More than 250 artefacts of international importance are on display and highlights include the reconstructed face of an early Neolithic man and a 360-degree video presentation of how the stone circle would have appeared when complete.

Visitors can view objects used in the monument’s construction and those connected with Neolithic and Bronze Age men and women, their lives, their rituals and daily struggles.

Full disability access, a dedicated education space, a spacious café and shop are all part of the new visitor centre which is located in a discrete single-storey building situated 1.5 miles from the stones. This has enabled the immediate area around the monument to be cleared of modern structures and for sympathetic landscaping to be completed.

Visitors who choose not to walk from the centre to the stones are taken on a ten-minute shuttle ride. During summer 2014 full-size reproductions of Neolithic round-houses were constructed nearby and these proved very popular with visitors.

Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: "At last, visitors to Stonehenge will be able to get a sense of the people who built this monument, of their lives, their deaths and their ceremonies. Instead of just a stopover or a quick photo opportunity, we want our visitors to step back in time and into the shoes of those who created and used this extraordinary place, to marvel at original everyday objects they used, to walk the surrounding landscape as they did, and to sit in the dwellings that they would have built. It makes the real encounter with the stones themselves so much more exciting."