Ho Hum, just the remains of another four thousand year old city discovered on the ocean floor. This one is
Harrapan of the Indus Valley which was home to the
largest of the four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China. The ruins extend for 9 kilometers and located around 40 metres below the water surface. "Due to geological processes and tectonic events, the entire [Gulf of] Cambay was faulted — taking down with it the then existing part of the river sections and the metropolis"
posted by lagado
on Jul 2, 2001 -
3 comments
The Great Pyramids at Giza have never been accurately dated. Conventional Egyptian chronologies are only accurate to within 100 years. Using a neat trick, scientists have been able to pin that date down to within a few years. When they were built, the pyramids where aligned northwards by using two stars as a guides. Over time, these stars have moved because the Earth's rotational axis "wobbles" slightly over a 26,000 year period. The orientations of the pyramids reflect this, the older pyramids are oriented slightly to the north east and the younger ones are oriented slightly to the north west. This information has been used to pin down their exact ages.
posted by lagado
on Nov 15, 2000 -
2 comments
The Hereford Mappa Mundi (Map the World) is a remarkably beautiful and rare glimpse into the medieval view the world. It is the largest map its kind (54 x 64 inches) to have survived and dates from around 1295. It still resides at Hereford Cathedral in England just as it has done for the last 700 years.
The map depicts the world as a flat disk with east at the top. It shows all the features the then known world including Africa, India and China. Paradise is depicted somewhere east India. The Holy Land and its important sites expand to fill the middle the map. Jerusalem is placed at the centre the world.
It is a work of cosmology as much as a cartography. That is, it seeks to explain the world as well as merely depict its features. This was a time when the population was uneducated and provincial. In the Hereford map, people could revel in this vision of the outside world, which taught natural history, classical legends, explained the winds and reinforced their religious beliefs.
Here is a
simplified sketch which makes the details and country names easier to identify. Here is the
original and a very good
written description.
posted by lagado
on Oct 30, 2000 -
10 comments
