Aug 14, 2024 05:29 PM
https://www.popsci.com/environment/gates...-on-earth/
EXCERPTS: . . . Many civilizations, going back to ancient–even prehistoric–times and long before the spread of Christianity, had local stories about landscape features leading to the land of the dead or other spirit realms, he says. Some–though fewer–are named after entryways to heaven, he points out. “The ‘gates of hell’ are ‘universal’ (sort of ‘archetypes’) and appear all over the world, independently of geography, culture, religion, language, and tradition,” he says. Because they’re almost always linked to mythic events, “they mark the substance of cultural identity.” Here are a few notable, supposed natural portals to the supernatural abyss.
“Gate” to the underworld – The Batagay Crater in Siberia. The Batagay Crater is the world’s largest permafrost thaw slump. Though it only emerged relatively recently following forest clearing in the mid-1900’s, it’s already garnered a mythic reputation. Among the indigenous Yakut people who inhabit the Siberian taiga surrounding the slump, the expanding pit is known as a “doorway” or “gate” to the underworld for the loud booms that can echo and emanate from the depression as earth shifts...
[...] “Door to Hell” – Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. How, exactly, the Darvaza Gas Crater formed isn’t clear. ... Whether lit intentionally, or as an additional accident, the hole has been burning since the mid 20th century...
[...] “The Gates of Hell” – Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. By any of its names, Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is foreboding. San or Bushmen people have historically referred to the stretch of desolate desert against ferocious ocean as “The Land God Made in Anger...”
[...] “Mouth of Hell” – Masaya caldera in Nicaragua. Indigenous inhabitants of the area supposedly considered the volcano a god and made offerings to it...
[...] “Gateway to Hell” – Mount Hekla in Iceland/ Another storied volcano that’s been historically referred to as the “Gateway to Hell” is Mount Hekla in Iceland. Amid multiple large eruptions in the Middle Ages, monks and other scholars repeatedly wrote of the mountain as an entrance to the underworld...
[...] “The dry riverbed of the netherworld” – Mt. Osore or Osorezan in Japan. Mt. Osore or Osorezan in Japan literally translates to Horror or Fear Mountain. It is a Buddhist sacred site for its similarities to mythic descriptions of the entrance to the afterlife... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . Many civilizations, going back to ancient–even prehistoric–times and long before the spread of Christianity, had local stories about landscape features leading to the land of the dead or other spirit realms, he says. Some–though fewer–are named after entryways to heaven, he points out. “The ‘gates of hell’ are ‘universal’ (sort of ‘archetypes’) and appear all over the world, independently of geography, culture, religion, language, and tradition,” he says. Because they’re almost always linked to mythic events, “they mark the substance of cultural identity.” Here are a few notable, supposed natural portals to the supernatural abyss.
“Gate” to the underworld – The Batagay Crater in Siberia. The Batagay Crater is the world’s largest permafrost thaw slump. Though it only emerged relatively recently following forest clearing in the mid-1900’s, it’s already garnered a mythic reputation. Among the indigenous Yakut people who inhabit the Siberian taiga surrounding the slump, the expanding pit is known as a “doorway” or “gate” to the underworld for the loud booms that can echo and emanate from the depression as earth shifts...
[...] “Door to Hell” – Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. How, exactly, the Darvaza Gas Crater formed isn’t clear. ... Whether lit intentionally, or as an additional accident, the hole has been burning since the mid 20th century...
[...] “The Gates of Hell” – Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. By any of its names, Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is foreboding. San or Bushmen people have historically referred to the stretch of desolate desert against ferocious ocean as “The Land God Made in Anger...”
[...] “Mouth of Hell” – Masaya caldera in Nicaragua. Indigenous inhabitants of the area supposedly considered the volcano a god and made offerings to it...
[...] “Gateway to Hell” – Mount Hekla in Iceland/ Another storied volcano that’s been historically referred to as the “Gateway to Hell” is Mount Hekla in Iceland. Amid multiple large eruptions in the Middle Ages, monks and other scholars repeatedly wrote of the mountain as an entrance to the underworld...
[...] “The dry riverbed of the netherworld” – Mt. Osore or Osorezan in Japan. Mt. Osore or Osorezan in Japan literally translates to Horror or Fear Mountain. It is a Buddhist sacred site for its similarities to mythic descriptions of the entrance to the afterlife... (MORE - missing details)