Scientists reportedly discover gate to hell

[Jessie Fong]

I came across the following article -- instant death.



Scientists reportedly discover gate to hell
By Claudine Zap

It sounds like something out of a horror movie. But Italian scientists say that the “Gate to Hell” is the real deal—poisonous vapors and all.

The announcement of the finding of the ruins of Pluto’s Gate (Plutonium in Latin) at an archeology conference in Turkey last month, was recently reported by Discovery News. Francesco D'Andria, professor of classic archaeology at the University of Salento in Lecce, Italy, who has been excavating the ancient Greco-Roman World Heritage Site of Hierapolis for years, led the research team.

D’Andria told Discovery News 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. 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.

“Pluto’s Gate” has been documented in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, which noted in its description of ancient Hierapolis, “Adjoining the temple on the SE is the Plutoneion, which constituted the city's chief claim to fame. It was described by Strabo as an orifice in a ridge of the hillside, in front of which was a fenced enclosure filled with thick mist immediately fatal to any who entered.”

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. The professor said, “We could see the cave's lethal properties during the excavation. Several birds died as they tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes.”

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. Also discovered: the remains of a temple, and a pool and stairs placed above the cave. D'Andria is now working on a digital rendering of the site.

Amazingly, this isn’t the first entry to the underworld in the world. In the Karakum Desert, reports the Daily Mail, a fiery pit that’s been lit up for over 40 years has inspired visitors to Derweze in Turkmenistan—and on the Web. Geologists drilling in the area came across a natural gas cavern. Hoping to burn off the gas, they set it on fire. The flames continued to burn, leading locals to dub the site the “door to hell.”



Digital reconstruction of "Pluto's Gate" (Francesco D'Andria)


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/scientists-reportedly-discover-gate-hell-203918901.html

[WisdomBeing]

Thanks for this article! How intriguing. of course while i don't believe that this is the 'gate to hell', i think that the effects of animals going into it because of the natural gases within, would have made people think so. I do hope more information will be revealed about this strange space as we now have more means to investigate natural phenomenon using oxygen masks et al. It would probably be another natural phenomenon like a volcano which would easily have been seen as a gateway to hell.

Personally i do not think of the gateway to hell as a physical place but something in our own heads. Heaven and hell is just figments of our own minds. Shambala has been said to be a physical place though I also think that it is a parallel universe - probably in our minds.

[sonamdhargey]

i think why these entrances are called gate of hell because the fumes it emits are lethal that kills instantly whoever goes in or near it. The concentration of carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases that it emits are so lethal that it has to be called gate of hell. However hell or not, i don't think there is a physical aspect of hell as hell is within our minds. We are the creator of heaven or hell in our minds.

[brian]

i think why these entrances are called gate of hell because the fumes it emits are lethal that kills instantly whoever goes in or near it. The concentration of carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases that it emits are so lethal that it has to be called gate of hell. However hell or not, i don't think there is a physical aspect of hell as hell is within our minds. We are the creator of heaven or hell in our minds.

Agree with you totally sonamdhargey! I do not think there is such gateways to hell. We can be the gateway to hell by just thinking about it. Hell can arise from our negative minds. The moment we think of ways how to succeed in doing something bad, the moment we plot for someone's downfall, the moment we think of how to violate rules in order to get what we want, that is the gateway we opened for us to be in hell in future. simple as that!

[fruven]

Wouldn't the gate of death be more appropriate title? In hell no one dies but suffer tremendous torture for aeons.

The interesting part of the article that the researchers are using the records from ancients to pin point the location of the gate of hell. What I see is that they might be looking to debunk, to verify the claim of the ancient text. And they end up with something quite true with a scientific finding that the cause is high concentration of carbon dioxide!

[DS Star]

Yes definitely more appropriate to call it the "Gate of Death" rather than the "Gate of Hell"...

And agreed "Heaven" or "Hell" concept is more easily accepted as a 'state of mind', then again, Buddha had mentioned it as a 'physically existed place', so I rather not contest the existence of a real 'hell'.

We must accept that Buddha is all-knowing, Omniscient, so with this logic that I believe such a place like hell or heaven do 'exist', only our minds have not achieve or attain the level of conceiving such 'places' in other dimensions.

[hope rainbow]

My mind is the gate to hell, most often it is.
My mouth is the gate to hell, most often it is.
My hands are the gate to hell, most often they are.

There no place else leading to hell, no there isn't.
No place else leading to heaven, no there isn't.
For these destinations, no need to travel far.

[yontenjamyang]

Haha. I am not laughing. How ignorant of these scientists?!! Hell cannot be found on earth but is another realm. There is not enough place on earth to house the hell beings and the sutras has stated that there are many many more hell beings then hungry ghost and there are many more hungry ghost than animals and more animals than humans (which can be proven on this earth).
The hells can only be accessed by beings with heavy negative karma (which is most of us) after death and by attained beings for skillful reasons. Not that any ordinary folks would like to go there.
Bottomline the so called "gate to hell" is not so but perhaps western movie depict it to be possible here on earth.