Ancient Mysteries

The Gobekli Tepe temple, the oldest known temple in the world, is uncovering new secrets about our ancient past.Built after the end of the last ice age Gobekli Tepe temple is 11,500 years old, predating Stonehenge, the great pyramids and even pottery, agriculture and animal domestication. They call it potbelly hill, after thesoft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey.

To the north are forested mountains. East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, the region that gave rise to human civilization.

View: Full article | Source: Newsweek

In the ancient world cocaine grew only in the Andes, so how did the Egyptian mummy of Ramses II have some on him ?Its an enduring mystery that has raised the serious possibility that ancient seafarers reached the Americas long before Christopher Columbus or even the vikings ever got there. In the movie, Contact, Jodie Foster plays an astronomer who establishes communication witha civilisation beyond our solar system.

In a recent television program, The Curse of the Cocaine Mummies, a different, but equally fascinating, contact is established between ancient Egypt and ancient Peru. A German forensic scientist busted the Egyptian mummy Ramses II for possession of cocaine. Cocaine, as most people know, grows only in the Andes. How did Ramses II get his dope?

View: Full article | Source: New DawnMagazine

The Turin Shroud is expected to attract up to 100 million visitors when it goes on display in Northern Italy this year.It is a rare thing indeed for the Turin Shroud which is thought to bear the image of Jesus to go on public display, in the last 100 years this will be only the sixth time it has happened. Over two million visitors are expected to converge on asmall chapel in a northern Italian city this spring when the Turin Shroud goes on display for only the sixth time in 100 years.

It will be the first time the holy relic, which some believe bears the face of Christ after his crucifixion, has been seen in public since its restoration in 2002.

View: Full article | Source: DailyMail

Science and new technologies are helping to reveal more and more of the secrets of the boy King Tutankhamun.DNA tests are being conducted on samples taken from the mummified body of Tutankhamun in an effort to trace his lineage, the results are expected to be released on Wednesday. New technology is helping answer the riddles in the life,and death, of the boy pharaoh.

And it"s cracked other historical puzzles too. His golden funeral mask with its striped headdress has become the symbol of Egypt"s ancient grandeur. Yet for all the fame that surrounds the boy King Tutankhamun, no one really knows who he was.

View: Full article | Source: Independent