A new U.K. crop circle near Silbury Hill, which appeared during two nights in August, features symbols from the ancient Mayan civilization that predicted the end of the world in 2012.

In bbcnews.com, Neil Leighton quotes crop circle researcher Francine Blake as saying, "[In the crop circle,] The Moon has a cycle around the Earth, the Earth has a cycle around the Sun, the Solar System has a cycle in the Milky Way. That [the galaxy cycle] takes 26,000 years, and this particular calendar is coming to the end of that cycle. That long cycle ends in 2012?it's the end of a cycle, the end of a time. A new era is starting for the solar system. Just like the era for the Romans stopped and something else started, we are going from era to era and this is the end of one of them."

Researcher Ray Cox says, "We started out studying the subject from a scientific angle?and there is still a mystery. We still don't know their origin. They go back in decades, centuries, but these have been simple round circles, maybe with a ring round them. You didn't get the elaborate ones in years gone by. These have only happened since the 1980s."

Some people think the elaborated circles are hoaxed, while other people who examine them say there is no way people could have produced such intricate patterns in so short a time.

Subscribers: Listen to Lucy Pringle, who lives and works in crop circle country, tell all about the amazing new circles there. Her 2005 crop circle calendar is now available, and you get her 2004 calendar free!