by Lindsay Shapka in History, Discovey, culture, Travel
I have to admit, I get a certain thrill (okay, I totally geek out) when I get to visit a place that I've seen on the big screen — Rosslyn Chapel did not disappoint.
Made famous in the film version of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, this ornately carved church overlooks the beautiful rolling hills of rural Scotland at the edge of the town of Roslin.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Discovey, History, Travel, culture
The eight-part investigative series Hunting Nazi Treasure (premieres Oct 24, 2017) chronicles one of the greatest thefts in history, and the epic quest that an international team of experts embarked on to locate billions in art, gold, and other treasure that was stolen by the Nazi's during the Second World War.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in culture, Discovey, History, Travel
New technology is completely changing the fields of history and archaeology, as the use of innovations like Ground Penetrating Radar archaeology are resulting in new discoveries all over the world. This tech is even changing the way we look at old discoveries, as new chambers, burials, buildings, and more are being discovered in previously excavated areas. Before I share some of the most fascinating discoveries that have been made recently using GPR, let's start with one very important question.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in History, Discovey, Travel, culture
Yes, there are two famous Pantheons that you can visit in Europe — one in Paris and one in Rome — but they were both constructed for very different reasons, and were built hundreds of years apart.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Discovey, History, Travel
What is the Grand Tour?
Long before Contiki Tour busses started carting tourists around Europe at breakneck speed — beginning in the late sixteenth century to be exact — young aristocrats from England, Germany, Scandinavia, and America started travelling to Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome as a way to round out their classical educations. This practice came to be known at the Grand Tour of Europe.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in History, Discovey, Travel
In 1974, east of what is now called Xi’an in China, peasants digging a well in their field uncovered one of the largest, and arguably the most important finds of the 20th century — an underground vault full of thousands of intact terracotta warriors and horses standing in battle formation.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in History, Discovey, culture
During World War II, Hitler was obsessed with tracking down and confiscating treasure in the form of art, relics, jewellery, gold, weapons, etc. He amassed massive secret caches of these items all over Nazi occupied territories, including — according to Polish lore — a train loaded with gold, weapons, and art that vanished into the mountains in Poland at the end of WWII and has never been found!
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