Ancient Tunnels

Derinkuyu Underground City

One of the greatest evidence that the ancient people knew of the periodic catastrophic event known as Eschaton was the system of tunnels that can be found all around the earth and in which cultures all around world most probably hid to avoid the cataclysm. One of such sites is located in Anatolia, more accurately in the Derinkuyu district in Nevsehir Province, Turkey.

This complex system of tunnels is called  Derinkuyu Underground City. It has eleven floors extending to the depth of 85 meters. This city is so huge that it could house as much as 30 000 people and its livestock, food stores, and it even had temple rooms, stables, storehouses. All of this suggests that this tunnels were a permanent residing place of the residents. City also featured ventilation shafts and smaller air shafts which provided air to the lowest levels of the city.  One could perhaps argue that the residents of these tunnels hid in there to protect from some sort of invaders, but these invaders could easily storm the entrance and lay siege on the city, and thus simply starve the resident to death, or they could just close the ventilation shaft and smother the residents. This city was clearly not meant as an escape from some sort of human threat, but  from the threat of climate.

The makers of the tunnel are a subject of debate, some claim it was the Phyrgians who built the tunnels and some claim it was the Hetites. Since it is impossible to carbon date stone, the age of the city is also subject of debate among scholars. But could it be that this city is even older then the Phyrgians and Hetites? Possibly! Anatolia has been home to many civilizations throughout our recorded history, such as the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Akkadians, Assyrians, Armenians, Romans, Sassanids and as a result, Anatolia is one of archaeologically richest places on earth.  Achaemenid Empire, Arsacid Empire and the Sassanid Empire had Zoroastrianism as their main religion (from which the Christianty drew majority of their teachings). The primary deity of Zoroastrianism, the Ahura Mazda is even older and evidences of its worship stretch back even further in time.  In fact Zoroastrianism emerged out of a common prehistoric Indo-Iranian religious system dating back to the early 2nd millennium BCE, and  according to Zoroastrian tradition, Zoroaster was a reformer who exalted the deity of Wisdom, Ahura Mazda, to the status of Supreme Being and Creator, while demoting various other deities and rejecting certain rituals. It is given in the Vendidad  description of an event which spawned destructive winter on the lines of the deluge mythology. Ahura Mazda comes and saves mankind from this winter by instructing prophet Yima (Noah) on how to build great multistory underground city (Arc), where a select group of animals and people could hide and take refuge. Sounds very much like the Flood myth from the bible. The city is protected and sealed by 450kg heavy stone doors. Doors in the shape of an wheel were positioned in such way that they could be moved only from the inside by a single person. Only 10% of it is open to public.

  

The Cavern of Death

Another type of these tunnels can be found at village Liyobaa (translates as The Cavern of Death) in Zapoteca region and these tunnels are called Liyobaa Cave Entrances. After the conquest of South America by the Spanish Conquistadores, Caholic priests who eventually found the cave entrance sealed it off with tons of rubbles, dirt and huge stones. It was banned and sealed by the priests, as they declared it "passage to Hell".

Before the sealing of the tunnels the Catholic priests, in order to convert the believers in this "myth" to Christianity, made arrangements to enter this subterranean door with a large retinue of torch holders and a long rope, which was tied to the stone slab door. They also took the precaution of having a large armed guard make sure that the door was not closed on them.
After they had lighted their torches and entered the door, it was discovered that they would have to descend several large steps. At the foot of the steps was a very wide stone-paved passageway with a high stone buttress on either side. The passageway led directly away from the steps into the distant bowels of the earth. The bones of the most recent arrivals, picked clean, lay before them as the passage seemed to continue without end. On each side of the buttressed path they could see into a large area which was a large labyrinth of stone pillars that seemed to hold up the very mountains which they knew they were beneath. As they advanced into the mountain, a putrid, dank air assailed their nostrils, serpents retreated from the light behind the shadows of the pillars in the distance.
They continued into the depths at a distance of about 40 meters when suddenly a strong cold wind began to blow about them. Still striving to continue, as their torches were extinguished rapidly, they took flight when all became dark, not only for the danger of the serpents, but also from strange sounds they could not place, but which were not being made by the members of their own party. Using the rope and the light of the torch one of the guards held in the doorway, out of the strong wind, the entire party rapidly retreated from this terrifying region.
When all the company had swiftly retreated to the ante-chamber of "Hell," they rapidly replaced the large stone slab door. After this the head prelate gave orders to fill in all the underground chambers and seal off and erase all signs of the stairs to them, thus eradicating for all time this entrance to the Caves.

Cueva De Los Tayos

Cueva De Los Tayos in Echuador have been brought into mainstream attention and criticism by Erich von Däniken in his book The Gold of the Gods. Däniken claimed to have been guided through artificial tunnels in a cave under Ecuador, Cueva de los Tayos, containing gold, strange statues and a library with metal tablets, which he wrote was evidence of ancient space visitors.

 The man who he claimed showed him these tunnels was called Juan Moricz. Later the two of them visited Father Carlos Crespi who showed them his gold collection. This collection is now known as Crespi collection and Father Crespi said that some of the gold tablets were from before the great flood. Father Carlos Crespi was a Silesian-monk who lived in Ecuador. He did missionary work among the Indian population in remote valleys during his lifetime. Crespi received or bought many artifacts from the indigenous people in Ecuador.

 When questioned, they told him they had found them in subterranean cave systems in the jungles. As time progressed, many of these relics were brought together and kept in the courtyard of the church Maria Auxiliadora. Unfortunately, many of the artifacts were destroyed in a fire in 1962 or later when the church was restored. Also, many were lost or wound up with treasure hunters. After Father Crespi passed away, the remaining artifacts of the original collection were removed and made inaccessible to the public. Däniken claimed that the initial cave led to a system of artificial tunnels which led to great rooms, temples and libraries.

Cultural Amnesia

 Imanuel Velikovsky's book Earth in Upheaval goes in great detail about the catastrophes and cataclysms that had befallen earth.  Imaneul believed that Planet Earth had suffered natural catastrophes on a global scale, both before and during humankind's recorded history. He also believed that there is evidence for these catastrophes in the geological and archaeological records thus the extinction of many species had occurred catastrophically, not by gradual Darwinian means. Imanuel's main hypothesis claimed that catastrophes that occurred within the memory of humankind are recorded in the myths, legends and written history of all ancient cultures and civilizations. Velikovsky pointed to alleged concordances in the accounts of many cultures, and proposed that they referred to the same real events. For instance, the memory of flood is recorded in the Hebrew Bible, in the Greek legend of Deucalion, and in the Manu legend of India, more so in the Ipuwer papyrus he believed he had found a contemporary Egyptian account of the Israelite Exodus. Velikovsky suspected as i do, that the electromagnetic forces might somehow play a greater role to counteract gravity and orbital mechanics. The fading memory of such event among the people he attributed to psychoanalytic idea of "Cultural Amnesia" as a mechanism whereby these literal records came to be regarded as mere myths and legends. So in the end, are our myths and legends more then fabled stories, or are they memories from great events that truly shaped the course of our race?