24 May 2021 - KING TUT'S REVENGE

 

KING TUT'S REVENGE

 

G'day folks,

February 16, 1923 — It’s a discovery that would have made Indiana Jones envious: on this day archaeologist Howard Carter opened the sealed doorway leading to the burial chamber and sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

A few weeks earlier, after making a "tiny breach” in the top left hand corner of the tomb doorway, he was asked by his patron Lord Carnarvon if he could see anything.

Carter replied: "Yes, wonderful things" and added: “As my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist: strange animals, statues, and gold – everywhere the glint of gold."

Some people believe that by opening the tomb, which had remained undisturbed for nearly 4,000 years, Carter unleashed the “Curse of the Pharaohs,” which is said to herald catastrophe for anyone who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian person.

Certainly, some six weeks after Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened, Lord Carnarvon, who had paid for the expedition, was dead. He had been bitten on the cheek by a mosquito and made matters worse by shaving over the bite, causing an infection, blood poisoning, pneumonia and death.

 

At the time of Carnarvon’s demise in a Cairo hotel, the lights went out across the city and in England the earl’s saluki pet dog, Susie, howled and herself fell down dead.

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a devoted spiritualist and claimed to have a direct line to Ancient Egypt. He thought doctors were being naive in declaring that the mosquito bite led to Carnarvon’s death.

He believed the earl died because he had desecrated the pharaoh’s tomb and unleashed the Curse of Tutankhamen.

Sceptics point out, however, that Carter, who was the first to enter the tomb, lived on happily until 1939 when he died of lymphoma in London at the age of 64.

In fact, of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died in the following decade.

Perhaps the curse of ‘King Tut,’ as he became known, had lost its potency after 4,000 years.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... interesting.

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23 May 2019 - Spectacular Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chich'en Itza, Mexico

Spectacular Pyramid of Kukulcan

 at Chich'en Itza, Mexico

G'day folks,

Not all pyramids are in Egypt. Every equinox this Mayan pyramid puts on a spooky ancient light show. 

 A two-and-a-half hour bus ride from Cancun takes you away from the thumping parties of spring break and into the once thriving ancient capital of the Yucatán Mayans—Chich’en Itza. During the spring and autumn equinoxes thousands of tourists and locals pack in around the pyramid to recreate the parties of a thousand years ago—sans the cutting out of hearts—and to watch the “descent of Kukulcan.” A carnival atmosphere fills the surrounding meadow with sounds of drums, traditional music and cheering crowds.

According to legend, twice a year when the day and night are in balance, this pyramid dedicated to Kukulcan (or Quetzalcoatl), the feathered serpent god, is visited by its namesake. On the equinox Kukulcan returns to earth to commune with his worshipers, provide blessing for a full harvest and good health before entering the sacred water, bathing in it, and continuing through it on his way to the underworld.

A handclap near the base of the pyramidal  results in an unusual chirping echo, which is said to replicate the call of the sacred quetzal bird.

 All legends aside, crafty and mathematically brilliant architecture combined with the natural rotation of the Earth creates an amazing and somewhat eerie image of a giant snake crawling down the temple. For five hours an illusion of light and shadow creates seven triangles on the side of the staircase starting at the top and inching its way down until it connects the top platform with the giant stone head of the feathered serpent at the bottom. For 45 minutes this impressive shadow stays in its entirety before slowing descending the pyramid and disappearing along with the crowd that gathered to see it.

The Pyramid of Kukulcan (also know as El Castillo, a name given by the Spanish Conquistadors) is the central of Chich’en Itza, it was built over a pre-existing temple between 800 and 900 AD. It is the biggest pyramid in Chich’en Itza; at its base 53.3 meters wide on all four sides. It towers above the other monuments at 24 meters tall with a 6 meter temple on top of the highest platform. Before access to the throne room of the pyramid was restricted, you could climb to the top and, on a clear day, see the top of the grand pyramid at the nearby ruin site of Ek Balam.

The Mesoamerican fascination with, and knowledge of, math and astronomy shines when examining the details of its architecture. Each of the four sides has ninety-one steps ascending it, 364 steps total, with the temple topping the pyramid considered an addition step totaling 365, each step representing a day in the calendar. Additionally, the pyramid’s nine stages, bisected by a staircase on each side, represent the eighteen months of the Mayan Calendar year. The pyramid was built to be a physical representation of the Mayan Calendar (the same calendar that predicts the end of the world in 2012), while its orientation, slightly North East, is believed to have been calculated in order to create the phenomenon know as the “Descent of Kukulcan”.

 This phenomena is recreated nightly (artificially) during the Light and Sounds Show at 7pm in the winter and 8pm in the summer.

Chich’en Itza is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Clancy's comment: Amazing, eh? I'd love to visit this wonder. The more I discover places like this, the more I believe we humans haven't come all that far. Some of these ancient people were extraordinary, and they had no computers, Google or Facebook.

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