Salisburg Plain - More than 24 000 people from druids to fans heading for a nearby music festival hailed the sun rising on the longest day of the year on Thursday at Britain's ancient Stonehenge monument.
At 4:58am, following an all-night party on Salisbury Plain in southwest England, dawn broke on the summer solstice over 5 000-year-old stone circle, one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world.
Revellers wearing antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves huddled at the Heelstone - a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of the monument - to cheer the rising sun.
English Heritage, which runs the site, said numbers swelled above the 20 000 they expected because people joined the party on their way to the Glastonbury music festival, which begins on Friday in a farm in nearby Somerset.
"There was a very good atmosphere but sunrise was not very spectacular this year because of the cloud," said a spokeswoman for English Heritage.
There were four arrests overnight for minor public disorder, she added.
Laura Tungate, 26, a financial adviser from the northern English city of Newcastle, greeted people with "Happy Solstice" at an event she has attended the last eight years.
"I love the whole vibe, and the energy, and the fact that these stones are alive, they do breathe, and they do grow and they're massive," she said.
Jeanette Montesano, a 23-year-old religion graduate from New York and as elf-described pagan, compared the importance of the trip with the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"It's not the hajj, but it is 19 000 people in a little circle. I wanted to experience something like that," Montesano said.
A spokesperson for the Druid Network said: "The Summer Solstice is a way of attuning ourselves back into the cycles of nature, connecting with the land and the turning of the seasonal tides."
Every June 21, the event draws together druids, revellers, hippies, New Age travellers and others simply wishing to experience the mystical annual event at the prehistoric monument.
When the sun rises over the Heel Stone to the sound of beating drums, some chant, some cheer, others meditate and the odd character has been known to cavort naked.
Although Stonehenge is open to the public all year round, restrictions were set up during the 1980s following violent clashes between the police and revellers at the summer solstice.
The stones stand between three and six metres high and are arranged in concentric circles.
Historians estimate they were erected sometime between 3000 BC and 1600 BC.
The monument became a World Heritage Site in 1986 and despite years of research and study, the reason behind its construction remains a mystery.
Another all-night Summer Solstice party took place at the complex of ancient stones in Avebury, 25 miles north of Stonehenge. - Sapa-AFP