Near a forgotten monument in Germany. Construction of a Bronze Age building

Stonehenge Germany is not made up of large stones but of thousands of wooden pegs. Archival

Central Germany has a forgotten prehistoric trace, but it is somewhat overshadowed by its British counterpart.

The Stonehenge monument, consisting of a collection of large stones erect around the world, is known worldwide, but the wooden edifices of Baumelte are by no means a major attraction in Germany, although this circular entity is as old as the erect stones in England.

Local tourism officials hope to change this with a new mud-built visitor centre building using early Bronze Age methods, to make the so-called Ringheilstum (circular shrine) in Baumelte more welcoming to visitors.

The new visitor centre at the site gives information about the site and the history of the area, although the most attractive part is the building itself, which was built with 130 tonnes of mud that was tamped by hand layer by layer.

The ritual round, south of the city of Magdeburg in former communist East Germany, is believed to have been used thousands of years ago for astronomical purposes. It was only discovered from the air in 1991 and was fully excavated between 2005 and 2008.

Some archaeologists see it as the "Stonehenge of Germany" because of its structure, diameter and age. But unlike its famous British counterpart, it is not made up of large stones but of thousands of wooden stakes. The use of his pommelet as a ritual site is believed to have begun in the late Neolithic period.