Scientists unravel the mystery of the Roman 'gate to hell'

Two thousand years ago, ancient tourists flocked to a Greco-Roman temple in Hierapolis, modern-day Turkey, situated on top of a cave once purported to be the gateway to the underworld.

They watched in awe as animals, from birds to bulls, dropped dead at its entrance. The cave, named the "Plutonium" after Pluto, god of the underworld, was thought to belch the "breath of death," killing all those in its reach, except the divinely immune priests who led the animals to sacrifice.

 

 

Source: Edition.Cnn