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With more than a year left before construction starts, the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has begun demolition work for the proposed Mobile River bridge and Bayway project. The agency is currently in the process of tearing down nine buildings throughout the project site just south of downtown near Virginia Street, where the bridge will be footed. “Because the final design is in a preliminary phase, we don’t have exact locations on where the footings are going to be … ,” ALDOT spokeswoman Allison Gregg said. Some of the buildings were vacant before ALDOT acquired them, other owners and tenants...

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Archeologists have found what they believe is a 300-year-old stone church in the nation's oldest city. For hundreds of years, people have wondered where the fabled church of La Leche once stood. In fact, they even built a church -- Mission of Nombre De Dios and La Leche -- in its honor. It turns out the replacement church was only yards away from the original one.

Spc. Hector Guzman, of Cold Spring, Minn., takes in the Assyrian Ruins during the project’s opening celebration, Jan. 4, 2009. Photo by Spc. Cynthia Teears, 11th Public Affairs Detachment. NINEWA PROVINCE — Sheik Khalid of Jobury and Sheik Ali of Albayati recently hosted a construction project opening celebration at the Assyrian Ruins here. Leaders from the military, police, construction company and surrounding towns were invited to celebrate and discuss issues concerning the new project with the Green Dream Contract Company, said Lt. Col. Chris Johnson, commander, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment.“The company is bringing in a new project to pave...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican archeologists have made the most significant Aztec find in decades, unearthing a 15th century altar and a huge stone slab at a ruined temple in the throbbing heart of Mexico City. The works were uncovered last weekend at the Aztec empire's main Templo Mayor temple, near the central Zocalo square, which was used for worship and human sacrifice. It was the most meaningful find since electricity workers stumbled upon an eight-tonne carving of an Aztec goddess at the same site in 1978. "It is a very important discovery, the biggest we have made in 28...

EL PERU WAKA, Guatemala (Reuters) - Archeologists outsmarted tomb raiders to unearth a major Maya Indian royal burial site in the Guatemalan jungle, discovering jade jewelry and a jaguar pelt from more than 1,500 years ago. The tomb, found by archeologist Hector Escobedo last week, contains a king of the El Peru Waka city, now in ruins and covered in thick rainforest teeming with spider monkeys. He may have been the dynastic founder of the city, on major Mayan trade routes that could have stretched from the city of Tikal in Guatemala up through Mexico. "If this is indeed the...

CAIRO, Egypt - An American-Italian team of archaeologists has found the remains of 4,000-year-old ships that used to carry cargo between Pharaonic Egypt and the mysterious, exotic land of Punt, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced. The ships' remains were found during a five-year excavation of five caves south of the Red Sea port of Safaga, about 300 miles southeast of Cairo, the chairman of the supreme council, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement late Thursday. The archaeologists, who came from Boston and East Naples universities, found Pharaonic seals from the era of Sankhkare Mentuhotep III, one of seven...

Inner Mongolia Yields New Discoveries More than 80 leading archeological experts are participating in an international conference in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to exchange the latest information on Hongshan, a prehistoric relics site. Relics excavated at the Hongshan ("Red Mountain") site originated around 5000 BC to 6500 BC. Now a part of Chifeng City, the site was discovered in 1935. Some of the relics found at Hongshan have led archeologists to conclude that the heads of Chinese dragons may have been inspired by boars in addition to horses and cattle. Primitive people who struggled to survive by fishing and...

Surprise find has archeologists smiling December 21 2003 at 06:03PM Cairo - French archeologists have discovered 19 mummies as well as wood and limestone sarcophagi in an ancient Egyptian burial ground south of the capital, antiquities officials said Sunday. The secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawwas, said in a statement that a mission from the Louvre Museum in Paris found the antiquities in the Saqqara region, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Cairo. Also found were statuettes and pieces of fabric, he added. These items date to the Late Dynastic Period, or about 1 000...

ROME, Aug. 11 — For centuries scholars have debated whether Caligula, the Roman empire’s eccentric third ruler, was a megalomaniac who dared to defy the gods or a maligned emperor whose caprices were exaggerated after his death. NOW A GROUP of archaeologists digging up Caligula’s ancient palace say they have finally found concrete evidence that he was indeed a “maniac” who turned one of Rome’s most revered temples into the front porch of his residence. “Everyone knows this guy was a little crazy. But now we have proof that he was completely off his rocker, that he thought he was...