Thanks to its lack of moisture, delicate pre-Columbian drawings and artifacts have been perfectly preserved there for millennia. The Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth. 7The Atacama Desert’s Archaeological Sites Although Nauru itself technically still exists, everything that made those first sailors fall in love with the place is now gone forever. When Nauru declared independence in the 1960s, the new government continued to mine the island, leaving behind a wasteland in which nothing can grow. Starting in 1900, various colonial powers stripped the island bare. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Pleasant Island, their country was lying directly on top of one of the biggest deposits of phosphate on Earth. The above photo shows the whole of Nauru as it looks today, a blasted heap of stone devoid of any life whatsoever. Even today, pictures of its beaches are so impossibly perfect that you’d be forgiven for thinking they were Photoshopped. When Europeans first discovered it in the 18th century, it was covered with tropical vegetation so lush and dense they officially named it Pleasant Island. Only a century or so ago, though, it was better known as paradise. The tiny island nation of Nauru is today best known for housing one of Australia’s grim offshore detention centers. Barnes was arrested and thrown in jail, reportedly telling friends she couldn’t believe she “burned down a tree older than Jesus.” The fire instantly did what any fire lit inside a lump of wood would do and went completely out of control.Īccording to emergency services personnel, the Senator burned “ like a chimney” for a couple of hours before collapsing into a pile of ash. At some point, it grew dark, and Barnes lit a fire to help her see. In 2012, local meth addict Sara Barnes climbed into the Senator to get high. The Senator, as it became known, was even honored by President Coolidge in 1929. It saw the birth of Jesus Christ, the coming of Columbus, the Wall Street Crash, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, outliving all but four other trees on the planet. Over the next three and a half millennia, it grew to a height of 36 meters (118 ft). Did it record an ancient victory, a local legend, or just an account of daily life? We’ll never know.Īt some unknown point 3,500 years ago, the seed of a cypress tree fell to the ground in modern-day Florida and took root. Although a few fragments were saved and now reside in the National Museum of Singapore, the sacred site was utterly annihilated, with the majority of the stone’s text erased forever. Rather than cart the stone away to the British Museum or anything silly like that, they instead blew it to pieces and used the remains as building material, road surface, and a bench. In 1843, the British army requisitioned the land the stone was standing on to build a fort. The stone and the surrounding area, considered holy, were clearly an important find. Today, we’re fairly confident it was a variation on Old Sumatran from the 10th–14th centuries, but for the people who discovered it in 1819, it was like an alien language. The colossal boulder, 3 meters (10 ft) high and 3 meters wide, stood at the entrance to the Singapore River, inscribed with an ancient script no one could decipher. The Singapore Stone was like its powerlifting big brother. You’ve probably heard of the Rosetta Stone. Photo credit: National Museum of Singapore
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