Scientist Reportedly Discovers Road to Hell.

It sounds like something out of a horror
movie. But Italian scientists say that the
“Gate to Hell” is the real deal—poisonous
vapors and all.
The announcement of the finding of the
ruins of Pluto’s Gate (Plutonium in Latin) at
an archeology conference in Turkey last
month, was recently reported by Discovery
News. Francesco D'Andria, professor of
classic archaeology at the University of
Salento in Lecce, Italy, who has been
excavating the ancient Greco-Roman World
Heritage Site of Hierapolis for years, led the
research team.
D’Andria told Discovery News he used
ancient mythology as his guide to locate
the legendary portal to the underworld.
“We found the Plutonium by reconstructing
the route of a thermal spring. Indeed,
Pamukkale' springs, which produce the
famous white travertine terraces originate
from this cave.”
Scribes like Cicero and the Greek
geographer Strabo mentioned the gate to
hell as located at the ancient site in Turkey,
noted Discovery, but nobody had been
able to find it until now.
“Pluto’s Gate” has been documented in the
Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites,
which noted in its description of ancient
Hierapolis, “Adjoining the temple on the SE
is the Plutoneion, which constituted the
city's chief claim to fame. It was described
by Strabo as an orifice in a ridge of the
hillside, in front of which was a fenced
enclosure filled with thick mist immediately
fatal to any who entered.”
Strabo (64 B.C.- 24 B.C.) wrote, “This space
is full of a vapor so misty and dense that
one can scarcely see the ground. Any
animal that passes inside meets instant
death. I threw in sparrows and they
immediately breathed their last and fell.”
The portal to the underworld seems just as
bad for your health today. The professor
said, “We could see the cave's lethal
properties during the excavation. Several
birds died as they tried to get close to the
warm opening, instantly killed by the
carbon dioxide fumes.”
According to Discovery News, the fumes
emanated from a cave below the site,
which includes ionic columns with
inscriptions to Pluto and Kore, gods of the
underworld. Also discovered: the remains
of a temple, and a pool and stairs placed
above the cave. D'Andria is now working
on a digital rendering of the site.
Amazingly, this isn’t the first entry to the
underworld in the world. In the Karakum
Desert, reports the Daily Mail, a fiery pit
that’s been lit up for over 40 years has
inspired visitors to Derweze in
Turkmenistan—and on the Web. Geologists
drilling in the area came across a natural
gas cavern. Hoping to burn off the gas,
they set it on fire. The flames continued to
burn, leading locals to dub the site the
“door to hell.”