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21/06/2017

Thousands celebrate summer solstice at stonehenge

Stonehenge is an ancient prehistoric site which may have been a place of worship and celebration around solstice for thousands of years

About 13,000 people welcomed the longest day of the year at Stonehenge's summer solstice overnight.

Stonehenge is an ancient prehistoric site which may have been a place of worship and celebration around solstice for thousands of years. Many consider Stonehenge a sacred site.

Temperatures remained warm throughout the evening and early hours of the morning - reaching a mild 16.1 degrees celsius at its coolest at 6am.

The sun set at 9.26pm and rose at 4.52am to the sound of celebratory chanting, drumming and prayer.

The excitement was captured live on our digital and social channels. Yesterday evening's sunset and this morning's sunrise was live streamed on YouTube and Facebook, with behind the scenes coverage on Instagram.

We also created a one-minute timelapse of the sunset and sunrise on YouTube.

English Heritage's General Manager of Stonehenge, Jennifer Davies, said:

'The summer solstice is a very special time at Stonehenge and we are delighted that so many people - young and old, including many families - came here to celebrate the longest day of the year. We'd like to thank everybody who helped to make it another memorable and good natured occasion and we look forward to seeing them again next year.

'We are pleased with how the celebrations have gone. This year we had extra security arrangements in place and we'd like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding with these. Summer solstice at Stonehenge is a major operation and we couldn't do it without our partners, especially Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Council.'

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