Scattered across Jordan 12 giant ring structures, which can be fully visible only in images taken from an airplane or satellite, puzzled scientists.
Known in the scientific world as the Great Circles, these huge rings range in diameter from 220 to 455 meters. They were first spotted from the air in 1920. Then a number of discoveries were made in 1930, 1953 and 2002.
But now archaeologists from Western Australia have documented 12 more new circles in Jordan and Syria. A total of eight large circles have been found in central Jordan. The second group, consisting of four large circles, is located north of the Azraq oasis.
In addition, one Great Circle was spotted in satellite images in 2002 near the Syrian city of Homs.
“The landscape in the Middle East is heavily strewn with circulars or sub-circular stone structures,” explained lead researcher Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia.
According to him, most of them are not quite exact circles, but there are also those that clearly pretend to be geometrically accurate figures. Their walls, built from local rough stone, are 1 to 2 cm thick.
For almost a century, scientists have not been able to give an answer to the meaning and history of these circles.
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