Megalithic Marvels - Strange Ancient Mysteries of Turkey / Hugh Newman

Episode Date: December 3, 2023

In this exclusive interview I am joined by researcher, explorer and author Hugh Newman to talk about the many strange ancient mysteries of Turkey! Hugh and I discuss the latest exciting discoveries that have been made at Karahan Tepe - especially that of a 7+ ft giant humanoid statue. Hugh breaks down other mysteries at Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe that he has witnessed first hand such as serpentine head that emerges from a specific enclosure at Karahan Tepe. I also ask Hugh about an enigmatic subterranean tunnel that he recently visited, as well as his recent visit to the infamous and controversial site known as "Noah's Ark." Does Hugh think it is the actual remains from the Bible story? Watch to find out... Hugh also gives us a preview of his exciting new book "Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe: The World's First Megaliths" Get Hugh's book here JOIN US FOR OUR 2024 EGYPT OR PERU/BOLIVIA TOUR HERE GET ALL YOUR TRAVEL/ VIDEO GEAR DEALS HERE FOLLOW US HERE - Youtube - Blog - Instagram - TikTok - X/ Twitter - Facebook

Stargate Voyager. I think we're looking again at a lost technology, and it was this ancient apocalypse 12,800 years ago that wiped that from the human memory backs. Why were these ancient elongated, skull peoples, or humanoids of Malta living underground? Now I believe we're talking prior to 9,700 BC for the original construction of the sphinx.

And they were what some people have, called giants, probably no more than seven to eight feet tall. And those giants have been pulled out of American mouths. Whether it's the colossal statue heads that have been on earth, to all the strange artifacts you've been showing in the museums, to some of the strange features they seem to possess, the more I learn about the Omet culture, really the more fascinated I become. Well, it's great to have Hugh Newman back with me. Hugh is a researcher, explorer, and now author, Hugh, thanks for joining me again. Thanks for having me on.

Appreciate it. Yeah, man. You are, what I love about you is you're not just a researcher who writes articles and blogs, but man, you're constantly out there in the field exploring. I love seeing all your photos, videos on your YouTube channel, Megalithomania. And you've written how many books now? Oh, I've got like three or four, three of done myself, I think, And I've done a few with Jim Vieira as well and also collaborated on a few kind of compendiums like megalith studies and stone and sensing the earth with a whole bunch of other authors.

So yeah, quite a few on the go. And we're kind of a third of the way through another one now as well with that I'm working on with JJ Ainsworth. Amazing. Yeah. I really wanted to get you back on here to talk about your latest book, Go Beckley-Tepi and Karahan-Tepi, the world's first megalat. that's the complete title of the book. So, man, I was thinking about with all the recent discoveries at both of these sites, you could not have planned the release of your book any better.

It's like you had a prophecy or something. How did you time this like this? Yeah, no, that's interesting that. Yeah, no, it just, well, the publisher always brings them out in like October every year. So we rush to get it in for publication and finish it, you know, the end of May. And yeah, and then just happened to be actually while we were in Turkey, I was able to Andrew Collins and JJ.

And yeah, these discoveries were being made. We actually kind of were there when it was happening. We saw the new enclosure. They wouldn't let anyone see the statues. So we had to wait until they kind of publicly announced it. But luckily our friend happened to be there the day they publicly announced it. And we got immediate, we got all the photos and all the footage and everything sent over to us. Yeah, it's quite impressive.

I mean, the discovery's being made there are astonishing. We have to remember, you know, when it comes to these sites in Southeast Turkey, you know, these are almost 12,000-year-old sites, many of them, they are, this is the process of discovery happening right now. This is it, you know. So every few months, every year at least, there's going to be announcements like this. There's going to be new statues, new enclosures, new revelations. It just, I don't think it's going to stop for quite a long time.

So, yes, privilege. to be around at this time, to be out there, and to have this book coming out when it's all happening. Most people in this space have known about Go Beckley-Tepi for a long time, yet, like you said, it's just the, we've barely scratched the surface of what's there. And so it seems like there's more discoveries coming out of Go-Bekly-Tepi than anywhere else, even Egypt, Peru, and so that's what's so exciting. So I want to ask you about these, we'll get into detail about these recent, discoveries, one, which includes a very fascinating giant statue. But talk to us a little bit about your

book. Tell us kind of, I know you've been going to Turkey for years now. You've been on the ground, but tell us kind of about your inspiration and your journey to writing this book and what you think people would enjoy most about it. Well, yeah, the book has kind of been on the cards for a couple of years. I've been working with my publisher John Martineau. Also with Andrew Collins and JJ, they've been assisting me of kind of getting it all together. A brilliant artist called Dan Lish. This is the

book itself. It's not a huge book. It's not massive or anything, but it's beautifully illustrated by Dan Lish and myself. We spend a lot of time making it look very nice. It's kind of like the design of this series of books that come out. I've been published for many years. But yeah,

obviously I've been visiting Quebec Leetepi since 2013, so what, 10 years now. And also Carrahan-Tepa since 2014, long before it was excavated. So it's quite a treat to actually be able to get to these sites before all the roofs went over and the visitor center that kind of gets built and things like this.

So yeah, and honestly, it's just the sheer age of them that really grabbed my attention because, you know, being a megalithromaniac, I'm obsessed by anything ancient with big stones associated with it. That's my key kind of focus. you know, the whole megalithamia conference and everything else. So, yeah, to be able to get out there these early stages, especially with Carahan-Tipi, I mean, the site there is when I was there in 2014, even in 2018, when I was there,

like, it's just like tops of tea pillars sticking out the ground like this much, you know, it's like, what is going to be found here? I mean, what is going to be unearthed? I mean, we had no idea. I mean, we had an inkling of some of the ideas, you know, obviously there's going to be similar to Quebec Le Tapie, but when you've got that stuff, like the pillar shrines or structure A, B, with all the kind of carved out a solid bedrock with these pillars carved out of bedrock, stone head coming off the side.

It's just astonishing, you know, when you kind of think of the technology and just the innovation and artistic ideas to create such things, you know, going back nearly, what, 12,000 years. Well, officially, Carad-Tepa is 11,400 years old, the earliest phase. It was Quebec-Tepi's 11,600 years old, the earliest phase. of that, although both potentially could have other layers that have yet to be in excavate. So the dates are still in the process, really, of, you know, proven exactly when they were built. When I think of Gobeckley-Tepe or Karan-Tepe, especially, and for people who might be a little bit new to these sites,

Karhan-Tepe is like the sister site of Go-beckley-Tepe, which is how far away is that in miles or meters? is from from chanelartha sorry from Quebec Lee Tepe it's probably like 23 24 miles something like that sort of south east of it and yeah so

it's in these mountains called the Tech Tech Mountains there's a few other sites in the area as well like Sefei Tepe Harbert Zoo Van Ketchley Tepe which is actually just next to Carrahan Tepe and a couple of other sites that are kind of starting to be excavated

So it's a genuine, very unusual area. It's like a kind of marsh and landscape. There's no trees. There's no water. There's nothing. You know, it's just like the odd farm here and there and just solid rock everywhere, limestone plateaus and everything else. So yeah, it's pretty remarkable, unusual place to kind of drive through on your way to this particular site. What are people going to come away with after they read this?

Like obviously they're going to kind of know the in-depth history of these sites, the most, some of the greatest, discoveries at these sites and is there a chapter in there that's your most favorite? Well, yeah, this book is quite compact, so we kind of put it into spreads, if you like, whereas there's images

to go with one theme, like mini chapters, and we get into quite a few different subjects. Obviously, like you said, we cover the main history, you know, the kind of, you know, what people know already, but we also get into the invisible sciences of these places, like the archaeo-acoustic,

the astronomy, even the strange energies that have been recorded there scientifically. And also the fact that we, JJ and I discovered this winter solstice alignment at Carrot-Hanthepa ourselves. We've placed that in it and with Andrew, especially his very into our astronomy, we've kind of worked out a few more alignments since it's more has been uncovered. Even the new discoveries have alignments associated with the brand new ones, which Andrews are going to publish about in due course. And so, yeah, so we cover all these different subjects. I also get into more obscure, kind of out there subjects,

which I particularly enjoy, like the kind of geodetic relationship between other sites around the planet, similarities, you know, with the designs and how they can be compared to other ancient cultures. We also look at, this is working with JJ on this mainly, we look at the Lewyant type script, almost like some of the carvings, are very much like a kind of Hittite script from 7,000 or 8,000 years later, mind you. But they're very similar, so there may be an influence even there as well.

And we go into a question of what these sites were used for. Are they really just? Are they temples? Are they community spaces? Are they dance arenas? Are they kind of theatres? are they a mixture of everything? Some people claim their homes and had roofs on them and things like this,

which is kind of strange but interesting. And we kind of delve into that. We look at the construction techniques and how they were using advanced geometry and metrology, something I've personally focused on a lot, and I've got a big article coming out about that in a couple of months. We've managed to work out. They were using the same measurement systems as Egypt and Sumeria

and Stonehenge and places like this, which is astonishing, and it proves that that's where it must have all come from. So this is all kind of new information. We put some of it in the book, whatever we could squeeze in, but we've got a larger format book on working on with JJ, which is going to go into much more detail. You mentioned the energies of these sites. Have you or JJ ever felt, you know,

some energy coming out of any of these places at Karhan Tepe or Go Beckley Tepe? Yeah, I think I get like so kind of hyper and excited virtually every time I go that I think it could just be because I'm going to these super ancient sites. We know, for instance, there has been an analysis done in Enclosure D at Quebec Leitepe, for instance, where they found, this was done by Paolo Derbatois of Trieste University back in the mid-2000s. you wrote a paper on this is it's all on academia.edu people want to look at it. We mentioned it in the book as well. He did some analysis on the acoustics, but he also had some magnetometer equipment as well and did some a magnetometer survey of enclosure D, specifically the enclosure,

like the stone circle really he was working in. And between the two central pillars, now most, in case people don't know, most of the enclosure that Quebec Leitepe have two central pillars. The ones are enclosed at 18 feet tall and they're pretty much intact, actually. almost balancing in these very shallow pits on top of these large pedestals. Enclosure D itself is at least 60 feet wide, so it's not a small space. There's multiple of these spaces. But in the middle of enclosure D, he found these acoustic effects, which, and the different frequencies he found,

certainly proved to affect consciousness and things like this. So it may have been a kind of sacred space. But when he did the magnetometer tests, he found something remarkable. we found this spiraling magnetic field in the middle of enclosure D and recorded it from every different angle he could and concluded that there was a magnetic anomaly there going on right in the centre between these two pillars and this was pretty much natural and may have been built around

by the builders, that may have been where they even chose that site to utilise that for some purpose. Now we know that different magnetic fields, fields and anomalies, negative and positive and everything else can affect consciousness. It can affect your brain chemistry, can affect your glands in your brain and everything else. But also is no, you know, this with the work of John Burke and Kajalberg in their book, Seed of Knowledge Stone of Plenty, and other researchers like Philip Callaghan and Alana Moore, the Roach Stone Age farming, for instance.

They know that these kind of magnetic anomalies are associated with enhancing seeds and grains and the growth of food. And we also know now that this is the area where the first farming, the first agriculture, the first food cultivation took place. So is there a connection that has been overlooked by the archaeologist and everything else? So was there something quite magical and this subtle understanding of magnetism being known about at this very, very early time? And if so, where did that come from?

I mean, where did anything? I mean, the style of the stonework, the sophistication, the magnitude, the kind of a genius level kind of building we're seeing here. All of this just seems to appear out of nowhere, although we do find a legacy of it, that we can find little roots before that have obvious influences, which we certainly talk about. But, you know, the fact is there is a genuine energy there, a magnetic energy. And also one of the other things is that before it was excavated, before Quebec Leitepe was uncovered, there's a mulberry tree on top of the hill. This is known as the wish tree. And this wish tree is where people will go to make wishes, especially to do with fertility, because this for a long time, this was known as Quebecle Tepe, which means pot belly hill or naval hill, like a pregnant belly. And it really sticks out of a landscape.

It looks like it's just sticking out. it's quite tall compared to the other natural hills in the area. And so women would go up there, they pray for fertility, leave little ribbons and things like this on the mulberry tree, which is still there. People still go there. And even there was different graves and everything buried there, you know, going up until a few hundred years ago. But no one knew Quebec Leitepe was there.

So they knew something profound and had this energy about it to be able to go up there and make these prayers and wishes for a healthy pregnancy. And we know that certain types of magnetism in certain forms, possibly from this magnetic anomaly there, spiraling magnetic anomaly, could actually enhance fertility. This is the principle of what a lot of people have been writing about for quite a long time.

And it all starts fitting together, the myths, stories, the traditions, and everything else, even the development of agriculture. You mentioned the discovery you guys made of the solstice, alignment on the face, I think that goes through the portal stone. I still can't get over that face in the head discovered at Karan Tepe. It's so massive. And I think last time we talked,

you pointed out, it's almost got like a serpentine features on the neck. Just an incredible place. I want to ask you about this recent discovery at Karan Tepe of the 7 foot 6 inch humanoid statue. it's at least 11,000 years old. I mean, when I saw this photo, I was like, whoa, okay, this is strange features, very again, humanoid looking. And then you realize this thing is not just life size, it's 7 foot 6 inch. Give me your thoughts on when you first saw it and everything you've learned since. Yeah, this is found in the new enclosure up at the top of the hill. hasn't got to name this enclosure yet

but we spotted that in the mid-September obviously they found it by them but they kept a secret and in the enclosure itself there's giant tea pillars like five metres tall or like probably 16 feet something like this, a broken fallen, there's a whole stone

going towards the north as well and pillars around the edge only some of it's been excavated but just to one side of this whole stone and this kind of little altar below it which has a vulture statue as well as well as a really remarkably polished stone plate which many have been found now at the site but this statue is like what uh 2.3 meters or 7.6 5 foot 6 inches

and and it's kind of slightly seated it's only like one of the benches you get around all these sites around the edge where the outer t pillars kind of sit between it was found of three parts broken it's got ribs coming down the side 12 on each side it's got arms, sort of thin arms coming down the side with his hands touching, going towards its navelas, which is sticking out. You know, it's like, you know, it's a symbol we find, not just here. We find it at Saborch. We find it at other sites in the area. But the head is quite big, but it's got this weird haircut on it as well.

It's almost like shaved above the ears. It's almost like a mullet sort of brush back going flat at the back. It's pretty cool. And I'm like, maybe we'll get it done like that. And it's got a little square indent, like a little raised square on its chest between the ribs. And yeah, it's just humanoid. It's very human. And this is like the earliest human statue that was found, anywhere on the planet was found in this area,

in Shenelorfer, a site called Yemenhali, which is in the Baliklagal area. It's called the Balikligal statue near the Pools of Abraham. It used to be a pre-pottery Neolithic site there. and that was the oldest statue for a long time and that takes to about maybe 800 years now younger than this one. This is older, so this is now the oldest human statue

found anywhere on the planet and it's seven and a half feet tall which is like, hang on a sec, because Earth for Man or the belliculical statue was a 5 foot 9 or nearly 6 feet tall and so that was a life size so we have to question is this life size is it representing one of the builders of these sites?

Andrew has been speculating and discussed with me. He's convinced this could be an actual statue, a representation of an anarchy, or a watcher of the biblical tradition, which is pretty astonishing in its own right, because it really is quite detail. It's a little bit of war, and it was broken in three places when it was found

and kind of buried beneath the bench. But it's just astonishing that stuff like this is still being discovered. Yeah, it's definitely astonishing because we're talking to things at least 11,000 years old. Yet despite the massive weathering, the detail is still incredible. I mean, that's the conclusion I come to is that kind of it sounds like what Andrew Cullen is telling you possibly. Is this depicting one of the ancient hybrids, right? Whether it's some kind of Nephilim that we would read about in Genesis 6'4, because it's got that, like you said, strange head.

It's not just some rounded head. It's a strange-shaped head, spindly arms, very strange. And then when we put it in context with some of these other discoveries in the area, like the other humanoid depictions you mentioned down at Saberich, tell us about that one because that guys also look similar. But then there's a relief next to him with an animal. entity with six fingers, correct? Yeah, yeah, there's a ton of weird stuff being found in this area.

So we have this one, you know, we have this statue from Carahan-Tepa. We have, must remember, there's a statue in one of the enclose AH at Carajan-Tepa, which has eight fingers on each hand. You know, the head's missing, but it's a central T-pillar representing eight fingers. Even Neshmi Karel, the head archaeologist, said none of the statues up until like a year ago at the correct amount of fingers. There was a lot of strange things going on with extra digits and things like this. At Sayberch, we have this beautiful panel. This is another Tastepela site. Tastabola means Stonehill. It's the name of the project of this area. And that is remarkable. They've got

this beautiful panel carved out of bedrock with this gentleman standing there. Again, holding this phallus with V-neck, much like this one, and Erfaman. Next to it, two leopards. But just to his right, or when you're looking at it to the left, there's another guy who's like jumping. holding something in his hand, but on one hand he's got more than five fingers. You know, he's got six, possibly seven fingers on it, which is very, very odd. And he's kind of almost being attacked by what looks like a bull or an oric, which is very symbolic. It looks like what we find at some of the later phase parts of Quebec Le Tepe,

but also what we see at Chattelhoiac in hunting scenes and things like this. So, yeah, there's a lot of different ideas about what this could all mean, but yes, we are finding representations of... giant human beings, extra digits on hands and things like this, and even some of the statues from Carrahan-Tepa, which are in the Shannelhoea Museum, so what appear to be elongated skulls? Now, these aren't actual elongated skulls.

These are statues and heads, and they go way, way back with a very intense look, very strange look on their face. So who are these people representing? Yeah, that's the big question. if we could go back into a time machine to 11,000 years ago, do you think it was the entire population that might have been humanoid hybrids or was it just the ruling class that was ruling over just more archaic humans?

Yes, good question. That's a tough one actually to get any answers on. I mean, very few skeletal remains have been found. That's the thing. I mean, we did actually see some skeletal remains at Saber, in the new excavation there. But yes, really hard to tell. I mean, some of the depictions have very odd features

as we've been talking about, the extra fingers, the elongated heads, extremely tall, very kind of powerful-looking individuals. And in my opinion, this is my hypothesis, my speculation here, that I think that there was a ruling class. You know, I think this is just natural. I think they may have,

they had these arts and sciences intact. They were teachers. I believe this was an innovation centre, possibly a type of university. And these were like also sacred places as well where there were ceremonies recording the movements of the sun, moon and stars. And also the carvings, I believe, a lot of the represent memories and teaching tools going back maybe thousands of years before these sites were constructed. There's also a fertility element here as well with all the symbolism we're finding and especially with the new statue. is a good example of that. And so I get a sense that this was a very classy, very sophisticated group who seemed to develop, maybe even in this area just through the influx of different people and different kind of genetics,

but also possibly through the ingestion of, you know, sacred medicines that may have been growing in the area, which certainly could have happened here. We know they were brewing beer. We know that Ergot is produced for the... the growth of beer. This was found a I think Rackachic Cave in Israel which goes back 13,000, 40,000 years. They found evidence of Ergot there.

There's also these pillars in the pillar shrine or structure AB could be represent mushrooms as well. We know that they would domesticate cattle eventually with orrochs, bulls and cows and things like this. Silocybin mushroom would grow

on their dung and things like this. So this is all been talked about for a long time, even related to Chetman. work. So yeah, so they may have developed on them on their own, but possibly through genetic influences and also through plant medicine influences. On Graham Hancock's recent visit with Joe Rogan, Graham had some great points. And one of them he made kind of near the beginning of the show was that, you know, for years, Robert Schock were kind of ridiculed for their theories that the sphinx could be, you know, 12,000 plus years old due to all the water erosion that they pointed out that surrounds the sphinx and on the sphinx in its enclosure, right?

Archaeologists said for years, oh, that's impossible. There's no other megalis this old. But then Gobeckley-Tepi comes along. And as you point out in your books, and as we've talked about it, it's forcing even mainstream to rewrite their history timelines, right? So I guess my question is, oh, so Graham's point was, if the ancients could build Gobeckley-Tepi with these 20-ton, massive T-pillars and these amazing statues that we've just been talking about, certainly they could also carve the sphinx out of the limestone bedrock, right?

Yeah, I have to agree. I mean, yeah, certainly, if they can create, Carahan Tepe, which is a lot of it is carved out of the bedrock. And now they find it Seiberch is. Some of the lower levels of Quebec Leitepe are. This is a huge undertaking. It's a similar kind of story. It's a limestone.

Sphinx is also limestone, I believe. And this is why the sort of weathering or water damage over time is kind of is presented as it is. The dating on it, yeah, I mean, various people, including John Anthony West and then Robert Schock and others have suggested. It is super ancient. Even Breval, Robert Beval and Graham themselves said in the Keeper Genesis that it's 10,500 BC because it aligns. That's when during the cycle of procession of the equinoxes and the obliquity of the ecliptic,

that when the sun rises on the equinox, Leo would rise at that time. Which also happens at Carrahantepe, finally enough, and the head looks towards the east. So we've done a bit of research on that as well. and we believe there could be something significant related even to ancient Egypt. Because if they're right with the timing there, there is evidence of certain sites in Egypt that go that far back in other parts of Egypt, then it seems there must be a connection. It's something that various people have discussed.

And even Klaus Schmidt talked about this before we died a few years ago. So I get a sense that if you can create the Begli-Tepe and Karahan-Tepa, you can carve a sphinx. So I wanted to ask you about another site you were at recently back in Turkey that just amazed me. And this was the, I think you said it was a 100 meter long subterranean tunnel. Tell us about this because this thing was not just, it's not just some whole carved in the bedrock. It was shaped with like some precision edges in Turkey. Tell us about this tunnel. Yeah, this is something that we've got tipped.

off about myself and Andrew and JJ when we were there last time. We were investigating some of the unexcavated testabular sites. They're part of the Tastebola, one of the 12 sites but haven't been excavated yet. We were looking around at a few of them just to

sort of see what was going on, see if we can find anything. And we got to know, we got chatting with the local kind of mayor, really, of this village, this guy who kind of is elder of the village. And he bought out loads of artifacts. I said, look, yeah, there's stuff going on here. We found cut marks in the area.

Then we found, he said, look, there's a tunnel down there, it's 100 meters long, and it was 300 feet, and at the end of it, is a carving of a warrior, we think. Now, we haven't been in there for years, and you're welcome to come and have a look sometime, so we were like, whoa, okay, we'll

do that then. So we actually got around to doing it on our last trip, this we were there, like a year ago, and we heard about it, but we'd not been able to have investigated since. So, yeah, we went down, you know, you've got to remove your fear of, like, spiders and rats and things like this and just go down and hope for the best. And we did that. We went through this, this kind of entrance, this covered over a bush, got down, and it's pitch black,

sit all over the walls, have been fire in there a lot. And it slopes down at, you know, this angle all the way down. And it's got a flat floor, but it's full of rubble now. and these is curved it's like 20 feet wide but then every say 20 30 feet there's another kind of thing it kind of gets

slightly thinner as you kind of go down to the end and we couldn't get right down to the end because it's full of rubble but we did see worked stones down there like blocks and we have no idea what's going on here there's no record of it

in the village there's no record of it in the archaeological circles and it's a giant undertaking. This is a serious engineering project. And you can see the tool marks, you know, the ancient toolmarks. And it's just, we have no idea who built it. It's right in the middle of this Quebec Le Tepe-sized site

that's not been excavated yet. And we just don't know. We know that there's a spring at this particular site in this area. So we know that that could be to do. It could be a well. But why would you create such, A large, beautifully carved so deep. You could just carve a small hole into the ground,

send a bucket down on a bit of rope. And it's like, so it doesn't make any sense it's a well. So it also has alignments which we're working on. I'll be trying to work them out at the minute. And if you're looking out from it, the sun would illuminate the whole thing at certain times a year. Like it does Carrahan-Tepa through the hold stone, illuminating the stonehead on the winter solstice.

And so, yeah, we don't know. We don't know if it could have been built by the Romans for some reason, it, why would they do it? Where does it lead? Does it continue? Does it flatten out and continue across the landscape to other places? Is it a secret area where they kept treasure? What is it?

We just don't know. So I'm going to make a little video of our little exploration. I posted some photos previously, and so did Andrew. We were just like, what is going on here? So we are going to go back and have another look. We'll be given permission, see what we come up with. See if we can get. We're going to get proper hazmat suits on this.

time because I ruined some of my favorite explorer clothes just from the soot everywhere, just completely covered in black so there. There's been a lot of fire going on down there at some point. So, yeah, so we're going to keep looking. But yeah, it's just an anomaly. It just, if that was anywhere else, that would be a big deal, but it's completely ignored. Or the archaeologists don't know much about it, you know, we don't know. But this is why I feel it's so important and such a timely.

thing to go and get out and look at these sites because this is all happening now. And stuff like that will be blocked off in the next few years once they start excavating. It'll all be blocked off. That reminds me of having just been in Peru. There was this site at Oyante Tambo that we were at with a really great guide. He stopped us when we were at this Hawaka, the Inca would call it right, which they considered the sacred altar, but way predates them. And our guide literally said, hey, enjoy this, because I don't think by this time next year, anybody will ever be even allowed in here. And he pointed out how they're remaking this, you know, modern wall to block it off, just slowly but surely, right, systematically closing down

all these, these cool extra spots you can see. So Hugh, you were, just posted a photo recently of you and JJ and maybe some others at, um, what is known by some as Noah's Ark. So I got a bunch of questions for you on this, but kind of just give us the backstory. Why were you at Noah's Ark? And what were your thoughts? Yeah, this is controversial, to say the least.

But this is a site in, it's near Mount Ararat. So it's near Varn or Lake Varn in eastern Turkey, almost going towards Armenia, really. We were actually, this was part of our tour we did in September. but we're doing this kind of Eastern Turkey Garden of Eden kind of tool. And this is the biblical location of where Noah's Ark was supposed to have landed in the biblical tradition. This is it on the edges of Mount Ararat. This isn't actually on Mount Ararat itself.

It's on the next bunch of mountains just next to it. And you can literally see Ararat just behind it. And it looks like, it's like, what is it, 500 cubits long, something like this. And that's the, you know, if you work it out, that's what it said in the, the Bible. There was a researcher back in the 70s, did a whole thing about it, claimed it was Noah Zarks. Some people say it's just what's left of a geological anomaly, which you get, you know,

these strange shapes that look like kind of almonds or, you know, like this kind of shape, like a for Sygiphysis, the middle of her for Sycopyces thing. And it's huge. And, you know, but it has, he's claimed this research, I forget, his name 100%. Wasn't it Ron Wyatt? Yeah. That's right. It was wrong way. Yes, thank you for correcting me there. And he was there in the 70s and 80s doing a ton of research.

He claims to have found wood, like rotted wood or fossilized wood. He even claims to have found metal particles as well. And he found all these other evidence that the measurements, the placement of it and everything else proving it was Noah's Ark. It even went through the government officials. They agreed it was Noah's Ark and did a big opening. created a visitor center there, which you can still visit all the photos and everything that's up there. And a lot of people still think it's really Noah's Ark, but we had a geologist with us, and he said, no, he doesn't think so. It's a very unusual geology, which just happens to match the

dimensions of Noah's Ark in the Bible. So there's still controversy about it. Some people still claim it is the remains, the remnants of, you know, Noah's Ark. Others say no, it's geology, but the jury's out but we had to go there and have a look you know and so we luckily we got access to it we climbed all over it i got permission to fly my drone up there because we got some nice shots of it with ararat in the back and it really is compelling because it's like firstly you're in this biblical area you know it really is the bible area this is it this is like garden of eden this is the nozah land it the floods receded and everything else and so you know it kind of kind of brings out this kind of magic when you're there because you get this little sense of these biblical traditions. But at the same time, your scientific brain kicks in and you're kind of asking many, many hard questions trying to get your head around it. But yes, a fascinating place. I mean, if you do go to Ararat or you do go to Varan, it's worth the effort to get up and have a look for yourself and make up your own mind. So they allow the public to go into this site and go up and touch this formation?

You can get near it. Yeah, they let you walk down. There's a visitor center up on a hill and you walk down into this valley where it kind of is and you can get close to it. They're not supposed to walk on it, but they don't really mind so much. You just do it anyway and it's fine. But yeah, that's it. You can actually literally go and visit Noah's Ark, simple as that.

I kind of kept the kind of open mind and sort of was feeling the magic of the place a little bit because there was something special about that whole area. haven't never been there before and there's also nearby there's some of these standing stones that are called the anchor stones these are found in the local villages they're now used gateposts some are in the middle

of village squares and these are quite large stones and a few feet tall with holes carved through them so people believe Ron Wyatt one of them that these were the anchors of Noah's Ark that's why they got the name the anchor stones but they're also, if you go back, these are also traditional Armenian gravestones.

That's one of the other associations with them. You actually find similar things like that at the cycle Carajunge in nearby Armenia, which is a massive stone circle complex with avenues coming off it over the border in Armenia. So, yeah, there's debates about all the different aspects of this, but it's a fascinating, fascinating area. I'm glad you brought up the standing stones. Yeah, I did a deep dive on this a few years back, and I found those photos, and they clearly look like giant ancient anchors, because your normal standing stones that we see in

Europe that you're very familiar with, they don't have giant holes in the top like, you know, a massive rope or chain went through them, right? So they clearly look like massive ancient anchors. So you've got these anchor stones nearby. You've got the exact biblical location, right? Mount Airat, which the Bible says is where the arc stopped once the floods receded. So you've got it in that right in that area. And then I've seen research that said it probably slid down the hill, you know, on glaciers over the,

over the eons of time. So you've got the location. You've got the exact length of the arc mentioned in the Bible. And then, oh, by the way, this thing looks like a ribbed boat. I'm not a geologist. I haven't seen it up close like you have. But to me, that's almost irrefutable that this could be the Noah's Ark. I don't want to say it is because I haven't been there. I'm not a geologist. But again, from what I've seen, from all those pieces of evidence. And then the fact that Ron Wyatt and others were given permission to pull core samples, they found like these giant, like you said, metal, not bolts, but metal rivets that seem to have been holding the wood together or something. So any other thoughts on that?

And are you going to post a video, a drone video featuring this? Yeah, I've definitely given up to a video. Yeah, I got, yeah, I kind of, when I was there, I did, I kind of recorded quite a bit of talking about it in the little museum they have there and at the site. And yeah, I'll be making a video for sure. Yeah, it's a difficult one. I mean, it's like one of them places that, I mean, half the guests were really, really liked it when they were on our tour. The other half were going, why are we here here, Hugh, really? you know so there's like a you know a bit of a kind of split when it comes to visiting sites where

it's that controversial but i've got to be honest with you if you if you're gonna it's worth going anyway because it's a beautiful area you get to see so much more in the general area next time we're going to go find the anchor stones as you have a look at them because even if they're just megaliths with holes carved in them like a median gravestones are very very interesting nonetheless but yeah i mean i mean you look at the you look at the evidence you look at all the data Ron Wyatt and others have put together since I think Ron Wyatt passed a few years ago. And it's compelling. You know, you have to admit it is a compelling story.

And it just, it's lots of little very unusual coincidences kind of linking up. If it isn't no result. So yeah, so it's well worth checking out. And one more question on this. So like, again, if you see a drone's eye view or photograph of this, it definitely looks, you know, like. the ribs of a boat. Up close, did you see anything protruding or anything that gave you a sense that this was

just more than a natural formation? It's just the unusual shape of it. It just didn't make sense because we haven't seen, you know, driving there for like two or three hours from Lake Varn, you know, it's quite away from there. It's, I didn't see anything that looked like that in the area. I mean, I'm not a geologist. I don't know the area that well. It's my first visit there, as Andrews's first visit as well, and JJ's.

So we were kind of just going along with, like, oh, my God, you know, just documenting what we could. You just see in the kind of, you know, the skeleton, you know, what's left of the kind of, it looks like there's loads of mud and like rock, you know, just formed into this shape, you know. But it's still, it's just a very unusual site, you know. So you guys recently just finished your annual origins conference. conference looked pretty awesome. This is a conference you do every year there in Wiltshire, I believe, right? And you've got a host of great speakers. So I saw a lot of the photos. I wanted to ask you about one, you had a post where you were with one of your keynote speakers. I think it was Irving Finkel. And you just alluded to his great talk that was about Sumerian ghosts.

and so I just without without having been there to hear this I want to ask you just can you tell us give us a brief recap of what that was about yeah Irving Finkel

he's a curator of the Mesopotamian area at the British Museum I mean it's pretty he's just got back from Iraq actually he was doing some research out there on the new discoverers coming out of there in the kind of

some of the Assyrian sculptures and everything but he's his talk this year We had him talking way back in 2014. Funnily enough, his talk and his book was called The Ark Before Noah. I'll come onto the Sumerian Ghost in a moment. But then he was talking about Noah's Ark.

But he found this tablet, which he decoded and put it all together into this book and this talk way back 2013, 2014. And realized that the Ark was described as being circular, like round, like a kind of floating kind of UFO almost. and they even got to the they were actually go and make a replica of it based upon the dimensions given in these these tablets go back three or four thousand years so yeah but that was then but now he's

talking he's got this amazing book called the first ghosts most ancient of legacies and he's found and he's like one of the only people who can read these different scripts from this area this the Kenea form different variations of it from Mesopotamia

from the Samarians to the Syrians to Babylonians and so forth. And he's found tons of stuff talking about ghosts. Genuinely like people getting sick or migraines or illness, they blamed it on ghosts. There's even images of ghosts carved and lots of different ways to get, techniques to get rid of ghosts out of your house, to move them on and other such things.

And a huge amount of this was carved onto these, cuneiform tablets. And he simply couldn't believe it. So he put it all into this amazing book and did this brilliant talk about it. And I do recommend people check out Dr. Erwin Finkel and the book, The First Ghosts.

We're going to have it. We filmed the talk as well, so we will put it up online in the next few months because it just makes, it just suddenly dawned on me. My God. So if the Sumerians and the Syrians

are talking about ghosts and how to get rid of them, how to deal with them, how to live with them, then is there a reality to this? And then we had Robert Temple speak as well about his new research on plasma. And he was, and it all kind of clicked because this is the kind of intelligence behind plasma and everything is, you know, an explanation for ghosts as well. So very, very strange connections being made at a conference this year.

But yeah, I mean, his stuff on anything by Irving Finkel is absolutely entertaining and quite brilliant. to read. I'll definitely be looking for you guys to post that talk from him. Any other great nuggets that came out of your conference that you want to tell us about? Yeah, well, we had a kind of, there's a lot of talk about Carahan-Tepa and Quebec Leitepe and all the sites in the Tass-Tepola region. J.J. Ainsworth's got some brand new research, which is remarkable about the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic and how the symbolism found at Quebec Lutepe, specifically.

the enclosure D, seems to fit with this. And this is a super ancient myth that goes way, way back, 100,000 years or more potentially. So that kind of blew people's minds. We had Deborah Cartwright. She spoke, she's into shamanism, and she spoke about ancient shamanism and how this can be applied to sites like Quebecly-Tepi,

and it's really hard to decode it from the sites, but the information can be gleaned from it if you know where to look. And so there's this real animistic, shamanic, even psychedelic element to these sites, which is overlooked with something I'm fascinated by as well. Andrew, you know, regarding Gebeckley, sorry, Carahan-Tepa, the new discovery, and this is the whole stone where the statue was found, the vulture statue as well, faces like north-northeast. So it's 20 degrees off north. So this is precisely in line around just before 9,000 BC with the dark rift in the Milky Way. So this is again,

it verifies his research at Quebec Litepe, looking at Cygnus and Deneb. This is also aligned in the same manner. It's quite remarkable. The fact you've got a vulture statue there as well really does back that up because vulture is a representation of Cygnus, the swan or the vulture.

So, yeah, so all this was coming out. We also had Graham Phillips talk on Doggerland, and the lost landmass around Britain as well, which goes back to almost of the time of Quebec. And yeah, so, yeah, it was a pretty interesting conference, actually. It was quite blown away. I mean, I need to sit back and watch all the talks again because I was kind of running it and hosting it as well,

so I couldn't really absorb the information. But, yeah, I mean, we do this. We also do Megalithomania in early May, which is a bit of an extravaganza in Glastonbury. It goes on for like six days in total. And so, yeah, we like to do. to get people together because real connections get made. You get a chance to meet people and share ideas and revelations often occur.

Well, Hugh, as we close here, tell people how they can follow you best, how they can get your book and all that good stuff. Yeah, sure. They can just go to megalithomania.com. UK or search for Hugh Newman. They'll find me. This is all over the place to book. in America I think you have to buy it through Amazon.co.uk for some reason

but it gets sent out from within America anyway so it's the same and it's published by Wooden Books you can check out the woodenbooks.com website and yeah obviously if they just we've got a big YouTube channel Megalithamia UK social media various

platforms and we just encourage people to kind of take a look and actually consider coming out out to Turkey because this is very fascinating time to be going out there. We even go to Noah's Ark every September on the Eastern Turkey tour. Great stuff. Well, Hugh, thank you so much for your time today. This is a great interview.

I always enjoy talking to you and hearing the latest news. And we'll do this again in the near future. Thanks very much. I appreciate it. It's been very, very interesting.