primax
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« on: December 22, 2011, 06:07:00 pm » |
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Hi Buffalo, the mines which you speak of in France are cut from soft chalky limestone and so were the tunnels underneath Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount tunnels are a network of tunnels or a labyrynth of tunnels running in many directions used for many purposes throughout the centuries and are the subject of many myths and legends involving the Knights Templar and the search for the Holy Grail. This is also linked to the mystery of Rennes le chateau in the foothills of the Pyranees, the Cathar legends and the grail legends of that part of the world. I should imagine building or trying to build similar tunnels in this area would meet with extreme difficulties due to the fact that the subsoil and rock around these parts consists largely of shales, coal, soft sandstones aswell as a variety of other unstable geological materials. If you are going to construct tunnels then you would need a stable rock platform from which to operate otherwise you would be faced with collapses and the need for huge ammounts of timber to support the roof just like they use in drift mines such as the Prince of Wales mine in Pontefract. If they did indeed use timbers in medieval times wouldn't those timbers be rotten by now and the tunnels have collapsed long since? I still find in difficult to believe that people would have spent years constructing these tunnels with the difficulties concerned for the sole purpose of secretly getting from one place to another and like Forkhandles has said I strongly believe that many of these stories are just myths, legends and fantasies. I wish you good luck in your quest Buffalo to find the 'lost tunnels of the Newlands Templars'.
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