From to secret subterranean cinemas to mysterious spheres with a life of their own, here are
8 incredible underground discoveries.
8.
THE WILLIAMS ENIGMALITH
While on a hike in 1998, electrical engineer John J. Williams spotted what looked like
an electrical plug protruding from the ground and began digging.
The three-pronged plug, he discovered, was embedded in a small rock.
Williams claimed that the bizarre item was unearthed in a remote location in North America,
far from plants, factories, and industrial complexes - you know, places where you might
expect to find an unidentified or strange-looking electrical device.
Out of an alleged fear that other mysterious relics will be discovered by curious treasure
hunters, Williams refuses to give the exact location of where he found this device.
The item is known as an “enigmalith” - a combination of the words “enigma” and
“monolith” - or a “petradox.”
Due to the secrecy and wild extraterrestrial theories surrounding the object, many members
of the scientific community have dismissed the enigmalith as a hoax.
They have even rejected Williams’ invitation to make the rock available to any researcher
for analysis, as long as he’s present, the stone is unharmed, and he doesn’t have to
pay for it.
A geological analysis found the granite rock to be around 100,000 years old; and, according
to Williams, who’s had the rock examined by an engineer and a geologist, the specimen
bears no signs of its plug-like feature having been affixed in any way, including welding
or the use of glue.
Williams has also willingly provided an x-ray of the rock, which shows that the three-pronged
structure extends into an internal structure within the stone.
What are your thoughts?
Is the rock a hoax, or is the scientific community fearful, perhaps, of what they might find
if they investigate?
Let me know in the comments below!!
7.
THE SCREAMING MUMMY
In 1886, Gaston Maspero, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, happened upon an unusually
plain burial box while going about his typical work duties.
The conspicuously unmarked container provided no clues whatsoever as to the identity of
the person inside.
Things only got weirder when Maspero opened the mysterious vessel.
The body inside was wrapped in sheepskin - a sign that it was thought of as ‘unclean’
- and the limbs were bound in leather.
Most shockingly, the mummy’s face conveyed a terrified expression, its mouth having been
left wide open.
Experts speculated that the mummy, nicknamed Unknown Man E, had been tortured to death
in some way - buried alive, perhaps, or maybe poisoned.
Researchers later figured out that such an agonized facial expression is simply the result
of a mummy’s jaw not being strapped shut.
However, the peculiar burial methods of Unknown Man E indicate that there were other mysterious
circumstances surrounding his death.
Earlier this year, experts revealed that they finally think they know who the mummy is:
the son of Ramses III, who was hanged after plotting to kill his father.
The connection between father and son was detected through DNA analysis of the bones.
CT scans revealed that multiple assailants cut off the man’s toe and slit his throat.
6.
ROMAN COINS IN JAPANESE CASTLE
In late 2016, archaeologists dug up ten rusty copper coins behind Katsuren Castle, a UNESCO
heritage site in Japan.
Four of the “little round things” were instantly recognized as originating from the
Roman Era by archaeologist Toshio Tsukamoto, who had previously studied sites in Italy
and Spain.
They were traced back to the third and fourth centuries of the European kingdoms.
A fifth coin, inscribed with the year 1687, was determined to be from the Ottoman Empire.
Although Tsukamoto stated that there was no mistaking the authenticity of the coins, Masaki
Yokoo, a city official in charge of the excavation project, asserted that at first, they didn’t
know that the “little round things” were coins, and even mistook them for armor parts.
The image of Constantine I is inscribed on one of the coins, while another displays a
helmeted figure stabbing an enemy with a spear and holding a shield in his other hand.
Why were Roman and Ottoman coins discovered as far away as Japan?
Experts are certainly somewhat baffled by this.
The team that found the treasure believes it could have been brought to Japan centuries
later by Chinese or Southeast Asian explorers, then planted during a pacifying ritual at
the castle, which was abandoned in 1548.
They think that it was probably used as decoration or treasure, rather than currency.
And now for number 5 but first, if you are a returning subscriber, welcome back!!
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5.
A CINEMA
In late 2004, Parisian police made a startling discovery among the city’s already perplexing
and extensive 170-mile underground network: a cinema.
The force’s sports squad, which is responsible for patrolling these tunnels and catacombs,
was performing a training exercise when they encountered a tarp with a sign on it reading
“Building Site; No Access.”
Behind the tarp was a tunnel containing a desk and a closed-circuit surveillance system.
The camera was set to take photos of anyone who passed, and the system was also set to
automatically play a recording of dogs barking.
The tunnel led to a spacious amphitheater, with terraces and chairs cut into the rock.
Inside the auditorium, police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and a
variety of films.
According to a spokesperson, none of the films were controversial or banned.
Next door, a smaller cave had been turned into a restaurant and bar, complete with tables,
chairs, an inventory of spirits, and a pressure-cooker.
There were even three separate phone lines and professionally installed electricity.
The police returned three days later with electricians to try to determine the source
of the power, but all the lines had been cut and there was a note saying “Do not try
to find us” left on the floor.
4.
SHIPS BELOW SAN FRANCISCO
During the California Gold Rush in the 1850s, thousands of ships sailed in and out of San
Francisco’s port, loaded with prospectors hoping to strike it big.
They anchored in Yerba Buena Cove, which is now downtown San Francisco, and were often
abandoned by the entire crew, who also set out in search for gold.
Because why not?
These people had a serious case of FOMO!!
(FEAR OF MISSING OUT)
For some time, some of the ships were used for things like offices, stores, a hotel,
and even a jail.
Sometimes, ships were left in the care of hired keepers, but they languished for so
long, they, too, began to deteriorate.
During the late 1800s, the port was filled in to accommodate the rapidly expanding city.
During the process, at least forty ships ended up buried beneath the streets of San Francisco,
with some estimates ranging as high as 75.
Some people sank their ships on purpose, due to a legal technicality that entitled them
to ownership of the property underneath their wrecked ship, which would be filled in sooner
or later and would become a prime piece of downtown real estate.
People also dumped sand and debris into the water, which was just a few feet deep in certain
areas, to create their own land.
The locations of some of the buried ships are marked, while others remain a very much
unnoticed part of the city.
Each day, thousands of passengers on the city’s underground cable car even pass through the
hull of a huge buried ship, which was simply left in place after workers digging a new
rail tunnel discovered it in 1994.
3.
THE UNDERGROUND CITY OF DERINKUYU
One Turkish man discovered an entire underground city in 1963 when he knocked out a basement
wall while carrying out home renovations.
The vast network of rooms extends 200 hundred feet below the ground.
This city, Derinkuyu, is just one of many underground cities that the Cappadocia region
of Turkey is known for.
With eleven floors and enough space to shelter approximately 20,000 people, Derinkuyu is
the largest of these cities.
So far, just 2,000 square feet of Derinkuyu has been uncovered, but according to the Cappadocia
tourism website, the city may occupy as much as 7,000 square feet.
This and other underground cities in the region were used as refuges for members of Cappadocia’s
Christian minority during times of religious persecution.
Many historians believe that the tunnels were originally built by an Indo-European people
called the Phrygians between the eight and seventh centuries B.C.
Others think that the Persians or Anatolian Hittites constructed the tunnels.
When the Christians of Cappadocia took occupancy of the tunnels, they expanded the underground
network and also built chapels and churches.
Derinkuyu operated rather efficiently, and much like any above-ground city at the time.
The impressive underground enclave boasted stables, wine and oil presses, cellars, storage
rooms, and even schools.
Oxygen and water were provided to the city’s inhabitants via a 180-foot ventilation shaft.
Christians fled to the underground city as recently as the early twentieth century, when
the Ottoman Empire still controlled the region.
In 1923, a population exchange occurred between Greece and Turkey as part of a plan to rid
the respective areas of religious minorities, and most of the Cappadocian Christians were
expelled from Turkey.
Derinkuyu then sat untouched and unnoticed until someone decided to fix their home.
2.
BETZ MYSTERY SPHERE
In May 1974, a large brushfire swept across an 88-acre plot of woodland on Florida’s
Fort George Island that had been recently acquired by Gerri and Antoine Betz.
While reviewing the damage, the couple, along with their son Terry, discovered a strange,
polished metal orb, measuring slightly less than eight inches in diameter.
An elongated triangular shape was stamped onto its surface, but the item otherwise contained
no identifying marks.
The shocked trio wondered if the object was some sort of NASA or Soviet satellite, and
they speculated that maybe it even had something to do with the cause of the fire.
However, the metal ball bore no evidence of heat or collision damage and there was no
impact crater.
Terry took the 22-pound sphere home and forgot about it until a few weeks later, when it
began behaving strangely while he played his guitar.
It started vibrating like a pitching fork as he strummed.
Then, the family noticed that their poodle became distressed near the ball.
They also learned that the ball took on a life of its own when rolled on the floor,
seemingly able to stop and change directions, often returning to the person who had rolled
it.
The family went public about the ball and a media frenzy ensued.
Military and government personnel expressed an interest in the object and many even admitted
that they were puzzled by its behavior.
It was even examined by the Navy, who found it to be highly magnetic but not to possess
any radioactive properties.
Gerri Betz would not allow them to cut into the sphere, however, and ordered it returned
to her if it was not determined to be government property.
The ball was given back to Mrs. Betz and its current whereabouts are a mystery.
1.
TERRACOTTA ARMY
In 1974, workers digging a well outside the Chinese city of Xi’an found a life-sized
clay statue of a soldier poised for battle.
The Chinese authorities were notified and government archaeologists were dispatched
to the site.
During the excavation, thousands more of these clay soldiers, each possessing unique facial
features and assembled according to rank, were found.
The soldiers varied in height depending on rank, with generals being the tallest.
Although the soldiers are mostly gray, they appear to have once been brightly painted,
as evidenced by patches of paint on the statues.
Archaeologists determined that the statues date back approximately to the late third
century B.C.
According to a 2007 estimate, there are around 8,000 terracotta soldiers in total.
The trench-like, subterranean headquarters occupied by the soldiers also contained clay
horses with wooden chariots behind them, swords, arrow tips, and other weapons.
These items, along with the thousands of clay soldiers, are all part of an extravagant mausoleum
that was created to accompany Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, into the afterlife.
Much of the 2,000-year-old tomb remains unexcavated, due primarily to concerns about the preservation
of the artifacts, especially after the dry Xi’an air caused much of the remaining paint
to crack and peel off of the soldiers within minutes of exposure.
Theres also the fear of getting poisoned by mercury!!
The government does not want the emperors tomb opened out of respect.
However, there is a museum dedicated to the terracotta army and that is open to visitors.