For most individual, Stonehenge remains as an image for the most ancient of civilisations, the work of people who had barely risen up out of their hunter gatherer roots. Those people might well be amazed to know exactly what number of mysterious structures survives, in one form or another, from much earlier ages and in places few would even set out to look.
Far from the quiet shires that house Stonehenge stands a building that is yet more antiquated. Roosted at the highest point of the most established existing ziggurat is the climate worn White Temple. Less known than the complexes on the ziggurat at Ur, the White Temple is just 20 metres (60 ft) long. The name, added in modern times, originates from its whitewashed, mud-brick walls, whose sides still stand sentinel over the sands of the long-gone Sumerian empire. What the first name for the sanctuary was, nobody knows, as the early history of the site is painfully hard to sort out.
Tarxien Temples
The Tarxien Temples are set in the midst of the developed neighbourhood of Paola, simply 30 minutes from Valletta, the capital of Malta. Less well-known than the Ggantija Temples and nearby underground Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni, these over-the-ground structures are the most complex of all the old sanctuary sites in Malta.
There are three temples at Tarxien, all distinctive ages, with the most established dating to 3250 BC. The mystery lies in the beliefs of the individuals who developed them. Is it accurate to say that they were basically artistic structures, proposed by the intricate and wonderful animal carvings that can be seen there, or did they serve a Sun god? Maybe they were praise to an obese fertility goddess, whose corpulent figure manifests so frequently at the site.
Everybody has known about the legendary Inca Empire and their Machu Picchu citadel, but less consider about the remains of Peruvian civilisations that are much older. Five thousand years before the Incas came to their peak in the fifteenth century antiquated groups in the New World were building Sechin Bajo. The site comprises of a circular plaza 14 metres (45 ft) in diametre, 370 kilometres (230 mi) north of modern-day Lima.
Knap of Howar
The two stone structures that shape the Knap of Howar may at first seem immaterial, but they are in fact 5,700 years of age and are the oldest known stone houses in northern Europe. The walls of these houses still remain more than 1.6 metres tall but were just revealed in the 1930s, after serious ocean erosion and storms ruined their cover.
West Kennet Long Barrow
Seven hundred years before Stonehenge was being readied, West Kennet Long Barrow was already constructed, only 25 kilometres (15 mi) from the acclaimed stone circle. A barrow is a spot to hold the dead, traditionally the social elite, and this barrow is one of the best preserved in Britain. It commands the close-by area, at more than 100 metres (330 ft) long and 12-24 metres (40-80 ft) wide, and it is sufficiently tall inside to let a man stand upright. Dating from 3650 BC, it was being used for right around 1,000 years, holding the bones of 50 individuals.
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