I have already done a piece about some strange things underground, and of there being a grisly past time and of dark things that have occurred in One thing leads to another. But I gave more thought to what might be down there, and of mysteries and ideas surrounding the levels of our earth and of what might dwell in the deep. There are a few examples of things being discovered with legends attached to them, or just no explanation at all.

The Well to Hell (Russia) – may not be as the legend says as a good story popped up around it after 1989, but a drilled hole of 12k deep found some geological anomalies, although what they were is not stated. The story was that recording equipment was lowered down and screams from hell could be heard, but upon scrutiny it seems it was a looped tape of recording to make it sound as such.

Mel’s Hole (Washington) – Another legend from our time as it popped up in 1997, with very little to back it up other than the story of a deep hole, which could bring back the dead (specifically a dog of a neighbour who had passed away and they threw it in the hole apparently – then seeing it alive later), of cover-ups and witnesses who can’t quite remember where it is but that it holds supernatural powers. Two films spring to mind for this which incidentally came out in the 80’s – Pet Semetary and The Gate, so seems likely it was just a good earner for someone briefly who perhaps wanted to sell a book, who can say for sure.

Houska Castle (Czech Republic) – this one is a bit weirder, and seems to sort of just be accepted as this is what it is, so I’ll just past the whole bit from Wikipedia as it says it all.

“and most specifically the chapel, was constructed over a large hole in the ground that is a “gateway to Hell”, which is allegedly so deep that no one could see the bottom of it. Animal-human hybrids were reported to have crawled out of it, and dark-winged, otherworldly creatures flew in its vicinity. Legend has it that when construction began in the castle, all of the prisoners that were sentenced to death were offered a pardon if they consented to be lowered by rope into the hole, and report back on what they saw. When the first person was lowered, he began screaming after a few seconds, and when pulled back to the surface, he looked as if he had aged 30 years. He had grown wrinkles and his hair had turned white.”

They say it was used by Nazi’s during WWII for experiments into the occult using the “powers of hell”. But the stories go back much further as it is said that the castle is built where it is in the 13th century, “The pit in the lower levels of the castle is said to be a gateway to hell. Thus, by constructing the Gothic building’s defensive walls facing inward, they were able to keep the demons trapped in the lower level’s thickest walls closest to the hole of the castle”

I mean, they all sound pretty much like urban legends and myths, created or updated to fit the time they find themselves in. And strangely although we move towards a ‘tech rev’ it seems that to have a rather medieval undertone to it. Which then makes me think of other random myths, movies, monsters and ideas that seem to remain in our psyche and collective histories. But of the above examples, the one that made me think further was the person being aged 30 years somewhat instantly. A terrifying concept, and if you applied that to Alice in Wonderland, would have been a different story entirely. Gone for an hour topside, but actually it was 30 years once you fell down the hole, and you experienced all those years and grew and came to a world that you no longer knew.

Another film comes to mind here, Flight of the Navigator (1986) – where a kid is missing for what he thinks is an hour or two, but turns out it has been 8 years, and he hasn’t aged a day. It’s a great film, but feels really sad mostly and gives a strange view on how confusing something like that could be.

We always portray in movies and books that there are crypts underground for old creatures, hiding in the bowels of the earth, that come topside to feed and rejuvenate. Vampires and other things of a humanoid nature, but not part of nature as we have been taught.

Time rings, the closer you get to the spinning core, time speeds up. There is a theory that a time dilation occurs when you are either closer of further away from the spinning undertones of our realm, so with that in mind, it could easily be that there is a hole going down into the earth that gets closer to that. Ageing a person as they get closer, but without it being a reverse mechanism, only a one-way ticket to the end. But if you started down there, and could make yourself younger by coming up, well, that would be a different story.

Yet tales of things that dwell down there remain, as do remnants of old cities, tunnels and secrets long buried or hidden from everyday view. So many possibly don’t even give thought to what is underfoot, not even realising the history they are stepping over or on. Or or what perhaps is going on underfoot, we hear more talk these days of modern tunnels and hidden systems operating beneath the surface, of a world you don’t see happening within the world you do. Hidden in plain sight as you might say. And it might be the same for other things, darker and more sinister things that you thought were long since dead or forgotten, but that are still there, you just can’t quite see them…

(c) K Wicks