An excavation site in Mahabalipuram, India. The city was once the capital of an ancient kingdom and famed for its elaborate Hindu temples.
Locals look at a lion head monument uncovered by the December 26 tsunami.
Posted on 03/19/2005 2:41:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
MAHABALIPURAM, India (AP) -- For a few minutes, after the water had receded far from the shore and before it came raging back as a tsunami, the fishermen stood along the beach and stared at the reality of generations of legends.
Or so they say. Spread across nearly a mile, the site was encrusted with barnacles and covered in mud. But the fishermen insist they saw the remains of ancient temples and hundreds of refrigerator-sized blocks, all briefly exposed before the sea swallowed them up again.
"You could see the destroyed walls covered in coral, and the broken-down temple in the middle," said Durai, a sinewy fisherman who, like many south Indians, uses only one name. "My grandfathers said there was a port here once and a temple, but suddenly we could see it was real, we could see that something was out there."
Whatever they saw is back under water and out of sight. But a few hundred yards away, something else came to the surface. The tsunami scrubbed away six feet of sand from a section of beach, uncovering a small cluster of long-buried boulders carved with animals, gods and servant girls.
But legend speaks of its most famous temples: the Seven Pagodas, named for the vaguely pagoda-like style of Hindu temples in this part of India. Those temples, which according to myth are said to have once lined the shore, were so beautiful that the gods destroyed all but one -- the so-called Shore Temple, a magnificently carved complex that is now considered a national treasure.
Some fishermen insist they saw more than the six vanished temples when the waters. "There must have been at least 20," said Sunderasan, a young man, gesturing toward the sea. "We had no idea there were so many out there."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
A little kid finds it, sells it cheap to an American tourist....and we're off to the races.
thanks for posting this article.
FYI
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
And not a single camera phone among the whole bunch.
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