England ? Thousands of neo-Druids, New Age followers and the merely curious were flocking to Stonehenge on Saturday to await the sunrise over the prehistoric monument and celebrate the longest day of the year.

The ancient stone circle in southern England is the site of an annual night-long party — or religious ceremony, depending on perspective — marking the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice.

“They come for a complete range of reasons,” said archaeologist Dave Batchelor of English Heritage, the site’s caretaker. “Some belong to the Druidic religion and think of it as a temple, others think of it as a place of their ancestors, or for tranquility and others come to see it as a way to celebrate the changing of the seasons.”

Stonehenge, which sits on Salisbury Plain about 80 miles southwest of London, is one of Britain’s most popular tourist attractions, visited by more than 750,000 people a year. It was built in three phases between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C.