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Shell Grotto, Margate
- jamest 11mo agoIt was not on my bingo card to see the Shell Grotto on HN. I loved this place as a kid and would marvel at the patterns. The air of mystery around who made it and why invites some fun speculation.
- philk10 11mo agogrottos were on recently - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45809746 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45809746
- gabriel666smith 11mo agoI'm about a mile from this right now. The grotto is unpleasant - absolutely, in my opinion, a Victorian (give or take) rich man's folly, per the Wiki. The imagery is all faux-Mediaeval - mostly the standard utter nonsense Rosicrucian 'interpretation' of Kabbalistic symbols. It's very bullshit, edgy, Hot-Topic-Victorian silly stuff. Except for where, at the Malkuth mark, IIRC, it opens up into a sort of temple-and-altar situation, where it is actually somewhat frightening, in the way that any secret Bacchanalian temple is, because nobody builds that sort of thing for a good reason.
- jlarcombe 11mo agoExtremely enjoyable place to visit. Unique and intriguing atmosphere within.
- popol12 11mo agoWhy can’t someone do a carbon 14 datation of the shells to close the debate ?
- ninalanyon 11mo agoI can think of several plausible reasons: - it costs money and no one wants to pay, - the mystery is more interesting or amusing than the resolution of the mystery, - carbon dating is unreliable for dates following the industrial revolution because the burning of coal and oil ejected vast quantities of depleted carbon into the atmosphere.