
The mystery of the Roman 'gate to hell' - evo_9
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/world/mystery-gates-to-hell-hierapolis/index.html
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mannykannot
The end of the article suggests that the presence of oil lamps at the site may
indicate that some rituals were performed at night. An alternative use of
lamps, day or night, would be to detect how high the carbon dioxide layer was.

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cyberferret
Good point. The 'priests' must have had some failsafe method of judging when
it was safe for them to approach the entrance. Nobody wants to be the canary
in the coal mine, I guess.

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mannykannot
...and you don't want your performance ruined by the sacrificial animals
remaining stubbornly alive, either!

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riffraff
That can be neatly worked into a sign from the gods, so no problem there.

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acqq
From the abstract of the paper:

[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12520-018-0599-...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12520-018-0599-5)

"Two thousand years ago, only supernatural forces could explain these
phenomena from Hadean depths whereas nowadays, modern techniques hint to the
well-known phenomenon of geogenic CO2 degassing having mantle components with
relatively higher helium and radon concentrations."

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TomK32
We already had a post about this coming through a few days, didn't we?

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elaine9297
I want to go and visit this place the cave i want to explore this place

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Zhenya
tl;dr Carbon dioxide comes out of fizzures in the ground and asphyxiates the
animal.

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bryanlarsen
But it doesn't kill the priests.

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zzzeek
Because they are taller and breathe above it, carbon dioxide bogs lie low

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johnnyg
No giraffes were harmed during the making of this ritual.

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elaine9297
I want to go and visit this place the cave

