A Miracle in Stone

Joseph A Seiss
The Castle Press
Philadelphia
1877

The author of this 134 year old book is pastor of the church of the Holy communion. The book is about the theory that the great pyramid at Giza is a holy book made in stone and that its measurements, volume including its astronomical alignments are divine measurements from God which will explain the natural world and the history and future of mankind.

The author talks about passages from the bible in relation to the elements of the pyramids architecture including a passage in the bible which tells about the cornerstone of God which the author convincingly equates to the capstone on the great pyramid.Though the analogies are somewhat of a stretch they are surprising in interest and not unreasonable and most comforting not preachy like.

The authors theories concerning the Jewish people and the so called Queens chamber are perhaps a little controversial but honest to the acceptance of a pastor of the late Victorian era though I found his theory of alignment of the pyramid and the queens chamber with the city of Jerusalem to be a little confusing.

The author also talks about it being near the end of days with only a few inches left before judgment days, this was for me a bit of an eye roller even though the author is very well read and quotes numerous other authors whom have written about the great pyramid.

Towards the end of the authors third lecture we find the author relating Darwinism to the complex structure of the great pyramid and the idea that the predecessor of Victorian man closer to apes than himself could have built so complicated a structure as the great pyramid.

In the fourth lecture the author presents and talks about testimonials both positive as well as negative with the most impressive pro testimonial from the late Scottish Astronomer Royal Piazzi Smyth the theories most vocal proponent. The author defends his argument admirably and with grace.

I realized from the start that in reality the authors point was already disproved but I ended up enjoying the book I found it interesting and thought worthy though I must say in the end the author trailed off into the end of days sermon. Luckily 132 years later we are still present enough for me to review a miracle in stone.

Remains of an Irish King

Recently a body was found in an Irish bog by peat cutters who believed that it was simply a pair of legs believed to belong to a girl but upon examination proved to be a very contorted body of a man. For some reason the report coming out believes it may belong to an ancient Irish king, sacrificed or decommissioned so that a younger king could take over.

They are now trying to locate his nipples to see if they have been cut which was a ritual act of decommissioning of the old king since suckling on the kings nipples was apparently an act of submission.

National Geographic : Bog Bodies


Irish Peatland Conservation Council

The Death of the Sex Symbol

On this day 85 years ago the man known as the "Latin lover", silent film star Rudolph Valentino died at the age of 31 launching him into his most legendary role as the first Hollywood sex symbol to die young.

Valentino made a number of movies but his iconic stature is the result of the grief which brought on hysteria in his fans at his death in 1926. His funeral in New york city was said to have been attended by 100,000 mourners.

Here we have his 1921 film "The Sheik"

Wolf Blood 1925

Here we have the silent film Wolf Blood from 1925 which may be the earliest of the werewolf movies.

Great Museums: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is the middle of a hot summer with little of interest so I was looking around and found this episode from the Great Museums series this one is on the Metropolitan in New York and is completely fascinating.

Marco Polo Explorer or Copyist?

Here we have an image of Marco Polo dressed as a Tartare. This article is on doubts that Marco Polo actually made it to China and served in Kublai Khan's court even though there is no mention of him in the  records of the era.

Many of the facts do not match the reports given by Marco Polo about his travels and it is now believed by some to have been copied from the words of Persian merchants including the use of Persian terms to describe Chinese and Mongol place names.

He also makes no mention of things such as tea, the great wall and foot binding of women.

Second Piece of World Trade Center Ship Found

Excavations at New York's World Trade Center site have brought to light another piece of the !8th century ship found used as landfill 25 feet below current street level. The new piece is part of the front of a 6o foot long ship made in Pennsylvania around the time of the founding of the United States and used as landfill by 1797 to extend Manhattan Island westward.

Above picture shows the site as it looked in 1936 before it was purchased to build the World Trade Center on it.  The current site is to be expected finished in 2016 with the twin tower footprints the site of this Septembers tenth anniversary memorial for those lost in the tragedy..

Photo of Tower one: Associated Press