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Longest day has dawned
21/06/2005 10:24 - (SA)
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| A reveller performs a fire breathing trick. (Matt Dunham, AP) |
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London - A colourful crowd of 20 000 people gathered on Tuesday at Stonehenge, an ancient circle of stones in England, to witness the dawning of the longest day of the year.
Amid the beating of drums following an all-night festival, druids, pagans, New Age travellers and curious spectators celebrated the summer solstice in what has become an annual tradition.
Cheers rung out across Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, central-southern England, as the sun rose over the "heel" stone at 03:58 GMT.
A few high wisps of cloud together with a low-lying mist added to the splendour of a perfect dawn.
Local police said the all-night festivities at the ancient stone circle passed relatively peacefully with just six arrests, mainly for drink-related offences, although they warned this number would likely rise as the visitors headed home.
"Between 20 000 and 21 000 turned out for the Solstice festival," a spokesperson said.
The ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site erected between approximately 3000BC and 1600BC and despite years of research the reason behind its construction remains a mystery.
The summer solstice in the northern hemisphere occurs annually on June 21 and is the time at which the sun is at its northernmost point in the sky.
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