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.

How To Make A Zombie

Angel trumpet is the common name of a woody plant with beautiful pendulous flowers. This plant, which is native to South America contains various poisonous alkaloids, which if ingested, can induce a trance, terrifying hallucinogenic effects, sickness and temporary insanity. Many believe that angel trumpet, or as it is commonly known, "the devil's breath", turns people into zombies.

No Free Will

In Colombia, there is a belief that angel trumpet robs you of your free will and this sinister plant, "burundanga", as they call there, is often used by criminals who wish to make someone more compliant and do their bidding, like hand over all their money or perform a criminal action.

Yet, in Columbia, this plant has also been used for hundreds of years in religious ceremonies. And interestingly, Josef Mengel, the Nazi "angel of death" used it too, believing it to be a truth serum enabling the Nazi's to obtain information from those who were unwilling to provide the required information.

In Columbia, the police deal with over 1000 cases each year of people who are turned temporarily into zombies by angel trumpet. But how do the alkaloids in this plant bring about such effects?

The alkaloids in angel trumpet block neurotransmission in the brain, so people are not really aware of what is happening to them, or what they are doing. Then, after the drug wears off, many people experience profound amnesia.

Believe it or not, people can become so submissive when using this plant, that they help others to rob their own houses or hand over their children willingly to kidnappers. There was also one case, where three young women from Bogota smeared their breasts with the plant in order to lure men to lick them. Then, when the men were in a suitable zombified state, the women obtained bank access details.

Witches Potions

Scopolamine, one of the alkaloids in the angel trumpet plant, was also believed to be an essential ingredient of witches potions and sorcery. It seems that some of the other common effects of this substance are the feeling that you are flying and if applied to the skin, hallucinations of gods or spirits develop. The loss of self-awareness and self-control, is the part that makes you a zombie.

Books To Read


Unthinkable: What the World's Most Extraordinary Brains Can Teach Us About Our Own, by
Helen Thomson.

Dead Interesting Graveyards

Do you get creeped out when you see or even think about graveyards? As spooky as graveyards may be, they are also very interesting places connected with history or notable inhabitants. Such places can also inspire profound thoughts about life and what our existence on Earth might really mean

La Chiesa dei Morti

  Chiesa dei Morti, or the Church of the Dead, Urbania, Italy 

If you happen to journey to Urbania in central Italy, then make your way to the Baroque Church of the Dead, where you will encounter the fascinating mummies cemetery. The 18 mummified bodies have been displayed here since 1833, when the bodies of these people were exhumed and found to be mummified. Standing macabrely inside glass cases, the bodies were naturally mummified by a mould which consumed the moisture of the bodies.

The mummies are cared for by the Brotherhood of Good Death, an order founded 400 years ago. They also conduct tours where you can learn facts about the mummies, like who was murdered and which one had Down's syndrome.

Sagada "hanging coffins"

 

Sagada graveyard is located in the Philippines, north of Manilla, in a town called Banaue. It is a local custom here, for the elderly people of the village to make their own coffin before they died. After death, the coffin containing the body would be placed in a cave, or it would be attached to the face of a cliff. The idea behind the "hanging coffins" was to protect the dead from being taken by animals. 

Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter of Prague in the Czech Republic 

This cemetery located in the Jewish Quarter of Prague in the Czech Republic began to be used in the early15th century. It is uncertain how many people are buried here, but it may be as many as 100,000. There are, however, 12,000 visible tombstones.

The Jewish, Halakhah, forbade the removal of graves, and so, as the cemetery ran out of space, they were forced to remove the tombstones, add another layer soil and then replace the tombstones on top. There are about 12 layers of graves.

The Neptune Memorial Reef

Underwater gates

This underwater mausoleum for cremated remains is a man-made reef covering over 600,000 square feet (65,000 m²) of the ocean floor, at a depth of 40 feet. There are plans to build an underwater city here, 5.2 km off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida, with underwater roads leading to a central feature with benches and statues.

Megalithic tombs, Borger-Odoorn, Netherlands

 

Megalithic tombs are above ground burial chambers built of large stone slabs (megaliths). There are many of these ancient style tombs found across Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean, which were mostly built by Neolithic farming communities. The archaeological evidence suggests that these communities used these tombs for the long-term housing of the remains of their dead.

Wadi-us-Salaam, Najaf, Iraq

Wadi Al-Salaam is an Islamic cemetery located in Shia holy city of Najaf, Iraq. This cemetery is reputed to be the largest cemetery in the world, with millions of bodies residing in its 6 km² area. It is estimated that more than half a million bodies are interred here every year. 

Empty Cities

It is strange and somehow disturbing to think of cities and towns being empty, abandoned and devoid of life. And yet, there are places like this; cities and towns which are vacant and uninhabited and which seem lost without purpose. The reasons for these empty cities, however, are varied.

Nova Cidade de Kilamba, Angola

The new city of Kilamba in Luanda Province, Angola

Nova Cidade de Kilamba is the name of this housing development which is situated 30km from Angola's capital city, Luanda. Built by the China International Trust and Investment Corporation, this town can house 500,000 people with its 750 eight-storey apartment blocks. There are also over 100 commercial premises and 12 schools.

The development covers 5,000 hectares, and yet, it is unnaturally quiet here. The silence is almost deafening. You see, apartments here generally cost somewhere between $120,000 and $200,000 and yet, the average Angolan lives on less than $2 a day 1. There is no real middle class in Angola, a group who could actually afford to live in such a development.

Tomioka, Fukushima, Japan

The town of Tomioka in Japan is located near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was badly damaged by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. At the time of the disaster, the town had an estimated population of 15,839, with 6,293 households. One resident remained after the tsunami hit the area, a fifth-generation rice farmer called, Naoto Matsumura and his dog, but people are slowly moving back to the area.

Varosha, Famagusta, Cyprus

Before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Varosha was a thriving resort town favoured by the rich and famous. Since that time, Cyprus has been a divided country separated by a green line and Varosha, the abandoned southern quarter of the Cypriot city of Famagusta, has been an uninhabited ghost town.

Back in 1989, I stood on a nearby hill and looked with binoculars at the abandoned Varousha, which was enveloped by a high fence of barbed wire. In the years that have followed, little has changed.

People left that place in a terrible rush and if the could return, they would see the clothes that they were wearing back in the 1970s, still in the cupboard; their 1970s car in the garage and their old TV, records and radios, waiting for them.