Exploring the basement 'lord of the shells'

Shells of shells, shells, snails . shells everywhere in the secret tunnel between the land of fog.

Explore the 'lord of the shells' cellar everyone wants to know in England

Referring to famous landmarks in England, people often think of Big Ben clock tower, the Thames river bridge . However, having a very unique place to listen to only makes people eager to want discover.

It's a secret cellar dating back hundreds of years, made 100% from shells and shells.

The secret cellar is called Margate Shell Grotto . The cellar is located at Grotto hill, Margate, south of England.

The first impression of every visitor coming here is the huge number of shells, shells and shells. Estimated, there are about 4.6 million types of shells covered the walls and ceiling of this secret cellar.

Margate Shell Grotto was discovered in 1835 by James Newlove - the principal of a school in Kent, England and his son.

Legend has it that when James was building a duck pond in his house, his hoe suddenly fell into the ground. In order to get his father back, his son Joshua came underground and carried a candle to illuminate the road. After returning, the boy said that there was a tunnel full of scalloped decorations.

James marveled at his son's story and decided to open an excavation. As a result, he discovered a beautiful 21m long cellar covered by over 4.6 million shells of all kinds.

Immediately, the principal thought of the enormous financial benefits that this unique 1-0-2 basement could bring. He quickly acquired the land and renovated the tunnel into a tourist destination.

Two years later, Margate Shell Grotto opened for the first time to the public. And so far, this place has never been absent because there are so many people coming here to visit. There is also a museum, souvenir shop and coffee shop.

According to the measured data, the cellar has a height of 2.4m and a length of 21m with about 4.6 million shells, shells and snails of all kinds. 99% of these shells come from British shellfish, mussels and snails and only the Winkle shells are brought from the Caribbean .

Margate Shell Grotto tunnel is designed with a central column, called Rotunda, from which radiates 2 paths, a path to the ground for light, decorated with triangular motifs, a path to a corridor with serpent walls like snakes, named ' Serpentine Passage ' or ' snake corridor '.

This is the area with the most diverse decorative motifs. At the end of this road is a porch leading into a rectangular room. The patterns here are more rigid but still very well done, especially the sun and stars icons.

Opposite the entrance is a small cylindrical ' altar ' that makes the entire cave give off a mysterious look.

The shells are arranged into many different symbols , such as the figures of gods and goddesses, flowers, horns of goats, three-pointed stars, Sun and Moon .

Margate Shell Grotto has a strange mystery. Until now, no expert has clarified how the basement has been built and for what purpose.

In 2009, five shell samples were sent for analysis of how the cave was built, in particular, how the workers had attached the shells to the wall from that date.

Some samples were analyzed as lime mortar, while others used a mixture of mortar made from ancient mud and clay, but the dating was still not possible.

The reason for this phenomenon is because the use of kerosene lamps for lighting during the years when the cave was discovered has made everything here full of soot and cannot be completely cleaned. Therefore, archaeologists cannot use the usual Carbon 14 dating method.

Many theories suggest that this cave could be built in the 1700s and is a product of the nobility. Because this type of cave at that time was quite popular in Europe. Families often build them as places of worship as well as show their wealth.

However, usually the nobles will build them in their basement while the location of this cave is agricultural land and there has never been any house built here.

Some people believe that caves build like an astrological calendar. In 2001, Mick Twyman of the Margate Historical Society tried to unravel the mysteries of this cave. He observed that just before each spring equinox , the sun passed through the middle of the vents of the cellar, while at noon on the day of the solstice, the light would shine through a hole in the rectangular room and shine right into the altar.

According to him, the cave is connected to the Crusaders and it is used to perform a ritual called Masonic with the symbol of David star, octagon, 3 rays of the sun .

Scientists also found that the cave showed signs of water penetration. They hypothesized that it was most likely a colorful cellar. However, water and soot, which have been around for hundreds of years, are likely to discolor the walls of the cellar.