Oldest surviving map of the cosmos headlines new Stonehenge exhibit

The exhibition’s star item is the 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc, a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols representing the sun, moon and stars, believed to be the oldest surviving map of the cosmos. Photos: AFP

For a monument that has been drawing crowds for thousands of years, Stonehenge still holds many secrets.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was erected between 5,000 and 3,500 years ago on a windswept plain in south-west England. Its purpose is still debated: Was it a solar calculator, a cemetery, a shrine?