Callanish Stones, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Stone giants

There are other standing stones on the Isle of Lewis, but none more impressive than the Callanish Stones. The entire arrangement forms a cross shape on an area of the Scottish island’s west coast—the stone circle at the centre is thought to be the oldest portion of the pattern, erected roughly 5,000 years ago. Historians aren’t sure what purpose the Callanish Stones served, though there are plenty of conjectures. Perhaps the most prominent theory suggests that the stones formed a kind of astronomical observatory. Folklore on the island holds that the stones were once giants who became petrified when they refused to convert to Christianity.