Santo Domingo.- The biggest tomb of mummies, one of Cleopatra’s masks and the temple of Isis are a few of the finds by Dominican Republic’s most famous architect, while fending off venomous snakes and scorpions, for which she’s “the only woman who dares enter the labyrinths.”
Kathleen Martinez made the revelations Thursday, and noted that her excavation crews, all members of Bedouin tribes, fear one labyrinth in particular, located at the site of the temple Taposiris Magna “They told me that anyone who goes in there vanishes forever, one snake there is particularly deadly.”
But more than snakebites and scorpion stings, Martinez said the seemingly endless tunnels guard an even deadlier secret. “We even found unexploded bombs, that’s why they fear it, people who went in there were killed by the blasts.”
“The men have to be shown that there’s no danger, so I go down any shaft first,” the arquitect said, interviewed by Huchi Lora on Channel 11.
To neutralize the bombs and hover the remains of soldiers Martinez affirms are the aftermath of the 2nd World War Battle of El Alamein in that zone, she contacted military authorities. “We’ve contacted the Army, we found remains of Italian and new Zealand soldiers. We’ve turned over more than 60 bombs, some soldiers were burned alive within the tunnels. There’s so much story in those tombs, from the pharaohs to the 2nd World War.”
Among the most harrowing experiences, Martinez says, was a bomb that “we tried to lift out with a winch, but it fell off the bucket and nearly detonated with a few of us still in the tunnel.”
New York exhibit
Martinez also announced the exhibit of her findings at the Metropolitan Art Museum, where Dominicans who live in New York can view them
The architect who has spent more than five years excavating to find the tomb of Anthony and Cleopatra, affirms that among the artifacts she has found are “what we believe is the true face of Cleopatra.”
The added that Egypt’s new government informed her last week that her license to continue the excavations has been renewed.”
There's so much buried ordnance that people don't dare to take a step off the pathways to the war memorials.
ReplyDeleteThe mine-fields are massive and elaborate. If any charts were ever made of them, they're long lost. There are mines connected by tripwires, where one exploding mine sets off several others. Wooden anti-personel mines, which don't register with metal-detectors, are sprinkled among the metal ones. Some mines are buried with other mines underneath, designed to kill anyone who tries to lift them. Then there's all sorts of metal shrapnel, along with metal objects deliberately buried to fake out the metal detectors.