From the Gates of H*ll to the most amazing archaeological discoveries these incredible discoveries were all found in caves.
5. Lascaux Cave Paintings
In 1940, Marcel Ravidat, a mechanic apprentice, took a walk in the woods around Montignac, southwestern France. He came across a mysterious cave entrance and returned later on with three friends to explore what was within. They found lots of painted figures depicting felines, bulls, stags, horses, and people. The friends made a pact that they would keep the cave a secret, but barely a week passed by and they told a teacher, also a prehistoric art expert, about their discovery.
The public was finally able to visit the cave after the 1948 war, but it closed again 15 years later because of the human-induced decline to the cave's conditions. Currently, visitors can only visit the cave by taking virtual tours of a Lascaux II replica.
4. Oldest H*mo sapiens Bones
Just last year, a team of scientists unearthed fossils in a Jebel Irhoud cave in western Morocco. They are at the moment the oldest known H*mo sapiens bones dating back to about 300,000 years ago. While studies on the bones are still ongoing, if the findings are right it would make the bones over 100,000 years older than those found in Ethiopia.
Researchers looking into the bones are focusing on the argument that there wasn't just one "cradle of mankind" and humans evolved in diverse locations around the African continent.
3. Sea Scrolls
Three Bedouin shepherds following after a lost goat ended up at a cave near the ancient Qumran. This was back in 1947, and when they entered the cave, they found clay jars with seven papyrus scrolls. The shepherd boys sold the papyri to a Bethlehem-based antique dealer, and soon scholars caught wind of the extraordinary find. They could only locate the cave two years later, and the decades that followed several excavations of 11 caves led to the discovery of about 900 texts of the Second Temple Apocrypha, the canonical Hebrew Bible, and ideologies written by Jewish sectarian groups.
The first seven scrolls had included copies of the books of Deuteronomy, Genesis, Kings, Exodus, and Isaiah as well as psalms, calendars, and hymns. The texts are thought to have been written around the 4th century BCE going to the 1st century CE. The Qumran scrolls outranked the then known oldest manuscript of the Hebrew Bible by over a thousand years. Just last year, archaeologists from Israel's Hebrew University discovered the 12th cave in the Judean Cliffs containing a parchment inside a jug believed to have been a stolen Sea Scroll.
2. Guardians of the Gates of H*ll
In 2013, archaeologists in Turkey stumbled upon a fascinating discovery which turned out to be the "Gate to H*ll" also referred to as Pluto's Gate. Greco-Roman mythology believed that it was the portal leading to the underworld. Archaeologists also found two marble statues that acted as guardians to the cave. One of them depicted a snake which has often been considered a symbol of the underworld and the other was a three-headed watchdog.
Ancient accounts have often described the cave entrance that led to the old Phrygian city as having been densely filled with vapor and mist that you could barely see the ground. It's said that animals that dared pass the gate met instant , and archaeology professor Francesco D'Andria who led the team that made the discovery supported the claim. The cave is thought to be filled with lethal mephitic vapors, and it could have been the reason why guardians were stationed outside warning unsuspecting visitors from entering.
1, Mexico's Cave Of Crystals
About 18 years ago, two brothers working a mining tunnel around the Naica Mountain in Chihuahua, Mexico for Industrias Peñoles stumbled upon an incredible find. Buried 1000 feet beneath the earth's surface is the Naica Cave of the Crystals found in Chihuahua, Mexico. The cave is filled with humongous-sized crystals with some measuring more than 36 feet in length. The heaviest of them weigh as much as 55 tons, and they are believed to have been growing in the cave for over 50,000 years.
To enter the cave, you need a specialized cooling suit and can only stay inside for just 45 minutes. It's because of the temperatures inside the cave that peak at 136ºF with about 90 to 99 percent humidity. The air inside is also acidic, and there's no natural light flooding into the cave. Just last year scientists discovered 40 different ancient microbe strains trapped inside the crystals.
