Salisbury is at the meeting point of four rivers; it is the only city in the county of Wiltshire and has a beautiful cathedral. Salisbury was founded in 1220 when the cathedral was moved from Old Sarum. Industries include cattle and poultry marketing, brewing, leatherwork, and printing. The 13th-century palace of the bishops, several medieval churches and other old buildings, and the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum are interesting. There are lots of little shops in Salisbury that sell souvenirs and things which make good presents, as well as the usual high street shops. It is also lovely to walk along the river and you can usually see swans and other birds.

Salisbury Cathedral is a splendid example of Early English architecture and has the highest spire in England - (404 ft/123 m). The cathedral was built between 1220 and 1260. Some stones were used from old cathedral at Old Sarum. Salisbury is one of the few cathedrals built in the shape of a double cross. The spire was added 100 years after it was built. In the Cathedral there are many important treasures including an ancient clock mechanism dating from 1386 and said to be the oldest piece of machinery still working in Britain, if not the entire world. There is also one of the few remaining copies of the Magna Carta - an important document signed in 1215. Behind the altar there is a blue stained glass window called the Prisoner of Conscience Window. Thomas Hardy used Salisbury as the town in his novel Jude the Obscure – he called it Melchester.

Stonehenge became a World Heritage Site in 1986. Until 1918 a local man owned it but he gave it to the country. It is one of the finest prehistoric monuments in the world but no-one really knows for sure why it was built. For 5000 years visitors have come to Stonehenge. Before Stonehenge was built thousands of years ago, the whole of Salisbury Plain was a forest of pines and hazel woodland. Over centuries the landscape changed to open chalk plains.

Today there is about half of the original monument - some of the stones have fallen down, others were used for building or to repair farm roads and it was quite normal to hire a hammer from the blacksmith in Amesbury and come to Stonehenge to chip bits off as souvenirs. As you can imagine you cannot do this now!

The stones came from the Prescelli Mountains in Pembroke, South Wales 245 miles (380kms) away. They were dragged down to the sea, floated on huge rafts, brought up the River Avon, finally overland to where they are today. It was amazing when you think that each stone weighs about five tons.

There are some wonderful myths and legends about Stonehenge and you can hear them on the audio tour at Stonehenge in nine different languages, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Russian and Japanese.

Entrance to Stonehenge costs about £5.00