Misty sunrise for the summer solstice at Stonehenge

The sun was long overdue on June 21 but when it finally appeared, faces lit up and arms rose as one to greet the summer solstice at Britain's most famous prehistoric monument.

The sun was scheduled to come up on the longest day of the year at 4:49 am (3:49 GMT) but was shy in a sky as hazy as the minds of many of the midsummer revelers who spent the night at the sacred site.

Around 6,000 people gathered for the sunrise and sunset at 9:27 pm, according to the site's manager and police, during the first public summer solstice at Stonehenge since the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc in 2020.

Stonehenge was built in stages, from around 3,000 B.C. to 2,300 B.C., and the standing stones are aligned with the movements of the sun.

"We might see it at about 10 o'clock!" joked Jade Tetlon, who made a spur-of-the-moment decision to come with a friend and his daughter for her first solstice at Stonehenge.

Surrounded by soft melodies from flutes, drums, birds singing and sheep bleating but also the trucks rumbling on the main road nearby, Tetlon, 35, immersed herself in the site's unique atmosphere.

The smell of incense and cannabis floated in the air, despite a ban across the country and a sign at the site's entrance.

At 5:08 am, the sun finally appeared, serenaded by whistling and cheers but also joined by a collective rise of mobile phones in the air to immortalize the moment.

"Stonehenge is the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world," according to the UN cultural organization UNESCO, which classified it a world heritage site in 1986.

A theory emerged in the 17th century that Stonehenge was constructed by Celtic Druids but that has since been dismissed by historians.

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