This Roman 'gate to hell' killed its victims with a cloud of deadly carbon dioxide | Sc... - 0 views
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a deep fissure running beneath Hierapolis constantly emits volcanic carbon dioxide (CO2), which pours forth as a visible mist
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slightly heavier than air—billows out and forms a CO2 “lake” on the sheltered arena floor
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Sacrificial animals were not tall enough to keep their heads fully clear of the CO2 lake, and as they became dizzy, their heads would have dropped even lower, exposing them to higher CO2 concentrations and leading to death by asphyxiation. The priests, however, were tall enough to keep their heads above the dangerous gasses, and may have even stood on stones to add to their height
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The new findings are "tremendously exciting," says Gil Renberg, a classicist who researches Greek and Roman religious beliefs at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. "This scientific information proves the veracity of ancient sources and helps explain not only why people could enter, but also why animals would die." It's likely that at least some of the other Plutoniums worked in the same way. Renberg thinks the chemical survey methods used by Pfanz and his team could help provide a firmer idea of the exact location of the gate to hell at a site called Akaraka, also in modern-day Turkey.