Dozens Of Ancient Stone Circles Near Israel’s ‘Stonehenge’ Spotted In Satellite Images

For more than 50 years, a massive stone monument in the Golan Heights has baffled archaeologists. Known as Rujm el-Hiri, the sprawling arrangement of circular stone rings, stretching more than 150 meters across and built from dark volcanic rock, has been called the “Israeli Stonehenge.” Researchers have argued over whether it was an ancient burial site, a ceremonial gathering place, or even an observatory aligned with the summer solstice. At the heart of every theory was the stubborn assumption it was one of a kind. A recent study published in PLoS ONE turns that notion on its head.

Using high-resolution satellite images captured over two decades, a research team formally identified 28 large circular stone structures scattered across the volcanic highlands within about 25 kilometers of Rujm el-Hiri, with the broader dataset pointing to more than 30 examples in all. The vast majority had never been recorded before. Many share the same basic blueprint: thick circular walls made of local volcanic stone, sometimes with smaller walls radiating inward like the spokes of a wheel, and inner rings nested inside outer ones. Rather than standing as a lonely oddity on the landscape, Rujm el-Hiri now appears to be the grandest example of what was once a widespread building tradition.

That shift matters. For decades, the monument’s apparent uniqueness drove every interpretation. If it was the only one of its kind, then it must have been extraordinary: a temple, a celestial calendar, a chieftain’s tomb. But if dozens of similar structures dot the same region, the story changes considerably. These were part of how ancient communities organized their world.

Why Ancient Stone Circles in the Golan Went Unnoticed

Many of the circles had their stones stripped away and reused over thousands of years for agricultural walls and other construction. Later buildings were stacked on top of them or cut right through them. From the ground, they are nearly invisible: eroded heaps of rock that blend into rugged volcanic terrain.

The research team, led by Michal Birkenfeld from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, overcame this by layering satellite images taken across different seasons and years. Dry conditions, low-angle sunlight, and seasonal shifts in plant cover all made different parts of buried structures visible at different times. By stacking and digitally processing these images, the researchers pieced together faint outlines that no single photograph, and in many cases no traditional field survey, could reveal alone. The satellite images were sharp enough to distinguish features as small as half a meter across.

Within those 28 structures, the team identified several design categories. Four were relatively simple: a single round wall, roughly 50 to 95 meters across and two to three meters thick. Twenty were more elaborate, featuring two or sometimes three rings nested inside one another. A separate group of nine had shorter straight walls connecting the rings and dividing the interior into sections, a layout very similar to Rujm el-Hiri itself. The categories reflect design types within the overall 28, not separate tallies. The largest newly identified circle measured roughly 250 meters across and was built around a small volcanic cone at its center, with four thin walls connecting the outer ring to the cone like spokes.

Ancient Stone Circles Near Rujm el-Hiri Reveal Shared Patterns

Beyond their architecture, the circles share something else: where they sit. Most were found on gentle slopes or small plateaus near seasonal streams, at elevations between 400 and 600 meters above sea level. None turned up in lowland or heavily terraced areas. Many appear woven into broader networks of old field walls and animal pens, pointing toward farming and herding communities rather than isolated groups building mysterious temples.

Several circles also sit near ancient burial markers, large stone slab structures found across the region. One circle, roughly 250 meters wide, had a single burial marker positioned along a sight line between the circle’s center and a prominent volcanic peak nearly 1,000 meters high. Another offered clear views of Mount Hermon, the tallest landmark in the area. These visual connections to prominent peaks appeared repeatedly, hinting that the builders chose their locations with the surrounding landscape firmly in mind.

Some of the circles appear in tight clusters: pairs or trios positioned just tens or hundreds of meters apart. In several of these groupings, one circle is markedly better preserved than its neighbors, a pattern the researchers say may point to reuse, rebuilding, or renewed attention to the same places over time rather than all structures being constructed at once. It is not unlike how a medieval church might be built on the foundations of a Roman temple.

Rujm el-Hiri’s ‘Observatory’ Theory Loses More Ground

One previously known site, Khirbet Bteha, located on the eastern bank of the Jordan River about 16 kilometers to the west, was discovered during a survey in 1967 or 1968 and partially excavated in 1976. It features at least three circular walls connected by shorter perpendicular walls, a design that closely mirrors the newly documented circles. No pottery or other datable artifacts were found during its excavation, and the site has received remarkably little scholarly attention despite its obvious resemblance to Rujm el-Hiri.

A British Air Force photograph from January 1945 shows a large circular structure on the Korazim Plateau, about 25 kilometers west of Rujm el-Hiri, a structure that appears to have since been destroyed. That single example is a reminder that the circles identified in this study likely represent only a fraction of what once existed.

The results also cast fresh doubt on one of the most popular theories about Rujm el-Hiri: that it served as an astronomical observatory. Earlier research had already shown that the entire region has undergone gradual rotation due to shifting of the earth’s crust over the past four thousand years, meaning the monument’s current orientation no longer reflects where its walls and entrances originally pointed. The site literally rotated along with the bedrock beneath it. With astronomical alignments already on shaky ground, the discovery that Rujm el-Hiri is one of many similar structures makes the observatory theory harder to treat as the main explanation, though it does not rule out symbolic or celestial meanings. An observatory implies singular purpose and singular design. A regional building tradition implies something else entirely.

Rujm el-Hiri hasn’t lost its scale or its mystery. At more than 150 meters across, with walls standing over two and a half meters high, it remains the most impressive example found so far. But it is no longer a puzzle floating in isolation. It is the largest known expression of a tradition that, until satellite technology pulled back the curtain, had been hiding in the rocky hills all along.

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