The Big Circles of Jordan

The Big Circles are a collection of 12 giant circular stone structures spread across parts of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in addition to Syria. Despite they beingness over two ,000 years erstwhile , real trivial archaeological attending has been given to them in addition to they stay largely unknown , fifty-fifty amid local experts.

The circles were discovered inward 1920 yesteryear a British airplane pilot named Lionel Rees when he flew across the deserts of what would move Jordan. The pictures Rees took of these immense stone circles became merely about of the earliest aerial archaeological photographs of these structures. For reasons unknown , Rees findings were ignored in addition to promptly forgotten. It took merely about other lx years earlier anyone noticed them again. It was exclusively inward the concluding 10 years , they accept started to make to a greater extent than attending through the run of David Kennedy , a researcher at the University of Western Australia.

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Photo credit: Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology inward the Middle East

The Big Circles are built of depression stone walls that are no to a greater extent than than a few feet high. They are close circular , ranging from 720 feet to over 1 ,200 feet across. The circles originally contained no openings , although over the centuries merely about of the walls accept crumbled. Two of the circles accept Roman roads cutting across them , indicating they are over two ,000 years erstwhile , but they could live much older.

The circles would non accept been difficult to build , according to David Kennedy , in addition to could live constructed from local rocks , in addition to a dozen people working difficult inward a week. But why they were built is a mystery. It seems unlikely that the circles were used equally cattle pens , equally the walls are likewise depression to continue the animals within. Besides , in that place is no argue for brute pens to accept a precise shape.

Out of the 12 circles , viii are inward due west key Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , betwixt Wadi el-Hasa in addition to the border of Shara escarpment , in addition to iv merely due north of Azraq Oasis. H5N1 to a greater extent than recent Big Circle was spotted inward Syria.

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