Found: Lost Ancient City Under The Sea

Swallowed by the Mediterranean Sea more than 1,200 years ago, the ancient city of Heracleion has been found and now it is slowly giving up its many treasures and amazingly well-preserved artefacts.

Heracleion was a vibrant city from 6th to the 4th century BCE

Mentioned in writings by ancient Greek historians, Heracleion was a vibrant city from 6th to the 4th century BCE, but it was lost and became a place of myth and legend. 

Ptolemaic coins from the submerged Heracleion

Heracleion was, however, famous enough at one time, to be mentioned by Herodotus, the great historian of the 5th-century BCE. Since being rediscovered, Heracleion is being revealed as a place possessing buildings and art of great beauty. Such as majestic 16-foot stone sculptures and limestone sarcophagi containing the remains of mummified animals. And there are gold coins and huge stone tablets displaying ancient Greek and Egyptian scripts.

Heracleion was a vibrant city from 6th to the 4th century BCE

It is not known exactly why this place slid into the sea, but perhaps, the grand and heavy buildings were a factor, or perhaps, the earthquakes and floods were responsible. However, now, that archaeologists have uncovered Heracleion along with 64 ships and 700 anchors; religious artefacts featuring gods like Osiris and Horus and the temple where Cleopatra was inaugurated as Queen of the Nile, we have a chance to see and wonder at the magnificence of the ancient Greek world and may be, we may even learn something very exciting about the past.

A Lovely 500 Year Old Teen Mummy

She died around 500 years ago at age of 13, but she looks as though she just now fell into a light doze. Discovered  in 1999, at Mount Llullaillaco, which lies on the border of Chile and Argentina, this Inca mummy was found at a grave site containing two girls and one boy. She is now referred to as "La Doncella" which translates to "The Maiden".

"La Doncella" which translates to "The Maiden",  Inca mummy

Beautiful Black Hair

When La Doncella was found she was wearing a fancy headdress and her beautiful black hair was elaborately braided, although frozen lice were found in those tresses.

The three Inca children were found to be almost perfectly preserved by the deep freeze on Llullaillaco, the seventh highest mountain of the Andes.

It seems, that the children were part of a sacrificial rite that occurred in the celebration of key events in the life of the Inca emperor called capacocha.  La Doncella, it is believed, was an aclla, or Sun Virgin, who was chosen and sanctified whilst a toddler, to live with other girls and women who would later become royal wives, priestesses, and sacrifices. The practice of ritual sacrifice in the Inca society was to ensure health, rich harvests and good weather.

The team who discovered the mummified children in 1999, had to battle blizzards and driving winds as they made their way up the mountain, 22,000ft above sea level. They then had to dig into an icy pit to uncover the Inca burial site.

"La Doncella" which translates to "The Maiden", Inca mummy

The other girl who was found on the mountain wore a headdress with a metal plate over her brow. She had been struck by lightening at some stage. She still had blood in her heart and an undamaged brain.

The young boy, however, seems to have suffered; he was covered in vomit and tied up. His ribs were cracked and he seemed to have died from suffocation.

Inca boy mummy

It is believed that the children were brought to the high mountains to bring them closer to the gods. There is also evidence that they were fed increasing amounts of coca and alcohol in the year prior to their sacrifices.

The children were left by priests to die from exposure to the cold, wearing their best clothes.The priests burnt ceremonial fires and then placed the children in their tombs. 


Books To Read

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, by Michael Shermer, Stephen Jay Gould (Foreword)

Magical Mountain Living

I live on a mountain, so it is something I know something about and something that I can recommend. However, the following mountain abodes are in another category of mountain living, altogether.

Hanging Monastery Near Datong China

The Hanging Monastery is located about 62 kilometers south of Datong City in the Shanxi Province, at Mt. Hengshan, China.
The gravity-defying construction, built into the side of a cliff, is jaw dropping and the temple itself has an unusual mix of Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian elements.



The Solvay Hut, Switzerland

Solvay Hut

This mountain hut is located on the north-eastern ridge of the Matterhorn, Switzerland. It sits at 4,003 metres and is owned by the Swiss Alpine Club. The hut can only be used in emergency however. I wonder what's inside? 

Hanging houses of Cuenca

These wonderful hanging houses can be found in Spain. It is not known when these houses were first built, but there is evidence that they existed back in the 15th century. Of course, they have been renovated since then !

  

Roussanou Monastery, Meteora, Greece

This monastery was founded in 1545 and is dedicated to St. Barbara. For about 200 years the monastery fell into disrepair, then it was damaged during WWII and plundered by the Nazi's. During the 1980s the building was repaired and occupied by nuns. I wonder where they go shopping?

   

Lichtenstein Castle, Germany

Sitting serenely on a cliff in Germany, Lichtenstein Castle looks like it is straight from a fairy tale. There has been various castles built on this site since around 1200, though this one was built around 1840–42. The romantic Neo-Gothic design of the castle was created by the architect Carl Alexander Heideloff.

   

Dunluce Castle, Ireland

How beautiful is this ruined medieval castle in Northern Ireland? The castle was built in the 13th century by Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster. Since 1534, there has been reported sightings of a woman in white here, who stands overlooking the cliffs. Maybe she's my ancestor?

Sumela Monastery

This Greek Orthodox monastery is located in Turkey. It was founded in 386 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius I (375 - 395). As the story goes, it was built here because two priests found an icon of Mary in a cave.

Paro Taktsang, Bhutan.

Known as the Tiger's Nest, this temple complex was first built in 1692, around a cave where Guru Padmasambhava, who is credited with bringing Budhism to the region, is said to have meditated for three years, three months, three weeks, three days and three hours in the 8th century.

Waking Up Inside Your Coffin!

On January 18th 1886, The Times newspaper reported the horrifying case of a "girl" named "Collins" from Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, whose body was exhumed two days after she had been buried. "Her shroud was torn into shreds, her knees were drawn up to her chin, one of her arms was twisted under her head, and her features bore evidence of dreadful torture.”

Back in the 16th century, the body of a man named Matthew Wall from Hertfordshire England was being carried in his coffin to the cemetery, when one of the pall-bearers tripped and the coffin fell to the ground. The stunned silence of the onlookers soon changed to horror, as the sound of desperate knocking came from inside the coffin. The coffin was then opened and Mr Wall was found to be very much alive.

όχι νεκρό

Another interesting anecdote concerns the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Lesbos, who apparently died in 1896. He was laid out in his coffin, where he lay as if dead for two days. Then he sat up and asked the stunned mourners what they were staring at.

Super Gran

There have been a few cases of people waking after seeming to be dead in recent years. Like the case of the 95-year-old Chinese woman, who was found motionless and not breathing after suffering a fall in March 2012, in China. Her family, believing the elderly matriarch had passed away, had her placed in a coffin with the lid off and family and friends came to view the body. Then, the day before the funeral was to occur, her coffin was found empty. After a frantic search, the old woman was discovered cooking food in the kitchen; she said she felt hungry when she woke up.

Hello!

Recently, at a funeral in Zimbabwe, a man named Dama Zanthe, was in his coffin and his family and friends had formed a queue in order to pay their last respects. It soon became apparent that the body of the dead man was moving, then he sat up. He was then taken to a hospital and treated. He was released two days later.

Colleen Burns may not have woken in a coffin, but her case is worth a mention. She had been pronounced dead after a drug overdose and was about to have her organs removed when she awoke. She had actually been in a coma and she was able to leave the hospital two weeks later. Scary!

The King, The Bible, Shakespeare and The Witches

King James VI of Scotland and I of England (1566 –1625), is well known for sponsoring a translation of the Bible that was named after him: the Authorised King James Version.





King James was a scholarly fellow, but he was also very superstitious, believing in witchcraft, necromancy, possession, demons, werewolves, fairies and ghosts. He wrote about all these things in a book called Dæmonologie (1597). He also considered witchcraft to be a branch of theology. This intense interest in witchcraft grew after his marriage to the fourteen-year-old Anne of Denmark, as the Danish were caught up in witch mania at that time, believing that witches existed and were agents of the devil.

Witch Mania

Witch mania spread to England and Scotland and King James himself, took a great interest in the ensuing witch trials. King James involved himself in the trials of the people, mostly women, who were arrested, interrogated, tortured and accused of witchcraft. In one case, where a jury acquitted a woman called Barbara Napier due to lack of evidence, James ordered her execution. Luckily, she pretended to be pregnant, and so, she was able to escape being put to death. James then tried to put the jury on trial for acquitting a witch!

After he became King of England in 1603, James revised the witchcraft act (An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits) and the penalties became more severe. Most convicted witches were hanged. The witchcraft act was not repealed until 1736.

Shakespeare's play Macbeth (1606), was written during the reign of King James, at the height of the witch accusations and trials. James was also a patron of Shakespeare’s acting company. The strong presence of the witches in the play Macbeth is directly related to the topical nature of witchcraft at that time, and perhaps, to Shakespeare's desire to gain greater favour with the king, or perhaps, even as a work of political propaganda.

Books To Read

How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God, by Michael Shermer.