Posted on 07/26/2011 11:28:17 AM PDT by Palter
There are more than 700 curious tunnel networks in Bavaria, but their purpose remains a mystery. Were they built as graves for the souls of the dead, as ritual spaces or as hideaways from marauding bandits? Archeologists are now exploring the subterranean vaults to unravel their secrets.
Beate Greithanner, a dairy farmer, is barefoot as she walks up the lush meadows of the Doblberg, a mountain in Bavaria set against a backdrop of snow-capped Alpine peaks. She stops and points to a hole in the ground. "This is where the cow was grazing," she says. "Suddenly she fell in, up to her hips."
A crater had opened up beneath the unfortunate cow.
On the day after the bovine mishap, Greithanner's husband Rudi examined the hole. He was curious, so he poked his head inside and craned his neck to peer into the darkness. Could it be a hiding place for some sort of treasure, he wondered? As he climbed into the hole to investigate, it turned out to be a narrow, damp tunnel that led diagonally into the earth, like the bowels of some giant dinosaur.
Suddenly the farmer could no longer hear anything from above. He panicked when he realized that it was getting difficult to breathe the stifling air -- and quickly ended his brief exploration.
The Greithanners, from the town of Glonn near Munich, are the owners of a strange subterranean landmark. A labyrinth of vaults known as an "Erdstall" runs underneath their property. It is at least 25 meters (82 feet) long and likely stems from the Middle Ages. Some believe that it was built as a dwelling for helpful goblins.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Goblins, mystery, ping.
Self-ping for later.
Early “End of the Worlders” or Preppers.
Y1K?
Thats where uhbummer hides his real intentions...gets down there with the 12th iman and stays a thousand years until its safe...
How does one become a credentialed expert in underground chambers?
chamber maids???
Handsome guy, awesome movie...
LOL.
I saw something similar many years ago..and my first thought was grain storage which turned out to be correct.
Makes for awesome wine cellars.
Very interesting. Are they all built into the foot of a hill or a mountain; do they all slope downward to flat land below? I was just reading about qanat irrigation - maybe this is something like that.
With Steve Cohen and the other dwarves??
“The vaults could not have served a practical purpose, as dwellings or to store food, for example, if only because the tunnels are so inconveniently narrow in places. Besides, some fill up with water in the winter. Also, the lack of evidence of feces indicates that they were not used to house livestock.”
These look like adits. Miners drove these drifting tunnels looking for metal ores.
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