Wandering around with one of the guides, it suddenly occurred to me that the bowl-shaped enclosure of the henge itself - when standing in the centre - very neatly completes the horizon defined by the hills to the east (essentially Beacon Hill round to Sidbury).
You couldn't wish for a better flat astronomical horizon against which to measure angular distances of rising points of the Sun, Moon etc - part natural (the distant hills), part artificial (the henge bank).
Oh, and the northerly intersection between artificial and natural horizons lies pretty much dead on the rising point of the Sun at summer solstice.
--
simon
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