So, I was watching a "well-researched documentary" on the History Channel this afternoon about how aliens came here in ancient times and taught humans lots of 'alien stuff' (hey, they had Erich von Däniken on there, so it must be true).
But between my guffaws at the shoddy journalism and ridiculous claims (one whole segment was based on a quest for an underground library of 'metal books' inspired by a single quote from a random Ecuadorian about 40 or 50 years after he was supposed to have found the 'secret, underwater entrance' to the hidden cave... but I digress), there was an interesting - and factual - piece about the an ancient multi-level underground city in the Derinkuyu district in Nevşehir Province, Turkey.
While unlikely that it was a nuclear bomb shelter for ancient people hiding from an alien war raging overhead (as was suggested, based on lifting a series of out-of-context quotes from ancient texts and applying very liberal, 21st Century interpretations to them), no-one knows who built this fascinating "dungeon complex " (to use my gaming parlance).
Wikipedia tells us: "With its eleven floors extending to a depth of approximately 85 m [almost 300ft], it was large enough to shelter tens of thousands of people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is part of a network of several underground complexes found across Cappadocia.
"It was opened to visitors in 1969 and to date, only ten percent of the underground city is accessible to tourists."
There's a blog entry here with more information about the discovery of the complex, its facilities and contents and pictures.
Now if that's not a real life example of a potential Dungeons & Dragons setting, then I don't know what is!
It even has eleven levels! Perfect for all of your old-school megadungeon gaming!
ReplyDeleteOkay then, Einstein is often misquoted as saying that God plays dice with the universe and master fact-checker Erich von Däniken claims gods were really ancient astronauts - ipso facto the Derinkuyu Underground City was built by cosmic roleplayers as the site for the ultimate old-school megadungeon LARP (my theory holds as much water as any presented in the History Channel documentary) ;)
ReplyDeleteI watched that same show! My daughter could not stop laughing at dudes fake tan and wild hair!
ReplyDeleteERIC!
To me he looked like a time-lost 70's porn star (it probably didn't help that earlier in the day I'd watched part of an unfunny horror-comedy with Ron Jeremy in the cast and I just kept flashing back to that!)
DeleteJust curious, what was the name of the show, Tim? I love this kind of Fortean stuff!
ReplyDeleteAncient Aliens.
DeleteNow don't get me wrong, I'm torn by these sort of shows - the journalist in me mocks what passes for journalism, while the gamer loves the wild material thrown up and the romantic optimist in me wants it all to be true... if only there were real evidence, not the wishful thinking and leaps of faith that pass for so-called proof ;)
Ancient Aliens and the damn Bigfoot hunters. One posits that humans apparently couldn't take a crap without alien help and in the other any noise in the woods, at all, is a Sasquatch. Yeah, that picture of a hiker with a backpack is obviously an undiscovered creature.
ReplyDeleteI used to like this stuff in small doses but hey Ancient Aliens claimed that the Washington Monument(!) was built with alien help. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Oh, yeah. What IS up with that guy's hair? Must be the damn alien hairstylists.
And yet the channel is called History... but I guess that's as apt as the Sci-Fi/SyFy channel that tries to justify showing mixed martial arts tournaments and ridiculous 'reality' shows.
DeleteThere needs to be a dedicated Fortean Channel, where these shows can sit comfortably.