Hell's Gate Discovered

ARCHAEOLOGY
Pluto's Gate Uncovered in Turkey
MAR 29, 2013 02:00 PM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI

A "gate to hell” has emerged from ruins in southwestern Turkey, Italian archaeologists have announced.

Known as Pluto's Gate -- Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin -- the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition.

Historic sources located the site in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale, and described the opening as filled with lethal mephitic vapors.

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“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,” the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC -- about 24 AD) wrote.

“I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell,” he added.

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/gate-to-hell-found-in-turkey-130329.htm