BRAZIL, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Ancient Advanced City Found Hidden in the Amazon

Ancient Advanced City Found Hidden in the Amazon

It is the legend that drew legions of explorers and adventurers to their deaths: an ancient empire of citadels and treasure hidden deep in the Amazon jungle.

Spanish conquistadores ventured into the rainforest seeking fortune, followed over the centuries by others convinced they would find a lost civilization to rival the Aztecs and Incas.

Some seekers called it El Dorado, others the City of Z. But the jungle swallowed them and nothing was found, prompting the rest of the world to call it a myth. The Amazon was too inhospitable, said 20th-century scholars, to permit large human settlements.

Now, however, the doomed dreamers have been proved right: there was a great civilization. New satellite imagery and fly-overs have revealed more than 200 huge geometric earthworks carved in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil’s border with Bolivia.

An aerial picture of traces of earthworks built by a lost Amazonian civilization dating to 200AD. 

Spanning 155 miles, the circles, squares and other geometric shapes form a network of avenues, ditches, and enclosures built long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the new world. Some date to as early as 200 AD, others to 1283.

Scientists who have mapped the earthworks believe there may be another 2,000 structures beneath the jungle canopy, vestiges of vanished societies.

The structures, many of which have been revealed by the clearance of forest for agriculture, point to a “sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building society”, says the journal Antiquity, which has published the research.

The article adds: “This hitherto unknown person constructed earthworks of precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. The ‘geoglyph culture’ stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both the floodplains and the uplands … we have so far seen no more than a tenth of it.”

The structures were created by a network of trenches about 36ft (nearly 11 meters) wide and several feet deep, lined by banks up to 3ft high. Some were ringed by low mounds containing ceramics, charcoal and stone tools. It is thought they were used for fortifications, homes, and ceremonies, and could have maintained a population of 60,000 – more people than in many medieval European cities.

The discoveries have demolished ideas that soils in the upper Amazon were too poor to support extensive agriculture, says Denise Schaan, a co-author of the study and anthropologist at the Federal University of Pará, in Belém, Brazil. She told National Geographic: “We found this picture is wrong. And there is a lot more to discover in these places, it’s never-ending. Every week we find new structures.”

Many of the mounds were symmetrical and slanted to the north, prompting theories that they had astronomical significance.

Researchers were especially surprised that earthworks in floodplains and uplands were of a similar style, suggesting they were all built by the same culture.

“In Amazonian archaeology, you always have this idea that you find different peoples in different ecosystems,” said Schaan. “So it was odd to have a culture that would take advantage of different ecosystems and expand over such a large region.”

The first geometric shapes were spotted in 1999 but it is only now, as satellite imagery and felling reveal sites, that the scale of the settlements is becoming clear. Some anthropologists say the feat, requiring sophisticated engineering, canals, and roads, rivals Egypt’s pyramids.

The findings follow separate discoveries further south, in the Xingu region, of interconnected villages known as “garden cities”. Dating between 800 and 1600, they included houses, moats, and palisades.

“These revelations are exploding our perceptions of what the Americas really looked liked before the arrival of Christopher Columbus,” said David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z, a book about an attempt in the 1920s to find signs of Amazonian civilizations. “The discoveries are challenging long-held assumptions about the Amazon as a Hobbesian place where only small primitive tribes could ever have existed, and about the limits the environment placed on the rise of early civilizations.”

They are also vindicating, said Grann, Percy Fawcett, the explorer who partly inspired Conan Doyle’s book The Lost World. Fawcett led an expedition to find the City of Z but the party vanished, bequeathing a mystery.

Many scientists saw the jungle as too harsh to sustain anything but small nomadic tribes. Now it seems the conquistadores who spoke of “cities that glistened in white” were telling the truth. They, however, probably also introduced the diseases that wiped out the native people, leaving the jungle to claim – and hide – all trace of their civilization.

BRAZIL, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

hundreds of tunnels which date back at least 10000 years have been discovered in brazil

Hundreds of tunnels which date back at least 10,000 Years have been Discovered in Brazil

Research teams in South America have found many gigantic burrows that are so massive and neatly constructed that you’d be forgiven for thinking humans dug them as a passageway through the forest.

The structure was huge, and according to Jenner, it’s still the largest known palaeoburrow in the Amazon and is twice the size of the second-largest palaeburrow in Brazil.

They are much older than they seem, they are estimated to be at least 8,000 to 10,000 years old, and they can not be explained by any known geological process. But then there are the massive claw marks lining the walls and the ceilings

Throughout Brazil, you can find the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer and the awe-inspiring mountains of Corcovado and Sugarloaf.   Travelers and adventurers will find in the country a magnificent slate of fauna like the giant anteater, many types of sloths, armadillos, otters, and even capybara in the country. However, Brazil has more than meets the eye. In fact, the country has its fair share of mysteries.

In 2010, geologist Amilcar Adamy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, found a giant hole a few miles north of the Bolivian border. Upon investigation, he realized that the hole could not have been naturally made. None of the caves Adamy explored looked like anything the tunnels featured, with their round passages and smooth floors.

The mysterious tunnels have since then been discovered by various experts around the country and have opened up an entirely new realm of possibilities for geological studies.

Geologist Heinrich Theodor Frank stumbled across the tunnels while driving on the national Novo Hamburgo Highway. While driving, a hole of around one meter in diameter caught his attention. The hole was located at a construction site, and after further investigation, Frank discovered that the hole led to a complex underground tunnel. The tunnel was about 70 centimeters high and a few meters in length, with what appeared to be strange scratches on the ceiling of its walls.

After further exploration, Frank realized that hundreds of similar tunnels existed all over Brazil. The state of Rondonia alone has a large complex of 600 meter-long tunnels. Not only that, but 2,000 burrows with similar characteristics have also been found. Not even the locals in the area knew about the origins of the tunnels. Further tests showed that the tunnels were not man-made in origin.

Urban legends point towards various “historical” and even supposed “mythological” origins of the mysterious tunnels. Some say the tunnels were created by Indians, Jesuits, slaves, or even revolutionaries. Others believe the tunnels are a giant anthill or were even made by bears. Very rare few points towards a great mythological serpent that may have used the tunnel as its home.

Regardless, geological evidence alone proves that the tunnels were not created by Brazilian natives. The Indians who lived in Brazil even before the Europeans arrived did not use iron, and therefore had no means of digging through the hard rocks around the tunnels.

According to Frank, there is no natural geological process known to man that can produce the features of the tunnels. These features include the circular or elliptical cross-sections that branch, rise, and fall around the area. The geographic distribution of the tunnels is another mystery to scientists. The tunnels were only found in the southern parts of Brazil – particularly in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. They don’t exist anywhere else.

The claw marks on the walls of the tunnels are also peculiar. Prehistoric animals such as giant armadillos or possibly mega-sloths are thought by many to be possible creators of such marks. The biggest burrows, with sizes of up to five feet in diameter, may have been dug by ground sloths that have adapted to the area’s environment and developed digging skills.

Giant armadillos, though shorter than sloths, may also have the skills necessary to dig these tunnels as well. The grooves along the ceiling may, in fact, be marks the animals have left whenever they pause or stop working. Unfortunately, there are no specific indications of these animals living in the country. Moreover, the sheer size of the tunnels cannot possibly be made by any “giant” armadillos or sloths – at least, ones that we know of.

The giant armadillo, the largest existing member of its family, weighs between 65 and 90 pounds and is native to South America. However, its burrows are about 16 inches in diameter, and only up to 20 feet long. If the tunnels’ five foot wide and 250-feet long burrows are in fact dug my animals, then it should be one extremely big creature – one that has not been discovered yet. However, it seems there is still another possibility.

Frank eventually sent photographs of the tunnels to Marcelo Rasteiro of the Brazilian Society of Speleology. He introduced the notion of “paleoburrows” excavated by living organisms in any geological age.

Examples of these organisms include worms in the Cambrian Era, mollusks in the Mesozoic Era, or rats in the Pleistocene. These are all organisms that have lived millions of years ago. Until the early 2000s, hardly any burrows attributed to extinct animals can be found in the scientific literature. In fact, it was only in 2015 that Adamy himself had the opportunity to extensively explore the mysterious tunnels.

If this paleoburrow theory is to be believed, then the tunnels in Brazil may have been created between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago. If this is the case, then the Rondonia tunnels Frank has discovered may be the first – and the largest – paleoburrow in the Amazon. These tunnels can actually be found all over the world, which adds even more depth to the mystery. Frank said similar caves could be found in countries such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina.

Until scientists can figure out who, what, or how these paleoburrows were made, they will remain an unfathomable enigma.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

A 28,000-year mysterious pyramid is discovered at the top of Mount Padang, in west java Indonesia

A 28,000-year mysterious pyramid is discovered at the top of Mount Padang, in west java Indonesia

Indonesian scientists have recently found an ancient pyramid- that is hidden in plain sight for thousands of years – buried inside a mountain in Indonesia.

Located atop Mount Padang in West Java, the structure is topped by an archaeological site that holds rows of ancient stone pillars.

Scientists become the first Europeans to discover Gunung (Mount) Padang in the early 20th century, they must have been awestruck by the sheer scale of their ancient stone surroundings.

Scientists claimed that a pyramid-like hill on top of Mount Padang in West Java isn’t natural – it as made by humans thousands of years ago.

According to scientists, there’s a series of channels and chambers belonging to a 10,000-year-old pyramid buried underneath Gunung Padang in West Java. They believe Gunung Padang’s layers of rocks were man-made and its slopes span at least 150,000 square meters of land.

The exploration proves that the structure does not cover just the top but also wraps around the slopes covering about 15 hectares area at least.

Scientists noted, “The structures are not only superficial but rooted into greater depth.”

Researchers Danny Hilman Natawidjaja told Live Science, “It’s a unique temple. It’s not like the surrounding topography, which is very much eroded. This looks very young. It looked artificial to us.”

Scientists used an array of techniques to peer underground including ground-penetrating radar surveys, X-ray tomography, 2D and 3D imaging, core drilling, and excavations — the researchers gradually uncovered several layers of a sizable structure. It spread over an area of around 15 hectares (150,000 square meters) and had been built up over millennia, with layers representing different periods.

At the very top were pillars of basalt rocks framing step terraces, with other arrangements of rock columns forming walls, paths, and spaces. They estimated this layer to be about 3,000 to 3,500 years old.

Scientists noted, “Underneath the surface, to a depth of about 10 feet (3 m), was the second layer of similar rock columns, thought to be 7,500 to 8,300 years old. And a third layer, extending 49 feet (15 m) below the surface, is more than 9,000 years old; it could even date to 28,000 years ago.”

ASIA, BANGLADESH, WORLD

Traces of Buddhist Monastery Discovered in Bangladesh

Traces of Buddhist Monastery Discovered in Bangladesh

‘This discovery is of vital importance to the archaeological history of Bangladesh’

Archeologists have unearthed an archaeological site dating back between the 9th century and mid-11th century in Gaurighona union under Keshabpur Upazila in Jessore

Recently the archaeological department of Khulna and Barisal discovered the ancient Buddhist monastery temple complex of Keshabpur Upazila in Jessore, a Gaurighona region. Experts suggest that the structure dates from the 9th to the mid-11th centuries.

The layout consists of two Buddhist temples and courtyards that are adjacent to a total of 18 rooms inside the complex where presumably the monks resided.  Afroza Khan Mita, regional director of the Archaeology Department (Khulna) Said.

She said it was the very first time a structure of this kind had been discovered in the south-western part of Bangladesh and even in the southern part of West Bengal India.

According to various experts from home and abroad, the structure contains some unique and exceptional features that are quite different from other Buddhist monasteries previously discovered in the eastern parts of the Indian Subcontinent.

The primary analysis of these archaeological and architectural features reveals that this ruin is different from other contemporary Buddhist monasteries in Bangladesh and in the Indian states of Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal.

Researchers at the department and other experts are researching whether a similar Buddhist temple was previously discovered in other parts of South Asia.

Urmila Hasnat, a research assistant at the Department of Archaeology, said: “After excavating the site, we have found fragments of ornamented bricks, terracotta plaques, and clay pots. The fragments of terracotta bricks and plaques have engravings of lotus flowers and geometric shapes. 

“Apart from that, we have also found stucco made from lime and sand which also has various floral and geometric engravings.”

“A special type of clay pot has also been recovered here, which is only found in Buddhist monasteries from the 7th and 11th centuries.”

The renowned Indian archaeologist Dr. Arun Nag said: “This discovery in Jessore’s Keshabpur is of vital importance to the archaeological history of Bangladesh. It is the second Buddhist monastery to be discovered in South Bengal after the one in Bharat Bhayana.

The ancient architecture has some unique features that have not been seen anywhere in Bangladesh before. I think once the whole architecture is excavated, it will be a significant addition to Bangladesh’s archaeological history.”

On January 22, the excavation team of the Archaeology Department of Khulna and Barisal began digging at Dalijhara Dhibi of the Gaurighona union in Keshabpur Upazila. AKM Saifur Rahman, regional assistant director, has been leading the excavation, which is being supervised by Afroza Khan Mita.

Among other members of the excavation team are Research Assistant Urmila Hasnat, marksman Md Ripon Miah, former senior draftsman Jahandar Ali and former photographer Md Abdus Samad. 

The excavation is being carried out by skilled workers from Bogra’s Mahasthangarh. Excavation will continue throughout March, will be put on hold during the rainy season and resume soon after. 

Some features of the monastery

The monks’ chambers are separated from one another by a thick wall. In other monasteries, the walls separating the cells are relatively thinner.

There are no rooms in the southwest and northwest corners of this monastery. Instead, the area is covered by floors made from bricks. There is a wide courtyard or courtyard-like space opposite the porch at the entrance to the monk’s rooms. 

Assuming the symmetry and structure of the monastery, another temple existed to the southeast of the structure. However, locals built their houses and completely destroyed the upper structure of the temple

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

200 million-year-old shoe print found on a lump of coal

200 million-year-old shoe print found on a lump of coal

In the past, there have been countless mysterious discoveries that point to the fact that modern humans lived on Earth much earlier than scholars say. Such unexplained observations referred to by many authors as ‘ ooparts — or out of place artifacts’, these enigmatic findings push the boundaries set forth by mainstream scholars, challenging everything we know about modern humans and life on Earth.

A hundred years ago, a Nevada Mining Company employee named Albert E. Knapp made the enigmatic — and somewhat controversial — discovery. To be precise in January 1917.  In an article at creationism.org, we find a letter written by Mr. Knapp—the discoverer—dating back to January 15, 1917.

“I was intrigued by the fossil, which laid on the stone side among some loose rocks, as I descended the hill my attention was attracted by the fossil. I took it and placed it in my pocket for further analysis and it came to the conclusion that it is a layer from the heel of a shoe which had been pulled from the balance of the heel by suction; the rock was in a plastic state at that time. It was found in LIMESTONE OF THE TRIASSIC PERIOD, a belt of which runs through that section of the hills.”

There are however several websites that wrongly concluded that the ‘ 200 million-year-old fossilized shoeprint ‘ was found in Triassic rock near Fisher Canyon, Pershing County, Nevada by John Reid in 1922.

The enigmatic object caught the attention of several researchers who were looking forward to analyzing it. The object also caught the eyes of the media as we find two reports about the discovery in a March 19, 1922 story in the New York Times: “It would fit nicely a boy of ten or twelve years. The edges are as smooth as if freshly cut. The surprising part of it is what seems to be a double line of stitches, one near the outside edge of the sole and the other about a third of an inch inside the first. The ‘leather’ is thicker inside the inner welting and appears to be slightly bevelled, so that at the margin, half an inch wide, which runs outside, the sole is something like an eighth of an inch thick.

The symmetry is maintained perfectly throughout. The perfect lines pursued by the welting, and the appearance of hundreds of minute holes through which the sole was sewed to the shoe are the things which make the object such an extraordinary freak in the eyes of the scientists who examined it.

And an October 8, 1922 article by W. H. Ballou in the American Weekly section of the New York Sunday American titled: “Mystery of the Petrified Shoe Sole”:

“…Some time ago, while he was prospecting for fossils in Nevada, John T. Reid, a distinguished mining engineer, and geologist stopped suddenly and looked down in utter bewilderment and amazement at a rock near his feet. For there, a part of the rock itself was what seemed to be a human footprint! Closer inspection showed that it was not a mark of a naked foot, but was, apparently, a shoe sole which had been turned into stone.

The forepart was missing. But there was the outline of at least two-thirds of it, and around this outline ran a well-defined sewn thread which had, it appeared, attached the welt to the sole. Further on was another line of sewing, and in the center, where the foot would have rested had the object really been a shoe sole, there was an indentation, exactly such as would have been made by the bone of the heel rubbing upon and wearing down the material of which the sole had been made. Thus was found a fossil which is the foremost mystery of science today. For the rock in which it was found is at least 5 million years old…”

However, as noted by paleo.cc, the article that appeared in New York Sunday American mistakenly credits Reid instead of Knapp as the person who discovered it, but it offers misleading details about the age to the artifact.

Several authors concluded upon closer inspection that the rock shows “a layer from the heel of a shoe which had been pulled up from the balance of the heel by suction, the rock being in a plastic state at the time.”

Furthermore, it is noted that the alleged shoe print was in a marvelous state of preservation—as the edges of the heel were smooth and rounded off as if cut and its right side appeared more worn than the left—an indicative sign that it had been worn on the right foot.

However, many authors and websites—who disagree with mainstream history mostly—argue that what Knapp found really amazing was that the rock in which the heel mark was made, was a Triassic rock—believed to be at least 220 million years old—which runs in a belt through the canyon hills where the enigmatic shoeprint was discovered.

But author Glen J. Kuban notes that there are several issues with the shoeprint interpretation.

The Kuban notes that from the only photographs from the artifact, we can deduce that it seems to be a broken ironstone concretion, one that may have suffered from erosion. Interestingly, such concretions tend to display ovoid shapes and concentric banding like the one discovered in the alleged 200 million-year-old shoe print.

As noted by essayfarm.com, Concretions are hard to compact accumulations of mineral matter and are found inside sedimentary rocks. Often concretions are mistaken for bones, fossils, meteorites and other odd objects. They can be so small that it requires a magnifying glass to be visible or as large as 10 feet in diameter and weigh hundreds of pounds.  Concretions can also have somewhat of regular shapes such as boxes, blocks, flat disks, pipes, cannonballs and have even been known to resemble parts of a human body such as a foot or ribs.

As noted in the book God-Or Gorilla by McCann, Alfred Watterson, 1879-1931, the Rockefeller Institute conducted microscopic photography of the print, which showed that the object in question contained the presence of two rows of stitching, about 1/3″ apart, with the appearance of hundreds of minute holes through which the soul was sewed to the shoe. Regrettably, no microscopy images were published to back the claims.

“The edges are rounded off smoothly as if it were freshly cut leather from an expert cobbler. The stone to which it is attached is about the size of a brick. The heel and part of the sole appear, the toe-end being missing.”

Creationsim.org states that the above-mentioned microphotographs showed very clearly that it bore a minute resemblance to a well-made piece of leather, stitched by hand, and at one time worn by a human foot.

The photographs showed the stitches very plainly; at one place it was double-stitched, and the twist of the thread could be clearly seen. The thread is smaller than any used by shoemakers of today. Minute crystals of sulphide of mercury are to be noticed throughout the spaces of this fossil shoe-sole, these minerals having been deposited in the long ago by waters which carried them in solution.

Regrettably, the present location of the artifact is unknown, so further studies cannot be conducted.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Orichalcum, the lost metal of Atlantis, may have been found on a shipwreck off Sicily

Orichalcum, the lost metal of Atlantis, may have been found on a shipwreck off Sicily

A group of naval archeologists has uncovered two hundred ingots spread over the sandy seafloor near a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sicily. The ingots were made from orichalcum, a rare cast metal that ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote was from the legendary city of Atlantis. 

A total of 39 ingots (metal set into rectangular blocks) were, according to Inquisitr, discovered near a shipwreck. BBC reported that another same metal cache was found. 47 more ingots were found, with a total of 86 metal pieces found to date.

The wreck was discovered in 1988, floating about 300 meters (1,000 ft) off the coast of Gela in Sicily in shallow waters. At the time of the shipwreck Gela was a rich city and had many factories that produced fine objects.   Scientists believe that the pieces of orichalcum were destined for those laboratories when the ship sank.

Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily’s superintendent of the Sea Office, told Discovery News that the precious ingots were probably being brought to Sicily from Greece or Asia Minor.

Tusa said that the discovery of orichalcum ingots, long considered a mysterious metal, is  significant as “nothing similar has ever been found.” He added, “We knew orichalcum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects.”

2,600-year-old shipwreck found off the coast of Sicily

According to a Daily Telegraph report, the ingots have been analyzed and found to be made of about 75-80 percent copper, 14-20 percent zinc and a scattering of nickel, lead, and iron.

The name orichalucum derives from the Greek word oreikhalkos, meaning literally “mountain copper” or “copper mountain”. According to Plato’s 5th century BC Critias dialogue, orichalucum was considered second only to gold in value, and was found and mined in many parts of the legendary Atlantis in ancient times

Plato wrote that the three outer walls of the Temple to Poseidon and Cleito on Atlantis were clad respectively with brass, tin, and the third, which encompassed the whole citadel, “flashed with the red light of orichalcum”.

The interior walls, pillars, and floors of the temple were completely covered in orichalcum, and the roof was variegated with gold, silver, and orichalcum. In the center of the temple stood a pillar of orichalcum, on which the laws of Poseidon and records of the first son princes of Poseidon were inscribed.

The orichalucum ingots found off the coast of Gela in Sicily.

For centuries, experts have hotly debated the metal’s composition and origin.

According to the ancient Greeks, orichalcum was invented by Cadmus, a Greek-Phoenician mythological character. Cadmus was the founder and first king of Thebes, the acropolis of which was originally named Cadmeia in his honor.

Cadmus, the Greek mythological figure who is said to have created orichalcum

Orichalcum has variously been held to be a gold-copper alloy, a copper-tin, or copper-zinc brass, or a metal no longer known. However, in Vergil’s Aeneid, it was mentioned that the breastplate of Turnus was “stiff with gold and white orachalc” and it has been theorized that it is an alloy of gold and silver, though it is not known for certain what orichalcum was.

The breast plate of Turnus was said to be made with gold and white ‘orachalc’’ ‘The Fight between Aeneas and King Turnus’ by Giacomo del Po, Italy, Naples, 1652-1726.

Orichalcum is also mentioned in the ‘Antiquities of the Jews’ (1 st century AD) – Book VIII, sect. 88 by Josephus, who stated that the vessels in the Temple of Solomon were made of orichalcum (or a bronze that was like gold in beauty).

Today, some scholars suggest that orichalcum is a brass-like alloy, which was made in antiquity the process of cementation, which was achieved through the reaction of zinc ore, charcoal and copper metal in a crucible.

The latest discovery of the orichalcum ingots that had laid for nearly three millennia on the seafloor may finally unravel the mystery of the origin and composition of this enigmatic metal.

ECUADOR, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Ecuador Expose the Skeletons of an Ancient Race of Giant Humans – 7 Times Bigger Than Modern Humans

Ecuador Expose the Skeletons of an Ancient Race of Giant Humans – 7 Times Bigger Than Modern Humans

According to a research team led by British anthropologist Russell Dement, strikingly tall skeletons uncovered in the Amazon region of Ecuador and Peru are undergoing examination in Germany. Will these remains prove that a race of tall people existed deep in the Amazon rainforest hundreds of years ago?

EUROPE, IRELAND, WORLD

Newgrange: The Massive Irish Tomb That’s Older Than The Pyramids

Newgrange: The Massive Irish Tomb That’s Older Than The Pyramids

Yep, 5,000 years. That’s older than Stonehenge. It’s older than the great Egyptian pyramids, too. And five millennia later, it hasn’t lost any of its wonders.

Newgrange was built around 3200 B.C. — hundreds of years before the Great Pyramid of Giza (2500 B.C.) and Stonehenge (3000 B.C.).

The massive hemispherical tomb is located in the Brú na Bóinne – Gaelic for the “palace” or “mansion” of the River Boyne. This 3-square mile area contains nearly a hundred ancient monuments, including two other large tombs, in addition, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.

A map of megalithic monuments in the Brú na Bóinne

Arriving at the iconic tomb is a wow-moment, to say the least. Standing outside the 80-meter mound, shored up with spiral-engraved kerbstones and topped with white Wicklow quartzite, a guide reveals the myths and history behind the monument. Newgrange could have been designed as a tomb or a temple – in reality, nobody knows which. The truth will be shrouded in mystery forever.

Let there be light…

Once the scene has been set for you as a visitor, you’ll step inside the passage tomb itself, squeezing through standing stones carved with spiraling rock art and graffiti dating back to the 1800s (before Newgrange was taken into State care).

Ducking under beams of wood, you’ll emerge into the cool confines of a cruciform-shaped chamber like a stony igloo squirreled away within a hill.

The engraved stone at the entrance to Newgrange.

This inner sanctum is where a lucky few (chosen by lottery from thousands of applicants annually) huddle together to witness the annual winter solstice illumination.

The illuminated inner corridor of Newgrange.

At this moment, when megalithic engineering and nature lock sensationally into sync, a shaft of light can be seen snaking 19 meters up the passageway, ultimately bathing the chamber in light. There are goosebumps, to say the least…

If you’re not one of the lucky ones, don’t fret. All visitors are treated to a simulated solstice, with an orange beam of light artificially showcasing the effect. It’s a tantalizing little taster – little wonder legend suggests that this was the site where mythological hero Cú Chulainn was Born.

Subterranean secrets…

A young girl stands in front of the entrance to Newgrange in about 1905

Newgrange isn’t the only passage tomb in Ireland, of course. In fact, it’s not the only passage tomb at Brú na Bóinne. Together with nearby Knowth and Dowth, Newgrange has declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1993. Not bad for a site that once looked destined to become a quarry!

Not far away, near Oldcastle, County Meath, you’ll find a lesser-known cluster of passage tombs. Spotted around a handful of hills at Loughcrew are several cairns also dating from around 3,200BC. Because they’re more obscure and harder to get to, the Indiana Jones effect is all the more titillating.

If you get the sense that you’re being watched here, you may well be right. Some 60km away, atop of Slieve Gillian in County Armagh, the passage of another tomb points directly back towards Loughcrew.

Slieve Gillian’s two cairns lie on either side of a summit lake, with the southern tomb said to have a winter solstice alignment at sunset. On a good day, the views stretch as far as Dublin Bay.

All In One Magazine