1700 Years Old Building
With the help of Muon radiography, scientists are busy in scanning the
mysterious building in Caspian Sea near Russian city of Derbent hidden underneath Naryn kala fortress. They believes
that it can be one of the oldest churches in the world. At the same time some
people say that it may also be a reservoir or a Zoroastrian Fire temple.
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| Naryn Kala Citadel (Image Credit: NUST MISIS) |
According to the researchers, if this fact could be proven to be true
that its actually a church then it can be one of the oldest churches in the
world. This building is located in the north-western part of the medieval
fortress Naryn-art.
It is completely constructed from the underground and local shell
limestone which is about 1700 years old. However excavation work could endanger
this site of UNESCO, so researchers have not been able to fully access this
mysterious structure.
Researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Skobeltsin Institute
of Nuclear Physics Lomnosov Moscow State University and Dagestan State
University used non-invasive technology muon radiography to create an image. If
the researchers fully understands its structure, its use could be determined
easily.
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| Image Credit: NUST MISIS |
Various findings of archaeologists showed that the building is in the
shape of a cross. It is being expected that it could be a church. It is 36 feet
high, 50 feet long and 44 feet wide.
Looking at its texture it seems that it can be a water tank. Head of
scientific group and study author Natalia Polukhina, said in a statement that “It
seems very strange to me to interpret this building as a water tank. In the
same fortress of Naryn-Kala, there is an equal underground structure of 10
meters depth, and it is really a tank”.
The archaeologists says that “during construction, the building must be
entirely on the surface on the highest point of Naryn-kala and there is no
sense to put the tank on the surface or on the highest mountain”.
According to Natalia Polukhina, more muon radioactive detectors need to
be installed on the western slope of the fortress, so that a full sized
underground photo of the mysterious structure could be obtained.