Ancient ruins of Pluto’s Gate ~ more colorfully known
as the “Gate to Hell” ~ is believed to have been unearthed by a team headed by Francesco
D'Andria, professor of classic archaeology at the University of Salento in
Lecce, Italy, who has been excavating the ancient Greco-Roman site of
Hierapolis for years.
D’Andria says he used ancient mythology as his guide
to locate the legendary portal to the underworld. “We found the Plutonium by
reconstructing the route of a thermal spring,” he says. “Indeed, Pamukkale'
springs, which produce the famous white travertine terraces originate from this
cave.”
Scribes like Cicero and the Greek geographer Strabo mentioned
the gate to hell as located at the ancient site in Turkey, noted Discovery, but
nobody had been able to find it until now. Strabo (64 B.C.- 24 B.C.) wrote:
“This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the
ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows
and they immediately breathed their last and fell.”
The portal to the underworld seems just as bad for
your health today. According to Discovery News, the fumes emanated from a cave
below the site, which includes ionic columns with inscriptions to Pluto and
Kore, gods of the underworld. “We could see the cave's lethal properties during
the excavation,” D’Andria says. “Several birds died as they tried to get close
to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes.”
Image is a digital rendering of the site.
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