Mysteries in Stone
Many people know about the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the circle of stones called Stonehenge in England. ( １ ), few people have heard of the huge stone monuments＊ in Holland called hunebeds, even though they are older than both the Pyramids and Stonehenge. Most of these monuments can be found in Drenthe, an area in northeastern Holland. There are 54 of them, some with stones that weigh as much as 25,000 kilograms. The stones were used to make walls and a roof around a space where dead people were buried.
Where did these huge stones ( ２ )? During the Ice Age, about 200,000 years ago, most of northern Europe was covered by thick ice. Slow-moving glaciers＊ pushed down huge stones into the area around Drenthe. When they melted, these stones were left behind. Many thousands of years later, the people in Drenthe took these stones out of the earth and moved them to the places where they wanted to build a monument.
It is not clear how the creators of the hunebeds made these monuments. Experts have suggested several possible ( ３ ), but no one knows exactly how they did it. Even using today's technology, moving such heavy stones would be ( ４ ).
Today the hunebeds are popular with tourists because they are mysterious and interesting. Unlike Stonehenge, which is surrounded by a fence, people can walk freely among the huge stones without buying a ticket. This way, visitors can picnic near the monuments and enjoy looking at them at their own ( ５ ).
＊monument：記念建造物，遺跡
＊glacier：氷河
目がちかちかする。母親に解けっていわれたやつ。
何語だよ。英語だよ。