  Over the last third of the century, a few tens of events, detected by
ground-based cosmic ray detectors, have opened a new window in the field of
high-energy astrophysics. These events have macroscopic energies, unobserved
sources, an unknown chemical composition and a production and transport
mechanism yet to be explained. With a flux as low as one particle per century
per square kilometer, only dedicated detectors with huge apertures can bring in
the high-quality and statistically significant data needed to answer those
questions. In this article, we review the present status of the field both from
an experimental and theoretical point of view. Special attention is given to
the next generation of detectors devoted to the thorough exploration of the
highest energy ranges
