King
King Sil
Still riding, somewhere under the chalk.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Huge grassed chalk mound
- Legend from
- Aubrey; A.C. Smith (1862); local tradition
- Tone
- Wondrous
A king on horseback, cast in gold, sealed in chalk. Three tunnels in, and he is still missing.
Silbury Hill, the largest artificial prehistoric mound in Europe, was raised around 2400 BC. John Aubrey recorded the local belief that King Sil, or King Zel, was buried inside on his horse. By 1862 the king and horse had become a life-sized statue of solid gold. Another tale says the Devil, carrying earth to bury Marlborough, was persuaded by the priests of Avebury to drop it here. Diggers sank shafts in 1776 and 1849, and found no king, no horse and no gold.