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There are many stone circles, standing stones and ancient burial places in South Wales.

These precious places need to be conserved and treated with respect. To trample through them would be to destroy them and most of them are in remote, places which are difficult to access.

However, we need to understand the people who lived here. To mark the millennium, full-sized replicas of stone monuments have been erected at The National Showcaves Centre for Wales. The original builders of stone monuments looked on them as we today look on cathedrals and other architectural masterpieces.

We ask you to wander and wonder around the stones and to walk back in your imagination to a world of long ago.

Imagine the effort needed to quarry, transport and erect these monuments thousands of years ago.

The people who originally lived in Bone Cave during the Bronze Age period may have been the builders of the many stone monuments found locally.

Why were they built ? Perhaps they were summer and winter solstice markers or even solar, lunar or stellar alignment calendars.

Maybe they were a symbol of the spirit of the builders and a tribal meeting place.

They built stone avenues and rows, which could have been procession routes or just markers to the circles.

Burial chambers, known as Portal Dolmens are found all over the world. These chambers were originally covered by soil, since eroded away.

Some archaeologists say that our ancestors thought on them as entrances to another world --- an ancient star gate? Venture in and see if you travel through time.

Watch how the shadows cast by the stones change during daylight hours.

Standing stones could have been used to indicate the approximate time, much like a sundial is used in gardens today, but our ancestors probably used the stones as an agricultural calendar to mark mid summer and the winter solstice.
 
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