Aside from the Holy Grail there is probably no artefact more sought than the Ark of the Covenant. It is said to contain nothing less than the 10 commandments themselves. It vanished in 586 B.C. when the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem. Over the past year this writer has noted no fewer than three major claims, all linked to Africa, which have been made about the Arks current whereabouts: Some religious and Ethiopian media sources report that Abuna Pauolos, the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, has made recent comments that his church has…
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The Colonnade Terrace forms part of the Temple of Ba’al in the ancient Palmyra, an ancient oasis city which boasted great prominence back in ancient times. Julian Kaesler’s photograph of the Terrace caught my eye for the subtle lighting of the stone on a dusk scene. The rich colour reflected in the masonry emphasises the beauty in the relics, and the slight tilt of the camera looking upwards gives this scene the perfect touch. The city has an interesting past, being influenced under Roman control, but a temple in the city was there a good 2000 years before the Romans…
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(Mostly) fictional English rock band Spinal Tap made a much-anticipated come back at the Glastonbury music festival last weekend, followed swiftly by their 25th anniversary One Night Only World Tour show at Londons Wembley Arena on Tuesday. The bands magnum opus remains Stonehenge, their mystical hard rock mini-opera tribute to Salisburys millennia-old Neolithic masterpiece, “Where a man’s a man, and the children dance to the pipes of pan.” A performance of the song made for a memorable scene in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, featuring midgets dancing around – and threatening to crush – an 18 inch high megalith,…
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The air around the Elgin Marbles has turned blue many a time – but few would’ve pictured any of the magnificent sculptures the same colour. Yet this is exactly what a physicist at the British Museum claims to have discovered today. Giovanni Verri claims that by using red light he has found traces of an ancient hue, known as Egyptian Blue, painted on many of the priceless pieces. In fact, Verri says that 17 of the 56 marbles have revealed traces of the pigment, which was first used in Egypt and Mesopotamia as early as 2,500 BC. The colour certainly…
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This Saturday throngs of visitors from across North America will head to the Royal Ontario Museum, the crown jewel of Canada’s cultural scene, to see one of the most important, and mysterious, texts in antiquity, the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World features fragments from Genesis, Daniel, The Book of War, Psalms, Daniel and the Messianic Apocalypse. It also features artefacts from the site they were found (Qumran), as well as Jewish artefacts from Jerusalem and Sepphoris. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a group of Bedouins, said to be searching for a…
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Stone Age man in a cave in south-west Germany 35,000 years ago really knew how to party it seems. Not only has an example of pre-historic porn been found in the cave of Hohle Fels, near the town of Schelklingen in the region of Swabia, but now too a portion of a thin rudimentary flute carved from bird bone which experts are calling unambiguously the oldest musical instrument in the world. Its not the first such example found in the cave, which is an ongoing source of spectacular archaeological finds dating from the Aurignacian culture of the Upper Paleolithic period.…
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Attribution: FatTireTour.org Corinth Greece Key Dates Founded in the Neolithic Age, circa 6000 BC; flourished as a Greek city from the 8th century BC before being levelled by the invading Romans in 146 BC, who refounded it in 44 BC. Under Byzantium rule, earthquakes hit Corinth three times, in 375, 551 and 856. Key People Julius Caesar refounded the city in 44 BC, shortly before his assassination. The Apostle Paul lived in Corinth for a year and a half. Julius Caesar Positioned on the Isthmus of Corinth, between the Peloponnesus and mainland Greece, Corinth has been right at the forefront…
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King Tut: Meet the Mummy Who discovered King Tut? Sean Carter Howard Carter Michael Howard Zahi Hawass Howard Spencer
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Attribution: JoshTrefethen.com Rome Italy Key Dates The area of the forum was originally a grassy wetland, drained in the 7th century BC by the building of the Cloaca Maxima. In 600 BC Tarquinius Priscus traditionally had the area paved for the first time, and the forum was augmented with temples, basilicas, arches and other public buildings thenceforth – notable constributors being Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Julius Caesar, Augustus and the Flavians. Key People Pretty much anyone who was anyone in Rome can be connected to the Forum Romanum in some way. It was the heart of the city – especially in the…
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In this magical shot, today’s Flickr Find photographer – JC Richardson – snapped the Moai on Easter Island with a backdrop of stars, creating an alluring image mixing the exotic ancient world with a romantic scenery. The end result is an image of immense beauty – the capture is simply astounding. The Moai are located at Rapa Nui, and are monolithic carvings of human figures, dating back as early as 400AD or as late as 1700AD – many several generations have been making their own Moai!And it’s a popular misconception that they’re just giant heads – these hardy guys have…