All language subtitles for If.We.Built.It.Today.S03E05.Secrets.of.Stonehenge.480p.x264-mSD[eztv.re]

Stonehenge is one of the greatest
mysteries in ancient history.

This would have been the most amazing
and ambitious project that anyone could

imagine.

Created 5 ,000 years ago, generations of
experts have studied Stonehenge, but

its construction and purpose still
remain a mystery.

It's just magical, isn't it? You know,
just the simple thing of how did they

build it?

So now we're curious.

Could we recreate this legendary
masterpiece with today's technology?

I do think this kind of project would
attract a certain type of person.

If I had a thousand people working with
me, I don't think I could build

something like that.

Here's the plan.

We're rounding up the best engineers,
archaeologists, and logistics experts to

help us build our own iconic monument.

Even more colossal, awe -inspiring, and
built to last.

There's an old army expression,
actually, that says amateur talk tactics

professionals talk logistics.

Imagine. The world's greatest wonders
reimagined.

We're wondering, how long would it take?

How much would it cost?

How many workers would we need?

Could we even do it?

If we built it today.

Situated on Salisbury Plain in southern
England, this puzzling ring of stone

slabs has baffled researchers for
centuries.

Stonehenge just has that kind of
breathtaking,

aspect to it.

It makes the hairs on the back of your
neck stand up.

Well, I think everybody tends to find
Stonehenge fascinating both because it's

very old and the people that far back in
time could build something that's so

incredibly complicated.

So complicated that some theorists have
credited its construction to giants,

Merlin the Magician, and even aliens.

Even today, how it was built and why is
still under debate.

Archaeologist Michael Parker Pearson and
researcher Barney Harris have studied

the mysteries behind Stonehenge's
construction extensively.

We see the rise in the sense of
prehistoric mysteries and all sorts of

outrageous theories about spacemen and
aliens.

constructing civilizations on Earth
because humans simply weren't considered

to it.

There's a playfulness to it because it's
just these cartoonishly large stones

and this enormous burning question of
how was this done and why was this done?

It must have been built for the
ancestors because that's what we do with

monuments. Stone is durable and eternal
to represent, in fact, to even become

the ancestors.

In terms of its function, some of the
beauty of prehistory is just that space,

that lack of evidence to allow
creativity.

You know, that's part of the enchantment
of it.

So just how did ancient people construct
this colossal monument without access

to modern tools?

First things first.

Let's start with what we know.

The site's construction began around
3100 BCE.

and took over a thousand years to
complete.

On average, the stones weigh about 25
tons and measure about 30 feet long.

Evidence suggests the prehistoric ruin
was built in stages.

The first and oldest part of Stonehenge
is a massive circular ditch, or

henge. The actual hinge itself is
basically just a big circular trench

dig the soil and rock out. We know that
was done using picks made from deer

antlers and shovels made from the
shoulder blades of oxen. And we know

because they left those in the bottom of
the holes.

Within the ditch was a ring of 56 pits,
or holes, dotted around the site's

perimeter, forming a circle 905 feet
across.

The exact purpose of the holes remains a
mystery.

But some historians believe that they
were initially used to support wooden

posts.

For several hundred years, Stonehenge
remained largely untouched.

Then, suddenly, around 2500 BC, the blue
stones started to arrive.

Nearly 80 blue stones, weighing between
two to five tons each, were set up in

two concentric half circles.

But the Neolithic builders were far from
finished.

It's when they bring in the big ones.

And those are what we call sarsen
stones. It's a kind of cemented

At some point, 30 massive sarsen stones,
weighing up to 50 tons, were brought in

and arranged into the famous outer
circle.

A horizontal structure known as lintels
was then placed on top of the sarsen

stones. Well, at the same time, builders
also created what would become known as

the inner circle.

You also have what's called sarsen
horseshoe, which is an arrangement of

trilithons arranged in the center of the
site, forming roughly a horseshoe.

And then the second major sarsen
construction element was the sarsen

Which was a continuous ring of
trilithons running all around the

site. That contained 30 uprights and 30
lintels to form, we think, a perfect

ring. So how did all of these giant
stones, some weighing up to four tons,

up at Stonehenge?

And who brought them there?

I think part of Stonehenge's appeal is
the fact we don't really know for sure

exactly how it was built, why it was
built.

To actually move stones that far, you've
really got to have decades of

preparation. The ropes, the timbers, it
must have been a huge amount of work.

Many modern historians and
archaeologists believe that several

of people contributed to Stonehenge,
each undertaking a different phase of

construction. New research points to
early Europeans originating in Turkey,

and reaching the UK from what is now
Portugal.

They were mostly agricultural groups.

They farmed, they had domesticated
animals, as they did in a lot of parts

Europe and the Near East and the Middle
East at that period in time.

This is actually not much more than 240
generations ago.

They were just like us in the way that
they looked and in aspects of how they

lived and acted.

The construction spanned centuries.

And we may never know what drew
generations of people to continue

How did that idea stay current and stay
important to people over such a long

period of time? That's the real
question.

That's difficult to answer.

Probably originally it was just done by
passing the knowledge on from one

generation to the next, just in an oral
tradition, to explain what they were

actually doing.

So, what would it take to build a modern
Stonehenge?

a structure that would last more than 5
,000 years and continue to inspire awe

for generations.

Could we organize and execute its
construction as well as the ancients?

Some say no way.

There comes a point where that very
special kind of society just won't work

because the nature of society changed.

But others think a modern Stonehenge is
possible.

It's going to take somebody who has a
real special interest in the science and

the history of that project.

There's a desire to build something to
impress everybody else.

So if you can say I was the one who
actually was responsible for that thing

being built, you're going to be a pretty
high status person in that society.

Could we assemble a workforce willing to
take on this epic challenge?

It's a massive undertaking.

We need some rock -solid reasons to do
Stonehenge -style heavy lifting.

If we built it today.

We're imagining how we'd build a new
Stonehenge that would leave the famous

in the dust.

But before we work out how we'd build
it, we need to figure out why we'd build

it. Yet, that very question.

has stumped archaeologists for
centuries.

Stonehenge has a surprising grip on
people throughout the world, and even as

archaeologist who studies it, I find
that one of the greatest mysteries,

it has just gripped the imagination like
no other prehistoric site.

Over the years, archaeologists have
attempted to explain why Stonehenge was

built.

One theory... suggests that Stonehenge
is a giant astronomical calendar.

For the people that lived there during
the time that Stonehenge was

it would have been probably fairly
important as a timekeeping mechanism.

People used to mark where the sun rose
and set, and because it was critical in

the wintertime to ensure that the summer
was going to come back again, they

would watch the rising point of the sun.

As you got towards the solstice around
December 21st, typically, the sun would

slow down, slow down, slow down, stop,
rise to the same point for a couple of

days, and then start moving back towards
the north, ensuring it was actually

going to come back.

You can use it with reasonable certainty
to predict some types of eclipses,

especially lunar eclipses.

Others have speculated Stonehenge was
built as a gathering place to celebrate

peace and unity.

It's about the spirit of the place,
which has something unique about it that

prehistoric people recognized, that that
was what drew them to this as being

somewhere special, because it had this
remarkable alignment of the heavens and

the earth. If you like, they might have
seen this as some kind of cosmic harmony

in this very special place.

What Stonehenge was, and is to this day,
is a crowd magnet.

a place built by people for people to
come together.

This wasn't just a local monument for
local people, but something that was

attracting huge numbers from many
different parts of the island. You meet

marriage partners, you form alliances,
you resolve conflicts.

Even today, one of the most exciting
things about Stonehenge is the mystery

surrounding it.

However... A discovery made in the early
20th century led experts to their most

conclusive explanation yet.

There are definitely cremated human
remains that were found in the bottoms

the post holes, dating from some of the
earlier periods of time.

Excavations revealed the cremated
remains of up to 58 people, providing

that this might actually be an ancient
burial site.

and maybe in a symbolic place where
people would sort of come together

it was the one structure that they had
all sort of contributed towards

much in the same way that even today we
do that sort of thing.

Given the connection with death at
Stonehenge, it was tempting to think

of the motivating factors for people was
the memory of an individual or perhaps

what that individual came to symbolise
in a wider sense.

Further analysis of the remains.

exposed an astounding piece of evidence.

The majority are women. It's very
possible that we are seeing a complete

in the gender politics of that society.

So we have the very interesting
possibility that Stonehenge was actually

masterminded by women.

Clearly, Stonehenge may have served
several purposes, and no theory stands

as more valid than the other.

Whether its purpose was to keep track of
time, celebrate community, or represent

female empowerment.

Put together, that's more than enough
reason to build a new Stonehenge.

So, let's do it.

And since we want to do this right,
we'll need a sacred space and use

designs and methods.

will also match the human strength
required to carry massive stones

miles. And that mission will guide every
decision we make on our modern -day

Stonehenge. But before we can imagine
recreating Stonehenge, we need to decide

where we build it.

If Stonehenge is a calendar most
famously known for its alignment with

winter and summer solstice, If our
Stonehenge is going to do the same

timekeeping job, it needs to be built at
51 .789 degrees north.

If you go east of England, that takes
you sort of through the Netherlands,

Germany, Poland, through Russia, just
north of Mongolia, the very extreme

northern part of China, and a little bit
down towards Vladivostok in Russia.

So what are our options?

You could build one in the southern
hemisphere.

If you go to the same latitude south of
the equator, the only place where

there's actually any land is the very
southern part of Patagonia.

Chile, southern Chile, or southern
Argentina.

There's another place in the northern
hemisphere that could work.

It's about 60 miles north of Calgary,
Alberta, in the heart of what's called

Badlands.

It's a remote...

Dramatic backdrop for a modern -day
Stonehenge. From the architecture, we're

starting to get the idea that this is
perhaps an exclusive space, symbolically

and physically separated from the rest
of the landscape.

The Badlands are on the exact latitude
of Stonehenge and perfect for our modern

-day eternal stone monument.

We're sold, but we're not ready to get
rolling just yet.

We've still got to find our workers.

I do think this kind of project would
attract a certain type of person.

And figure out how they moved all that
rock without alien intervention.

It's just magical, isn't it? You know,
just the simple thing of how did they

build it? And what materials would we
need to recreate the stone circle?

We're talking really accurate
construction techniques here. It's

us today to imagine.

that level of precision being achieved.

Luckily, we know a few experts that can
lead us in the right direction.

If we built it today.

We're imagining how we'd build
Stonehenge today.

We know we'd want to replicate the
design, and we'd like to build it north

Calgary, Alberta's dark badlands.

So that leads to our next question.

What materials would we use for our
modern -day Stonehenge?

Would we extract sandstone and spot a
dolerite from a quarry?

Or would we use a different kind of
material?

Because for astronomy purposes, it could
really be built out of anything.

The main thing is the actual positioning
of the things and having them at the

right latitude. So, yes, you could make
it out of anything, including paper

mache.

Before we decide, we want to know where
the stones that make up Stonehenge came

from.

For many years, archaeologists believed
that the Tharsen stones were brought

from a region 20 miles away.

Yet, recent research has pinpointed the
specific area.

We've just found out that they come from
15 miles to the north.

They just wanted stone of a suitable
size and shape, and the

nearest they could find it was where
they got it from.

Unlike the sarsen stones, the bluestones
presented their own mystery, because

there isn't any naturally occurring
bluestone nearby.

However... Geological studies suggest a
potential source far to the west of

Stonehenge, in Wales.

What we've discovered is actually where
the vast majority of the Welsh stones

come from is the Preseli Hill.

Amazingly, these quarries in Wales are
nearly 175 miles away from

Stonehenge. Even more amazingly...

Recent excavations suggest that some of
the blue stones may have initially been

part of a stone circle at Wan Mon in the
Purcelli Hills.

It was here that we were able to
excavate two of the quarries supplying

stones and we found the remains of a
dismantled stone circle.

A stone circle that we have now dated
and which we know was put up

Before Stonehenge.

So now we're curious.

Is there an easier way to build a modern
-day Stonehenge that doesn't involve

dragging all that stone?

A modern version of Stonehenge, although
making it out of rock would be quite

impressive, I suspect if anybody
actually did that, they would just use

concrete. Because we're really good at
working with concrete. You can just make

a form to whatever shape you want.

Concrete it is.

We'd model Stonehenge in a computer and
use giant molds to shape the concrete

for each individual stone.

3D printed concrete is also an option,
the latest technique that's

revolutionizing construction these days.

But we still have to figure out how and
who is going to build this monument.

This brings us back to what Stonehenge
might have been used for.

Some archaeologists suggest that
Stonehenge was a gathering place.

So, what if we turned our Stonehenge 2
.0 into an outdoor concert venue?

How would our materials hold up?

If we think of any ritual that we get
involved in, a wedding or a funeral or a

christening, whatever it might be, it
involves sound.

So understanding what the sound was like
in the past and how the stones might

have affected that sound is really
important to understand the use of the

Setting up an acoustics test on
Salisbury Plain isn't in the cards.

So, acoustics engineer Trevor Cox
created a digital Stonehenge replica.

If you were to go and measure Stonehenge
today, you'd get a very different

acoustic response because so many of the
stones are missing or on the floor.

I draw on archaeology, so I talked to,
in this case, Historic England, who

actually had a computer model where they
had all the stones in their original

configurations.

Next, Trevor brought those computer
models to life with a 3D printer and

them out in a soundproof chamber.

It's vital that the stones are placed at
the right size, right shape, and placed

in exactly the right place, because
we're working at 1 to 12 scale, so

everything's shrunk by 12, so we've got
to get it into millimetre accuracy.

So this test chamber has absorbent
walls, and that means any sound that

the stone circle disappears and gets
absorbed by the walls. And that's like

real Stonehenge.

And the results were truly
extraordinary.

I think the first surprise in what you
find in Stonehenge is it's got

reverberation.

The sound does linger a little while
before dying away. The reverberation

which is what we measure, is about 0 .6,
0 .7 seconds.

Remarkably, that reverberation time...

is about the same as many of the world's
finest concert halls.

It's half as good as the gold standard,
New York's famed Carnegie Hall.

So the acoustic supports the fact that
this is a site where ceremonies could

take place.

What you learn from the acoustic study
is it tells you maybe a bit about the

of the space.

The fact that speech communication is
easier within the circle, the fact that

music sounds better within the circle,
implies that anyone who was involved in

the ceremony who was within that circle
was getting a pretty sound.

And Trevor says 3D printing in concrete
is a perfect way to construct a great

-sounding outdoor theater.

He's already done it in miniature.

If we actually print hollows, you then
have to backfill them with concrete,

because from the acoustic perspective,
we're trying to mimic stone here, so we

want it to be heavy and impervious, so
we actually fill the back of them up

concrete.

If Stonehenge is really an old
amplifier, it's centuries ahead of its

People care about sound volume when they
need to communicate.

And, as in any megalogistical project,
Communication is everything.

So now we're ready to build it in sight
and sound.

But we still need to figure out how to
get 3 ,000 tons of concrete to the

Alberta Badlands.

How do you move stones? Even if you've
got wooden sledges and thousands of

willing helpers, it's a massive
undertaking.

And to somehow raise it to the sky in a
perfect circle.

This would have been the most amazing
and ambitious project that anyone could

imagine. Can our team conquer the
seemingly impossible?

If we build it today.

We're exploring the secrets behind the
world's greatest prehistoric monument,

Stonehenge, to find out how we'd build
it today.

Of course, there's no denying the
original stands as an enduring testament

the engineering skills of the Neolithic
people who created it nearly 5 ,000

years ago.

But, as it turns out, we're far from
being the first to take on this

There have been people who have
replicated Stonehenge from various

There's actually a refrigerator henge
where there's sort of a replica made of

old dead refrigerators. There's ones
made out of old junk cars.

Nigel Allen constructed his backyard
stone circle in Nova Scotia, Canada.

This location was just in the field and
it was a perfectly flat circular space

in the midst of rolling terrain going
down to the river. But this was a flat

dime begging to have a circle stone put
around its perimeter.

With a local quarry not far away, He
struck a deal to buy some big stones and

broke ground.

So I said, I've got an idea.

So I marked a circle off, a radius with
a rope and done the circle, figured out

where I wanted to put the stones, dug
holes for the stones, had them load them

in one of their giant dump trucks, and
they would spin one at a time, dump it

directly in front of the hole, and I'd
have one of the larger excavators come,

and he would... Just grab the end of it
and tip it up.

Nigel's stones weigh between 6 and 12
tons, half the size of the towering

monsters at Stonehenge.

And even they took a 15 -ton crane and a
massive excavator to do the job,

machinery the folks who built Stonehenge
didn't have.

The texture of the rock makes it look
ancient.

The way it's rippled and weathered makes
it look like it's been here thousands

of years.

Two decades after building it, Nigel
Stonehenge has given locals in his quiet

community something to talk about.

There was a little reaction when the
stones went up so quickly. People were

used to things changing out in the
middle of nowhere, so they were a little

apprehensive, and it brought lots of
different types of people in.

And it's given him an appreciation for
the skills of the ancient builders.

Having done this and having come in
close contact with these huge objects,

quite convinced that the people who have
come before were more resourceful,

stronger, smarter, and had a better idea
how to do things.

5 ,000 years ago, the ancient people
moved all that rock.

But we still don't know how it got from
point A to point B without modern

equipment.

Historians used to think Stonehenge's
builders engineered some kind of log

rolling system.

So this notion has been persistently
explored by archaeologists, testing

these rollers do really work the way
they're proposed.

But when you look at the evidence, what
you find is that this idea doesn't

really hold water.

From a technical perspective, it's
difficult, because when you have

rollers... You look on the ground around
us, the ground is uneven, there's

bumps, there's lumps.

This is going to set these rollers all
different directions. They're going to

jamming into each other, moving across
each other.

Any kind of hill, it's difficult to
negotiate it.

So really, the rollers' idea should be
confined, I think, to the dustbin of

history.

So if we don't use log rollers...

How are we going to move 3 ,000 tonnes
of concrete?

A much more viable method, and certainly
one that we see represented as well

ethnographically, is the idea that
stones were placed on sledges and then,

necessary, some kind of trackway was
prepared for these sledges. Bits of

bits of brush, bits of anything really
to just keep the sledge from biting into

the ground and just pulled along in that
way.

To put the debate to bed once and for
all, researcher Barney Harris and his

colleagues from the University College
London tested alternative ways of moving

large stones without rollers.

And we explored two things. One was the
particular form of sledge that we see

used in ethnographic accounts.

And then the second thing we wanted to
investigate was the kind of tracking

was needed to move this sledge.

And we were interested in the idea of a
timber slipway.

We started off with 30 or 40 students
pulling this sledge with the stone

strapped to it, and that went well.

And then towards the end, they managed
to sort of fine -tune it so there was

about eight students managing to pull
this sledge with the stone on.

The sledge simply slides across the top
of it, and this is a much more stable

arrangement than log rollers, but does
still help reduce the friction.

The sledge method it is.

Now we can cross location, materials,
and equipment off our to -do list, but

biggest challenge may lie ahead.

How many people will we need to hire?

Well, I think you would have a hard time
finding hundreds or thousands of...

people, you would need to move a 20 -ton
rock day after day after day.

How many people out there are going to
have the stamina and the strength to

actually be able to do that?

I suspect it may be a combination where
some people were actually paid and other

people just volunteered.

My guess is that you actually have
separate, probably geographically

teams who are responsible for one part
of the circle.

and that collectively they do this
together.

We'll need an army and the right general
to lead it. Luckily, we have one of the

world's best in mind.

If we built it today.

We're imagining how we'd build a modern
-day Stonehenge.

So far.

we figured out that we'd want to build
it north of Calgary, in Alberta's stark

Badlands.

We'd need to 3D print molds for 157
stones made of concrete, weighing

over 3 ,000 tons.

And to move all that heavy rock, we'll
employ a sledge system that reduces

friction on the stone, allowing it to
move easier and faster.

Experts estimate that it took nearly 10
million combined hours of labor to build

the original Stonehenge. And that was
over 5 ,000 years.

Today, thanks to technology, we're
hoping to cut that time down

Which leads us to our next challenge.

How many workers would we need?

And where are we going to find them?

The engineering of the project is the
easy part. No plumbing, no heat, no

electrics, no building inspectors.

With 157 stones, let's say 25 workers
per stone, for a total of 3

,925 hands, and round up to 4 ,000.

Multiply by 5 for complex jobs like our
modern Stonehenge, that's 20 ,000 people

in total.

Not impossible, but how do you keep them
around long enough to get the job done?

If you're out on an operation, you're
going to need probably three to four

supporters for every one operator on the
front line.

Caleb McDonald is a logistics manager
with the Canadian Armed Forces.

He plans massive operations for a
living.

What we'd usually do is send in a sort
of a skeleton crew on the front end,

which might be labor heavy, and they
have to sort of establish the groundwork

for the rest of the technicians and the
soldiers to come in on the back end.

And so what you'd see is laborers and a
few electricians, cooks, build out the

accommodations area, set up power
generation and power distribution.

So when the actual workforce arrives,
they have somewhere to live, they have

something to eat, they have water to
drink, and they can go through all of

functions they need to do in order to
get the work done.

What kind of supplies would our mobile
workforce need?

From a caloric perspective, we start
with 3 ,000 or 4 ,000 for manual labor.

That's probably 150 to 200 loaves of
bread per day. And you do the same thing

for fresh fruit. And you do the same
thing for meat and all those other

commodities that you need soldiers to be
healthy and productive.

Water being probably the most critical
of all the sort of commodities that we

use to keep a camp running.

Shelter, food and water for thousands of
people for a thousand years.

We're on our way to assembling an epic
workforce backed by a top notch

team.

The challenges are simply motivating
that number of people to stay on task

so long.

And just like today, the pitch needs to
pack a punch.

Recruiting is its own science, and part
of it is around selling what the

adventure is.

Because if we just said, yeah, your job
is going to be to dig holes for eight

hours a day, come on out, we're hiring,
then we're not going to get anybody

coming in.

Social media expert Anita Kirkbride
thinks finding people would be easy.

Organizing Stonehenge 2 .0 would be the
Internet event of the century.

Well, with the click of a button on...

pretty much every social network right
now, you could potentially connect with

billions of people. To get people to
want to be a part of a big project like

this, it's...

Showing them how they can be part of a
community.

The days of gathering a workforce
through unions, churches, and clubs are

Anita thinks the time has never been
better to raise a social media -driven

force. This kind of project would
attract a certain type of person,

wants to see how things were done, the
people who are curious about how did

people actually move these 20 -ton
rocks.

And for some people, they won't believe
that people actually were able to do

that until they participate in it.

I could see the construction of
something like Stonehenge, the movement

stones taking place on an annual basis,
with people coming together each year to

move another stone and perhaps bundling
it in with a massive party.

When the job goes viral, influencers
will line up.

You could be doing live updates.

to share what's happening.

You could be showing the live footage of
people moving these 20 -ton rocks.

Pretty much all of the social media now
have live streaming capabilities.

You could have a really good group of
people helping you publicize this where

they've got 2 million followers.

So how long would this project take with
a first -class logistics team and an

army of influencers?

You can move maybe three miles a day.
For 180 miles, you could do that in a

summer season.

Cutting back on the thousand years it
took to build Stonehenge.

No problem.

It's going to have been done in less
than 10 years. That would be my guess.

10 years isn't much worse than any other
modern mega build.

So let's form our team and leave the
Stonehenge builders in the dust.

But there's one burning question.

Who's picking up the bill if we built it
today?

We're rebuilding Stonehenge, reimagining
3 ,000 tons of stone

in an outdoor venue built for thousands
of people, celebrating the power of

women with a monument that will last an
eternity.

And thanks to non -profit organizations,

Construction volunteering is thriving.

Over 13 million people have volunteered
their time to help build for people in

need in the past half century.

It's an extraordinary undertaking.

It's going to be more than merely, let's
start at A and go to B.

Because you're going to have people all
along the way.

People are going to be hearing about it
from hundreds of miles away.

And they're going to come and join in.
So it's going to be a kind of rolling

spectacle.

And their reward looks an awful lot like
what the workers at Stonehenge

received. To do something good. To learn
new skills.

To be part of a team.

And just possibly have a great time
doing it.

No matter how you cut it, there's going
to be a whole lot of lifting.

But rather than move 200 tons of
bluestones from 180 miles away, we'll

concrete trucks do the job.

150 of them, to be exact.

The concrete will be poured into giant
molds off -site and left to dry.

56 of the small ones, if you call 2 to 5
tons small, and 80 of the big ones,

and broken ones.

Once the concrete sets, we'll kick it
old school and use sledges to pull the

stones to our worksite, a labor force of
20 ,000 people.

To lift our concrete forms upright, we
dig massive holes with sloped sides,

lining the holes with angled wooden
stakes.

The stakes, plus A -frames, provide the
leverage it takes for a good old tug -of

-war. As for getting the top stones on
the uprights, there's one theory that

makes more sense than alien builders.

But it's not going to be easy.

You don't do it with a timber structure,
but you build yourself an earthen

mound, a ramp. And you then pull the
lintel up that ramp. And with

the earth, you then just dig it away so
that gradually it lowers itself.

To my mind, that's the simplest way to
do it.

So we need a whole lot of dirt and elbow
grease to build these earthen ramps.

But will we really be able to motivate
our builders to construct one of the

world's most fascinating, yet
logistically challenging structures

machinery?

I think there is a group of people out
there who would say, oh, well, I don't

believe we can do this.

without modern technology.

So I want to see how this is done. They
want to participate for that kind of

knowledge. I think there are other
people who just want to be part of

fun. And to me, trying to lift a 20 -ton
rock doesn't sound very fun, but

there's somebody out there for every
project.

That's good enough for us.

A perfect stone circle aligned in
harmony with the summer and winter

and created in the Alberta Badlands at
the exact latitude of the original. A

year -round venue to celebrate female
power, with excellent acoustics to hold

legendary parties.

But what's all this going to cost?

The social media -driven workforce will
keep the labor cheap.

If I were trying to recruit a thousand
volunteers,

to travel somewhere, to rebuild
Stonehenge. I'd be looking at the

people, the people who have that
interest in learning how it worked, the

archaeologists, the amateur scientists.

We're estimating $100 million, about the
same as it costs to build a small

stadium.

Stonehenge is much simpler, but making
it old school is going to drive up the

bill.

But it would be worth every penny.

Because when humans work together, we're
unstoppable.

Stonehenge is an eternal monument to
that fact, an Old Testament to the best

can be.

There's no denying the incredible power
of the original, but a Stonehenge 2 .0

might be just the sort of project we
could all use these days.

A place to come together with friends
and to revel with strangers.

to celebrate the past and look forward
to a brighter future if we built it

today.