Work begins to uncover secrets of Silbury Hill

Work began yesterday to save an ancient landmark in Wiltshire from collapsing.

Silbury Hill, which at 130 feet high is the largest prehistoric man-made construction in Europe, continues to mystify archaeologists.

English Heritage is to spend £600,000 this summer trying to preserve the mound.

Specialist engineers will enter the mound through a tunnel which was dug in 1968 by a team led by the archaeologist, Prof Richard Atkinson. That tunnel was the last of three made over two centuries by archaeologists.