Harrison's Cave on stamps

Having just visited Harrison's Cave in Barbados, in the Caribbean, I found there are a few stamps depicting the cave.

The first was issued in 1977 ,  Natural Beauty of Barbados series, $1

Next was a series just on Harrison's Cave, 1981 , a set of 4, SG 689-692 -

Then a 90 c in the 2000 series  "Pride of Barbados" , SG 1159 :

And in 2014,  a 65 c Harrison's Cave,  in the series  The Seven Wonders of Barbados, SG 1404/10

Harrison's Cave, Barbados

Barbados in the Caribbean is one of the Windward Islands. Unlike other Windward islands, only Barbados and Martinique have caves.

Barbados is not volcanic, it is composed of coral limestone, which is relatively young.

Harrison's Cave is a show cave. I have known about this cave for many years,since I started collecting cave stamps.

Harrison's Cave is formed from a type of crystallized limestone, and is undoubtedly one of the most
spectacular natural attractions in the entire Caribbean. Harrison's Cave has only been accessible to the general public in recent years and has had extensive refurbishment and renovations. It is located in the central uplands.

Firstly you enter the Visitors Centre, which gives info on how the rocks and cave was formed. Then you are taken into a theatre to watch a short film on the formation of Barbados and how the caves evolved.

Next everyone is given a helmet and hair net and you board the electric tram that will take you down into the cave.

The tunnel is surprisingly high and it was hard to see what has been blasted. The lighting was done quite well, with the lights hidden by 'frames' camouflaged to look like part of the cave. The guide
gives a commentary as the tram progresses. There is one large chamber. The cave was surprisingly wet (March) and water was dripping from the roof and the steams were quite active. The cave is warm and humid.

A stop is made in a chamber with some nice stal and a stream.

Further on there is nice flowstone. But overall we didn't see much stal and the water features seemed rather artificial. The last stop is at a small lake -

The return is the same route as the inward journey. back in the info centre, you then take a high outdoor elevator back up to the ticket office, shop and the car park level.

Tram tour 60 BDS $ (Barbadian dollar) , US$30 , £22.

Harrison's Cave website.


Update 
An article on Harrison's Cave on Ancient Origins July 2019.

**

Barbados became a republic 30 Nov 2021, on the 55th anniversary of its independence.

Barbados gained full independence on 30 Nov 1966, which meant that the Queen ceased to have sovereignty over Barbados. So the hereditary title of the Queen of Barbados was replaced with the elected position of the President of Barbados. 

Cave of Wonders, Dominican Republic, Caribbean

In March 2019 I was on a cruise around some Caribbean islands. The first island we stopped at was the Dominican Republic. The ship docked at La Romana, in the southeast of the island.

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, the latter is on the western side.
The DR is volcanic, but has limestone along the south and east sides, whereas Haiti is rich in limestone.

I joined a tour to Cueva de las Maravillas, Cave of Wonders.

This was discovered by boy scouts in 1926. From the ticket office you walk through an area of coral karst

A thorny tree -

The area above the cave entrance reminded me of a Malaysian wang. About 140 steps lead down to the cave entrance

No photography is allowed inside the cave. The tourist cave is one large chamber with a passage leading off with lots of paintings and this ends in a pool. Lots of stal and it was all really pretty. The whole of the flattish ceiling was full of small bell holes. The pathways and lighting were really well done indeed, no sign of any cables or even light bulbs. Took the government 3 years to do. Lots of tree roots hanging down, that looked like cables.

The cave is known for some 500 paintings, done by the Taino people in pre Colombian times (Columbus reached the DR 1492). They were done in charcoal and animal fats. They have faded but some have been touched up for display. Many of the anthropomorphic paintings are cartoon like, with heads and figures of people. The passage leading off to a small chamber is the main one for the paintings. And a passage off this leads to the rest of the cave which is closed to tourists, and houses a lot of cave fauna.  The show cave passage ends in a nice pool. All really nice but we were rushed through which was a shame. Not at all cold inside, about 19 C. The show cave length is 240 m and the cave is 25 m underground. Very attractive cave.

Roots outside the cave entrance -

As we walked back to the ticket office we saw a large enclosure with lots of iguanas

Entrance fee 300 RDS, US$10 for adults.

See more on Show Caves of the World.

Temple of Mithras, London Mithraeum Bloomberg

During Anthony Clayton's talk this week on subterranean London, he talked about the Temple of Mithras at the Bloomberg Building in London, I decided to go and visit the next day. I booked a free ticket online, expecting it to be full, and when I arrived found I didn't really need to book.

The Roman Temple of Mithras is in the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE. A Mithraeum is a Mithraic temple, used by the worshippers of Mithras.

The impressive Bloomberg building is the new European HQ in the heart of the city. It is located between Bank and Cannon St tube stations.

I visited on a Friday lunchtime and many of the City workers were having their lunch break - see the crowds outside this pub -

The Bloomberg SPACE is a new cultural hub and houses the ancient temple, a selection of the remarkable Roman artefacts found during the recent excavation, and a series of contemporary art commissions responding to one of the UK’s most significant archaeological sites.

The history of the site from Bloomberg :
"The site lies over the course of one of London’s lost rivers, the Walbrook. Nearly 2,000 years ago when Londinium was founded by the Romans, this river marked the limits of their first settlement. In the 3rd century AD, nearly 200 years after the founding of London, a Roman Londoner, built a temple to the god Mithras on this reclaimed ground, next to the river.

This water feature is by a Spaniard Cristina Iglesias, called Forgotten Streams, it represents the ancient Walbrook River that used to flow through this site and used as a watercourse by the Romans.

Mithras
The mysterious cult of Mithras first appeared in Rome in the 1st century AD. It spread across the Empire over the next 300 years, predominantly attracting merchants, soldiers and imperial administrators. Meeting in temples which were often constructed below ground, these were private, dark and windowless spaces. The mythological scene of Mithras killing a bull within a cave, the ‘tauroctony’ is at the heart of the cult, and its full meaning is subject of much speculation."

The original temple was underground. It was a temple to Mithraism, a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire and very popular with Roman soldiers and merchants. It was based on the god Mithras. Not much is really known about this cult as there are no written records. Just the archaeological findings.

The followers built the subterranean temple in the 3rd century, around 240 AD, to recreate the cave where Mithras killed the sacred bull. The cult members could be likened to the current day Freemasons. The temple measures about 18 m x 8 m.

The temple was disused by the end of the 4th century and slowly sank beneath rising street levels of medieval London.

The temple was found in 1954 during an archaeological excavation in the rubble of bomb damaged buildings of post-war London. First the marble head of a statue of Mithras was uncovered, then archaeologists confirmed the structure uncovered nearby was a temple to Mithras. It became one of the most significant events in British archaeological history. Tens of thousands of visitors flocked to the site to marvel at the Roman remains.

Other artefacts found buried in the temple were white marble likenesses of Minerva, Mercury and Serapis. Also a marble relief of Mithras killing the astral bull, the Tauroctony. The statues were sent to the Museum of London. The temple remains were removed from the site until the 1960s when they were reassembled on an elevated concrete platform in the open air. Not the right place for a subterranean place of worship!

Before the Bloomberg was constructed, a wall from the original temple was found, so the location was known. The temple was restored a few feet away and returned underground in the Bloomberg building. It is now 8 m underground, at its original level.

Visitors enter the Bloomberg SPACE on the ground floor, where the art is exhibited, plus an interesting display of Roman artefacts that were uncovered during the excavations.

You go downstairs to a room with digital displays and a few information boards. This is where you wait for the 'tour' into the temple, which takes place every 20 minutes. The head of Mithras, wearing a conical cap -

An artist's impression inside the mithraeum -

Finally you enter the 'temple'. It is dark. You can see the stone walls and a clever light effect shows the 2 rows of 7 columns around the Mithraeum. You hear chanting of the ancient Romans, followed by talking and laughter of the men in the temple. The show lasts about 6 minutes and then the lights goes on, revealing the Mithraeum. It is all very atmospheric and effective.

 

 

Definitely worth a visit. Entry is free and you are given a 32 page book on the London Mithraeum, thanks to Bloomberg.

See more of the Mithras remains at the Museum of London Temple of Mithras gallery.

Friouato Caves, Morocco in Atlas Obscura

I've been to Friouato Caves or Kef Friotato twice, in 1976 and 1981. Friouato is located in the Taza area of the Middle Atlas in Morocco.

 In Feb 2019 I cam across this article on Friouato Caves in Atlas Obscura , "Friouato Caves
The true depths of these stunning Moroccan caves are unknown".

Underground London - talk by Anthony Clayton - Subterranean City

As part of my "Underground London" blogs, on 21 Feb 2019 I went to Kensington Library lecture room for a talk by Anthony Clayton on "Subterranean City : beneath the streets of London". It was the first time I have been to one of his talks. He has written several books on underground England.

The talk was good as it has given me ideas of places to visit. These include the Temple of Mithras at the Bloomberg Building in London. There is also the mail rail, run by the Postal Museum, on part of the line that was used for transporting mail in the past. He also talked about a lot of the old parts of the underground lines and stations that are now closed. Down Street station can be visited on tours.

There was some mention of the lost rivers of London. And the old air raid underground shelters, such as the one at Clapham South. The London Transport Musuem has hidden London tours.

Clayton mentioned the Urban Explorer who has published lots of photos on the internet.

The lecture hall still has the original seats with ashtrays on the backs of the seats. That is something you rarely see nowadays.

I now have more ideas of places to visit, and will link to this post as and when I visit them.

My visit to the Temple of Mithras , London Mithraeum .

Spile Cave, Himare, southern Albania

There is a lot of limestone in Albania, particularly in the north, where there are a lot of mountains. I went on a tour of southern Albania and sadly didn't get to see any caves.

I stayed in Himare and noticed Shpella e Spilesë, the Spile Cave, by the side of the road. It is at the base of a small cliff by Spile beach.

Wikipedia says Spile's Cave is a monument of cultural heritage in Himara, Vlora district, in the Vlora region of Albania. It is listed as a "Cultural Monument of Albania" and is under protection, category VL091.

According to mythology in Homer's Odyssey,, Odysseus faced the Cyclops in the cave, on returning from the Trojan War.

On the Himara gov page,  using Google translate, it says :
"The cave extends to a depth of more than 30 m with an irregular entry 8 m wide and 7 m high, 3.6 m above sea level. The cave is formed as a result of karst processes. The limestone cliffs that formed the cave walls are tectonically deformed, and there is a large crack on the ceiling. Inside there are some well-developed stalactites. Cave research revealed stratified evidence of prehistoric activity dating from the middle of the Holocene, but cumulative deposits inside the cave may have been ransacked by rising sea levels at the height of the hot period. Archaeologists express their regret because the evidence of exploitation in the Upper Gulf Coast's Upper Lowlands in the Spile Cave may have been lost. A largely unbroken sedimentological and sedimentological examination in the interior documented prehistoric human activity from the Mesolithic Period, 8,000 p.e.s. The areas around the caves were also inhabited during this period, which is evidenced by the ceramics found and tombs. The use of the cave was continuous in all prehistoric and historical periods with more intense human activity from the Early Bronze Age. Shilla was inhabited even in the Iron Age during the Historical, Hellenistic, Roman, even until the Middle Ages. Findings from all of these periods are unique. The ones that differ are microlites and many tools of flint, chisels, blades, digging tools, etc. The Bronze Age hermit in Himara show an advantage of local fabrics as well as the impacts and the similarity with Dodonas pottery. A large number of high-quality Hellenistic pottery dates back to the 5th century BC, including amphora, skyfosa, lemys, and other corundum coral wings (Black paint). The smooth scene, described by Cardini, was no longer visible. The beach that contained only a small hotel and some houses had become a pre-city and the cave that held so much potential for Cardini was no longer visible from the water's edge. Examining the cliff face within the southern spur of the developed beach, we were able to find three of the five caves illustrated on Cardini's map, caves 1, 2 and 3 (Cave 1, the largest cave where Cardini has performed successful digging , was still intact but hidden behind the concrete foundations of a partially built hotel Himara's caves now require a thorough re-evaluation before valuable archeology Himara's cave with the name: The Spilja Cave was declared a cultural monument with decision of the Rectorate of the State University of Tirana "No.6, dated 15.1.1963-" On the Promulgation of Cultural Monuments 2. Spile Cave, in the village of Himara."

It seems there have been plans to build a hotel in front of the cave. However the site hasn't been looked after and when I saw it, it looks more like a rubbish dump. Even the plaque that declared it a "Cultural Monument, Natural Prehistoric" site has gone.

According to this page : " It is a considerable space, a cave that in this visible part reaches a height of up to 2-3 meters.

Within this cave there is also stalactite and stalactite, formed in centuries as a natural phenomenon typical for prehistoric caves. Water droplets, coming from above, meet this environment somewhat, to immediately create the sensation of the events that have developed within it. Once it gets full and oval, the cave comes narrowing and at the end of its visible and illuminated part creates a "pocket", a kind of barrier that prevents you from moving further. After that comes the rest and main of the cave, which according to Mr. Gaçe, goes up to a depth of 1500 meters.

Formerly in the late 1980s, a group of the Academy of Sciences explored the cave to the end, where lifetime evidence of a period more than 7 centuries before Christ was found.

In 1987, with the initiative of prof. Aleks Budës, the Academy of Sciences of Albania, gave this cave the status "Cultural Monument, Natural Prehistoric".

The above site tells more of the mythology. The cave was first excavated by archaeologists in 1920.

See more on the paper about Cardini, "A Preliminary Investigation of Two Prehistoric Cave Sites in Southern Albania".

This blog on Himara Village describes how the cave has been occupied from Neolithic times.

I just hope that steps are taken to preserve the site.