The Dhaka Times Desk There is a saying 'gates of hell'. But we see it as a proverb. But this time scientists solved the mystery of the 'hell door'!
Not today, but about two thousand years ago, a Greco-Roman temple would have scared the city dwellers. The stone gate of the temple, located in present-day Turkey, could see the influence of evil forces in a thick fog-shrouded cave. If cows and buffaloes were sent inside the cave, they would lie down and squirm and die, but the temple priest would do nothing.
Someone said that Pluto, the bloodthirsty god of the underworld, resides there. Again someone said that the priest was doing this work with supernatural power.
A new study recently published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences has a very mundane explanation.
According to the research paper, the harmful carbon dioxide gas of the cave is mainly responsible for the death of various animals. Volcanic zoologist Hardy Pfanz examined the cave with a group of scientists. The gas released from the cave came up from a crack deep in the area. The further one went below the ground, the more the amount of carbon dioxide would increase.
According to the researchers, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air of the surface of the cave is 4%. Going down from there it eventually reaches 53%.
According to media reports, scientists who visited the temple with a portable device to test the gas found that the level of deadly carbon dioxide increased as one went deeper into the cave.
Carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen, so it accumulates below oxygen anywhere. It can be seen that if carbon dioxide leaks in a house, the basement is more damaged than the upper floors.
It can be seen that the animals whose nose and mouth are close to the ground take in a lot of the carbon dioxide gas accumulated in this way with their breath. However, because the nose of the person standing right next to them is actually above the ground, this gas cannot enter the body much with the breath of the person.
It is known that the cave rediscovered in 2013 in Pamukkale, southwestern region of Turkey, was part of Hierapolis in ancient times. The cave was named Plutonium after the Roman god Pluto.
Right then, people think that this is the entrance to the underworld. The inhabitants of that place believed that the deity could be satisfied by sacrificing animals there. Many people used to gather there to watch the animal sacrifice. Seeing that scene, he thought it was a god's cave.
The Greek geographer Strabo, while describing the cave, wrote that 'the vapor of this place is so thick that the ground is almost invisible. The bull fell to the ground after entering it. When it is taken out, it is seen that the bull is dead.'
When the priests entered the cave, Strabo observed, 'they held their breath as long as possible.'
UNESCO has now declared the place as a hot spring tourist destination. However, even after 2000 years, the tourists visiting this place should be careful, the researchers said. During excavations in 2013, archaeologists found that many birds also died when they entered the cave. And since then the research work started. The researchers also found proof of the idea they had in practice. They understand that this is due to carbon dioxide and oxygen.
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