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The megalithic stones of the Orkneys are one of the most enigmatic monuments of Europe. But why are such gigantic structures found here? Loch Maree, in Scotland's Wester Ross, was a key religious centre in both pagan, Christian and Viking times. The specific sacred centre was Isle Maree, where bull sacrifices occurred until the 17th century. The island also is home to one of the few surviving intact stone circles in the world. Iona, a small island off the west coast of Scotland, is considered to be one of the most holy places in the world. But is this due to the pioneering Christianisation efforts of the early Irish missionary St Columba, or the island’s sanctity itself? Glen Lyon: the valley of the Sun God Glen Lyon, in Pertshire,
is currently one of the most remote locations in Scotland, but was at
the same time one of the few places where Scotland's Celtic past was
kept alive, particularly a veneration of the old Celtic deities, from
the Sun God Lugh, to the Creator Goddess the Cailleach. Kilmartin: the original Scottish capital Kilmartin Valley is remote, even by Scottish standards, but may have been a forgotten centre of prehistoric activity. Archaeology is slowly uncovering that this tranquil valley may have been, in the past, one of the most important centres – and the true heart of Scotland. Doon Hill and the Old Kirk in Aberfoyle, will forever be associated with the Reverend Robert Kirk, a priest who is more notorious for his belief in fairies than his Christian preachings. Is there any chance that the famed Grail castle is not in France, but instead is located in Scotland? If one follows the Arthurian tradition, rather than the traditions of the Grail, that is apparently where one ends up. The Stone of Destiny: sacred kingship in the 21st century The Scottish Stone of Scone – or Stone of Destiny – is probably one of the most famous and only remaining reminders of ancient and sacred kingship. As we walked through fields of prayer Just west of Aberdeen, a forgotten megalithic landscape could contain written evidence of an ancient Mediterranean connection. But it definitely contains memories of a once sacred landscape, which became the Pictish heartland.
In what is now a primary tourist destination, the British Lake District was, 5000 years ago, a hub of megalithic building activities and industrial creation of "products" that were exported throughout the British Isles - and beyond. On the Welsh isle of Anglesey, the Druids made their last stand against the Roman invaders. Was it evidence of the sanctity of the island, parts of which are known as "Holy Island"? Forty miles east of Anglesey, in the famous Welsh coastal resort of Llandudno, is the peninsula that is known as Great Ormes Head. Here, the world’s largest prehistoric industrial site has been discovered. But elsewhere on Anglesey, recent discoveries have unearthed Neolithic remains that rival Newgrange and Stonehenge – though not in fame. Just over a century ago, the novel Dracula was published, written by the Irish author Bram Stoker. It created a widespread interest in vampirism. But what was Stoker’s inspiration? Fairy dust: the Cottingley fairies In 1983, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths stated that back in 1917, they had perpetrated a majestic hoax. Their world famous photographs, showing the girls in the company of fairies dancing around them, were paper cut-outs, supported by hatpins. It had fooled both sceptics and believers. An enigmatic boulder on the moors of Yorkshire reveals an intriguing mythological dimension, which is now mostly forgotten. Mother Shipton: prophetess or witch? Mother Shipton’s Cave and the nearby Petrifying Well in Knaresborough is England’s oldest tourist attraction. The story of the prophetess seems to be too good to be true – and seems to be just that… From the 18th century onwards, a “Druid history” of London was slowly discovered – or imagined – on London’s landscape. It reached a climax with the English mystic William Blake, who transformed it into a sacred site – the Heavenly Jerusalem. Royston Cave: creating a medieval magical centre The underground cave of Royston, sitting as it does at the crossroads of the town, has created a lot of interest and controversy. Is it, as some suggest, a medieval Templar church or is it instead one part of a larger pagan landscape, whereby a sacred centre was created? The Hellfire Caves are located just outside of West Wycombe. Built around 1750 by the second Sir Francis Dashwood, the Earl of Rosse (1708-1781), they are an intriguingly named site… named after the Hellfire Club, founded by the same earl… and for more than two centuries linked with an awful lot of intrigue… Genuine religious artefacts that portray the devil are – for obvious reasons – rare. But in northwest England, a devil’s stone is one of two in Europe that have survived across the centuries. Labelled by experts as a “temple to Freemasonry” and “a total concept as exotic as Roslin Chapel in Scotland”, St Edmund’s Church in Rochdale (Greater Manchester) is one of England’s hidden gems. So much so, that it is totally unknown.
In the west of Ireland, the area of Knocknarea and Carrowmore forms an enigmatic but incredibly old sacred landscape, which archaeology has only recently begun to understand. Croagh Patrick: Transforming the Green Serpent Nothing seems to be more Irish than St Patrick. Nothing seems to be more Christian than the life of this saint. But at the same time, it are his legends that provide an inroad into the way Ireland was before and at the time of Christianity’s arrival. The centre and divisions of sacred Ireland Ireland has maintained its sacred division of the land into the 21st century, though the site of Uisneach, from which the land was divided, is not the best known feature or most widely visited site of the island. But together with the other sacred sites, it continues to reveal insights into the pagan organisation of the land. Newgrange: empowering the salmon of wisdom Newgrange is considered to be the most complex megalithic site in Ireland – and Europe. But despite the enormous focus on its solar display, little else is known about the framework in which the site was developed. Round towers: needles in magical landscape? The Irish round towers are enigmatic constructions: refuges, belfries or “needles” in the system of leylines have all been proposed as their true purpose. But in spite of various attempts, their mystery endures.
Glozel: the fraud or find of the 20th century? From 1924 to 1938, a total of some 3,000 artefacts, variously dated to Neolithic, Iron Age and Medieval times were unearthed from Glozel, a hamlet some 17 km from the French spa town of Vichy. For some, it is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever; for others, it is one of the most notorious hoaxes. Archaeological Trench Warfare at Glozel When artefacts unearthed at Glozel, France, in the mid-1920s didn't fit the accepted scholarly explanation of human prehistory in that region, archaeologists engaged in a bitter battle that has still not seen a clear winner. The treasure trove of the Knights Templar Were the treasures of the Knights Templar removed from the Temple in Paris to the de Beaujeu castle in Arginy? Arginy definitely was the location where Jacques Breyer would reignite the Templar flame during various ceremonies from 1952 onwards, and the creation of the Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple. Dynamite, Father de Coma and his abbey Another enigmatic priest, this time in the small village of Baulou, created a building frenzy in the style of the mysterious priest Saunière of the neighbouring Rennes-le-Château... but in the end, his domain was dynamited on orders of the local bishop. Thousands of megaliths are aligned in neat stone rows in and near the town of Carnac, in Brittany. What purpose could they have served? St Bertrand de Comminges has what is popularly called “The Cathedral of the Pyrenees”. But you could also argue it is France’s answer to Rosslyn… predating it, and with a potentially genuine Templar link. Chartres: the Virgin Mary’s Seat on Earth Chartres Cathedral is seen as one of the most important Gothic cathedrals. It is a mystical place, where alchemists and symbolists have tried to unveil its mysteries – and pilgrims have come for thousands of years, even before the Cathedral was erected. Does that explain why Chartres, a rather small, unimpressive town, was seen as the “Seat of the Virgin Mary on Earth”? Gisors: the cutting of the Priory The French town of Gisors is believed to be – and was – the cradle of the Priory of Sion. The question is: why… and have we all been staring in the wrong direction? Mitterrand’s Great – Unknown – Work The glass pyramid of the Louvre, La Défense, even the quaint “Monument to the Rights of Man” are known to sit within the French President François Mitterrand’s enigmatic building obsession. But Cergy-Pointoise’s “Axe Majeur” is both the largest and never cited work developed under Mitterrand’s reign. So why is it so unknown?
Athens is not only the capital of Greece, it is also considered to be the cradle of democracy. But what is less known is that Athens, as a city, has its own sacred geography, echoing the Greek philosophy for which it would become famous. Delphi was one of – if not the – most important sites of the first millennium BC. Disappointing archaeological results in the late 19th century pushed it into the background, but in recent years, the fame of Delphi is slowly rising again, like the vapours once rose from its famed chasm. Egypt: origin of the Greek culture Greece's culture lies at the origin of western civilisation. But for more than a century, its ancient Egyptian origins have steadfastedly been denied and brushed aside, in an effort to maintain an outdated status quo. The Greek island of Crete is home to the "Minoan" civilisation. But is it a genuine civilisation, or a vasal state of Egypt - and what is new research showing us about its relationship with the enigmatic Hyksos? The enigmatic Phaistos disc has been interpreted in so many different ways that most have given up all hope that it may ever be properly understood. But amongst the myriad opportunities, there is one possibility that is supported by the available evidence. The wheels of Greek astronomical science The Antikythera device is an oop-art: an out of place-artefact. Dating from the 1st century BC, it is more than a millennium older than comparative calculators found so far.
Europe’s pyramid history unveiled In recent years, two pyramid complexes have been uncovered in Europe: one in Italy, another in Bosnia. After less than one year’s of analysis, the Bosnian pyramid is already identified as an artificial structure, thus finally providing proof that Europe does have a pyramid past. Though many will identify Romulus and Remus as the mythical origin of Rome, is that all there is to know about the birth of what would become one of, if not the biggest empire in history? The Bay of Naples was seen as Hell on Earth, an entrance into the Underworld, but also the site of one of the most famous oracles: that of Cumae, a mystery that is still surrendering – slowly – some of its mysteries. The Neapolitan Chapel of Sansevero is one of the most enigmatic chapels in Europe, if only because its creator, Raimondo di Sangro, was deemed to be the Leonardo da Vinci of his time.
Before Sumer, Crete or the Maltese civilisation, there was “Old Europe”, or the Vinca culture… a forgotten, rather than lost civilisation that lies at the true origin of most of our ancient civilisations.
In the middle of the Mediterrean Sea are three small islands, which contain some of the oldest and most enigmatic megalithic monuments found anywhere... So much so that they have been incorporated in Greek myths and local legends.
Professor Rudy Cambier came to an astonishing revelation when he read Nostradamus' quatrains: they were not written in French, but in Picardian, the language of the area he grew up in, and a language he knew perfectly. Reading the "prophecies" properly, Cambier discovered that the Centuries were not prophecies at all, but were therefore not less intriguing or important. What they revealed was that Nostradamus had stolen a 300 year old manuscript from a Belgian monastery, detailing the last days of the Knights Templar, and their provisions to safeguard their treasure.
The Burrows cave: African gold in Illinois The story of the
Burrows Cave is a story about archaeology, but also of human behaviour.
It is the story of an alleged cave containing the tomb of an African
king, having reach America (Illinois) in the first century AD –
and the subsequent controversy the artefacts from this cave were able
to make. Copper: a world trade in 3000 BC? Europe’s economy between 2000 and 1000 BC stood and fell with copper, used for the creation of bronze. At the same time, large quantities of copper were mined in America, though no-one seems to know who was using it. A question of a world economy, and supply and demand? Canyonitis: Seeing evidence of ancient Egypt in the Grand Canyon Is there, within the Grand Canyon, an enigmatic system of tunnels that is evidence of an ancient Egyptian voyage to America? Is it all bogus? Or is the truth most likely somewhere in between?
Christians don’t worship here any more… The village of San Juan Chamula, in the mountains of Chiapas, is a Mayan village, masking as a Christian community… but Christian it isn’t… The Yucatan with its Mayan temples and pyramids is a magical land. But what these buildings reveal, is that the Maya seem to have placed major emphasis on magic. Like so many other cultures, the Mayan religious centres were designed along the principles of sacred architecture, which retold the story of creation. The New World equivalent of the Gizeh pyramids may well be Teotihuacan, even in as much detail that its layout also mimics astronomical information, even that of Orion’s Belt. In a 1982 exhibition, the Mexican National Museum of Culture claimed that maize was “not domesticated, but created”. Indeed, maize is accepted as Man’s first, and perhaps his greatest, feat of genetic engineering. So much so, that it is even said to be a gift from the gods.
A photograph of an enigmatic head in the Guatemalan jungle is one of those discoveries that quickly achieved notoriety, and equally fast disappeared from the radar. Still, further efforts should perhaps be made to further the cause of this enigma.
The Quest For The Metal Library A system of tunnels and caves beneath Ecuador and Peru is reputed to hold an ancient treasure-house of artefacts including two libraries, one containing inscribed metal books and the other storing tablets of crystal. In the fourth Indiana Jones movie, our archaeologist-adventurer goes in search of a lost “kingdom of the crystal skull”. It appears that this is none other than the legendary Akakor, which became famous in the 1970s. But is the legend too good to be true?
According to geological evidence, the Age of Dinosaurs and the Age of Man are separated by roughly 60 million years. That has not deterred the dream-spinners of Hollywood from supposing that dinosaurs survived into the present (The Lost World), or that they can be genetically recreated (Jurassic Park). other movies in this genre have played with the idea that, somehow, man and the dinosaurs may have co-existed. The Sacred Valley of Cuzco, incorporating Ollantaytambo & Macchu Picchu, is more than a collection of impressive monuments: it is the backdrop of the story of the civilising creator god, Viracocha. Caral: the oldest town in the New World The pyramids of Caral presented a veritable breakthrough for the New World. Their dating: 2600 BC, older than the pyramids of Gizeh... The Nazca lines have been an enigma and centre of controversy since von Däniken made the lines world famous in the late 1960s. Though the controversy has continued, largely undetected, some intrepid researchers and scientists have most likely been able to answer the enigma. The Peruvian Ullo temple with its giant phalli seemed to good to be true – a largely intact temple in which a cult of fertility had survived the onslaught of Christianity? In the depths of the Amazonian basin, a specific type of soil is found that is known to be of human origin – but which modern science has so far been unable to reproduce. It seems to have been “primitive man’s” attempt to terraform the Amazon into fertility. With the Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire, many of its cities were destroyed or abandoned. Some of these would survive in name only; some, such as Macchu Picchu, were later rediscovered. None is more lost, and sought after, than Gran Paititi – for there it is, apparently, where the lost gold treasure of the Incas is.
The stone heads of Easter Island The stone heads of Easter Island have cast an almost magical spell on those who have seen them. Though often eyeless, they still gaze along the shores of the island. What were they build for and who were the artisans of these mysterious creations?
Karnak: The largest temple on Earth The religious complex of Karnak, in Luxor, is the largest ancient religious site in the world. It was the Vatican of its day – and four millennia after its heydays, continues to dwarf all other religious buildings. Here, we are confronted with the reason what has made Egypt so enchanting. Heliopolis was ancient Egypt’s most magnificent temple. Today, nothing remains, its stones dispersed over various buildings of medieval Cairo. Equally, its true importance lies scattered in various ancient accounts, from Diodorus Siculus, Plato, and many others. Modern research has shown that the Dogon did not possess a belief that they originated from Sirius, or were visited by beings from that planet. Instead, it seems this myth was written into the records by early French anthropologists. Giza boasts the biggest ancient sculpture, the Sphinx, and the last surviving wonder of the world, the Great Pyramid. But the biggest man-hewn stone is not to be found in either of them. An impressive stone worked into a wall, situated off the beaten track, weighs an estimated three hundred tons. How were the pyramids built? How were obelisks erected? A new theory from a group of American amateur kite enthusiasts has provided new inroads in trying to answer this mystery.
The Tassili n’Ajjer: birthplace of ancient Egypt? The Tassili n’Ajjer of Southern Algiers is described as the “largest storehouse of rock paintings in the world”. But could it also be the origins of the ancient Egypt culture?
Found: one Ark of the Covenant? Just before the First World War, a team of European explorers went to Jerusalem, to dig for the Ark of the Covenant...an expedition that has largely been forgotten, though it was one of the most intriguing ever.
China's Great Pyramids Controversy The existence of pyramids in China was a controversial topic, until Hartwig Hausdorf went into China, in the early 1990s, and came away with evidence that China had indeed its own ancient pyramids. The Stone Discs of Baian-Kara-Ula Did aliens crashland on Earth? The story of the Dzopa and the stone discs of Baian-Kara-Ula was a controversial topic, made famous by Erich von Daniken. Hartwig Hausdorf queried the Chinese authorities about the subject, and a remarkable story resurfaced.
The automatic writings of Jung Carl Gustav Jung is notorious for being more “liberal” in his psychology than his friend Freud. But what is less known, is that Jung was more of an alchemist and Gnostic, then a psychotherapist. Carl Sagan led a controversial life. Forever in search of life in the universe, he was nevertheless adamantly opposed to “pseudoscience”, such as UFOlogy and crop circles. Sagan was no stranger to controversy… and in the end became a controversy himself. The Hyper-dimensional ambassador Terence McKenna was for some more guru than a man whose lifestyle had been moulded by very deep experiences of an alternative reality. For the rest of his life, he would strive to bring awareness of that dimension to our reality. Mr. Mack goes to the UFO convention Harvard Professor John Mack was what many people believed the phenomenon had always been lacking: a big-time professor who spoke up for the reality of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, his message was more complex… Michael Scott: the Scottish wizard Scott, “the Wizard of the North”, is credited variously as Scotland’s first scientist, alchemist, sorcerer and astronomer. He is also one of Scotland’s forgotten geniuses. Who is the man behind the myth? He is one of the world’s best known names, yet we know very little about him. And though some have labelled him the father of Western philosophy, it may be that he was not that father at all. Just after the Second World War, the Dutchman Mirin Dajo made himself into a living enigma, as his body was able to be pierced repeatedly, without suffering any internal injury or even bleeding. Sixty years on, the world has largely forgotten what he did, even who he was. Philippe de Lyon was one of the most famous thaumaturges of all times; he was also one of the most impressive clairvoyants of the 19th century. Aide to the Russian Tsar before the controversial Rasputin – who seemed to take up the space Philippe left behind – he was both revered and controversial, and according to some, on par with Jesus himself.
Cave paintings: entrancing the Otherworld New research is showing that the cave paintings, most tens of thousands of years old, are the earliest religious expressions of the vision quests of the shaman-priests. Three Germans have created a scale model of the enigmatic "insect", identified by Erich von Däniken as an airplane. The Watchers: legendary angelic creatures mentioned in ancient documents - but apparently also the identity of the grey alien beings of modern UFO abduction. A study in parallels - whether genuine or mythical... Are mushrooms the real food of the gods? Does it contain a hallucinogenic substance that was known and used by ancient cultures and its priests to gain access to the World of the Gods? The alternative conquest of the Moon Man officially set foot on the Moon for the first time in July 1969. Or if you believe we never went to the moon: it is promoted that we officially set foot on the Moon for the first time in July 1969. But there have been stories that extraterrestrial beings had already been to the Moon, or had a basis there… and even that we ourselves went to the Moon long before Neil Armstrong. The “megalithic civilisation” in Western Europe is still a civilisation that is ill-understood, if only because it has suffered from decades of scientific neglect. At present, some of the answers about the monuments they left behind is becoming clearer, but questions remain as to who this civilisation was, and what became of them. The lost civilisation of Atlantis has been located virtually anywhere in the world… and some have even gone as far as space… Researcher Robert Sarmast has now concluded that the lost civilisation must have been located near Cyprus… and he may be right. Tweet tweet: the language of birds The “bird language” or “Green language” is an intriguing system of codes, practiced by some traditions. But what lies at its origins – and could its origin actually not be a language, but what many termed the original method of communication? Crystal skulls – rightfully – speak to the imagination. The most famous of them all is the so-called Mitchell-Hedges skull, whose history is as appealing as its beauty. But are some of these skulls and their stories to good to be true, or has no-one uncovered their truth yet? The Cult of Mithras, rather than Christianity, almost became the religion that dominated Western Europe. It failed, but intriguingly, we now hardly know anything about it. The notion of sport as a religious exercise seems alien to us – with only the Olympic Games having some remnants of this sacred character. Indeed, the earliest athletes were said to have been the gods and mythical heroes themselves. It may come as a surprise, but the location of Troy is once again in dispute. Rather than Turkey, new thinking places it in Northern Europe… or even our skies. The list of prediluvian patriarchs is for some evidence of the veracity of the Bible, for others evidence of the impossibility of the biblical accounts. But whereas some accounts are based on faith and the sceptical arguments have logical holes, a third alternative seems required. The Great Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, remained the world’s tallest monument for several millennia. But in the late 19th century, Mankind once again began to reach for the sky – sometimes with imagination and symbolism, sometimes purely because it could, and wanted to show as much. Are the Indian remains of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, their sudden abandonment and the apparent discovery of an ancient site with a layer of radioactive ash the best available evidence for the possibility that our ancient ancestors possessed a highly advanced technology – which might have included atomic warfare? In the early 20th century, a series of palm leaves, containing anomalous writing, were apparently discovered within a hidden cache of the walls of the Cathar castle of Montségur. Though without any intrinsic value, the “wooden book” – as it became known – would become the centrepiece of the esoteric and metaphysical community; its discoverers even labelled it “the Oracle” and said it was able to contact the hidden masters of Agharta. |