Revellers, druids, and pagans gathered at Stonehenge on Wednesday morning to greet the sunrise for the summer solstice.
Thousands made the pilgrimage to the ancient stone circle to witness the sunrise on the longest day of the year at the UK’s famous prehistoric site.
Worshippers camped out overnight from 7pm inside the World Heritage Site to witness a glimpse of the rising sun.
The Heel Stone found on the outside of Stonehenge’s main circle lines up with the rising sun during a Summer Solstice.
Stonehenge was built in stages on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, some 5,000 years ago, with the stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period of around 2,500 BC.
Some of the stones, the so-called bluestones, are known to have come from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales, nearly 150 miles away, but the origins of others remain a mystery.
The site’s meaning has been the subject of vigorous debate, with some theories even suggesting alien involvement.
However, English Heritage, the charity that manages Stonehenge, says the most generally accepted interpretation “is that of a prehistoric temple aligned with the movements of the sun”.
This is because the stones match perfectly with the sun at both the summer and winter solstices.
On the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the northeast part of the horizon and its first rays shine into the heart of the stone circle.
Elsewhere in the UK, people gathered at other historic sites to mark the solstice, including at the country’s tallest freestanding stone, the Rudston Monolith in East Yorkshire.
It comes as thousands of campers will descend upon nearby Glastonbury in the hope of claiming a prime spot as the world-famous festival opens its doors for its 51st year.
Festival-goers could experience travel disruption as they make their way to Pilton in Somerset due to wet weather but the skies are due to clear across Worthy Farm as the music kicks off on Friday.
