Underwater and Oceanic Oddities : WebUrbanist Underwater and Oceanic Oddities Most of the planet is covered in water and many of the world’s strangest stories and most amazing mysteries surround the vast expanses of it that cover the Earth. From remote islands to underwater cities, sea forts to floating utopias, here are some of the most mysterious, intriguing and impressive wonders of the world’s lakes, seas and oceans. 7 Underwater Wonders of the World: As modern technologies have evolved so to has our ability to see deep underwater and locate long lost cities and other buried treasures. 7 Island Wonders of the World: Each of these islands holds a world record though some of them are more dubious than others. Amazing Private Islands of the World: Most of us dream of owning a private island of our own – but for some of the super-rich this dream is an amazing reality. Extreme Houseboats and House Boat Designs (and More Houseboats and House Boat Designs): Can’t afford your own private island?
Ancient underwater cities being found that are 10,000 years old Lost city 'could rewrite history' By BBC News Online's Tom Housden The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history. Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 meters (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. The vast city - which is five miles long and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years. Using sidescan sonar - which sends a beam of sound waves down to the bottom of the ocean they identified huge geometrical structures at a depth of 120ft. Debris recovered from the site - including construction material, pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture and human bones and teeth has been carbon dated and found to be nearly 9,500 years old. Lost civilization "Nothing else on the scale of the underwater cities of Cambay is known.
Center for History and New Media » Teaching + Learning Sea of Liberty Providing interactive tools for teaching, exploring, and sharing the power of Jefferson’s ideas across cultures and borders. Learn More | Visit the Site 100 Leaders Encouraging exploration of leadership and legacy in world history through voting, classroom activities, and teaching resources. Learn More | Visit the Site Teachinghistory.org Sharing quality content, tools, and strategies to improve teaching and learning American history. Learn More | Visit the Site Ford’s Theatre Videos Bringing to light the value of quality professional development for teachers through video. Learn More | Visit the Site Popular Romance Project Rethinking the concepts of love and romance through study of popular fiction and popular culture. Learn More | Visit the Site Hidden in Plain Sight Nurturing historical thinking and investigation skills via an asynchronous online course focusing on objects. Learn More | Visit the Site
Theories about the Lost City of Atlantis If you like this story feel free to share... Ever since the famed Greek philosopher Plato first wrote of a fabled continent called Atlantis more than two thousand years ago, scholars have been locked in fierce debate as to whether such a place truly existed. While a few rare individuals have taken Plato’s words seriously, most scoff at the idea that an advanced civilization could vanish as completely as if it had never existed. Such is a bit like imagining an elephant could walk through a snowdrift without leaving footprints, making it easy to ignore the entire subject and write it off as yet another example of New Age pseudo-science or, at best, an fantastic and historically indefensible fable. Accounts of Atlantis are fictional Atlantis was fictional but the accounts of a world-wide Deluge were true Atlantis was a continent that existed in the mid-Atlantic Plato was referring to the ancient Minoans Atlantis was a mythical retelling of the Black Sea flood Atlantis was in Southeast Asia
Sex In The Middle Ages: 10 Titillating Facts You Wanted To Know But Were Afraid to Ask By David MortonImages: History of Sex: Middle Ages Without the Christian church of the Middle Ages, Sigmund Freud of the 19th century would have been out of work. Many of the deepest ideas and notions of sex that we hold today were formulated and laid down in the Middle Ages, especially by the Church’s sometimes confused and other times severe pronouncements. The Church had opinions and laws about every aspect of sex. But despite the Church’s overall opposition to sex, it appeared to be very interested in the subject. Courtly Love: You can look, but you’d better not touch The Church forbade open expression of sexual desire, but the medieval notion of “courtly love” suggested that love and admiration could exist somewhere between erotic desire and spiritual attainment. Courtly love is associated with the Knight who falls in love with the married woman – or at least the idea of the pure woman. Her adoring boyfriend meets her there: a mountain stag makes the waters stir.
Legendary Diamonds from History If you like this story feel free to share... 10.Tiffany Yellow Diamond The Tiffany Yellow Diamond is one of the largest yellow diamonds ever discovered; it weighed 287.42 carats in the rough when discovered in 1878 in the Kimberley mine in South Africa. Founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1837, Tiffany & Co. came to the fore among diamond merchants during the second half of the 1800s. 9.Centenary Diamond On March 1, 1988, De Beers was having a big bash to celebrate their 100 years in business. 8.Hope Diamond The Hope Diamond is a large, 45.52 carats (9.10 g), deep-blue diamond, housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. 7.Orlov Diamond The Orlov (sometimes spelled Orloff) is a large diamond that is part of the collection of the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin. 6.Klopman diamond The Klopman diamond is a fabulous, legendaryand huge diamond, said to have a curse associated with it. A later joke of Myron Cohen, similar in nature, goes as follows: The very same Mrs.
Europe’s Top 25 Castles – The Best Castles in Europe There is something about castles that inspires awe and at the same time touches a gentler, more romantic side in each of us. And if you want to visit and tour some of the best castles in the world, then Europe should be your destination as this continent certainly has more than its share. Here are the top 25 castles in Europe, in no particular order. 1. Castle Neuschwanstein in Germany Neuschwanstein Castle For many of those that see this castle for the first time, they get a niggling feeling that Castle Neuschwanstein looks so familiar. 2. Peles Castle Known as one of the most beautiful castles in Europe, Peles Castle can be discovered in the majestic Carpathian Mountains, near the town of Sinaia, Romania. 3. Bojnice Castle Bojnice Castle is located in Bojnice, Slovakia and is one of the most delightful romantic castles in Europe. 4. Castillo de Coca 5. Brodick Castle Situated in the Isle of Arran in Scotland, this castle is one of the oldest. 6. Veliki Tabor Castle 7. Ksiaz Castle 8. 9. 10.
Ancient Tunisia - The Ancient Punic and Carthaginian Empires Early Carthage A statue found at Carthage, possibly of Dionysus or Apollo, deities imported from Greek colonists While the culture and commercial genius of the cities of Phoenicia enabled them to preserve their independence through many centuries, in a sort of scornful supremacy over earth's military conquerors, they never themselves attained, nor did they seem to aspire to, the physical dominion over the world. A far nearer approach to this was made by their celebrated colony, Carthage. Starting from Utica or Carthage on the African shore, the earliest explorers searched the entire coast of western Africa. An early Tunisian gravestone showing Christian writings Most impressive of all the Phoenician explorations was the complete circumnavigation of Africa by King Hanno of Carthage. Carthage, the chief of all the Phoenician colonies, was founded by the Tyrians in 813 B.C. A Punic mask in the Carthage museum Carthaginian coins depicting a goddess and a winged horse The Carthaginian Empire
How did the ancient city of Palmyra support such a large population? Published on June 20th, 2012 | by Sevaan Franks The ancient Roman city of Palmyra once supported a population of 100,000 people in the middle of the desert. Now researchers, using satellite photographs, believe they have figured out how this was possible. Professor Meyer and his colleagues came to realise that what they were studying was not a desert, but rather an arid steppe, with underground grass roots that keep rain from sinking into the soil. The archaeologists gathered evidence that residents of ancient Palmyra and the nearby villages collected the rainwater using dams and cisterns. Local farmers also cooperated with Bedouin tribes, who drove their flocks of sheep and goats into the area to graze during the hot season, fertilising the farmers’ fields in the process. [Full story] Story: Physorg | Photo: J.C. Tags: Cities, Desert, Palmyra, Romans
The Roman Army Knife The world's first Swiss Army knife' has been discovered and it was made by the ancient Romans around 200 AD. The Roman Army knife is made of silver and has an iron blade. It also has a spoon, fork as well as a retractable spike, spatula and small tooth-pick. Experts believe that the knife was stored in a grave for over a thousand years. Jordan Times AMMAN — Regional politics, Jordanian hospitality and a stroke of luck kindled a three-decade-old love affair between a team of French archaeologists and one of the Kingdom’s most important archaeological sites. Last week marked the 30th anniversary of an excavation by the team that led to the reconstruction of the ancient city of Jerash and the shattering of many assumptions about daily life 2,000 years ago. According to the archaeologists, their lifelong bond with the Greco-Roman city sprouted from a chance encounter. The archaeological team from the French Institute of the Near East that is now synonymous with Jerash was originally destined for Lebanon, but the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country forced them to relocate to Jordan. “It turned out 1982 was not the best time to be in Lebanon,” said Jacques Seigne, who has overseen the Jerash project since its inception. “They simply asked us if we wanted the Temple of Zeus. Cultural clues
Neandertal's prehistoric diet may have lacked a crucial element (4/1/2008) One of the most mysterious creatures that ever walked the earth was Neandertal, a prehistoric human-like being who first appeared about 230,000 years ago in Europe. Scientists have been debating since the first remains were found in 1856: Was he one of us or a separate species? Neandertal, who looked very human but was burly and stocky, developed a far less sophisticated culture than Cro-Magnon, the first modern humans in Europe, who emerged about 40,000 years ago. Cro-Magnon apparently existed alongside Neandertal, but no one knows whether they made contact or not, either culturally or sexually. After a 200,000-year run, Neandertal vanished. No one can say for sure what distinguished Neandertals from modern humans, but Computational Physics and Engineering Division researcher Jerry Dobson has a theory. The bones of Neandertal (the spelling scholars prefer over Neanderthal) were first unearthed in Germany but since have been found in inland areas throughout Europe and Western Asia.
Excavations at Ancient Galilean Synagogue Expose Samson Mosaic December 2012 update: The Samson mosaic was published for the first time ever in Huqoq excavation director Jodi Magness’s article “Samson in the Synagogue” in the January/February 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Read more about the Samson mosaic here in Bible History Daily here, or read Magness’s full article in the BAS Library here. Recently discovered mosaics at the Late Roman Galilean synagogue at Huqoq include Hebrew texts (see accompanying photo) as well as narrative scenes, including a depiction of Samson from Judges. Photograph by Jim Haberman, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Monday that recent excavations at Huqoq, Israel, have exposed a monumental 4th-5th century C.E. synagogue with detailed mosaic floors. Jodi Magness gave a statement in the IAA press release. Read the press release on the IAA site. Interested in early synagogues? Not a library member yet? Atkinson, Kenneth, Eshel, Hanan, Magness, Jodi.
Ancient warrior king statue discovered - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - NBCNews.com A newly discovered statue of a curly haired man gripping a spear and a sheath of wheat once guarded the upper citadel of an ancient kingdom's capital. The enormous sculpture, which is intact from about the waist up, stands almost 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, suggesting that its full height with legs would have been between 11 and 13 feet (3.5 to 4 m). Alongside the statue, archaeologists found another carving, a semicircular column base bearing the images of a sphinx and a winged bull. The pieces date back to about 1000 B.C. to 738 B.C. and belong to the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina in what is now southeastern Turkey. The Neo-Hittites were a group of civilizations that arose along the eastern Mediterranean after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1000 B.C. The male sculpture boasts a beard and inlaid eyes made of white and black stone. The column base stands about 3 feet (1 m) tall, with a diameter of 35 inches (90 centimeters).