 51.179°N 1.8253°W / 51.179; -1.8253Coordinates: 51°10′44″N 1°49′31″W / 51.179°N 1.8253°W / 51.179; -1.8253
Type	avenue
History
Periods	Neolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates	from 1740, 2013
Archaeologists	William Stukeley, Heather Sebire
Condition	Excellent
Public access	Yes
Website	National Trust
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii
Designated	1986 (10th session)
Reference no.	373
Region	Europe and North America
Scheduled monument
Designated	1882
Reference no.	1010140

Stonehenge Avenue is an ancient avenue on Salisbury plain, Wiltshire, England. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. Discovered in the 18th century, it measures nearly 3 kilometers, connecting Stonehenge with the River Avon. It was built during the Stonehenge 3 period of 2600 to 1700 BCE.

Along some of its length The Avenue is aligned with the sunrise of the summer solstice, suggesting a time of most frequent use. In 2013 a section of A344 road was closed, which had cut through the Avenue close to Stonehenge. After the road surface was removed, it was shown that although the Avenue's banks had been sliced off, the filled in ditches were still in evidence, demonstrating that the Avenue had indeed connected right through to the stone circle.

At the end of the Avenue, a similar ring of bluestones, Bluestonehenge, was discovered in 2009.

Mike Parker Pearson of the Stonehenge Riverside Project believes that the Avenue was inspired by, and built over top of a natural glacial formation with an existing astronomical alignment.

The Avenue, along with Stonehenge itself, is a Scheduled Monument, first designated in the 1882 act which was the earliest legislation to protect British archaeological sites.