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Oversized Ancient Cities

MrRING

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
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Does anybody else remember stories of an ancient city that was built larger than normal human size? For some reason, I thought it was in the American west, and that straight arcaeology surmised that the size indicated it was a ceremonial palace for the gods rather than built for giants.

The only similar thing I found in one of my old mystery books was a reference to the size of parts of Tiahuanaco , but I don't think the place I'm thinking of was associated with Inca or Maya or any of those great empires....

Any ideas, or do you think that it was just Tiahuanaco all along and I got my locations mixed up?
 
Mr. R.I.N.G. said:
Does anybody else remember stories of an ancient city that was built larger than normal human size? For some reason, I thought it was in the American west, and that straight arcaeology surmised that the size indicated it was a ceremonial palace for the gods rather than built for giants.
Click to expand...
Sounds a bit too much like some of the tales by H.P. Lovecraft, ot Clark Ashton Smith, to me.

All that stuff about "cyclopean architecture", built using "non-Euclidian geometry", etc.

The descriptions are so 'bare bones' and sketchy, you could easily apply them, subconsciously, to descriptions of other real archaeological sites.

There again, maybe it was a bit of school of Von Daniken hyperbole you read when younger. Von Daniken, himself, went on at great length about Tihuanaco, in 'Chariots of the Gods', come to think of it.
 
Nothing comes to mind and my archeologist is busy packing to go and external Southampton.

Will consider it......

Kath
 
Maybe....

Was it referring to the ruins near Ponape and the Carolinas in the Pacific Ocean? I seem to remember stories about Metalalim being 'cyclopean" and having "strange geometries".


Trace Mann
 
I vaguely remember reading about mysterious ruins discovered somewhere in California, I think... was that the one you're thinking of..?
 
why do some people assume that early cultures could never build huge metroploisi(?)?

for instance the one in the amozon (cant rember the name), the aegyptians
 
This is the factiod that struck me from whereever I heard the story - the steps were supposed to be so large that you would have to crawl up them... that was the point, not the collosal size of the building but that they were larger than need be for humans to walk through... maybe I'm just crazy, but I think maybe it was an "In Search Of..." type program... it's a fuzzy memory too, so I don't have much to go on.
 
Mr R
Take a look at a couple of books by David Hatcher Childress
The lost cities of North & Central America
Lost cities and mysteries of South america.
I'm pretty sure you will find your city in one of these.
There is also a reference to some architecture/tunnels which appear to have been for use by very small people.
 
I just read Lost Cities of North and Central America, and I don't recall anything like that, but interesting nonetheless. I do remember hearing something about a city or citadel of giants on the island of Malta, however. In fact, I've often heard Malta called the "last refuge of the giants," or something along those lines. Supposedly, they were driven out of England and Western Europe by the Germanic tribes and forced to migrate en masse to Malta, where they were eventually destroyed by some other form of humanity, possibly the Romans. Of course, this is all hearsay.
 
Mr R
Try the Lost Cities etc South America.
If you dont find your reference there let me know and I will try and find the relevant book amongst the many on my book shelves
 
Hello,

This colossal ancient cities thread reminds of a show I saw with a similar city, and yes the stairs were so huge that the host of the program was standing before them and the first step was as high as his neck! So I believe I saw the same program, but I thought it was in Mexico somewhere. I could be wrong, but I also read about a place in Greece that is similar, and to top it off, I remember reading a book about an explorer who supposedly came across a cave in the Antarctic where he found a city with colossal stairs leading up to the frozen bodies of giants, adorned with crowns and jewels, who were standing uptight, against the wall and appeared to be either mummified or in hibernation. He must have floated through the cave for days while his men looked for him. When he came out at the other end, he recounted the tale to his mates and then he returned to england and rounded up a few scientists and scholars to return to the spot and prove he wasn't crazy, but the musterious cave opening had been covered over by a glacier.
Anyone...and I mean ANYONE, remember this? I have been trying to search out this story since middle school with no luck. The book I got it from was written in the 30's or 40's by a man...possibly named 'John' and he basically wrote the book about lost civilizations, atlantis and antarctica's ancient past.

WW
 
Hmmm, I think the guy went on to found some religion based on this. Something like the Raelians or so. But I don't recall the details, and I might be confusing it with something else. Some angels also appeared to him right?
 
Mazar e Sharif is the site of an enormous Silk Road city the Mongols flattened during the 13th century. Part of the reason for it's immense size was that it was filled with complexes dedicated to Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Eastern Christian devotion (maybe Muslim as well).

It's remains are said to be remarkable - sadly it is not presently the kind of place to take a trekking holiday...
 
WonderWoman:
The story you describe sounds very similar to H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". But has some very major differences.

I wonder if one or the other might be based in some way on the other.



Don't forget Nan Modal (sp ?) in Micronesia.
[Edit:]
The correct spelling is Nan Madol.
I will leave the earlier mispelling in place as an aid to those similary spelling impaired.

oregon.edu/~wsayres/NanMadol.html
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20021008164203/http://www.uoregon.edu/~wsayres/NanMadol.html

janeresture.com/micronesia_madol/
Link and website are dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20020613174256/http://www.janeresture.com/micronesia_madol/

See Also:
Nan Madol: 'Lost City' In The Pacific?
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/nan-madol-lost-city-in-the-pacific.3918/
 
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Hello Philo T,

Yes, I read that, but it wasn't that book. It was a much older book. Sort of a field study book...of that sort.

WW
 
Well damn, now you've got me intrigued. From the sound of it could at least be an inspiration for "atMoM". Please let us know if you ever manage to pin it down!
 
Hello Philo T,

I will.

I am searching Alibris.com and Amazon.com, hoping to atleast get the title.

WW
 
Alexius said:
Mazar e Sharif is the site of an enormous Silk Road city the Mongols flattened during the 13th century. Part of the reason for it's immense size was that it was filled with complexes dedicated to Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Eastern Christian devotion (maybe Muslim as well).

It's remains are said to be remarkable - sadly it is not presently the kind of place to take a trekking holiday...
Click to expand...
Wouldn't it have been great to hit the hippy gringo trail in 1967 and travelled overland to Bombay in a Volkswagen van and a purple haze? ;)
 
I like the idea of a city built for tall people :rofl: let me know if you figure out where it is ...
 
A few years ago I had an offer to visit those parts in a Toyota pick up truck with a Kalashnikov....however, much as I despised the Taleban, I decided the last thing Ahmed Shah Masoud needed was a short-sighted, lanky white-boy without a word of Tajik...

Regrettably, that trail is not likely to open up again for some time...would have been nice to blaze through listening to 'Electric Ladyland' :)
 
This kinda rings a bell with me, but as it has been mentioned before, it sounds so like Lovecrafts At The Mountains Of Madness I don't know if I'm confusing it with that.

You could try looking onthis website though, which is geared towards this type of thing.
 
The whole thing does sound very Lovecraftian, much like a lot of other Earth-Mystery topics, especially when you start throwing around words like "cylopian" and "non-euclidian." However, Lovecraft did base most of his stories on things he had actually heard of or read about. Most of the locations in his stories were actual places he had lived or visited, and were described almost exactly as they stood in real life. Many are still standing today. I could name off examples, but it wouldn't serve any purpose. The point is that most of the people, places, and events that he wrote about were based on real people, real places, and real events or folk-legends. Also, it's known that Lovecraft read the books of Charles Fort for inspiration, as well as related materials.

While AtMoM is said to have been inspired on Poe's "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym" the city of the Old Ones may very well be based on your story. When I get some spare time I'll see if I can't sniff it out.
 
I found it!

Sorry to ressurect such an old post, but I finally found what I was looking for. It's a reference to the story mentioned earlier here, that of an oversized Antarctic city:

"The Rainbow City was visited by a man named Emery in 1942, beneath the South Polar region. His expedition found living quarters, shops, hospitals and museums, but everything was on a larger scale than usual, designed for subterrestrials over eight feet tall."

Apparently the place is known as "Rainbow City." I found it mentioned here:

thehollowearthinsider.com/ne...amp;i=1&t=1
Link is dead. No archived version found.
The seminal documentation for the Antarctic Rainbow City story can be accessed at:
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tierra_hueca/esp_tierra_hueca_26.htm

That's not a lot to go on, but I'm sure some good googling will turn up more of the story. It helps to have an actual name to search for, at least.
 
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Sertile,

OMG! I remember reading in a Time Life book (me thinks) regarding the giant city in Antarctica too! But, didn't he go back with an expedition only to find the place wasn't there anymore? I will visit that link you posted and see if it is the same thing I am thinking about.

WW
 
All this talk of giants sounds very far fetched. Notice that many cathedrals have very tall ornate doors. Now this doesn't mean that they were used by giants does it? It is just a symbol of

'Look what we can build! Isn't God great, he must be because I have a huge door on my cathedral!'

Simple as.
 
Well I don't really believe in anything, but even finding something like a cathedral in a place like Antarctica would be pretty heavy, regardless of how small or gigantic it may be.

PS to Wonder Woman: I originally sent you this in a PM a while ago, because I didn't know if anyone else would still be interested, but after I didn't get a reply I decided to post it on the general boards.
 
Talk about giving me the woolies!

I came across a few sites relating to this subject a while back, but when I tried to revisit them a few days later, they were gone. Just dead links....ALL OF THEM. And it was the middle of the month so they couldn't have all just not paid their ISPs...

This is something the US gub'ment seems intent on keeping a lid on. The general consensus on the sites was that no matter what they did or who they reported to that no one seemed to believe them and a bulldozer and archeological team would subsequently visit the site and rearrange whatever they had found. The people who were writing up the sites were either amateur rockhounds/geologists or (and this was just the one I believed the most) a surveyor who was really perplexed by what he found and angry about the destruction. Some had pictures of what they found along with the general detailed directions to the sites.

Then I heard another rumor floating around that the reason parts of the Grand Canyon had been shut down was that they found some sort of burial site...only the occupants were 8-12 inches long.

Then there was an offhand mention of a corpse being dug up from a burial mound that was 8-9 feet tall with red hair. I actually got curious since it mentioned the museum (it was in Kansas, I think) and googled the museum only to find an old news article stating that it had been robbed.

Since then...I haven't been looking for this information. But if you're interested in small people, then you should google S. America since there have been recent reports of them there. Larger than what you've got here, but still under 3 ft.
 
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