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Ancient monument

Silbury Hill

Near Avebury, Wiltshire

Europe's largest prehistoric mound, and nobody knows why it was built.

Silbury Hill is about 30 metres tall, made from chalk and earth piled up over generations. Treasure hunters dug into it in 1776 and later, hoping to find a burial.

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When
c. 2400 BC
Where
51.4156, -1.8574
Group
Circles & monuments

Visiting

View from the A4 lay-by. Climbing the hill is not allowed.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
From the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

It holds some 248,000 cubic metres of earth and fill, and archaeologists have estimated that building it took 18 million man-hours, or about 500 men working for 15 years.

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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