The Plutonium at Hierapolis, Turkey, occupied a fault-zone fissure that releases CO₂. Strabo described sacrificial animals dying there; Pliny the Elder described birds falling dead. Readings of about 4–53.8% CO₂, highest low down at dawn, explain the danger, although the eunuchs’ survival method remains uncertain. CO₂ pools because it is dense, but it can still disperse.
Hierapolis Plutonium’s CO₂ fissure helps explain ancient “gate to hell” tales
TürkiyeGeneral
Site mentioned
Key facts
- The Plutonium at Hierapolis, Turkey, stood around a natural CO₂-bearing fissure associated with the local fault zone.
- Strabo reported that sacrificial animals died near the opening. The account of birds falling dead is attributed to Pliny the Elder, not Strabo.
- Strabo described temple eunuchs as accustomed to the vapour; he did not claim castration itself enabled them to survive it. Posture and brief-exposure explanations remain hypotheses, not established 2013 findings.
- Measurements of roughly 4–53.8% CO₂, highest near the floor and around dawn, make the lethal-animal accounts physically plausible.
- CO₂ is denser than air, but ventilation and turbulence can disperse it; saying it cannot disperse through the gate is false.
- The site reopened in 2022 after a long closure, not because research had definitively confirmed the ancient descriptions.
Sources
hnn.us
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time.com
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perseus.tufts.edu
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link.springer.com
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dailysabah.com
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