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LOST CITIES.

Unless yon study such publications as tho Journal of the Royal Geographical Society you can have hut little idea of tho number of people who are occupied in "digging for history." In tho sands of Egypt, tho bush of Central Africa, the jungles of Ceylon and Malaya, and the tropical forests of South America, ardent archaeologists are constantly at work delving for the relics of lost civilisations. During the war this work naturally' came t Q an end, but now that matters are gradually becoming moro normal tho broken threads are being spliced and this fascinating work is again in progress. Wonderful finds have been made in tho past, but they are as nothing compared with what the future is bound to bring, for there are treasures of the past waiting everywhere for the pick and shovel of the explorer. Take South America for instance. All over Brazil, from the east coast right back into the unknown and uncharted mountains of Matto ■Grosso, are to be found incredible ruins of ail enormously ancient civilisation. Here aro inscriptions, some of them in characters curiously liko Greek letters, but at present quite incomprehensible. Yet there is always the possibility that an American "Rosettastone" might be discovered giving tho clue required for the translation of I these writings. And once this was | found we should be able to collect the amazing history of the great Toltoc race which at an immensely remote period built giant cities all over the continent and cultivated great tracts of what now appears to be primeval forest. Everyone has heard of the vast ruins of Zimbabwe, in Southern Rhodesia, the golden city which is said to have been the Ophir of King Solomon. North of the Zambesi, deep in almost unknown bush, lies another and even groater city, with similar towers, massive brickwork, and slave pits cut in the solid rock. Though explorers have visited it, little or no digging has yet been done there. In the Journal of the African Society for July, 1908, are some notes and drawings of the city of Ife, which is situated in Southern Nigeria. Some 12ft beneath the present native town have been unearthed wonderfully worked carvings in quartz, ' bronze

and many other objects, giving proof of the existence there in long past times of a civilisation apparently equal to that of Greece. The natives of to-day who inhabit this region have no knowledge of the working of stone. In Turkestan, on tho right bank of the Ainoy Diiria, and near the Bokharan town of Ivarki, is an underground city carved in the solid rock. Here is an immense labyrinth of streets .and passages, with houses two or three storeys in height. Pots, urns, vases, and coins _ have been re-covered, but much remains to be done. Ceylon is full of lost or partly buried rities. affording work for archaeologists fpr many year« to come ; while in Farther India; and Annam the junglo hides ruins of such amazing dimensions that ■'■shey-. dwarf even tho wonders of eld Egypt.—By Christopher Bcclc in London "Daily Mail."

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19220401.2.140

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17419, 1 April 1922, Page 16

Word count
Tapeke kupu
514

LOST CITIES. Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17419, 1 April 1922, Page 16

LOST CITIES. Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17419, 1 April 1922, Page 16

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