Main stream archaeology suggests that the Avebury stones were first erected some 5500 years ago and that they were the centre piece of a landscape, peppered with sites and oddities from an era during which our ancestors sculpted their landscape with henges, burial mounds and spiral 'pyramids' such as Silbury Hill and the nearby Marlborough Mound. Two of the most enigmatic sites within the Avebury area are the partly restored West Kennet Long Barrow (aligned east/west) and the much less explored East Kennet Long Barrow (aligned north/south). Whilst you may access part of the interior of the West Kennet Long Barrow it's sibling mound at East Kennet remains covered in trees and is somewhat overgrown.
Avebury is the largest known stone circle in the World; from an archaeological and social perspective, it was constructed during the late Neolithic when the estimated population of the British Isles was less than 200,000. It seems extraordinary to consider that only around 10% of the sites these peoples built still exist today.
The henge at Avebury predates Christianity, Judaism and Islam, great cultures such as the Romans and Ancient Greeks and indeed the Celts too. The Druids came later and what ever belief systems existed during the height of Avebury's use, it seems likely that it was much more than a 'house for the spirits of the ancestors' as some historians suggest.
Overall, many theories have been put forward about these sites, some seem likely, others less likely; what ever your own personal perspective or belief about Avebury, one of the most remarkable facts about the henge is that whether you're a Professor of Archaeology or a tourist exploring the Curiosities of Old England or indeed a child burning up energy as you run around and around the stones ... it's presence works on so many levels and it rarely disappoints even the most uninspired visitor on the wettest of days.
How might one start an exploration of this grand scaled wonder and indeed World Heritage site?
My own suggestion would be to stand in the middle and look around you, then walk up onto the embankment that surrounds the henge and look down at the stones thereby visualising the huge scale of this place.