The Mysterious Giant Stone Circles of Jordan and Beyond

Everyone's heard about Stonehenge, right? Large stones set in a circle. You know, I had a theory that these stone blocks that made up Stonehenge were actually toys used by baby Giants. Now, other giant stone circles have been discovered. In the 1920s, a British commander named Lionel Rees set out across the desert of what would become Jordan, snapping some of the earliest archaeological aerial photographs. He observed numerous immense, nearly perfect stone circles and wrote about them in the journal Antiquity.

All three are almost exact circles and are different from anything else in the country. Greece was baffled by the circles, some of which were 1200 feet in diameter. But despite their mysterious nature, his findings were all but ignored. Archaeologist David Kennedy told The Washington Post that it was 60 years before anyone noticed the circles again, and only in the last 10 years have researchers started flying over every bit of the country looking for more.

Researchers in Jordan have taken high-resolution aerial images of 11 ancient big circles, all but one of which are around 400 meters, or 1300 and 12 feet, in diameter. Why they are so similar is unknown, but researchers say that the similarity seems a little too close to be a coincidence. All 12 circles were found in Jordan, another in Syria, and two more in southeastern Turkey.

The big circles were built with low stone walls that were no more than a few feet high. The circles originally contained no openings, and people would have to hop over the walls in order to get inside. Researchers are also unsure when these structures were built. Analysis of the photographs, as well as artifacts found on the ground, suggest that the circles date back at least 2,000 years, but they may be much older. They could even have been constructed in prehistoric times before writing was even invented.

David Kennedy, a professor at the University of Western Australia, wrote in a recent article that the most important contribution is simply to collect and make no alarm our Keable sites. Kennedy said that the circles would not have been hard to build, as they were constructed mainly with local rocks, and a dozen people working hard could potentially complete a big circle in about a week. However, building the circles in such a precise shape would have taken some planning. He also said that it's unclear how old these circles are and they likely could be older than the Roman Empire as an ancient Roman Road runs across one of them.

Another interesting fact about these big circles is that they exist in nearly every environment. Some emerged in the desert, others in craggy terrain, and some were found near hills. So where did these giant circles come from? What purpose did they serve and for whom?

Alien landing sites? Castle walls for little elves? But you know what would be a really funny theory if this is true? People back thousands of years ago didn't have things like YouTube, so they were probably bored. Imagine if a bunch of them got together and said, "Hey, you know what would be really funny? Let's just go build a bunch of giant stone circles and just leave them there. That will drive the people in the future crazy trying to figure them out." So, of course, we find these giant circles, and we're all like, "Hmm, I wonder what this is? I wonder what kind of mysterious purpose these stone circles served?" And the whole time, this was a practical joke by people thousands of years ago.

The mystery of the giant stone circles across Jordan and beyond remains unsolved. While many theories have been proposed, there is still much to learn about these ancient structures. Perhaps one day, we will uncover their true purpose and the people who built them. Until then, they remain a fascinating enigma of our ancient past.