What are crop circles?
Crop circles are a phenomenon in which crops such as wheat are flattened overnight into large circles or geometric patterns. Seen from above, they often form beautiful designs, and they caused a sensation when they were found one after another in the wheat fields of southern England from the late 1970s into the 1980s.
UFO landing marks?
At first they were mostly simple circles, and there was speculation that they were marks left by landing UFOs or messages from aliens. Natural explanations were also proposed, such as a special whirlwind like a tornado flattening the crops, as well as theories involving earth energies.
The confession of two men
In 1991, two elderly Englishmen, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, came forward saying, “We made the crop circles.” From the mid-1970s, they said, they had made circles at night by trampling the wheat with planks and rope. They demonstrated in front of a newspaper, and the fact that a self-styled expert judged their work genuine caused a great stir.
Crop circles as art
Afterward, crop circles began to be made all over the world, and the designs grew ever more complex and huge. Today some groups use surveying techniques to make elaborate designs in a single night, and some are made as artworks or advertisements. Some people still believe “there are patterns humans cannot make,” but almost all are thought to be made by people. Many crop circles have appeared near the ancient British monument of Stonehenge.
