From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt. I am Ben and this is the show about crazy things happening now on your radio. That's stuff they don't want you to know, Ladies and gentlemen. And it looks like we've got some new intro music in the mix on that. Yeah, I'm sure that went perfectly with the music that was fading out just now. Uh So, that's an interesting thing when we talk about the power of music and audio, and oddly enough, it's going to come up today in this episode. I'm all right, I just threw that out there and you you got it all the way around. Yeah. Well, uh, let me's steal a joke from my my dad. Here. Nine out of ten women think I'm pretty good for blam is um dating number ten, Uh dad jokes man, I've got no segue with dad's, so let's just get right into it. An ancestors, there we go. Nice Save Matt, Nice save uh So, Ladies and gentlemens always you know, we're here with our super producer Noll to take a look at yet another thing, event, secret, or phenomenon that may not be getting the coverage it deserves. Right, Yes, and in this case, it's a bunch of stones in the middle of a field, a hinge if you will, hinge, some sort of hinge of stone. That's right, we are talking about Stonehenge. Now, this is something that is familiar to I would say the vast majority of people in the world. You've seen it, you've seen a picture of it, you've heard all kinds of crazy things about it. But what the heck is it? Actually, the best part is that we don't know for sure, but there're a lot There are a lot of facts about it that we can point to, and there are a lot of theory. So that's what we're doing today. The biggest question, like you said, what the heck is it? Well, we do know this is a prehistoric ruin in southern England near Salisbury, that's right, But we don't know who built it. But it's thought to date back to about eight hundred BC, and who have been designed for some kind of ritual or at least a ceremonial purpose or b c e. If you're if you're one of those people starting to type the email right now, where we will get an email either way, regardless of what initials you want to stamp on that time period. Remains of cremated human bodies have been found buried at Stonehenge, and this indicates that it may have been used as a burial ground, assuming of course that the people of Stonehenge knew there were bodies there. Yeah, well, depending on what, like, if there were people using it after it had been built for different purposes than when it was originally built. Oh boy, we're gonna get in all kinds of stuff here. One thing that should be known is that Stonehenge is in itself not a unique structure. It's one of some eighty British prehistoric ruins that are characterized by this large circular embankment that encloses, or at least at one point enclosed some kind of structure. Yeah. And although the original meaning of the phrase hinge is not known, that word is now used for any ruins of this type. And we have learned a little bit about how these things looked in their heyday, right, Yeah. In most of these structures of things that we call hinge um, there were they were primarily made out of wood. But Stonehenge, which was built in three phases, uh, contained a wooden structure at least. Uh. It's believed that it contained a wooden structure in its first phase, but it was eventually made up completely of stones. So they replaced the parts that were there with these giant stones, which are heavy. Yeah. How heavy? My ask? Oh, we are glad you did. Let's talk about the structure of Stonehenge in its final form, which does make me think of various various things from our childhood. Uh. Stonehenge had thirty upright stones. These were each about eighteen feet or five and a half meters high, seven ft two point one meters thick, and there were in an outer ring that was about thirty meters across. Now only seventeen of these megaliths called Sarson's are now standing. The the large stones that are one piece, yeah, the the vertical ones, and the ones that uh span the top of those Sarson's. Those are called lentils uh l I n t E L s less my accent full some of you. Uh, And these are about ten and a half foot uh stones that create that um almost doorway looking part of Stonehenge, and then you got the blue stones, which are the smaller upright stones that are on the inside to make that inner ring. Um. If you haven't watched our video yet, I would recommend watching it. There are a ton of pictures of this. Again, we're fairly certain that you were aware of what it looks like, but uh, you might get a better picture maybe if you have our video while you're listening to this, Hey why not? Uh so? And that's funny because the video is probably under five minutes in this podcast will probably be a little bit longer, little bit, yeah, but then just keep replaying it. So within Stone Hinge there was this horseshoe of five what are called trill athons, and these are two upright Sarson's capped by a lentil. Three of those remain standing. At the center was this horseshoe of bluestones around a pillar known as the altar Stone. Oh yes, the good old altar stone, where all kinds of fun rituals could take place. Some of them we just have been uh, fantasizing about what could have taken place. There's some of it. We have an idea because of things that we found there. We're going to get into this. But the best part is there was an alter stone. Ben. If you're going to have a great monolithic structure from ancient times, there's got to be a place where you can have a ritual. Do you remember that time that I became obsessed with Skyrim? That Skyrim? What is that? Ben? Al Right? So, guys, I have nothing against video games. I don't play them very often, but when I do, I have very strange relationship with them because I have no sense of moderation. I was playing Star Skyrim all the time, you know, in Maureens evenings. One time I left work early to play Skyrim, and that's when I realized I had a problem. But I always think of Skyrim when I hear about these prehistoric alter stones. Um. And of course, you know, Skyrim, being fictional, is just inspired by a lot of those structures. But it's important for us to remember, I'll crow the world, things like this exists, and many of them remain utterly mysterious today. But we do know. We do know that we've been able to perform some forensic stuff here, and that's why we know the outside of the Sarson Circle at Stonehenge, there's a ring of fifty six pits, and they're called Aubrey holes, and they're named after John Aubrey who investigated the Hinge in the seventeenth century, and he found these four small stones and then this circular bank of earth that's surrounded by this ditch, right, and two stone pillars flanked an entrance through the earth bank. One of them remains. There's an upright megalith, the heel stone, that's outside the entrance. Um, let's talk a little bit about the astrology. Huh, the astronomy rather, Oh yes, So I let's imagine that you're standing in the center of Stonehenge and it's the summer solstice. Now, let's imagine that you, the person listening to the are standing in the center of Stonehenge on summer solstice. Now that's around June one. It shifts around a little bit, but if you're standing there, the sun is going to rise from behind this stone, the heelstone that you just mentioned, and it's gonna come up over across this thing, and essentially he's just going to create this amazing almost spiritual feeling just from the way the sun is going to come through these sarson's and come across that Heelstone, and we can tell that it was a majestic experience. It was created while inside this which you're yeah, yeah, we know. It is inarguable that Stonehenge was built by someone who had knowledge of the heavens right and the solstices, and that they built Stonehenge to reflect these great moments throughout the year. In the nineteen sixties, met some astronomers theorize that these Aubrey holes and some of those stones could be used to keep track of solar and lunar years to predict eclipses, which is just so amazing. I mean, ask ask yourselves, if we were transported back in time and we were tasked with predicting an eclipse, how on earth will we do it? I think that's something that escapes pupil's minds often about time travel, and always think, oh, if I if I went back and you know, into the uh, the twelve hundreds or even the eighteen hundreds, I'd be amazing because I know so much stuff. But do we do we? Because I can't build a smartphone. Yeah, something as simple as keeping track of the time and seasons and where the sun is, and wow, that's that's a really interesting way to look at it in. So yeah, we know that. Um, this has led a lot of people to believe that Stonehenge was a primitive astronomical observatory, but not everyone agrees. Now that hypothesis is disputed by a lot of archaeologists who contend that there's really no evidence to suggest the builders of Stonehenge had a lot of knowledge of or interest in astronomy. But yeah, I still think it's inarguable, though. I think it cannot be a coincidence that they just lined it up. But maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see. Either way, somebody is seeing something that they want to see, all right, Yeah, Uh that's a fair point. Uh, you're not wrong. Stonehenge didn't just start out in its current form, as we said, in its first phase, like you have mentioned earlier, Matt, it had a lot of wood components, wouldn't components. Stonehenge was just a few stones wouldn't post and closed by this circular embankment. Uh. The current theory nowadays is that this was used for religious gatherings and then around two thousand BC, people with slightly more advanced technology figured out how to get these blue stones there. They heat weighed four tons or thirty six krams for everybody outside of let's see Namibia, Burma and the US. And the crazy thing is that they were, at least in the current theory, they were floated by raft from southwestern Wales. Yeah, they were set up to form that inner circle within the embankment, and several centuries later uh Stonehenges builders up the ante and transported the Sarson's, each of which weighs about twenty five tons. They were brought from as far as twenty miles away and set up outside the Blue Stones. That that is insane to me, and that is one of the reasons people have issues with the idea of humans building these things, these giant stones, right, because if you go to ancient alien theory, some people believe that there must have been some kind of advanced technology to get these stones set up the way they are and for what purpose been for what purpose meant right? But we know that. Of course, in the absence of concrete proof, speculation runs rampant. You will often hear that Stonehinges acted with the druids somehow, Oh, druids totally, the classic Druid move people are saying. But there's really not any hard evidence that they that the druids played a part in the construction of Stonehenge. However, we do know that a couple of ingenious modern day humans have demonstrated methods that could be used in theory to build Stonehenge, and they make a pretty convincing case. Yeah, physics is pretty awesome, and if you can figure out how to use simple tools like pulleys levers, you can you can make some really heavy things do some pretty incredible stuff. Right. There's some great YouTube videos where you can see demonstrations of this by a couple of different sources who reach the same conclusions. But that's not the million dollar question. We've We've at this point explained u some of the dimensions of Stonehenge and and some of the best guesses at its evolution. But what the heck was it for? You know, why did people use it? Well, there are a lot of theories been and let's get into them. Right after a quick word from our sponsors and we're back. So let's get into what are the possible things Stonehnded was meant for. So one of them is some people think it was a sacred hunting ground prior to those big rocks, the Sarson's being up there. They it's believed that this was an ancient or migration route. Rocks are these fun looking creatures that you can hunt for meat, which is nice when you could have Yeah, you're not anymore. They are no longer existing in our world. To think of them oxen like you know, Okay, yeah, that's a really good way to put it. So this was migration route, like you were saying that thousands of years before for Stones came around. There's another site about a mile away from the Wiltshire, England Megaliths, and it contains evidence of human occupation spanning three thousand years, including thousands of those orc bones, flint tools, and evidence that they made and used fire. One of the coolest things that you can see evidence of construction at the site of Stonehenge as far back is eight thousand, five hundred years or almost to ten thousand years ago. Uh. Where are these these pine posts that were sticking out of the ground that were at one time raised to create some kind of ancient structure, right, Yeah, And the archaeological evidence hence that this site was originally this ancient hunting feasting kind of a kind kind of a hall, party hall, a party hall, a community center. And uh maybe the megaliths they say, were raised to memorialize this. Um. But of course that is not the final word. There's another idea. It's similar but a little bit different. It's thought that maybe Stonehenge, this huge, seemingly important monument, was more than just some kind of barbecue cookout area. Um. Some people believe that these were erected to celebrate peace or some type of unity, gathering together in harmony, with different groups coming together there. You know, I love it, but I don't really see the causation here because there is a correlation. The argument here is that, uh, during that intense building period which you know, as as we've shown, Stonehenge took a long time to build between three thousand and the culture of the British Isles was increasingly unifying. Um. And they say that you can see this because there are more similarities in regional pottery. But here's the here's the problem to me, and this is just my personal beef with it. I just don't think that a unification of a culture necessarily means that Stonehenge was built to celebrate that. Maybe it means that people were more likely to get together. But I don't think they were likely to get together to say, hey, let's let's make a monument about what good friends we are. You guys, why don't we ever make monuments about our friendships? See? I don't know enough about it. But what if all of the different sarcens are representing different tribes? Would that be cool? It's kind of like the American flag, all the different you know, all the different states of provinces in the thirteen Colonies and so on. They just did it with these giant stones, which is cooler. In my book, that might be. Yeah, it's just I guess you can't build too many because you certainly couldn't carry those rounds. Or maybe you could get a smaller version, like a mini hinge. That's how you do it. We should be we should be the marketing. You think they had a mockhee, like a early set up Kings where a bunch of guys got together they were like, um, I think we need to put it here and here and there little marbles. I wonder, you know, because it took so long to build. The previous iterations, like the wooden parts probably existed as a model of sorts. Um and uh boy, can you imagine they had to have some kind of planning. Can you imagine? We always hear about ancient monuments being made with such precision and perfection and skill, but we never hear about, you know, the ones that got messed up because they're in Easter Island head somewhere where they got the nose wrong and they said, ah, barry this one. Monuments. Yeah, there where the botched monuments where the ancient Machu Picchu walls that just aren't really well put together. I guess they crumbled the ancient subpar artists. Yeah, what happened to those guys? There's a comedy sketch in there somewhere. But um, it is true, as we said before that one of the big one of the big theories force Stonehenge is the astronomical calendar idea that this was where ancients would celebrate winter Solstice. In particular. They say this because the avenue near Stonehenge alliance with the winter solstice sunset, and nearby archaeological evidence suggests that pigs were slaughtered during December and January, maybe a midwinter feast of sorts, And it's also known that the site faces the sunrise during the summer solstice, and that thousands of visitors go to this site every year even now to celebrate that time. And here's something really cool, something a little different. So there were these two pipers playing in a field around Stonehenge and they would have heard the uh sound canceled out at certain spots. There's a sound allusion that might have inspired the Stonehenge builders. This comes from a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, So hardly uh fringe research here. Yeah, So it's thought that perhaps these mega lifts were cred to augment the sound that was already naturally occurring in the site. And it's actually really interesting. The monument is often nicknamed the Piper Stones in England, and the legend holds that these magic pipers would lead maidens out into the field and then turn them into stones as they are today. Bizarre. Yeah, And even those who don't buy this whole sound illusion theory agree that Stonehenge has astonishing acoustic qualities with the cavernous echo echo echo. Oh, it's really cool because it's all of those different flat surfaces that it's reflecting from depending on where you stand. You can have crazy auditory things like where uh, sounds from the right will be coming in from the left side. Uh. It's really cool. There's a presentation online that you can find if you search for Stonehenge acoustics, I think and model. Search for that and you can find just really cool stuff and even models online that you can look at many hinges, well sorry, not many hinges. It's it's models of what the acoustics would be like if Stonehenge was the way it was I guess originally meant to look. Okay, yeah, so we can we can picture it already. You can start to see the sights and hear the sounds that ancient people would encounter when they saw the sun go down on winter solstice during the chanting resonating from the stones, you know, the sound of uh, pigs being slaughtered or yeah, cremation, which brings us to the next one. The Elite Cemetery. We talked about this earlier before the break, the mysterious monument that may have once been a burial ground for the Creme de la Creme of the ancient societies. Thousands of skeletal fragments of at least sixty three individuals have been exhumed from around the area with an equal proportion of men and women and children. So this is interesting because I've heard I've heard that there was a debate about the proportion there. You'll hear some people say, well, it's primarily men and very few women. Uh. So this would leave people to say, well, maybe it's the burial ground of warriors or something. But the thing is, these burials date to three thousand BC, and as construction of the monument was getting started, archaeologists have also found some things that are usually associated with the swells of ancient society, things like instance, bowls on mace head, et cetera. But that is not the crazy idea yet, No, sir, I'm gonna mention a name here that you know. Eric Fontanakan i s author of Chariots of the Gods, among other things, the primary advocate of ancient alien theory, even more so than that guy who shows up on History Channel. He's a gloriously exciting person to see on television. I always love it when his name pops up. I'm like, oh, yes, Fontanenan. So he thinks that the creation of Stonehenge and the Neolithic period was a model of our solar system. Yes, a celestial map that was created with stones. I it seems like it's a lot of trouble to make a map. Yeah, so here's the idea. But it is kind of permanent. Yeah, there's that too. But here's the idea. He's saying that observing the circularly positioned uh trench surrounding Stonehenge, connecting a point that extends hundreds of meters away from the site with an extending pathway pointing directly upon the position the sun would lie in during the summer solstice, uh he says this represents a model of the Neolithic star system that they believe consisted of nine planets, and from this early representation of our solar system, or in von Dannikin's opinion, uh he proposed that the stone circle served as a landing pad for spaceships or an observatory for extraterrestrial activity amid the skies. Yeah. I love it, I know it, I know, but where where is the other proof? You know what, what would we have found if that was really happening. It's a really fun idea. I appreciate it on so many levels, but unfortunately I can't put any weight behind that. Yeah, well, I wonder if you know. Von Dnikin gets a heck of a hard time because he is often accused of just ignoring what doesn't fit his ancient alien theory, you know, and he's also been called racist because the implied the implied thing about ancient aliens is that ancient people were not capable of the same ingenuity as modern people. Still fascinating though, it's so much fun to think about. Oh and here's a deep cut to one of our earliest earliest videos. Uh, the idea of lay lines that Stonehenge is sort of a node for these electro magnetic or geomantic lines of energy that criss cross the globe sort of like uh, sort of like veins and flesh. It's like the Earth's spiritual energy. Um. Again, man, I hate to I don't want to influence anybody either way. If you want to believe in ley lines, that's fine. Uh, there's not a lot of evidence, and it seems to be a whole lot of coincidence, but you know, maybe, well, we do know that, we do know that there have been various sites around the world that have been built to line up with a solstice in that part of the world. And we do know that Earth has a magnetic field, and certain areas of that magnetic field functioned differently than other right, Um, but I don't know if that necessarily proves the idea of ley line. It just seems that when I go online I look at maps of ley lines, at every single one is different, and every single one kind of just decides where they want them to be. Uh, I don't know just what I've seen. Well, I'd like to hear from some listeners to just what I want to. I'd like to hear from an expert that could sit sit me down and explain to me exactly what it is, because from what I found online, right, maybe I just don't get it. I'm now I'm picturing this conversation you'll be having with an expert, sort of like a Law and Order episode Law and Order coolon lay lines, dom domm don't tell me, give it to me. I don't give it to me straight. I don't know. Oh wait, yes, but before we go on, it's time for word from our sponsor. Alright, So here's one of my favorite theories about Stonehenge, Matt. The idea that Stonehenge is a hoax. It was built in nine four. Uh, and there's a there's a great website where you can see these purported pictures of people building Stonehenge. All right, well, I guess we're done here. Yep. Uh. You guys have a great rest of your day. Uh you find us on Twitter. Oh no, all right, well okay, so how does somebody get to Stone Nge. That's one of the most exciting things to me is you can actually go there. Oh yeah, and I think you have to make special arrangements if you want to go up and walk around Stonehenge, go and just drive by. Yeah, but you can. You can go and visit. There's this really great new uh I don't know exactly. It looks like a big tent structure, but it's the main visitor center for the Stonehenge. There are all kinds of things that you can go look at their objects from the past from Stonehenge Um. Sometimes they give to have speakers there lecture series on the history of the area. You can if you'd like to go to Stone Innge, you can visit ww dot English, dash Heritage dot org dot UK and you'll see where or you can book the tickets. I think for adults. It's somewhere, it's a little less than fourteen pounds, uh to visit. Of course kids get a different rate, and certain groups are allowed to practice spiritual rights there. Um. But yeah, you're the stone, just walk up anymore. Somebody ruined it. Somebody probably went and you know what happened, knowing human beings, Matt, here's what happened. Someone committed a crime there. Possibly someone urinated on a stone, definitely, because that's how people are. Um. And maybe maybe somebody said, oh, how romantic, let's uh, let's go have an intimate. Yeah, let's go have an intimate encounter in Stonehenge. And so now because of people doing those things, they ruin the fund for everybody. But we should point out, Matt, you and I have never been to Stonehenge. Right, it is a goal in my life. Now. No, you have not been to Stonehenge either, right, Nope. So even our superproducer Ol has not been there yet. But no has been somewhere else. Ah, yes, And so have we met? Well? I have not, you have, Oh I thought you would went? Who was that guy? Then, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about the United States own Stonehenge. The Stonehenge of the Southeast, sometimes Georgia's own Stonehenge, the Georgia Guidestones, erected in Elberton County, Georgia, which touts itself as the Granite capital of the World. Under very mysterious circumstances. Oh yes, it was commissioned by a fellow named R. C. Christian, which is we're assuming a pseudonym. Definitely. The monument is built to convey astrological information and it contains multi lingual directives for a new world paradigm. Seriously, that's what that's what it is, instructions for the new world. Like if we if you look at these commandments, which are in Russian, English, Spanish, I think, Mandarin's, Swahili, couple other things. Um, then you'll you'll read the same few directives over and over and Matt, you and I quickly read these off. Now one maintain humanity under five hundred million in perpetual balance with nature, guide reproduction wisely, improving fitness and diversity. Unites humanity with a new living language. I wonder which language they're talking about there, hopefull you're doing rule, passion, faith, tradition, and all things with tempered reason. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. Let all nations rule internally, resolving external disputes in a world court, avoid petty laws and useless officials. Balance personal rights with social duties. Prize truth, beauty, love seeking, harmony, with the infinite. Be not a cancer on the earth. Leave room for nature, Leave room for nature. The last guy kind of stuck out here was the John Hancock of that crew. But yes, this is a real place built by a group of people who refer to remain anonymous in um Alberton, Georgia, which is not not exactly a hub of New Age thinking. It is a hub though for granite, which is why they built this, this huge thing out of grantite. And they've got a time capsule under there with no date on when it should be opened. Overall, this thing, uh is is huge. The four major stones are sixteen ft four inches high. They each way about a little bit less than forty two thousand, five hundred pounds, And we have spent a lot of time talking about this. The reason we mentioned Noel going there is because Noel actually did a documentary on the Georgia Guide Stones, which is fantastic. Is there any way for us to find that. Will you give us before you go? Will you go on here and say how you can find it? I don't even have it, um it, so I think it out perfect. Well, you gotta let our people know me too, please, Yes, and listeners. We get quite a bit of email about the Georgia guide Stones. You know, every every few maybe every two weeks, somebody sends us something about the Georgia guid Stones and we're planning to do something special there. But we want to go on site and we would like to, uh, we would like to really make a good show or series with this one. So let us know if you think it's worth it for us to go up there and do a on the spot show about the Georgia Guidestones. Yeah. I want to analyze it, just I want to talk to as many people as possible. And now, I mean Nole's already got this thing. We can use that as historical context. I'm excited. Yes, so check this out because there's so much more about this, about this monument that we we haven't got to. Maybe we could do a podcast just on the Georgia Guidestones too. Um, there's one last thing we should do before we get out of here, Matt, We're going to do a ritual. Oh man, okay, so yeah, you're probably wondering where I'm wearing this robe. I mean I was gonna ask. I didn't want to offend you or anything. I am just I am covered in pig blood under this robe. Man. It's uh yeah, I could smell. Yeah. Well, things have got kind of crazy, but we are doing something that may becoming ritual met today we are announcing the winner of our Facebook caption contest. Oh you have a winner already. That's right, everybody. If you hang out with Matt and Nolan I on Facebook or Twitter at Conspiracy Stuff, then you will have already heard about our caption contest that we just sort of decided to do for yeah, fun time. See if it's see if it was worthwhile. And we got so many responses, we uh we went through them all knowing a lot of close calls. There are some great ones. There are some moments of bit creepiness, maybe a little awkward or unnecessary. I said, I I really enjoyed some of these. One of my favorites was one that in all the caps just said soon, Yeah, that's pretty great. But we did find a winner. We do. We have a winner, and I think it's just I mean, he wins for me because I like the reference and I didn't realize when we were shooting that picture how similar it was to this. So I'm just gonna say it, Ben Adam Reid, you win, buddy. And what did Adams say? Adam said, you can turn back now or watch us recreate that car park scene from Highlander. So congratulations to you, Mr Adam Read, and thank you for playing the game. We thoroughly enjoyed your caption. You have the winning caption, and uh, based on how many people liked your comment, it seems that Matt and I are not the only ones who agree. In fact, super producer Noel and I were talking off air about this too, and uh, I was asking him, you know, which one do you think is a favorite. So it's unanimous from the three of us. So let us know if you enjoyed the captured contests, if you want us to take this up for another go round, and also let us know if you have an idea for something we should cover an upcoming episode. Now we've covered a lot of stuff. You can check our website. Stuff they don't want you to to know dot com for everything we've ever done, most of everything we've ever done, and you can find us on Twitter and Facebook. We are at conspiracy Stuff. No's gonna tell you a little bit more about that before we leave, but for now, if you want to get in contact with us, send us an email. We are conspiracy at how stuff works dot com. From one on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon, visit YouTube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.

From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt. I am Ben and this is the show about crazy things happening now on your radio. That's stuff they don't want you to know, Ladies and gentlemen. And it looks like we've got some new intro music in the mix on that. Yeah, I'm sure that went perfectly with the music that was fading out just now. Uh So, that's an interesting thing when we talk about the power of music and audio, and oddly enough, it's going to come up today in this episode. I'm all right, I just threw that out there and you you got it all the way around. Yeah. Well, uh, let me's steal a joke from my my dad. Here. Nine out of ten women think I'm pretty good for blam is um dating number ten, Uh dad jokes man, I've got no segue with dad's, so let's just get right into it. An ancestors, there we go. Nice Save Matt, Nice save uh So, Ladies and gentlemens always you know, we're here with our super producer Noll to take a look at yet another thing, event, secret, or phenomenon that may not be getting the coverage it deserves. Right, Yes, and in this case, it's a bunch of stones in the middle of a field, a hinge if you will, hinge, some sort of hinge of stone. That's right, we are talking about Stonehenge. Now, this is something that is familiar to I would say the vast majority of people in the world. You've seen it, you've seen a picture of it, you've heard all kinds of crazy things about it. But what the heck is it? Actually, the best part is that we don't know for sure, but there're a lot There are a lot of facts about it that we can point to, and there are a lot of theory. So that's what we're doing today. The biggest question, like you said, what the heck is it? Well, we do know this is a prehistoric ruin in southern England near Salisbury, that's right, But we don't know who built it. But it's thought to date back to about eight hundred BC, and who have been designed for some kind of ritual or at least a ceremonial purpose or b c e. If you're if you're one of those people starting to type the email right now, where we will get an email either way, regardless of what initials you want to stamp on that time period. Remains of cremated human bodies have been found buried at Stonehenge, and this indicates that it may have been used as a burial ground, assuming of course that the people of Stonehenge knew there were bodies there. Yeah, well, depending on what, like, if there were people using it after it had been built for different purposes than when it was originally built. Oh boy, we're gonna get in all kinds of stuff here. One thing that should be known is that Stonehenge is in itself not a unique structure. It's one of some eighty British prehistoric ruins that are characterized by this large circular embankment that encloses, or at least at one point enclosed some kind of structure. Yeah. And although the original meaning of the phrase hinge is not known, that word is now used for any ruins of this type. And we have learned a little bit about how these things looked in their heyday, right, Yeah. In most of these structures of things that we call hinge um, there were they were primarily made out of wood. But Stonehenge, which was built in three phases, uh, contained a wooden structure at least. Uh. It's believed that it contained a wooden structure in its first phase, but it was eventually made up completely of stones. So they replaced the parts that were there with these giant stones, which are heavy. Yeah. How heavy? My ask? Oh, we are glad you did. Let's talk about the structure of Stonehenge in its final form, which does make me think of various various things from our childhood. Uh. Stonehenge had thirty upright stones. These were each about eighteen feet or five and a half meters high, seven ft two point one meters thick, and there were in an outer ring that was about thirty meters across. Now only seventeen of these megaliths called Sarson's are now standing. The the large stones that are one piece, yeah, the the vertical ones, and the ones that uh span the top of those Sarson's. Those are called lentils uh l I n t E L s less my accent full some of you. Uh, And these are about ten and a half foot uh stones that create that um almost doorway looking part of Stonehenge, and then you got the blue stones, which are the smaller upright stones that are on the inside to make that inner ring. Um. If you haven't watched our video yet, I would recommend watching it. There are a ton of pictures of this. Again, we're fairly certain that you were aware of what it looks like, but uh, you might get a better picture maybe if you have our video while you're listening to this, Hey why not? Uh so? And that's funny because the video is probably under five minutes in this podcast will probably be a little bit longer, little bit, yeah, but then just keep replaying it. So within Stone Hinge there was this horseshoe of five what are called trill athons, and these are two upright Sarson's capped by a lentil. Three of those remain standing. At the center was this horseshoe of bluestones around a pillar known as the altar Stone. Oh yes, the good old altar stone, where all kinds of fun rituals could take place. Some of them we just have been uh, fantasizing about what could have taken place. There's some of it. We have an idea because of things that we found there. We're going to get into this. But the best part is there was an alter stone. Ben. If you're going to have a great monolithic structure from ancient times, there's got to be a place where you can have a ritual. Do you remember that time that I became obsessed with Skyrim? That Skyrim? What is that? Ben? Al Right? So, guys, I have nothing against video games. I don't play them very often, but when I do, I have very strange relationship with them because I have no sense of moderation. I was playing Star Skyrim all the time, you know, in Maureens evenings. One time I left work early to play Skyrim, and that's when I realized I had a problem. But I always think of Skyrim when I hear about these prehistoric alter stones. Um. And of course, you know, Skyrim, being fictional, is just inspired by a lot of those structures. But it's important for us to remember, I'll crow the world, things like this exists, and many of them remain utterly mysterious today. But we do know. We do know that we've been able to perform some forensic stuff here, and that's why we know the outside of the Sarson Circle at Stonehenge, there's a ring of fifty six pits, and they're called Aubrey holes, and they're named after John Aubrey who investigated the Hinge in the seventeenth century, and he found these four small stones and then this circular bank of earth that's surrounded by this ditch, right, and two stone pillars flanked an entrance through the earth bank. One of them remains. There's an upright megalith, the heel stone, that's outside the entrance. Um, let's talk a little bit about the astrology. Huh, the astronomy rather, Oh yes, So I let's imagine that you're standing in the center of Stonehenge and it's the summer solstice. Now, let's imagine that you, the person listening to the are standing in the center of Stonehenge on summer solstice. Now that's around June one. It shifts around a little bit, but if you're standing there, the sun is going to rise from behind this stone, the heelstone that you just mentioned, and it's gonna come up over across this thing, and essentially he's just going to create this amazing almost spiritual feeling just from the way the sun is going to come through these sarson's and come across that Heelstone, and we can tell that it was a majestic experience. It was created while inside this which you're yeah, yeah, we know. It is inarguable that Stonehenge was built by someone who had knowledge of the heavens right and the solstices, and that they built Stonehenge to reflect these great moments throughout the year. In the nineteen sixties, met some astronomers theorize that these Aubrey holes and some of those stones could be used to keep track of solar and lunar years to predict eclipses, which is just so amazing. I mean, ask ask yourselves, if we were transported back in time and we were tasked with predicting an eclipse, how on earth will we do it? I think that's something that escapes pupil's minds often about time travel, and always think, oh, if I if I went back and you know, into the uh, the twelve hundreds or even the eighteen hundreds, I'd be amazing because I know so much stuff. But do we do we? Because I can't build a smartphone. Yeah, something as simple as keeping track of the time and seasons and where the sun is, and wow, that's that's a really interesting way to look at it in. So yeah, we know that. Um, this has led a lot of people to believe that Stonehenge was a primitive astronomical observatory, but not everyone agrees. Now that hypothesis is disputed by a lot of archaeologists who contend that there's really no evidence to suggest the builders of Stonehenge had a lot of knowledge of or interest in astronomy. But yeah, I still think it's inarguable, though. I think it cannot be a coincidence that they just lined it up. But maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see. Either way, somebody is seeing something that they want to see, all right, Yeah, Uh that's a fair point. Uh, you're not wrong. Stonehenge didn't just start out in its current form, as we said, in its first phase, like you have mentioned earlier, Matt, it had a lot of wood components, wouldn't components. Stonehenge was just a few stones wouldn't post and closed by this circular embankment. Uh. The current theory nowadays is that this was used for religious gatherings and then around two thousand BC, people with slightly more advanced technology figured out how to get these blue stones there. They heat weighed four tons or thirty six krams for everybody outside of let's see Namibia, Burma and the US. And the crazy thing is that they were, at least in the current theory, they were floated by raft from southwestern Wales. Yeah, they were set up to form that inner circle within the embankment, and several centuries later uh Stonehenges builders up the ante and transported the Sarson's, each of which weighs about twenty five tons. They were brought from as far as twenty miles away and set up outside the Blue Stones. That that is insane to me, and that is one of the reasons people have issues with the idea of humans building these things, these giant stones, right, because if you go to ancient alien theory, some people believe that there must have been some kind of advanced technology to get these stones set up the way they are and for what purpose been for what purpose meant right? But we know that. Of course, in the absence of concrete proof, speculation runs rampant. You will often hear that Stonehinges acted with the druids somehow, Oh, druids totally, the classic Druid move people are saying. But there's really not any hard evidence that they that the druids played a part in the construction of Stonehenge. However, we do know that a couple of ingenious modern day humans have demonstrated methods that could be used in theory to build Stonehenge, and they make a pretty convincing case. Yeah, physics is pretty awesome, and if you can figure out how to use simple tools like pulleys levers, you can you can make some really heavy things do some pretty incredible stuff. Right. There's some great YouTube videos where you can see demonstrations of this by a couple of different sources who reach the same conclusions. But that's not the million dollar question. We've We've at this point explained u some of the dimensions of Stonehenge and and some of the best guesses at its evolution. But what the heck was it for? You know, why did people use it? Well, there are a lot of theories been and let's get into them. Right after a quick word from our sponsors and we're back. So let's get into what are the possible things Stonehnded was meant for. So one of them is some people think it was a sacred hunting ground prior to those big rocks, the Sarson's being up there. They it's believed that this was an ancient or migration route. Rocks are these fun looking creatures that you can hunt for meat, which is nice when you could have Yeah, you're not anymore. They are no longer existing in our world. To think of them oxen like you know, Okay, yeah, that's a really good way to put it. So this was migration route, like you were saying that thousands of years before for Stones came around. There's another site about a mile away from the Wiltshire, England Megaliths, and it contains evidence of human occupation spanning three thousand years, including thousands of those orc bones, flint tools, and evidence that they made and used fire. One of the coolest things that you can see evidence of construction at the site of Stonehenge as far back is eight thousand, five hundred years or almost to ten thousand years ago. Uh. Where are these these pine posts that were sticking out of the ground that were at one time raised to create some kind of ancient structure, right, Yeah, And the archaeological evidence hence that this site was originally this ancient hunting feasting kind of a kind kind of a hall, party hall, a party hall, a community center. And uh maybe the megaliths they say, were raised to memorialize this. Um. But of course that is not the final word. There's another idea. It's similar but a little bit different. It's thought that maybe Stonehenge, this huge, seemingly important monument, was more than just some kind of barbecue cookout area. Um. Some people believe that these were erected to celebrate peace or some type of unity, gathering together in harmony, with different groups coming together there. You know, I love it, but I don't really see the causation here because there is a correlation. The argument here is that, uh, during that intense building period which you know, as as we've shown, Stonehenge took a long time to build between three thousand and the culture of the British Isles was increasingly unifying. Um. And they say that you can see this because there are more similarities in regional pottery. But here's the here's the problem to me, and this is just my personal beef with it. I just don't think that a unification of a culture necessarily means that Stonehenge was built to celebrate that. Maybe it means that people were more likely to get together. But I don't think they were likely to get together to say, hey, let's let's make a monument about what good friends we are. You guys, why don't we ever make monuments about our friendships? See? I don't know enough about it. But what if all of the different sarcens are representing different tribes? Would that be cool? It's kind of like the American flag, all the different you know, all the different states of provinces in the thirteen Colonies and so on. They just did it with these giant stones, which is cooler. In my book, that might be. Yeah, it's just I guess you can't build too many because you certainly couldn't carry those rounds. Or maybe you could get a smaller version, like a mini hinge. That's how you do it. We should be we should be the marketing. You think they had a mockhee, like a early set up Kings where a bunch of guys got together they were like, um, I think we need to put it here and here and there little marbles. I wonder, you know, because it took so long to build. The previous iterations, like the wooden parts probably existed as a model of sorts. Um and uh boy, can you imagine they had to have some kind of planning. Can you imagine? We always hear about ancient monuments being made with such precision and perfection and skill, but we never hear about, you know, the ones that got messed up because they're in Easter Island head somewhere where they got the nose wrong and they said, ah, barry this one. Monuments. Yeah, there where the botched monuments where the ancient Machu Picchu walls that just aren't really well put together. I guess they crumbled the ancient subpar artists. Yeah, what happened to those guys? There's a comedy sketch in there somewhere. But um, it is true, as we said before that one of the big one of the big theories force Stonehenge is the astronomical calendar idea that this was where ancients would celebrate winter Solstice. In particular. They say this because the avenue near Stonehenge alliance with the winter solstice sunset, and nearby archaeological evidence suggests that pigs were slaughtered during December and January, maybe a midwinter feast of sorts, And it's also known that the site faces the sunrise during the summer solstice, and that thousands of visitors go to this site every year even now to celebrate that time. And here's something really cool, something a little different. So there were these two pipers playing in a field around Stonehenge and they would have heard the uh sound canceled out at certain spots. There's a sound allusion that might have inspired the Stonehenge builders. This comes from a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, So hardly uh fringe research here. Yeah, So it's thought that perhaps these mega lifts were cred to augment the sound that was already naturally occurring in the site. And it's actually really interesting. The monument is often nicknamed the Piper Stones in England, and the legend holds that these magic pipers would lead maidens out into the field and then turn them into stones as they are today. Bizarre. Yeah, And even those who don't buy this whole sound illusion theory agree that Stonehenge has astonishing acoustic qualities with the cavernous echo echo echo. Oh, it's really cool because it's all of those different flat surfaces that it's reflecting from depending on where you stand. You can have crazy auditory things like where uh, sounds from the right will be coming in from the left side. Uh. It's really cool. There's a presentation online that you can find if you search for Stonehenge acoustics, I think and model. Search for that and you can find just really cool stuff and even models online that you can look at many hinges, well sorry, not many hinges. It's it's models of what the acoustics would be like if Stonehenge was the way it was I guess originally meant to look. Okay, yeah, so we can we can picture it already. You can start to see the sights and hear the sounds that ancient people would encounter when they saw the sun go down on winter solstice during the chanting resonating from the stones, you know, the sound of uh, pigs being slaughtered or yeah, cremation, which brings us to the next one. The Elite Cemetery. We talked about this earlier before the break, the mysterious monument that may have once been a burial ground for the Creme de la Creme of the ancient societies. Thousands of skeletal fragments of at least sixty three individuals have been exhumed from around the area with an equal proportion of men and women and children. So this is interesting because I've heard I've heard that there was a debate about the proportion there. You'll hear some people say, well, it's primarily men and very few women. Uh. So this would leave people to say, well, maybe it's the burial ground of warriors or something. But the thing is, these burials date to three thousand BC, and as construction of the monument was getting started, archaeologists have also found some things that are usually associated with the swells of ancient society, things like instance, bowls on mace head, et cetera. But that is not the crazy idea yet, No, sir, I'm gonna mention a name here that you know. Eric Fontanakan i s author of Chariots of the Gods, among other things, the primary advocate of ancient alien theory, even more so than that guy who shows up on History Channel. He's a gloriously exciting person to see on television. I always love it when his name pops up. I'm like, oh, yes, Fontanenan. So he thinks that the creation of Stonehenge and the Neolithic period was a model of our solar system. Yes, a celestial map that was created with stones. I it seems like it's a lot of trouble to make a map. Yeah, so here's the idea. But it is kind of permanent. Yeah, there's that too. But here's the idea. He's saying that observing the circularly positioned uh trench surrounding Stonehenge, connecting a point that extends hundreds of meters away from the site with an extending pathway pointing directly upon the position the sun would lie in during the summer solstice, uh he says this represents a model of the Neolithic star system that they believe consisted of nine planets, and from this early representation of our solar system, or in von Dannikin's opinion, uh he proposed that the stone circle served as a landing pad for spaceships or an observatory for extraterrestrial activity amid the skies. Yeah. I love it, I know it, I know, but where where is the other proof? You know what, what would we have found if that was really happening. It's a really fun idea. I appreciate it on so many levels, but unfortunately I can't put any weight behind that. Yeah, well, I wonder if you know. Von Dnikin gets a heck of a hard time because he is often accused of just ignoring what doesn't fit his ancient alien theory, you know, and he's also been called racist because the implied the implied thing about ancient aliens is that ancient people were not capable of the same ingenuity as modern people. Still fascinating though, it's so much fun to think about. Oh and here's a deep cut to one of our earliest earliest videos. Uh, the idea of lay lines that Stonehenge is sort of a node for these electro magnetic or geomantic lines of energy that criss cross the globe sort of like uh, sort of like veins and flesh. It's like the Earth's spiritual energy. Um. Again, man, I hate to I don't want to influence anybody either way. If you want to believe in ley lines, that's fine. Uh, there's not a lot of evidence, and it seems to be a whole lot of coincidence, but you know, maybe, well, we do know that, we do know that there have been various sites around the world that have been built to line up with a solstice in that part of the world. And we do know that Earth has a magnetic field, and certain areas of that magnetic field functioned differently than other right, Um, but I don't know if that necessarily proves the idea of ley line. It just seems that when I go online I look at maps of ley lines, at every single one is different, and every single one kind of just decides where they want them to be. Uh, I don't know just what I've seen. Well, I'd like to hear from some listeners to just what I want to. I'd like to hear from an expert that could sit sit me down and explain to me exactly what it is, because from what I found online, right, maybe I just don't get it. I'm now I'm picturing this conversation you'll be having with an expert, sort of like a Law and Order episode Law and Order coolon lay lines, dom domm don't tell me, give it to me. I don't give it to me straight. I don't know. Oh wait, yes, but before we go on, it's time for word from our sponsor. Alright, So here's one of my favorite theories about Stonehenge, Matt. The idea that Stonehenge is a hoax. It was built in nine four. Uh, and there's a there's a great website where you can see these purported pictures of people building Stonehenge. All right, well, I guess we're done here. Yep. Uh. You guys have a great rest of your day. Uh you find us on Twitter. Oh no, all right, well okay, so how does somebody get to Stone Nge. That's one of the most exciting things to me is you can actually go there. Oh yeah, and I think you have to make special arrangements if you want to go up and walk around Stonehenge, go and just drive by. Yeah, but you can. You can go and visit. There's this really great new uh I don't know exactly. It looks like a big tent structure, but it's the main visitor center for the Stonehenge. There are all kinds of things that you can go look at their objects from the past from Stonehenge Um. Sometimes they give to have speakers there lecture series on the history of the area. You can if you'd like to go to Stone Innge, you can visit ww dot English, dash Heritage dot org dot UK and you'll see where or you can book the tickets. I think for adults. It's somewhere, it's a little less than fourteen pounds, uh to visit. Of course kids get a different rate, and certain groups are allowed to practice spiritual rights there. Um. But yeah, you're the stone, just walk up anymore. Somebody ruined it. Somebody probably went and you know what happened, knowing human beings, Matt, here's what happened. Someone committed a crime there. Possibly someone urinated on a stone, definitely, because that's how people are. Um. And maybe maybe somebody said, oh, how romantic, let's uh, let's go have an intimate. Yeah, let's go have an intimate encounter in Stonehenge. And so now because of people doing those things, they ruin the fund for everybody. But we should point out, Matt, you and I have never been to Stonehenge. Right, it is a goal in my life. Now. No, you have not been to Stonehenge either, right, Nope. So even our superproducer Ol has not been there yet. But no has been somewhere else. Ah, yes, And so have we met? Well? I have not, you have, Oh I thought you would went? Who was that guy? Then, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about the United States own Stonehenge. The Stonehenge of the Southeast, sometimes Georgia's own Stonehenge, the Georgia Guidestones, erected in Elberton County, Georgia, which touts itself as the Granite capital of the World. Under very mysterious circumstances. Oh yes, it was commissioned by a fellow named R. C. Christian, which is we're assuming a pseudonym. Definitely. The monument is built to convey astrological information and it contains multi lingual directives for a new world paradigm. Seriously, that's what that's what it is, instructions for the new world. Like if we if you look at these commandments, which are in Russian, English, Spanish, I think, Mandarin's, Swahili, couple other things. Um, then you'll you'll read the same few directives over and over and Matt, you and I quickly read these off. Now one maintain humanity under five hundred million in perpetual balance with nature, guide reproduction wisely, improving fitness and diversity. Unites humanity with a new living language. I wonder which language they're talking about there, hopefull you're doing rule, passion, faith, tradition, and all things with tempered reason. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. Let all nations rule internally, resolving external disputes in a world court, avoid petty laws and useless officials. Balance personal rights with social duties. Prize truth, beauty, love seeking, harmony, with the infinite. Be not a cancer on the earth. Leave room for nature, Leave room for nature. The last guy kind of stuck out here was the John Hancock of that crew. But yes, this is a real place built by a group of people who refer to remain anonymous in um Alberton, Georgia, which is not not exactly a hub of New Age thinking. It is a hub though for granite, which is why they built this, this huge thing out of grantite. And they've got a time capsule under there with no date on when it should be opened. Overall, this thing, uh is is huge. The four major stones are sixteen ft four inches high. They each way about a little bit less than forty two thousand, five hundred pounds, And we have spent a lot of time talking about this. The reason we mentioned Noel going there is because Noel actually did a documentary on the Georgia Guide Stones, which is fantastic. Is there any way for us to find that. Will you give us before you go? Will you go on here and say how you can find it? I don't even have it, um it, so I think it out perfect. Well, you gotta let our people know me too, please, Yes, and listeners. We get quite a bit of email about the Georgia guide Stones. You know, every every few maybe every two weeks, somebody sends us something about the Georgia guid Stones and we're planning to do something special there. But we want to go on site and we would like to, uh, we would like to really make a good show or series with this one. So let us know if you think it's worth it for us to go up there and do a on the spot show about the Georgia Guidestones. Yeah. I want to analyze it, just I want to talk to as many people as possible. And now, I mean Nole's already got this thing. We can use that as historical context. I'm excited. Yes, so check this out because there's so much more about this, about this monument that we we haven't got to. Maybe we could do a podcast just on the Georgia Guidestones too. Um, there's one last thing we should do before we get out of here, Matt, We're going to do a ritual. Oh man, okay, so yeah, you're probably wondering where I'm wearing this robe. I mean I was gonna ask. I didn't want to offend you or anything. I am just I am covered in pig blood under this robe. Man. It's uh yeah, I could smell. Yeah. Well, things have got kind of crazy, but we are doing something that may becoming ritual met today we are announcing the winner of our Facebook caption contest. Oh you have a winner already. That's right, everybody. If you hang out with Matt and Nolan I on Facebook or Twitter at Conspiracy Stuff, then you will have already heard about our caption contest that we just sort of decided to do for yeah, fun time. See if it's see if it was worthwhile. And we got so many responses, we uh we went through them all knowing a lot of close calls. There are some great ones. There are some moments of bit creepiness, maybe a little awkward or unnecessary. I said, I I really enjoyed some of these. One of my favorites was one that in all the caps just said soon, Yeah, that's pretty great. But we did find a winner. We do. We have a winner, and I think it's just I mean, he wins for me because I like the reference and I didn't realize when we were shooting that picture how similar it was to this. So I'm just gonna say it, Ben Adam Reid, you win, buddy. And what did Adams say? Adam said, you can turn back now or watch us recreate that car park scene from Highlander. So congratulations to you, Mr Adam Read, and thank you for playing the game. We thoroughly enjoyed your caption. You have the winning caption, and uh, based on how many people liked your comment, it seems that Matt and I are not the only ones who agree. In fact, super producer Noel and I were talking off air about this too, and uh, I was asking him, you know, which one do you think is a favorite. So it's unanimous from the three of us. So let us know if you enjoyed the captured contests, if you want us to take this up for another go round, and also let us know if you have an idea for something we should cover an upcoming episode. Now we've covered a lot of stuff. You can check our website. Stuff they don't want you to to know dot com for everything we've ever done, most of everything we've ever done, and you can find us on Twitter and Facebook. We are at conspiracy Stuff. No's gonna tell you a little bit more about that before we leave, but for now, if you want to get in contact with us, send us an email. We are conspiracy at how stuff works dot com. From one on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon, visit YouTube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.