It sounds like something out of
a horror movie. But Italian scientists say that the “Gate to Hell” is the real
deal—poisonous vapors and all.
The announcement of the finding
of the ruins of Pluto’s Gate (Plutonium in Latin) at an archeology conference
in Turkey last month, was recently reported by Discovery News. Francesco
D’Andria, professor of classic archaeology at the University of Salento in
Lecce, Italy, who has been excavating the ancient Greco-Roman World Heritage
Site of Hierapolis for years, led the research team.
D’Andria told Discovery News he
used ancient mythology as his guide to locate the legendary portal to the
underworld. “We found the Plutonium by reconstructing the route of a thermal
spring. Indeed, Pamukkale’ springs, which produce the famous white travertine
terraces originate from this cave.”
Scribes like Cicero and the
Greek geographer Strabo mentioned the gate to hell as located at the ancient
site in Turkey, noted Discovery, but nobody had been able to find it until now.
“Pluto’s Gate” has been
documented in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, which noted in its
description of ancient Hierapolis, “Adjoining the temple on the SE is the
Plutoneion, which constituted the city’s chief claim to fame. It was described
by Strabo as an orifice in a ridge of the hillside, in front of which was a
fenced enclosure filled with thick mist immediately fatal to any who entered.”
Strabo (64 B.C.- 24 B.C.) wrote,
“This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the
ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows
and they immediately breathed their last and fell.”
The portal to the underworld
seems just as bad for your health today. The professor said, “We could see the
cave’s lethal properties during the excavation. Several birds died as they
tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide
fumes.”
According to Discovery News, the
fumes emanated from a cave below the site, which includes ionic columns with
inscriptions to Pluto and Kore, gods of the underworld. Also discovered: the
remains of a temple, and a pool and stairs placed above the cave. D’Andria is
now working on a digital rendering of the site.
Amazingly, this isn’t the first
entry to the underworld in the world. In the Karakum Desert, reports the Daily
Mail, a fiery pit that’s been lit up for over 40 years has inspired visitors to
Derweze in Turkmenistan—and on the Web. Geologists drilling in the area came
across a natural gas cavern. Hoping to burn off the gas, they set it on fire.
The flames continued to burn, leading locals to dub the site the “door to hell.”
(YAHOO)
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