In 1986 Stonehenge and Avebury were among the first seven sites in the UK to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, recognising them as places of exceptional importance to all humanity.

To mark the 30th anniversary and to celebrate recent improvements to the setting of Stonehenge, we are launching a competition to win one of thirty pairs of tickets to see Stonehenge from the air in a tethered hot air balloon this autumn.

The winners will be following in the footsteps of aerial photography pioneer Lieutenant Philip Henry Sharpe, who took the first aerial images of the monument from a tethered balloon in 1906.

See the whole neolithic landscape

Until 2013 the A344 ran so close to the Stonehenge that it cut across the ancient avenue and almost touched the Heel Stone, one of the outlying stones of the monument. The removal of this road helped reconnect the monument to its ancient landscape and now there are further government proposals to remove part of the A303 from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, which we welcome.

Heather Sebire, English Heritage Curator says, "This is a once in a life time opportunity to see Stonehenge from above and to appreciate the monument and the landscape from a whole new perspective.

"From this unique aerial vantage point you can see the dramatic difference that the removal of the old road and facilities has made…. [and] to get a sense of how the removal of the A303 from the landscape would transform the World Heritage Site."

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