The much vaunted Stonehenge exhibition and visitor centre opens its doors tomorrow (18th December), transforming the site from a quick stop off and photo opportunity into an immersive visitor experience, giving a sense of what it was like to live back in the Bronze Age.

This marks the first phase of English Heritage’s £27m project to transform the visitor experience of this iconic site, which receives one million visitors each year.

Visitors will be able to see original artefacts which Neolithic and Bronze Age people used on a daily basis, as well as two 14th century manuscripts, which are among the earliest known drawings of the monument and Roman coins and jewellery.

One of the exhibition highlights is the reconstructed face of a 5,500-year-old man, found buried in a long barrow 1.5 miles from Stonehenge.

A 360-degree virtual experience will let visitors stand in the stones before they enter the gallery and take them back through time to experience winter and summer solstices.

In January a group of specially trained volunteers will build a group of Neolithic houses in January, complete with furniture and fittings.

Chief executive of English Heritage, Dr Simon Thurley, is delighted that this long awaited exhibition is now ready: “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. Visitors will, for the first time, learn the astonishing history of the stones and will see objects, many never seen before, which will bring the stones to life.”

It has been funded by a £10m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and gifts from the Garfield Weston Foundation, The Linbury Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.

Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, says: “it is only right that after decades of indecision, we can now offer Stonehenge the visitor experience and exhibition centre it deserves.”