Been thinking about this one a lot lately. The landing strip theory feels pretty much dead in serious circles but I'm not convinced everyone's fully moved on from it emotionally, if you know what I mean. Like people still want it to be true.
The main issue for me is always the soil. The lines would've been completely destroyed by any kind of craft landing on them, ancient or otherwise. They're literally just scraped away reddish pebbles revealing lighter ground underneath. A landing strip that falls apart the moment something touches it isn't much use to anyone.
But here's what I actually want to know - does anyone think the ritual processional theory holds up any better? Because that one always felt a bit like "we don't know so lets say ceremony" which is basically the academic version of shrugging. What do people here actually reckon the purpose was? Anyone looked into the water table alignment stuff that's come up more recently?