A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s. Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles have been suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human-made items (although with the more elaborate ones, its not always possible to see how!) <br /><br />Although such formations have appeared worldwide, south-west England is considered without doubt to be the “world capital” of crop circles. They are particularly concentrated in the county of Wiltshire, where a treasure trove of ancient history includes the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury – both crop circle hotspots. There have been 380 crop circles recorded in the county alone since 2005<br /><br />Carving artwork into the landscape is an age-old tradition in these parts; chalk horses adorn eight hillsides in Wiltshire; while the UK's oldest geoglyph, the stunning Bronze Age Uffington White Horse, sits just across the border in Oxfordshire. <br /><br /><br />Reports of mysterious patterns appearing in wheat, barley and corn fields in the area began to circulate in the 1970s, but it was in the late '80s that the phenomenon exploded.
A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s. Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles have been suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human-made items (although with the more elaborate ones, its not always possible to see how!) <br /><br />Although such formations have appeared worldwide, south-west England is considered without doubt to be the “world capital” of crop circles. They are particularly concentrated in the county of Wiltshire, where a treasure trove of ancient history includes the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury – both crop circle hotspots. There have been 380 crop circles recorded in the county alone since 2005<br /><br />Carving artwork into the landscape is an age-old tradition in these parts; chalk horses adorn eight hillsides in Wiltshire; while the UK's oldest geoglyph, the stunning Bronze Age Uffington White Horse, sits just across the border in Oxfordshire. <br /><br /><br />Reports of mysterious patterns appearing in wheat, barley and corn fields in the area began to circulate in the 1970s, but it was in the late '80s that the phenomenon exploded.
