Advertisement

Stonehenge reopens after $44 million makeover

A cameraman films a 360 degree virtual experience video display showing Stonehenge in the new exhibition centre at Stonehenge in Salisbury, southern England December 17, 2013. The new exhibition and visitor centre at the popular tourist destination will open to the public on Wednesday. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty (BRITAIN - Tags: SOCIETY)

If you were a few thousand years old, you'd probably be due for a makeover, too.

While not everyone agreed with the decision to renovate Britain's ancient Stonehenge, its new visitor facilities are now open to the public.

Don't worry, the ancient stone circle "still looks like a bunch of rocks."

The $44-million makeover was designed to "restore the dignity" of the UNESCO World Heritage Site by providing a visitor centre about 2.4 kilometres from the site. There, visitors can view an English Heritage exhibition about Neolithic life that includes a 360-degree "immersive experience" — a virtual recreation of Stonehenge that allows visitors to stand within the circle of stones — before entering a gallery displaying nearly 300 artifacts from the area.

Eventually, a recreated Neolithic village will also be part of the exhibition.

The centre officially opened on December 18, three days before the winter solstice, when thousands of druids and pagans annually gather to watch the sun rise in perfect alignment with the Stonehenge.

"The exhibition will change the way people experience and think about Stonehenge forever, beyond the cliches and towards a meaningful inquiry into an extraordinary human achievement in the distant past," said Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage. "It will put at its centre the individuals associated with its creation and use."

From the centre, visitors can walk to the stone circle down a restored centuries-old processional walkway — or hop on a shuttle bus for a 10-minute ride to the site.

[ Odd News: Thief lugs 250-pound safe out of Massachusetts restaurant ]

The final phase of the renovation — a restoration of the landscape around Stonehenge — should be complete by summer. The busy highway that runs beside the stones will be shut down permanently by June, allowing tourists to view Stonehenge "free from the clutter and rubbish" that had been built up around the stones, said Thurley.

To protect the area surrounding the stones, English Heritage is still fencing off Stonehenge to keep visitors from entering the circle, but with a less conspicuous fence than the previous industrial chain-link one.

"The only thing that struck me is you can't go up and touch it," fourth-time visitor Keith Foskett, of West Sussex, England, told CNN.

"I think that's a real shame. English Heritage might own it, but it really belongs to the people. You should be allowed to go up and hug the stones."

In mid-December, Druids led a march to the new visitor centre in protest of the display of ancient human remains in the visitor centre's current exhibition.

Stonehenge was built in three phases between 3000 B.C. and 1600 B.C. Its original purpose remains a mystery.

"We know there was a big idea" behind Stonehenge, senior curator Sara Lunt told the Associated Press. But "what the spiritual dimension of this idea is — that is the key, and that is what we can't get."

"We still have no way of replicating a Neolithic mind. We don't have the Neolithic voice in our ear. We don't know the heart of it — and that's a good thing. That gives people work to do."