Category: Archaeology
Hidden tunnels under Albert Park

I have always been fascinated by World War 2 history and especially old gun emplacements, tunnels and stuff.  A dream I have is to visit France and explore the Axis fortifications along the coast (including the sub-pens).  In future posts I will be writing about some of New Zealand’s historic WW2 sites, but first I want to write about the [...]

By Symon with 5 comments
The Tunguska Catastrophe

I had never ever heard of the name Tunguska before… until I bought a PC game (for the kids) called Secret files: Tunguska. Then I became enlightened to an extremely fascinating and equally mysterious event which occurred 101 years ago in Central Siberia.
In the Tunguska region at 7:17am on 30 June 1908 something of apocalyptic proportions occurred. This ‘happening’ flattened [...]

By Symon with 4 comments
Tomb of the Seven Sleepers

I came across an extremely interesting account while researching the city of Ephesus last week. The legend goes like this…
Around 250AD, when Christians were being fiercely persecuted, seven young men refusing to recant their faith, gave their worldly goods to the poor and retreated to a mountain cave to pray (and await capture, followed by execution I presume), where [...]

By Symon with 10 comments
Kali, Thugees & the Temple of Doom

Those of us raised on a regular media diet in the 80’s will remember well Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was all nostalgic the other day, and watched it on DVD (the first time in nearly twenty years). I must say that I was appalled by the human-sacrifice-to-Kali-goddess-of-death-by-thugge-cult-fanatics-in-temple-under-palace scene. The ‘Fast Forward’ button was used fuequently. Perhaps, [...]

By Symon with 5 comments
Treasure, death and a severed hand

I was reminded today of the ‘Money Pit’ of Oak Island, probably the longest running treasure hunt in history, and the most mysterious…
For all you archaeologically-challenged readers out there, prepare to be enlightened.
Oak Island is a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. While exploring the island (1765), 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis discovered an old oak tree bearing marks [...]

By Symon with 1 comment
The real ‘Temple of Doom’

Are there real booby traps protecting the long deceased occupants of ancient tombs thousands of years old? Most scholars would say no, that there is no evidence to suggest there were any such traps, and if there were, they would long have become useless through time and dust. Imagine the Indiana Jones movies with no booby traps… boring. Is everything [...]

By Symon with 1 comment
Giant boulder booby traps!

One of the most memorable opening scenes in movie history has got to be the boulder scene in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Of course, undiscovered tombs, ancient booby traps and giant rolling boulders are the stuff of make-believe, aren’t they? Well, perhaps not. I came across the following photos recently while doing some random surfing.

As I viewed these pictures, [...]

By Symon with 1 comment