Somerset,
in the South of England, is a land of mysteries.
Here at Wookey Hole, where a river flows
out of the underworld, pagan and Christian
legends intermingle.
Here, too are
mysteries of man himself. How did the early
cavemen, who inhabited these caves, really
live from day to day? And what makes a modern
diver explore the caverns beyond the sunlight?
Even the earliest
men who lived in the valley of Wookey Hole
50,000 years ago, hunting bear and rhinoceros
with stone weapons, must have been in awe
of the great caves for they had already
existed for millions of years.
When, much
later, the Celtic peoples of the Iron Age
were moving into Britain, they found the
caves a safe and even comfortable place
to live - inside, the temperature is a constant
11° Celsius. Yet by the 15th century
only bones, broken pottery and legends remained.
Then, in 1914
the archaeologist Herbert Balch, having
completed a two year excavation of the caves,
published his findings, and the age of real
exploration had begun...
Visitors came
to wonder at the secret river and its encrusted
caverns. Perhaps Coleridge was inspired
to write the lines: "Where
Alph, the sacred river, ran,
Through caverns measureless to man"
Welcome
