In 1835, a worker in Kent, England, was his work on the usual ground. What was not so usual was when he hit the ground with his spade and he just disappeared into the Earth. Apparently, he was standing on something hollow, but from the surface, he could see nothing.
Word spread, and soon a local volunteer tutor her young son, Joshua, to be lowered into the hole with a candle. If you think your child plunged into a mysterious cave in the earth seems a little, well, dangerous, we also do. Fortunately, Joshua was very well and it lives underground was a mystery breathtaking.
When Joshua was removed, he described the rooms filled with hundreds of thousands of carefully arranged shells.
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Needless to say, the adults were a little skeptical, but when the hole was dug and if they saw for themselves, they were stunned. There was a passage, a rotunda and a bedroom altar, and everything was covered with a mosaic of shells.
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Joshua's father, the teacher, immediately thought of the financial benefit that this place could have. He quickly bought the land and began the renovation of the cave, which is suitable for visitors. Two years later, in 1837, the Margate Shell Grotto opened to the public for the first time. And he was right; he a catch with the public, and it is still open and visitors enjoy today. Today, he also got a museum, a gift shop, and a café.
But there is still a major question hanging in the air: who built it, and why
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with all these shells so carefully arranged, it is clear that someone has spent a lot of time - and money - on this creation. The shells are arranged in the sun and stars shapes, and vaulted ceilings and altar spaces as lead some to believe it once had a religious significance. Yet no one knows for sure, and no one will even know how old the structure is.
The theories about its origin place to be built as long as 3,000 years ago.
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Other theories also the range between ordinary and totally there. Some believe it was created as the madness of an aristocrat in the course of 1700. Others think it would have been used as an astrological calendar, or it is connected with the Freemasons or Templars. Yet others argue that it is connected to a mysterious Mexican culture that lived there about 12,000 years.
Shell grottoes were actually very popular in Europe in the 1700s among the rich
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There is only one snag :. the location of the cave was on agricultural land, and the land has never been part of a large estate, where the follies were built. Even in 1835, there was no trace of its construction, which would have been a major undertaking. People were so taken aback by that, in the 1930s, people have held meetings in the hope to make contact with the spirits of those who built.
visitors 1930s have left their mark on Saint-Jacques shells in the cave.
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shells in the cave, including scallops, whelks, mussels, cockles, limpets and oysters, can all be found locally. Only winkle shells dishes had to be brought from elsewhere.
The arrangement of shells must have had countless hours of painstaking work.
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in all, there are over 2,000 square feet of shell mosaic in the cave.
Most of the shells in the cave have disappeared over time and lost their luster due to water damage. This recreation shows what they might have looked like at the time of the cave was built. It would have been full of dazzling colors.
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(via Kuriositas, Wikipedia)
To determine the age of the shells, they could be the carbon dated. However, on the FAQ page of the Shell Grotto, he said that this process is very expensive, and other conservation issues are being prioritized. Maybe one day, at least we know when This was built. For now, our imagination can run wild with all the possibilities mysterious past the Shell Grotto. Was it the den of a smuggler? A secret temple? An underground room of the party? The working life of a madman? Anyway, someone obviously cared enough to decorate like that.
If you are interested in visiting the Margate Shell Grotto, you can check their website for available tours.
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