The pair are the latest in a long line of patterns to have appeared in the south-west of England this summer. © Barcoft Media
Two crop circles that have sprung up in the rolling British countryside just 15 miles apart have been described as the "
most elaborate" this year .
The pair are the latest in a long line of patterns to have appeared in
farmer's fields in the south-west of England this summer.
The area is widely regarded as a
hotbed for crop circles - with the most recent offerings appearing just days apart.
One spotted in Monument Hill, near Devizes, Wilts, shows a cube encased in a circle surrounded by a decorated ring.
It is believed to measure around 390 feet in diameter and is first thought to have appeared on August 6.
And just five days later, locals noticed a second, slightly smaller crop circle measuring 60 feet in diameter in a wheat field up the road in Hackpen Hill.
This one depicts a large ring of flattened crops with raised cushion like pattern in the middle.
Aerial images showing the two formations were captured by Lucy Pringle, from Petersfield, Hants, who is a aerial photographer, researcher and world-wide lecturer on the phenomenon.
Lucy said: "The season started very late this year due to the cold winter and spring.
"Suddenly it is all happening just as most overseas visitors have left our shores. Both these circles are the largest and most elaborate so far this summer and contain interesting geometry."
but not the real thing!
The cube inside the first one wasn't quite able to mimic the depth effect, resulting in it appearing skewed from overhead: [Link]
The other one's flaws are seen in the small circles inside the arrows, some of which are off-center, making them asymmetrical: [Link]
Does anyone else find it exasperating that a British newspaper NOW gives the imitation crop circles the headlines it *should* have been giving the real circles back when the press was instead trashing them??