Q 01/05

Stonehenge stands on Salisbury Plain in which English county?

A) Somerset

B) Dorset

C) Hampshire

D) Wiltshire

Answer · why

D) Wiltshire

It lies about two miles west of Amesbury, in the densest cluster of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England.

Q 02/05

What is the name for the large sandstone blocks that form Stonehenge's outer ring and trilithons?

A) Bluestones

B) Menhirs

C) Sarsens

D) Dolerites

Answer · why

C) Sarsens

Each upright is around 13 feet high and weighs about 25 tons; the smaller inner stones are the bluestones.

Q 03/05

What joinery technique, borrowed from woodworking, holds Stonehenge's lintels onto the uprights?

A) Dovetail joints

B) Iron dowel pins

C) Mortise and tenon

D) Halved lap joints

Answer · why

C) Mortise and tenon

The lintels are also linked to each other with tongue-and-groove joints, a combination unique among monuments of the era.

Q 04/05

What is a trilithon?

A) Two uprights topped by a single lintel

B) Three stones set in a triangle

C) A stone carved with three axes

D) A three-tiered burial mound

Answer · why

A) Two uprights topped by a single lintel

Five of them stand in a horseshoe at the centre of Stonehenge, the largest almost 25 feet tall.

Q 05/05

Stonehenge is aligned to the sunrise on which day of the year?

A) The summer solstice

B) The spring equinox

C) The autumn equinox

D) The first of May

Answer · why

A) The summer solstice

The reverse alignment marks sunset on the winter solstice, which some archaeologists think was the more important event.