MYSTERIOUS WORLD: Summer 2003: Editorial

elcome to Mysterious World®, your online guide to exotic travel destinations around the world! Mysterious World is a quarterly online journal dedicated to exploring ancient and exotic locales around the world, providing you with the information you need to truly appreciate what they have to offer. Mysterious World provides you with the historical, archaeological, and travel information, as well as biographical information about famous people and artifacts related to these famous locales. Whether you are planning that dream trip to Egypt, or you are looking for an interesting nearby destination for a simple day trip, or overnight excursion, Mysterious World covers it all.

Starting off our Summer, 2003 issue of Mysterious World, we have new press releases from Temporary Temples, and South African Stories.

Temporary Temples produces an annual roundup of major crop circles that have appeared in the U.K. every year since 1999. The Crop Circle Year Book 2003 marks the fifth anniversary of this series of unique books by photographer Steve Alexander and writer Karen Douglas. This popular collection of full colour, fine-art reproduction photographic books records the passing beauty of the crop circles each summer. This eagerly awaited new edition will be the most up-to-date pictorial guide to the phenomenon currently available, covering a selection of the best formations from the 2003 season, with essays and commentary text. (Click here for more....)

South African Stories provides personalized tours of beautiful South Africa, a land of remarkable contrasts and breathtaking beauty. From breathless moments tracking the approach of a lioness and her cub, to browsing in village market places, surrounded by the colors, patterns and textures of vibrant, living cultures, South Africa will dazzle you with her culture, adventurous spirit and awe-inspiring safaris. (Click here for more....)

In this quarter's book review section, we will look at Stephen Mehler's The Land of Osiris: An Introduction to Khemitology. Part travelogue, part historical-cultural analysis, part ancient technological treatise, The Land of Osiris fits neatly into the emerging travel/alternative history niche that is becoming increasingly popular amongst a public that is growing more and more tired of the pedantic, condescending ramblings of a mainstream academic archaeology that has become largely irrelevant. (Click here for more....)

This quarter's Fragments section first examines one of the possible locations for legendary Atlantis. In Atlantis in Bolivia, we discover the mysterious "Bolivian Altiplano", a stark wilderness flanked by the Andes and abundant with volcanoes, geysers, and hot springs, reminiscent of Plato's description of Atlantis. Our second fragment explores the sunken city of Alexandria, in the Mediterranean Sea off the northern coast of Egypt. Named after the famous Greek king, Alexander, Alexandria forms proof positive that much of the ancient world still lied unexplored, hidden under the depths of the ocean, and nearby Egypt provides some of the most exciting travel opportunities in the world. Our third fragment delves into a closely related subject, the mysterious Pharos Lighthouse, commissioned by one of Alexander's generals, Ptolemy Soter. The Pharos Lighthouse, named after the island on which it was built in the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt, is calculated to have been anywhere from 300-600 feet tall, and its light, powered by fire and a "magic mirror", was reported to have been visible over 35 miles away. Though the lighthouse is now destroyed, several related monuments full of fascinating history are still available for tourists to visit. Finally, our fourth fragment deals with possible evidence regarding the legendary Champ of Lake Champlain. Underwater recordings have recently picked up the sound of a mammal similar to that emitted by dolphins, who use echolocation to help them navigate and find prey. The sound matches no known aquatic mammals, however, and certainly no freshwater ones, leading some to speculate that Champ — and similar types of sea serpents — truly do exist.

This quarter's lead travel article is our second of our two-part series on the mysterious Serpent Mound. North America's ancient history � specifically, the part that began when many believe mankind first began to migrate to the Americas roughly 12,000 years ago � has gone through several major periods. These periods have been roughly based upon the relative level of civilization and technological achievements developed by the Native Americans during each period. An understanding of this "pre-historic" history of North America is necessary to fully understand the meaning of the Serpent Mound, and the people who made it. Moreover, in the process of discovering the identity of these ancient astronomers, geometers, and magicians of ancient America, we may discover that man's inhabitation of North America may have been much older � and much more advanced � than most have previously thought. (Click here for more....)

Our second feature article this quarter is our second in a four part series on giants, entitled "Giants in the Earth". Though the ancient Near East is the place where most believe the giants of old originated, the Americas � particularly North America � also have a history rich with myths and legends of ancient giant inhabitants that had once dominated the fruited plain. Moreover, the Native American storytellers who tell tale of the exploits of these ancient men of renown believe that these gigantic, semi-divine beings were the original inhabitants of the Americas, having preceded modern Native Americans by many thousands of years. And, as we shall see, much evidence of the ancient giants of the Americas still exists. (Click here for more....)

In our third feature article this quarter, we will continue our search for the ancient empire of Osiria, and the 14 lost pieces of Osiris believed by some to be scattered throughout that now largely submerged land. In Part II of "Ah, Osiria!", we will examine Antediluvian Egypt and the megalithic clues of the world before the Flood. In the search, we will discover that much of Egyptian history was imitative of the world before the Flood but, fortunately, they never truly understood the great power that the antediluvian Egyptians had wielded. (Click here for more....)

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions as to what sorts of information you need to make your travel plans complete, please e-mail me at publisher@mysteriousworld.com.

Bon Voyage,

Doug Elwell
President and Publisher
Mysterious World
August 15, 2003