Megalithic Marvels - Antonio Perez: Exploring Iceland & Ancient Cambodia

Starting point is 00:00:14 Well, welcome, everyone. Dee Olson of Megalithic Marvels here to reconstruct the prehistoric past with you. And I'm excited to be interviewing Explorer Antonio Perez. And we're going to be talking about the megaliths and some ancient sites of Asia today. But before we do, I just want to remind everybody to subscribe to this platform from wherever you're watching, whether it's YouTube or Instagram, so that you don't miss out on future interviews. and videos like this. But Antonio, thank you so much for joining me today.

Starting point is 00:00:48 Hey, Dee. What's up, bro? It's a real pleasure to cooperate with you, bro. I think we met about two years ago via Instagram. If you're on Instagram, follow Megalithic Marvels. And that's where I started to connect with this guy named Antonio. And your handle is called Explore with Antonio. And, man, you've been all over the world traveling.

Starting point is 00:01:10 And so you've been to Asia, which is what we're going to talk about. and you've seen some of the fascinating sites there. But first, tell our viewers and our listeners a little bit about yourself, because, man, you're like crazy. You live in Spain, but you've also lived in Iceland, correct? So tell us about that. I am originally a Spaniard from Madrid.

Starting point is 00:01:31 I'm 40 years old. And I live currently, well, I'm currently in Castilla Leone, in the mountains, the Sierra of Gredos. It's a really beautiful place. And yeah, about Iceland, I've been working in Iceland for the last 15 years, more or less. I was involved in the international world of international volunteering for many years. This is what I did for almost 70 years. I was participating in participating in this type of programs.

Starting point is 00:02:04 So I end up in Iceland working in an environmental organization there for many years. and in the last, yeah, almost the last decade or the last eight years or so, I've been more involved in tourism and more specifically related to the glaciers and the ice caves and such places. So I basically live my life between two waters, you know, Iceland and Spain, yes. Incredible. And I love seeing the pictures of you literally climbing ice caves and crawling through them. got to be wild. Tell us a little bit about the best part of living in Iceland and maybe the hardest part about living over there. Yeah, I mean, like the best part definitely are best parts

Starting point is 00:02:50 are like the nature and the people. Like Icelanders are considered to be the most peaceful and friendly community in the world. So it's actually really, they are really endearing people and really nice to talk with and to interact with. And then, of course, nature. Nature is in Iceland within few hours driving. You will be able to see landscapes that you will need to travel at least to three continents to see. So nature is super powerful because of the huge amount of volcanoes that are located in Iceland. And as well, we got like the biggest glaciers in the European.

Starting point is 00:03:33 European continent. So it's a mix of ice and fire. And yeah, I've been always fascinated about the creation of the earth and like creation of the landscapes and how rocks were formed and all that stuff. So it's like a really interesting place to live. And related to the ice caves and the glaciers. I mean, it's just like it's something, something everybody should see once, you know, to see a frozen world like this, you know, not even in fiction movies, you know. amazing and so now Antonio as far as I know I mean or I don't know is there any does there happen to be any ancient dolmens or Neolithic circles anywhere in Iceland because I haven't seen any photographs of anything like that in Iceland but

Starting point is 00:04:17 you would know better than I would right nope there is Iceland this you know it is belief that the first settlement of Iceland took place around 1,000 years ago by Norwegian Vikings and so it is a really you know new baby land let's say and also like a really short kind of sort of history

Starting point is 00:04:42 but it is also believed that there were people before the Vikings arrived it is believed that there were actually Irish monks living in Iceland but on the arrival of the Vikings for them to be able to declare that the island was completely empty and therefore it was them island.

Starting point is 00:05:03 Some people believe that they actually kill all of them and destroy all the chapels and everything that was already built it. Because they had found some Roman coins and some kind of like the floor of an ancient chapel and certain things that do not belong to the period of the arrival of the Vikings, but much earlier. In fact, they believed that the Holy Grial of Christ was the hidden in Iceland.

Starting point is 00:05:27 So there is a whole mysticism related to that. But no, there is a giant structure built in the northeast of Iceland. It's actually the most northeastern part of the country, north-most-eastern part village. It is called the Arctic Hench. And let's say it's a megalithic structure. It's built with giant rocks. I know I knew the person who started because he passed away a few years ago.

Starting point is 00:05:56 It was an Icelander from the village. a very small billets where only 150 people live. It's at the line of the Arctic Circle, and it's completely flat. It's a total tundra. So all the rocks, the bedrock are at the surface and there is geomagnetism due to the Arctic Circle line and the Polos and so on. So these guys, they decide to build up this structure, which is like some kind of like a giant solar clock for, you know, for Viking mythology. And all the things. also to attract tourism to come there, but they put the whole idea together,

Starting point is 00:06:32 a group of Icelanders, I think, maybe seven people, and started to build it. I can tell you that only 20% of the structure is built, and a million euros was spent on machinery and to break off the rocks from the quarry and transport them to side, and then for those Polish workers

Starting point is 00:06:52 that they were working on the machines, to build up the structure, And the structure actually was, they didn't use any cement on it or nothing, but they use, you know, they use metal, you know, like piles of metal between the rocks and so on. So it's really interesting site. It's called Arctic Hench. It's in northeast Iceland. It's really famous for Northern Light Sites Inn. Yeah, but nothing like really ancient, not more than a thousand years old or something like that. Amazing. I'll have to check that out. Right, so let's talk about that real quick. So you live in Spain and just real quick, tell us kind of, you sounds like you live in a really remote area on a beautiful farm.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Tell us a little bit about what you do there and then we'll jump into the Asian ancient sites. Basically, my whole idea of like I'm 40 years old now, I've been traveling for the last 20 years since I was a teenage, basically going through all type of international programs for interstate. cultural learning and so on. So that property I'm living now was the first ever property I bought in my life. I bought it at my age of 38 and it is, it is in fact a land. Some people will call it a plot, so you will call it a, yeah, maybe some people will call it a rancho. I basically have a lot of olive trees. I have around 250 olive trees which are from dry land. So I don't water them or nothing like that. They are 100% organic to produce 100% extra virgin olive oil. I am in the mountains in Castile Leon. It's in the center of Spain. It's a really historical part of our country. There's many

Starting point is 00:08:39 castles here, many things because in the ancient times, the kings and queens used to come from Castilla, what is the origin of our language too, Castellano. And here I am at the mountains. It's called Sierra de Gredos, and it's the second highest mountains in our country. It's also the richest ecosystem in the in the country. So it's full of all type of animals and wildlife. And I live on the top of the mountain. I run this property almost two hectares. I also have figs and I have some apples. I make wine. Let's talk on the sites you've seen in Asia because that's really what I wanted to get to because I've seen that you've been to Cambodia and you've You've been to Anchor Wat, and you've been to the Coker Pyramid.

Starting point is 00:09:25 And I have loved some of the photos you've posted on your Instagram of the Coker pyramid. Because usually when I see this site, it's, you know, people are showing far away photos of it. And it's really hard to see up close. And you've captured some amazing photographs where you're literally touching the sides of what looks like giant megalithic blocks. because a lot of the temples over there, it doesn't appear megalithic. The stones are smaller, but this one, again, giant, almost polygonal-looking stones on the side. Tell us a little bit about that pyramid, what you experienced. And are those stones of that temple different and bigger than a lot of the others around there?

Starting point is 00:10:09 The blocks of the pyramid are gigantic. They are seven floors, seven steps. the original step stairway that was going to the top it's you know it's yeah like broken like

Starting point is 00:10:27 it falls apart but they had they had built like a kind of like a weak poor kind of stairway made of made of wood that you can go all the way to the top so you can see the top of the pyramid it is kind of dangerous

Starting point is 00:10:42 like everything is there like you see those giant blocks they are also sharp some of them is quite easy to like you know twist your angle so you really have to pay attention when you go to the top there at the top there is really strange there is like a hole in the middle made with giant blocks and they also have like holes like kind of tube drill holes quite big like you know like a hand kind of big and it goes all the way to the bottom of the pyramid you cannot see it because it's dark but you can see that the the tunnel at the up, it goes all the way down straight. And there, there is like a platform. And that platform is held by some kind of a strange being. He kind of don't know the name of, but it's kind of a mix of a

Starting point is 00:11:28 lion with a dragon or something like that, and it's holding the platform. So below the platform, you have that hole that goes all the way to the button. When I went also to the front of the vitamin to see the ancient stairway, what I find out is that it's like if just there was an explosion there, you know, there was an explosion there and all the rocks kind of like exploded, you know, like there was an explosion and everything was like, so it wasn't because of time, because also that area, that tunnel of the stairway was completely black, like, and I have photos of it. Also, the blocks, I was looking for. the polygonal. I always looked for the polygonal. So I was trying to find out it was something

Starting point is 00:12:16 and I found out, let's say, some polygonal, but maybe just not the same thing in other parts of the world, but the same thing in terms of like giant blocks, shape perfectly, put together, no mortal, no nothing, just pure gravity. And it was amazing, yeah. I mean, the entire complex of Ankhore Wat, not only the Cocker Temple, there are so many, you know, abandoned temples all over the place that they are completely, you know, kind of destroyed so there is no money to, you know, to lift them up again. But I had never seen so many blocks of stone in my life, like in Ankhawatt, in any other site on the planet, not even in modern times. Like, it's just so massive, you know. Also, it was fascinated to the,

Starting point is 00:13:11 be in Cambodia, not expecting to see a pyramid, just to expect to see all the temples. Then suddenly, I am in the middle of the jungle in Cambodia, where just recently there were war and mines and nobody could go. Then there is this giant beautiful pyramid, like out of nowhere. I was out of words. I could just not believe it. Of course, I was touching everything, photographing everything, and then you start, of course, to resemble like how a pyramid like this can be, you know, in Cambodia. like it's just so similar than the Mexican ones and and and then you learn about it and it's supposed that that parameter that is even some underground floors that I didn't know so yeah I highly recommend it yeah

Megalithic Marvels - Antonio Perez: Exploring Iceland & Ancient Cambodia

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