I pretty much composed a complete blog post in my head last night, but when I awoke I could not remember a word. I'll have to start all over again. While you are waiting, have a look at this:
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/b/barons/index.shtml
It seems that there is a whole society just dedicated to looking down holes.
The biggest hole I have ever been in was a hollow mountain in France. The way it is viewed is by driving up to the top of it and parking the car, then you pay some money in a ticket office and stand in front of a very small doorway. The guide lets you though in darkness and you find yourself standing on a metal surface. When everyone is in place, he turns the lights on.
Everyone lets out an involuntary gasp - some in fear. You see that you are standing on a tiny cantilevered platform in a vast cavern which is over a thousand feet deep. So deep that they have a dummy figure on the floor below to give you an idea of scale, and it looks like a dot. The place even has its own weather system.
On a more positive side, the biggest man-made hill in Europe is Silbury, near the equally impressive Avebury stone circle (photo above). Charles the Second went up there with John Aubrey on his way to visit Bath.
I love all this stuff, as you know.
we have the second largest man made burial mound in the uk here in Trelawnyd...im looking at it
ReplyDeleteReally? I will look it up now.
DeleteOh that one - the Gop. I have seen it before in people's posts but didn't know it was manmade. One of your readers flew a drone over it and made a video didn't they.
DeleteSilbury needs another excavation. There MUST be something inside!
ReplyDeleteThere is a stepped stone construction inside, presumably to prevent land slip. I think they are fairly confident that there is nothing else. Maybe they should tunnel underneath it?
DeleteWe have Anglo Saxon and Bronze Age burial mounds in Norfolk.
ReplyDeleteThere is a wonderful wooden neolithic village somewhere (maybe Norfolk?) which was built on flooded wetland and marsh. It had huts and walkways covering a large area. The minerals in the water preserved it far better than if it had been built on solid land.
DeleteHolme next the Sea they found a buried wooden "stonehenge". Maybe that is what you are thinking. They dug it up. Worst thing they ever did. The person who found it exposed at a low tide should have kept quiet is the local feeling on it.
DeleteI love it when you are in 'mine of information' mode Tom - I learn such a lot from you about subjects I know absolutely nothing about.
DeleteIf they discover something like a Roman mosaic anywhere these days, the photograph it and then re-bury it. Things tend to last when they are ignored. John Aubrey described such a mosaic near here, and said how it was destroyed by footfall and exposure.
DeleteWhen I am in 'mine of information' mode Weave, I am at my most irritating - especially in the pub.
It is exasperating when you've composed the perfect post...and its gone when you come to write. Sometimes,however,you can sit down with nothing planned and it just flows. Odd that,is it not?
ReplyDeleteMy general flow has somewhat dried up of late. It is either too much alcohol or not enough.
DeleteI think artifacts are wonderful, but I've also come to the belief they are best left untouched, and even unknown, for all that.
ReplyDeleteThere is an ancient stone set into a niche in the banking area of London (called The London Stone) which has survived for so long because most people forgot about it.
DeleteThey've extensively excavated Silbury Hill & destabilised it in the process. The whole area around Avebury is a wonder. It's all there to be explored. Look it up x
ReplyDeleteThey destabilised it? I hadn't heard that.
Delete