What in the world have the Algerians found, and are digging up? UFO? Meteor?

Not what they're digging up.. but what are they looking for.

Common archeology sites.

It looks a lot like that "Millennium Falcon" thing they found at the bottom of the Black Sea! What's the scale here? Can you tell which is larger?

Good thought! The 'Millennium Falcon'-ish formation in the Black Sea is about 197 feet in diameter (I just looked that up). Curiously enough, according to the Wookieepedia ( [link to starwars.wikia.com] that's about twice the size of the actual ship.

But Google Maps shows this thing to be half the size as the Black Sea anomaly, and almost exactly the same 25.61 meters (84 feet) width as the 'Falcon'.

But it doesn't look exactly like the 'Falcon', at least not from space, and from whenever this picture was taken...

BUT... (Hmmmm...) A lot of the original Star Wars was shot in Tunisia, and the landscape here is arguably quite Tatooine-ish... Perhaps we're seeing the beginning work on the recently-announced Star Wars 7 sets?

I wish I knew...

If it was a common archaeological dig site, wouldn't you see similar ones elsewhere? And from the tracks it looks like they're using bulldozers (something that was mocked BTW in "Raiders of the Lost Ark").

And what the heck did they mean by (they) "smoked scorpion tails and drank frogs"?

The "smoking scorpion tails" phrase is obviously a drug reference, and I got a zillion hits when I just Googled it, although I can't tell from the narrative if they were doing it as a ritual, or a "just 'cause we're visiting" sort of thing.

The "drank (from) frogs" bit - I believe - harkens back to an old adage about crossing the Sahara, which is essentially "carry all the water you can, and don't drink a drop of it until you can't find any frogs", because if you squeeze a frog you can apparently get a lot of moisture out of them, although I don't know if that means "through their skin" or if it simply refers to urine. Personally, I've never drank from a frog before, and I'm in no hurry to try. But there ARE frogs in the Sahara, or at least parts of it.

Makes me wonder two things...
1) Would one really drink from frogs in a camp or village setting (I thought it was strictly a "deep desert" sort of thing), and
2) Would you do so while you were on some sort of secret mission? I'd think that would be counter-productive in the extreme...

I hope it's the "Heart of Ashurbannipal", located at long last. But you're probably right: UFO crash site.

Uh, I think you're way off base with that "Heart of Ashurbanipal" speculation. If you're talking about The Library, that would have been way over in Iraq, in Nineveh. And it wasn't situated underground.

If, as I assume, you're talking about the mythical lost ruby said to be the size of a man's fist, it was lost in Syria (if it ever existed at all) by Ashurbanipal's descendents. "Syria" comes from "The Sons of Ashur" after all, and the general consensus is that the "Ashur" referred to was one of the Ashurbanipals.

Neither of the famous Ashurbanipal rulers (I or II) ever did anything anywhere this far west or south of their domain. I honestly think the legend has just been misplaced to the Sahara from the Middle East where it actually originated (that is, once again, if it happened at all).

Nice wild guess, though. I still think it is probably a meteor. Far too small to be an oil-patch drilling site, unless the picture was snapped just when they were getting started.

Yoda's head?

And I meant the ruby. Just Syria, huh? News to me.

I bet it's an old-style lever-pull voting booth. I sure miss those.

Who else has HD non-military updated photos of this area? Can anyone provide a non-Google Maps link?

Probably an election stealing device.

But seriously children, can't someone go digging in the desert without everyone and their dog assuming it's a UFO?

I engage in my fair share of random speculation, but seriously...

:

Any update on this? What did they find? And seriously... smoking scorpion tails?

wtf !! here is another one
[link to maps.google.com]

sorry here is the link , i dont know how to post google map link ??
[link to maps.google.com]

Those coordinates are for one of those neolithic tombs the article mentions. Cool!

Open the whole country up for fun...

That's some brutal landscape the've got nearby. Turn on the Panoramio pictures in Google Maps/Earth to see.

There is a runway and some buildings about 1500 meters or so due north of that dig. If you look in the area just south of the buildings and east of the landing strip taxi way, you will see what appears to be a logo "DJINET" or something. Might be the signature of the photoshop artist. Just sayin.

There seem to be neolithic tombs all in all directions from there. Small sample:

South:
[link to maps.google.com (secure)]

[link to maps.google.com (secure)]


North:
[link to maps.google.com (secure)]

[link to maps.google.com (secure)]


Northwest:
[link to maps.google.com (secure)]

Open pit mine
Kimberlite is exposed in the midle

Last Edited by Lupe_Ate_My_Tacos on 01/12/2013 06:16 PM

Seems a bit small for a diamond mine, but I guess they all start small when first dug. However I'm fairly sure - not certain mind you, just fairly sure - that this isn't kimberlite pipe territory.

If you know otherwise, please let me know!

Here's what might prove to be a helpful map...

[link to pubs.usgs.gov]


It is of all of Africa, but you can zoom on to Algeria specifically.

It doesn't show this particular dig site however, but it does shoe the formation in which the site is located.

Mystery not yet solved...