Post by auntym on Feb 3, 2018 14:14:59 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/02/the-mysterious-lost-underground-civilization-of-the-grand-canyon/
The Mysterious Lost Underground Civilization of the Grand Canyon
by Brent Swancer / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/brentswancer/
February 3, 2018
Lying within the U.S. state of Arizona is one of the most majestic natural wonders of our planet, the Grand Canyon. Carved over hundreds of millions of years by the Colorado River and measuring 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide, the Grand Canyon is a major natural phenomenon, but it is also a place of deep historical mysteries and oddities as well. One of the most unusual of these is the claim that somewhere under the earth here once ruled an advanced civilization with unknown origins and who have become lost to history, which supposedly inhabited a complex cave and cavern system that they left behind to sow bafflement and speculation with their passing. It is a very curious, far-out case that, if real, could shake our historical perceptions to the core.
The whole bizarre tale began with a curious article that appeared right on the front page of the April 5, 1909 edition of the Arizona Gazette, which gave a spectacular account from two alleged Smithsonian-funded archaeologists, a Prof. S. A. Jordan and G.E. Kinkaid, who claimed to have found deep within the bowels of the earth in the Marble Canyon region of the Grand Canyon a vast cavern system with evidence of some ancient lost civilization.
The Grand Canyon
The two men were reportedly funded by Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology, and claimed that they had found the entrance to the mysterious cavern system lying around 1,500 feet down the wall of a sheer cliff in a remote, undisclosed area. The area was described as being nearly inaccessible and surrounded by desolate, forbidding wilderness, and the more vocal Kincaid would say in his account of the discovery of the entrance and further study of it thus:
First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall. It is located on government land and no visitor will be allowed there under penalty of trespass. The scientists wish to work unmolested, without fear of archaeological discoveries being disturbed by curio or relic hunters. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor would be sent on his way. The story of how I found the cavern has been related, but in a paragraph: I was journeying down the Colorado river in a boat, alone, looking for mineral. Some forty-two miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, I saw on the east wall, stains in the sedimentary formation about 2,000 feet above the river bed. There was no trail to this point, but I finally reached it with great difficulty. Above a shelf which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the cave. There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards to what was, at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river.
Upon making the treacherous trek down to the entrance there was apparently found a whole intricate system of tunnels, caverns and caves that allegedly meandered off into the darkness, and it was noted that much of it seemed to have been laboriously chiseled and hewn by hand right into the stone. Upon investigation the system was said to plunge to around a mile under the earth, with vast chambers that radiated out into new tunnels and which opened up into hundreds of rooms with oval doorways. Kincaid said of these passages and rooms:
The main passageway is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet toward the farther end. About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side-passages branch off to the right and left, along which, on both sides, are a number of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today, though some are 30 by 40 feet square. These are entered by oval-shaped doors and are ventilated by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about three feet six inches in thickness. The passages are chiselled or hewn as straight as could be laid out by an engineer. The ceilings of many of the rooms converge to a center. The side-passages near the entrance run at a sharp angle from the main hall, but toward the rear they gradually reach a right angle in direction.
Even stranger than all of this were some of the things apparently found within this system of tunnels and caverns, which included numerous relics and artifacts such as weapons, various copper instruments, idols, urns, vases, all of which was taken as evidence of some ancient, previously unknown civilization apparently from the Orient. At one point they purportedly came across what appeared to be a grand shrine absolutely brimming with such artifacts, none of which were from that region or the known people’s inhabiting it. This shrine was described in Kincaid’s report thus:
Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people’s god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet.
Surrounding this idol are smaller images, some very beautiful in form; others crooked-necked and distorted shapes, symbolical, probably, of good and evil. There are two large cactus with protruding arms, one on each side of the dais on which the god squats. All this is carved out of hard rock resembling marble. In the opposite corner of this cross-hall were found tools of all descriptions, made of copper. These people undoubtedly knew the lost art of hardening this metal, which has been sought by chemicals for centuries without result. On a bench running around the workroom was some charcoal and other material probably used in the process. There is also slag and stuff similar to matte, showing that these ancients smelted ores, but so far no trace of where or how this was done has been discovered, nor the origin of the ore.
Other rooms found were full of other bizarre items and there were even discovered granaries full of seeds. The report dramatically goes on:
Among the other finds are vases or urns and cups of copper and gold, made very artistic in design. The pottery work includes enameled ware and glazed vessels. Another passageway leads to granaries such as are found in the oriental temples. They contain seeds of various kinds. One very large storehouse has not yet been entered, as it is twelve feet high and can be reached only from above. Two copper hooks extend on the edge, which indicates that some sort of ladder was attached. These granaries are rounded, as the materials of which they are constructed, I think, is a very hard cement. A gray metal is also found in this cavern, which puzzles the scientists, for its identity has not been established. It resembles platinum. Strewn promiscuously over the floor everywhere are what people call “cats eyes”, a yellow stone of no great value. Each one is engraved with the head of the Malay type.
CONTINUE READING: mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/02/the-mysterious-lost-underground-civilization-of-the-grand-canyon/
The Mysterious Lost Underground Civilization of the Grand Canyon
by Brent Swancer / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/brentswancer/
February 3, 2018
Lying within the U.S. state of Arizona is one of the most majestic natural wonders of our planet, the Grand Canyon. Carved over hundreds of millions of years by the Colorado River and measuring 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide, the Grand Canyon is a major natural phenomenon, but it is also a place of deep historical mysteries and oddities as well. One of the most unusual of these is the claim that somewhere under the earth here once ruled an advanced civilization with unknown origins and who have become lost to history, which supposedly inhabited a complex cave and cavern system that they left behind to sow bafflement and speculation with their passing. It is a very curious, far-out case that, if real, could shake our historical perceptions to the core.
The whole bizarre tale began with a curious article that appeared right on the front page of the April 5, 1909 edition of the Arizona Gazette, which gave a spectacular account from two alleged Smithsonian-funded archaeologists, a Prof. S. A. Jordan and G.E. Kinkaid, who claimed to have found deep within the bowels of the earth in the Marble Canyon region of the Grand Canyon a vast cavern system with evidence of some ancient lost civilization.
The Grand Canyon
The two men were reportedly funded by Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology, and claimed that they had found the entrance to the mysterious cavern system lying around 1,500 feet down the wall of a sheer cliff in a remote, undisclosed area. The area was described as being nearly inaccessible and surrounded by desolate, forbidding wilderness, and the more vocal Kincaid would say in his account of the discovery of the entrance and further study of it thus:
First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall. It is located on government land and no visitor will be allowed there under penalty of trespass. The scientists wish to work unmolested, without fear of archaeological discoveries being disturbed by curio or relic hunters. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor would be sent on his way. The story of how I found the cavern has been related, but in a paragraph: I was journeying down the Colorado river in a boat, alone, looking for mineral. Some forty-two miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, I saw on the east wall, stains in the sedimentary formation about 2,000 feet above the river bed. There was no trail to this point, but I finally reached it with great difficulty. Above a shelf which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the cave. There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards to what was, at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river.
Upon making the treacherous trek down to the entrance there was apparently found a whole intricate system of tunnels, caverns and caves that allegedly meandered off into the darkness, and it was noted that much of it seemed to have been laboriously chiseled and hewn by hand right into the stone. Upon investigation the system was said to plunge to around a mile under the earth, with vast chambers that radiated out into new tunnels and which opened up into hundreds of rooms with oval doorways. Kincaid said of these passages and rooms:
The main passageway is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet toward the farther end. About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side-passages branch off to the right and left, along which, on both sides, are a number of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today, though some are 30 by 40 feet square. These are entered by oval-shaped doors and are ventilated by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about three feet six inches in thickness. The passages are chiselled or hewn as straight as could be laid out by an engineer. The ceilings of many of the rooms converge to a center. The side-passages near the entrance run at a sharp angle from the main hall, but toward the rear they gradually reach a right angle in direction.
Even stranger than all of this were some of the things apparently found within this system of tunnels and caverns, which included numerous relics and artifacts such as weapons, various copper instruments, idols, urns, vases, all of which was taken as evidence of some ancient, previously unknown civilization apparently from the Orient. At one point they purportedly came across what appeared to be a grand shrine absolutely brimming with such artifacts, none of which were from that region or the known people’s inhabiting it. This shrine was described in Kincaid’s report thus:
Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people’s god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet.
Surrounding this idol are smaller images, some very beautiful in form; others crooked-necked and distorted shapes, symbolical, probably, of good and evil. There are two large cactus with protruding arms, one on each side of the dais on which the god squats. All this is carved out of hard rock resembling marble. In the opposite corner of this cross-hall were found tools of all descriptions, made of copper. These people undoubtedly knew the lost art of hardening this metal, which has been sought by chemicals for centuries without result. On a bench running around the workroom was some charcoal and other material probably used in the process. There is also slag and stuff similar to matte, showing that these ancients smelted ores, but so far no trace of where or how this was done has been discovered, nor the origin of the ore.
Other rooms found were full of other bizarre items and there were even discovered granaries full of seeds. The report dramatically goes on:
Among the other finds are vases or urns and cups of copper and gold, made very artistic in design. The pottery work includes enameled ware and glazed vessels. Another passageway leads to granaries such as are found in the oriental temples. They contain seeds of various kinds. One very large storehouse has not yet been entered, as it is twelve feet high and can be reached only from above. Two copper hooks extend on the edge, which indicates that some sort of ladder was attached. These granaries are rounded, as the materials of which they are constructed, I think, is a very hard cement. A gray metal is also found in this cavern, which puzzles the scientists, for its identity has not been established. It resembles platinum. Strewn promiscuously over the floor everywhere are what people call “cats eyes”, a yellow stone of no great value. Each one is engraved with the head of the Malay type.
CONTINUE READING: mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/02/the-mysterious-lost-underground-civilization-of-the-grand-canyon/