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Experience the magic of these English towns.

Here’s How a Mars 100 Candidate Will Spend Her Last Days on Earth

Writer, Robert Mailer Anderson, shares his favorite places in the California small town Boonville.

Overview

Ales Stenar is a rock formation (in the shape of a ship, roughly) that sits atop a ridge on the coast of southern Sweden. There have been many comparisons to Stonehenge but there are no other connections other than they both have standing stones in a circle/oval. They’ve posted a few theories about why they exist which are worth a read. The short hike to the top of the ridge is easy enough and the views from the top provide sweeping views of the coast.

Considered the pride of Rockbridge County, VA, this naturally carved 215-foot high limestone formation was once owned by Thomas Jefferson, who built a cabin there for visitors and was surveyed by a teenage George Washington who was said to have carved his initials on the rock. Open year-round, visitors can journey the 137 steps to the bridge, learn about the area’s earliest inhabitants at the Monacan Indian Village, visit a foam replica of Stonehenge, and at night witness the “Drama of Creation,” a dazzling interpretive light and music display about the Seven Days of Creation using the bridge as the backdrop.

Older than both Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt, the monument at Newgrange was built around 3,200 B.C.E. Its use is a mystery, although it was most likely a place of worship, and there are legends that it was used as a burial chamber. The main circular mound has a passage with small chambers off it, and each year on the winter solstice, the sun travels along the passage and lights up the main chamber. Many of the curbstones at the front and stone slabs lining the passage have decorative examples of megalithic art, with zigzags, spirals, and other geometric designs. Access to Newgrange is by guided tour, and it’s part of the Brú na Bóinne complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which also has the passage graves at Knowth (on view by guided tour) and Dowth (not open to visitors).

Featuring a series of boulders that appear to have been gathered, piled, and deliberately set across a few square miles of desert, this site carries a certain air of mystery. Scientists remain baffled about the geological event that could have created the formations, while archaeologists and historians are fascinated by the petroglyphs and paintings drawn by the native Arawak people. Trails weave around the enormous stones, many of which have been named for the animals they resemble. Speaking of which, all sorts of creatures inhabit the area, from iguanas to burrowing owls.

South of Galway in neighboring County Clare is one of Ireland’s, if not Western Europe’s, unique landscapes: the extraordinary, lunarlike limestone scenery of the Burren. (Its name derives from the Gaelic word boíreann, which means “rocky place.”) The Burren has an eerie topography that supports a diverse array of flora and fauna, some more commonly found in alpine or Mediterranean climes. It is also home to Aillwee Cave, an otherworldly series of underground caverns, towers, and waterfalls.

These are the oldest and the most impressive of the megalithic temples in the Maltese islands. Built during the Neolithic period, the ruins are more than 5,500 years old, predating Stonehenge and even the pyramids of Egypt. It is the coralline limestone used to build the temples that has allowed them to endure for thousands of years. Recently restored, the site is visitor-friendly with walkways and a new center with displays of prehistoric artifacts from across Gozo.

Jutting up from the crest of a flat-topped hill, the Callanish Standing Stones comprise one of the world’s best-preserved Neolithic monuments. Erected 5,000 years ago, they predate England’s famous Stonehenge and are believed to have been an important place for ritual activity for at least 2,000 years. To this day, archaeologists disagree about why the stones were placed here, but the general consensus is that the cross-shaped arrangement served as a kind of astronomical observatory. Unlike at Stonehenge, visitors to Callanish can walk right up to the monoliths, which are more roughly hewn than their English counterparts. There’s also an interpretation center and café on-site; it’s closed on Sunday, but the stones are always accessible.

On the principal Orkney island, some 30 miles from the north coast of mainland Scotland, sits the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe. From 3000 to 2400 B.C.E.—long before Stonehenge or even the Egyptian pyramids—Skara Brae was a thriving village, full of farmers, hunters, and fishermen. It was rediscovered in 1850 after a particularly strong storm and now serves as a fascinating tourist attraction, complete with nine surviving Neolithic houses. Outfitted with stone furniture made 5,000 years ago, the dwellings are linked by low corridors, roofed with what are believed to be original slabs of boulder. When you’re done exploring the village, head to the visitor center to view additional artifacts like gaming dice, tools, and jewelry.

Near the Maeshowe chambered tomb are standing stone circles first erected sometime between 2500 and 2000 B.C.E., possibly for use in Neolithic ceremonies. The stones at Stenness are a bit older (dating to 3400 B.C.E.) than those nearby at the Ring of Brodgar—and more dilapidated, with fewer original monoliths. The tallest stone to remain, though, is almost six meters tall (almost 20 feet). Unlike Stonehenge, which you must admire from a safe distance, here you can climb the earthwork ramparts and walk among these curious monuments to an ancient civilization, little understood today.