The largest artificial mound in Europe, mysterious Silbury Hill compares in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Probably completed in around 2400 BC, it apparently contains no burial. Though clearly important in itself, its purpose and significance remain unknown.

Silbury Hill is part of the Avebury World Heritage Site, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

ORIGINS AND CONSTRUCTION
Silbury Hill stands 30 metres high and 160 metres wide, and its construction is estimated to have involved about 4 million man hours of work. Half a million tonnes of material, mostly chalk, were used to create it.

The monument we see today was not conceived and built in a single campaign, but enlarged over several generations. Perhaps different people brought soil and chalk from their own neighbouring lands, bringing communities together. Over time, the project became more ambitious, with huge quantities of chalk dug from the surrounding ditch to build the mound.

First, people stripped the topsoil and stones from the ground. Then a small mound of gravel a little less than 1 metre high was built, with material perhaps brought from the nearby river Kennet.

At some later stage, a ring of stakes was set out to define a larger area, 16 metres in diameter, into which basketloads of mud and dark soils were tipped. Smaller heaps were constructed nearby and some pits, probably relating to ceremonial activity, were dug into the central mound.

People continued to add soil and turf and even boulders, creating a mound 35 metres in diameter and about 5 metres high. A massive enclosing ditch with an internal bank was then dug, 100 metres in diameter. It was backfilled and re-cut a number of times.

A series of chalk banks were added to the mound, increasing its size and back-filling the ditch. A second enormous water-filled ditch and rectangular extension were dug beyond it, leaving space for the chalk mound to be further enlarged.

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