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Thirteen stones sit hidden in the dense jungles of the range of mountains that make up Nakauvadra in Ra. Caves with drawings sit below them. They remain a mystery for the people of Narara Village. Deep in the jungles above the village of Narara in Ra stand 12 stones of similar size and shape. The thirteenth is a little longer then the rest. They stand as monolithic reminders of an era the people of Narara are struggling to understand. It takes about six hours on foot to get to these ancient monuments at the top of the range of mountains...

Two terrorists were mauled to death and another seriously wounded after a bear attacked their hideout in a forest area in south Kashmir [ Images ], a senior police officer said. He said the bear as per the intercepts of militants attacked a hideout of the Hizbul Mujaheedin outfit in the forest area near Damhal Hanjipora in south Kashmir Shopian district.

BATH COUNTY Breathing Cave is the name of a deep, dark hole in the ground off an unmarked mountain road here in western Virginia, a foreboding place mostly because of what lurks within – bats, hundreds of them. Inside the mouth of the cave, the limestone walls are cool and moist. There is no light, only echoing creaks and clops of water drops – and the unnerving knowledge that somewhere down a blind tunnel ahead, creatures associated with blood and folklore and rabies are alive and close by. As the sun goes down, the winged inhabitants silently emerge, the start...

Cheddar Gorge I heard about this place recently in a news article about a bicyclist that survived falling 80 feet off the Cheddar cliffs. I guess I had heard about it several years ago when they found "Cheddar Man" and genetically connected him to a local resident. I didn't realize it was an English scenic landmark. There are also some small caves, which is where "Cheddar Man" was found. For a satellite view, can't beat Google Maps. British teacher finds long-lost relative: 9,000-year-old man" click for larger click for larger click for larger Aerial More about Cheddar (the village, and...

Aug. 13, 2009 -- An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs. Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the pyramid field at Giza. "There is untouched archaeology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow," British explorer Andrew Collins said. Collins, who will detail his findings in the...

First, just a striking view of the Capitol Reef National Park from space. The picture below is labeled; the linked picture is bigger and isn't labeled. The link goes to the explanatory article. Big Thomson Mesa, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Second, a couple of amazing photos from the Oasis Room in the unreal Lechuguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Somewhere out there there's a 360-degree picture of this room. (Someone find it, post the link here.) There's more pictures at the link. 360 Degrees Of Lechuguilla Cave: Photo Shoot at Oasis

Scientists exploring caves in the bone-dry and mostly barren Atacama Desert in Chile stumbled upon a totally unexpected discovery this week: water. They also found hundreds of thousands of animal bones in a cave, possibly evidence of some prehistoric human activity. The findings are preliminary and have not been analyzed. The expedition is designed to learn how to spot caves on Mars by studying the thermal signatures of caves and non-cave features in hot, dry places here on Earth. Scientists think Martian caves, some of which may already have been spotted from space, could be good places to look for...

Balkan caves, gorges were pre-Neanderthal haven Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:25am EDT By Ljilja Cvekic BELGRADE (Reuters Life!) - A fragment of a human jaw found in Serbia and believed to be up to 250,000 years old is helping anthropologists piece together the story of prehistoric human migration from Africa to Europe. "This is the earliest evidence we have of humans in the area," Canada's Winnipeg University anthropology professor Mirjana Roksandic told Reuters. The fragment of a lower jaw, complete with three teeth, was discovered in a small cave in the Sicevo gorge in south Serbia. "It is a pre-Neanderthal...

UNSEEN WORLD By RACHAEL TOLLIVER Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:58 PM CST JILL PICKETT/The News-Enterprise George Crothers, director of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and Office of State Archaeology, finishes collecting ash from torch remains for radiocarbon dating during a February trip into the cave in Hardin County. Local cave enthusiasts chart discovery of pristine formations, prehistoric Indians HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY — Mankind has always dreamed of discovering the unknown — being the first to do something or arrive somewhere — and from those quests leave a legacy that those who follow will envy. Such finds are rare....

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) — World climate negotiators set a 2009 deadline Saturday for a landmark treaty to fight global warming after two weeks of intense haggling led to a climbdown by an isolated United States. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who flew to the Indonesian island of Bali for a late appeal for flexibility, praised the deal as a "pivotal first step" to confront climate change, "the defining challenge of our time." Following gruelling all-night talks, the conference of 190 nations finally launched a process to negotiate a new treaty for when the UN Kyoto Protocol's commitments expire in...

Ice age Australians sheltered in caves Anna Salleh ABC Science Online Monday, 24 September 2007 Why would Aboriginal Tasmanians flock to one of the coldest parts of the island during an ice age? One researcher says it was to shelter from the wind in caves and steep valleys (Image: Ian Gilligan) Ice age Aboriginal Australians protected themselves from bitterly cold winds by flocking to caves in one of the most inhospitable parts of the continent, says an archaeologist. Ian Gilligan, a postgraduate researcher from the Australian National University, lays out his argument in the current issue of the journal Antiquity....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An orbiting spacecraft has found evidence of what look like seven caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano, the space agency NASA said on Friday. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has sent back images of very dark, nearly circular features that appear to be openings to underground spaces. "They are cooler than the surrounding surface in the day and warmer at night," said Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team and Northern Arizona University. "Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it...

Today's set of image releases from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE team included this one, of a fairly bland-looking lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons. Bland, that is, except for a black spot in the center. What's that black spot? It's a window onto an underground world.....

It was Thursday morning, just after dawn. A group of about 20 of us had been driving through the Mojave Desert since 4:30 am, in the dark, and we had finally arrived at our destination: a large flat parking area near the top of a volcanic cinder cone, a short ways up a makeshift road from an abandoned mine. Before us stretched the vast black Pisgah Lava Beds, home to more than 300 lava-tube caves. We were there as part of Spaceward Bound, a NASA program that brings elementary-, middle- and high-school teachers together with scientists to do field research...

Cavemen Chose Caves on Five Criteria Jennifer Viegas, Discovery NewsLocation, Location, LocationCave With A View April 9, 2007 — House buyers today usually peruse properties with a checklist of desired features in mind. This aspect of human behavior has apparently not changed much over the millennia, according to a new study that found prehistoric cave dwellers in Britain did exactly the same thing when choosing their homes. The recently released three-year-long survey of approximately 230 caves in the Yorkshire Dales and 190 caves in the northern England Peak District determined that people there from 4,000 to 2,000 B.C. selected caves...

A Mars-orbiting satellite recently spotted seven dark spots near the planet's equator that scientists think could be entrances to underground caves. The football-field sized holes were observed by Mars Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and have been dubbed the seven sisters --Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki and Jeanne--after loved ones of the researchers who found them. The potential caves were spotted near a massive Martian volcano, Arisa Mons. Their openings range from about 330 to 820 feet (100 to 250 meters) wide, and one of them, Dena, is thought to extend nearly 430 feet (130 meters) beneath the...

Just saw this on National live Japanese TV a few minutes ago. Our mouths dropped open in partial disbelief, but also with a cynical sense of "well, there they go again".The Japanese Government announced tonight that they are instructing all Japanese textbook publishing companies who produce history books for school children, to specifically take out an reference to "Japanese Imperial Army forcing Okinawa civilians to commit mass suicide during the Okinawa Campaign". This, however, is a historic truth, and well documented by the American military forces and Japanese/Okinawan survivors and eyewitnesses. It is history. But now the current Japanese...

Nasa release on the topography of the south polar region of Mars Scientists studying pictures from Nasa's Odyssey spacecraft have spotted what they think may be seven caves on the surface of Mars.The candidate caves are on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano and are of sufficient depth their floors mostly cannot be seen through the opening. Details were presented here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas. Temperature data from Mars Odyssey's Themis instrument support the idea. The authors say that the possible discovery of caves on the Red Planet is significant. The caves...

Hello fellow Freepers. First, I want to apologize to those in my ping list that I didn't find a time to post the pics or let everybody know that I'm back for almost 3 weeks. I could make excuses of being getting caught in the work, etc, but I won't do that. Anyway, I hope my Picture treat of my trip to Mammoth Cave and other Caves in Kentucky in late August/Early September will be enjoyable as the trip was immensely enjoyable for me. I'll post in a few batches, so more to come on this thread. Historic Entrance to...

LONDON, July 22 (IranMania) - The first Iranian cave museum will be set up in the Huto and Kamarband caves of Mazandaran Province’s Behshar region, the Persian service of CHN reported. Based on an agreement with the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO), the two caves will be converted into museums, the director of the research foundation of the Mazandaran ancient caves said. Ali Mahforuzi added that the topography survey has been completed and the design of the museum, which is to cover an area of 13 hectares, is the next step to be implemented. The two caves, which are...

Neanderthals Lived in Iran's Kermanshah Caves Apr 27, 2006 The latest excavations by Iranian and French joint team at prehistoric caves of Kermanshah, west of Iran, revealed them to have been early settlements of Neanderthals who used to live there about 85000 to 40000 years ago. The joint team was to continue its studies on other Paleolithic caves in Kermanshah province, but as the term of the agreement has reached an end, the French team have returned back home. This team is to resume its activities in March 2006 in prehistoric caves in Kermanshah province if the agreement is renewed...

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) — A chain of fitness centers has put up partitions in response to complaints by Muslim women about a lack of privacy while they work out. Fitness USA agreed to the changes at its Lincoln Park gym after meeting with a concerned Muslim member of the gym and Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Some Muslim members of the gym said they need to work out in single-sex rooms to meet Islam's standards of modesty. They said they joined Fitness USA because it accommodated this need. But the...

Two Ancient Caves Discovered in Qasr-e Shirin 2006-2-17 - 22:11 - CHN Archeological excavations in the city of Qasr-e Shirin led to the discovery of two caves belonging to the Neolithic and Middle Elamite periods. Tehran, 16 February 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in the city of Qasr-e Shirin resulted in the discovery of two caves belonging to the Neolithic epoch and the Middle Elamite period. “Two caves were discovered in the southern foothills of Bazidar Mountains, one of them dates back to some 9000 years ago that is Neolithic epoch, and the other belongs to the Middle Elamite period...

Japanese researchers find Buddhist stone caves in Afghanistan KABUL, November 9 (SANA) – A team of Japanese researchers has found Buddhist stone caves believed to date back to the eighth century about 120 kilometers west of the Bamiyan ruins in central Afghanistan, the team said Wednesday. The team, headed by Ryukoku University professor Takashi Irisawa, confirmed in late October the discovery of a group of caves built on cliffs located 1 km west of the Keligan ruins in the upper Band-e-Amir River area. The discovery indicates the possibility that the influence of Buddhism may have extended to the area of...

Andritsa Cave's chamber of secretsLate 6th-century finds retrieved from the Argolid cave and exhibited at theByzantine and Christian Museum begin to unfold the story of a group of peoplewho sought refuge there and slowly starved to death CHRISTY PAPADOPOULOU A large number of transporting and storage vessels from clay were found in the cave (above). Bronze processional cross with the Sunday prayer engraved on both its sides A NATURAL shelter in case of inclement weather and dangerous situations, and occasionally the place to practise cult rituals, caves often keep their secrets hermetically sealed. The Andritsa Cave in the Municipality of...

U.S. authorities unearth smuggling tunnel under B.C. border SEATTLE (AP) - U.S. government agents have shut down a drug-smuggling tunnel built under the Canadian border near Lynden, Wash., a government source said Wednesday. Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, said the source, a government employee who had been briefed by local law-enforcement officials. The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S. side, 90...

Mexico may be well on its way to a monotheistic revolution. This new trend is emerging from recent developments, and reflects a similar change evident in other South American nations - people are embracing Islam by the thousands, jettisoning the Catholicism imposed upon their ancestors in Spain. The prayer congregation has tripled since Mexico City's Centro Cultural Islamico de Mexico (CCIM) first opened its doors 6 years ago. The numbers could be even higher. However, most Mexicans still have almost no knowledge of Islam. CCIM is spreading the Oneness of Allah at all levels of society and translating Islamic publications...

According to the text of the page, this feature can be seen on a hike to Lexington Arch in Great Basin National Park. I actually was looking for pictures of Lexington Arch, and there are a few, but this one seemed more interesting. The site is nice if you like arches (I do).

Smoking out the terrorists..http://www.india-defence.com/node/308 Drawing lessons from the Afghan war where US forces had to ferret out the Taliban from caves and bunkers, India's leading defence explosives laboratory in Pune has developed specialised bombs to deal with terrorist hideouts. While the high-penetration smoke-spewing incendiary ammunition developed by the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) is ready for production, work has been initiated on oxygen-depleting thermobaric warheads. "The earlier version of the suffocating smoke-spewing incendiary ammunition did not have a high penetration capability. Our latest version can penetrate 9-inch-thick walls and then explode inside, releasing suffocating smoke to ferret out terrorists,"...

Link post: please post any commentaries on the thread below. The purpose of this post is to alert interested FReepers to the post in the General/Chat section. (Ping list membership available on request.) Geology Pictures of the Week, June 19-25: Spider Rock and Bicentennial Column

Variations on a theme (I like themes): Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Bicentennial Column, Ogle Cave, New Mexico

The Central Intelligence Agency has implemented a new plan to destroy the al-Qaeda terror network by convincing the terrorists to start taking hazardous prescription drugs, the agency confirmed today. Within the intelligence community, hopes are high that evildoers will begin taking the medications and will soon afterwards suffer from a broad range of serious side effects, including heart attacks and death. According to one CIA source, agency analysts developed the prescription drug strategy after they viewed a video of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden walking in mountainous terrain and noticed that he seemed to be experiencing "a certain degree of...

The link below is to the article in the FR "chat" section, which is where all discussion, voting, and commentary should bed posted. I always provide this link so that interested FR who may not be on my ping list can find the Geology "Picture of the Week". Geology Picture of the Week, Oct. 31-Nov. 6, 2004: VOTE for the Best U.S. Cave (+WhereIsIt?)

Here's the set-up; my toddlers are getting old enough to go to some interesting geological sites/sights. Because school's out for Election Day, we planned on taking them to Luray Caverns in Virginia (about 2.5 hours from here), but plans changed. Anyway, I came up with the idea to take a very unscientific poll about what are your favorite caves (mainly public access; I'd love to do Lechaguilla at Carlsbad, but that's not happening with kids and it's unlikely to ever happen for me.) Here are caves that I've actually visited - not a real long list, which is why I'd...

I have had reports Bin Laden made a deal with China and had been hiding in Turkestan with an agreement to wipe out anti-Beijing rebels in exchange for sanctuary. Have also heard US Special Forces and Pakistani special ops soldiers have been waiting at the border just waiting to pounce after diplomacy arranges an okay to strike across the border. The ten-car convoy was spotted by a couple of cruising Indian Air Force jet pilots, who went in for a closer look. Between October 17 and October 19, an Indian air force reconnaissance plane picked him up in the Tibet-Laddakh...

Is Osama bin Laden alive or dead? And if Osama is alive, where is he? "President Bush knows damn well that (bin Laden) has been dead for quite some time," said former Navy SEAL Matthew Heidt, echoing the sentiments of many in the special operations community. "(Bin Laden) has not been heard from since Tora Bora despite developments in the Global War on Terror that make it unthinkable for him to remain silent," Heidt said in his web log, "Froggy Ruminations." The last audiotape purportedly from bin Laden (but not authenticated) was issued on May 7th of this year. But...

Here it is, folks. The president should be all over this one. From LARRY KING ALIVE on Dec. 14, 2001 --- CALLER: Hello. Yes, I would like to ask the panel why they don't use napalm or flamethrowers on those tunnels and caves up there in Afghanistan? KING: Senator Kerry? ...KERRY: Well, I think it depends on where you are tactically. They may well be doing that at some point in time. But for the moment, what we are doing, I think, is having its impact and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - Earlier this month, as thousands of Olympians trained to compete in Athens, a small team of Croatian cavers set a new benchmark that went largely unnoticed. They found the world's deepest hole. There was no medal ceremony awaiting Darko Baksic, the expedition leader, or any of his dusty colleagues when they reached the bottom of the 1,693-foot pit. Just a long climb back up. The pit, which is at the back of a dark cave in the Velebit mountains, southwest of Zagreb, is about 217 feet deeper than the former record holder in Austria known as...

Caves hold clue to the riddle of the three hares (Filed: 03/07/2004) A research team led by a British archaeologist is to travel to China in search of the origins and meaning of a mysterious ancient symbol identified in sacred sites across Britain, Europe, and the Middle and Far East. Striking depictions of three hares joined at the ears have been found in roof bosses of medieval parish churches in Devon, 13th century Mongol metal work from Iran and cave temples from the Chinese Sui dynasty of 589-618. Academics are intrigued at the motif's apparent prominence in Christian, Islamic and...

"It's not as bad as it sounds," he said. "You get used to it. You can work in it. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty cool place to work." Sloan is part of a five-man crew mining the bat waste from the Bracken Bat Cave, home to 20 million or more Mexican freetail bats from February to October every year, making it the largest bat colony in the world. That many bats leave a lot of guano. In fact, in parts of the cave it's piled 30 feet deep, and if some of it weren't removed periodically, the...

'Ice Age time capsule' unearthed in America September 22 2003 at 06:15AM Springfield, Missouri - Paleontologist Matt Forir expected to find another 15m trash-filled pit when he went to investigate a cave unearthed by construction workers in southwest Missouri. He could not have been more wrong. The dynamite that blasted into limestone for a new road in Greene County unveiled proof that 630kg short-faced bears roamed the Ozarks during the Ice Age, and they struggled with arthritis and gout. Forir and other researchers are also investigating the possibility that herds of peccary - piglike animals - sought shelter in caves...

The Bush Administration has just re-affirmed the Clintonian feminists' Title IX outrages, which impose a gender quota-like system on college sports. The feminists are squealing with joy, but Bush is dreaming if he thinks they will ever reward him with their votes. At least 56 percent of college students are women, yet only a fraction seek to compete in intercollegiate sports. The Clintonian feminists' "proportionality" test laid down the absurd rule that fewer than 56 percent of women on athletic teams would be judged unlawful sex discrimination. To protect against lawsuits, colleges have been disbanding men's teams, a practice that...

Reference Paulsen, D.E., Li, H.-C. and Ku, T.-L. 2003. Climate variability in central China over the last 1270 years revealed by high-resolution stalagmite records. Quaternary Science Reviews 22: 691-701. What was done In the words of the authors, "high-resolution records of ð13C and ð18O in stalagmite SF-1 from Buddha Cave [33°40'N, 109°05'E] are used to infer changes in climate in central China for the last 1270 years in terms of warmer, colder, wetter and drier conditions." What was learned Among the climatic episodes evident in the authors' data were "those corresponding to the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and...

Berlin (CNSNews.com) - Some 3,500 policemen have been deployed in Munich in advance of the arrival of the U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who will address an international security conference Saturday. Authorities are concerned that Rumsfeld will face a hostile reception following remarks that grouped Germany with Libya and Cuba. During congressional testimony this week, Rumsfeld said that only "three or four countries" have indicated they wouldn't participate in military action in Iraq or post-war rebuilding. "I believe Libya, Cuba and Germany are ones that have indicated they won't help in any respect," he said. Berlin has tried to downplay...

US troops search caves after mountain battle US forces are searching a vast cave network in Afghanistan after the fiercest battle there in almost a year. Hundreds of US and coalition ground forces were rushed to the area,and sophisticated air weaponry called in. There are no reports of US casualties . Two men captured during the fighting are being interrogated. Colonel Roger King said at Bagram Air Base: "At least 160 caves have been counted so far, quite possibly more than that. The search will be conducted in a deliberate manner to try to ensure that we don't miss anything."...

<p>Weapon: An inspired team of scientists in Maryland rushed to build a device that could wipe out the mountain hideouts of Taliban and al-Qaida forces.</p> <p>Destruction of the cave's mouth was frighteningly complete. The bomb had skipped through the entrance and erupted in a violent spray of jagged steel, blasting the walls and floor into dust. Where there was wood, suddenly just ash and vapor.</p>

QIQAY, Afghanistan (AP) - Hermes the robot edged its way into the dark cave, its treads spinning over the dust and small rocks until a boulder appeared in its path. No problem. The tiny machine dropped its side arms, lifted onto and over the boulder, and rolled on, its two cameras sending images to an operator waiting outside. The war in Afghanistan is the first time robots are being used by the U.S. military as tools for combat. Proponents believe sending them into caves, buildings or other dark areas ahead of troops will help prevent U.S. casualties. On Monday, Hermes...

U.S. Troops Find Jails in Caves04-07-02 By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN.c The Associated Press http://www.afghan-info.com/afghnews.htm#Find BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. troops hauled bags of documents from abandoned al-Qaida and Taliban caves to Bagram air base Saturday after days of searching through mountains, turning up secret jail cells and dossiers with photographs and fingerprint samples. Some 500 U.S. troops spent the past five days going inch by inch through the caves in the Zhawar Mountains of Paktia province near the Pakistani border, then blowing up the caverns after stripping them down in a mission dubbed Operation Mountain Lion. ``The locals were saying these...

Newly Declassified Photos From Operation Anaconda: Here's How The Caves Looked

British Royal Marines have destroyed al-Qaeda bunkers and cave complexes in the mountains of south-eastern Afghanistan. About 500 marines have gone into action with allied US and Afghan troops, to track down any residual Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters in a former valley stronghold. So far the marines have not found any rebel fighters - confirming suspicions that many have fled across the nearby border to Pakistan. The troops have, however, come across many bodies of dead Taleban and al-Qaeda members. And they have seized a "great deal" of papers, maps and radios, which were being studied for intelligence information. The...