Tea at Trianon: An Inca Tunnel

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, January 18, 2025

An Inca Tunnel

From The Jerusalem Post:

Archaeologists in Peru find a hidden Inca tunnel network, known as the Chinkana, beneath the city of Cusco. The extensive underground passages stretch over 1,750 meters and connect several significant sites, including the Temple of the Sun (Coricancha) and the fortress of Sacsayhuamán.
The discovery was announced at a press conference on Monday, in the Municipality of Cusco. Archaeologists Jorge Calero Flores and Mildred Fernández Palomino led the research team that confirmed the existence of this ancient network. "We have analyzed documents from the 16th and 17th centuries; the chronicler Anello de Oliva indicates to us that there were many underground passages; an anonymous chronicler tells us that it passed beside the Cathedral, that is, the archbishop's houses; then he says that it is beside Sacsayhuamán; all that has helped to locate the trace," Calero stated, as reported by El País.
The first clue about the Chinkana came from an anonymous Jesuit chronicle from 1600, which provided key information about the tunnel's layout. The chronicle detailed that the entrance to this cave was located at the fortress of Sacsayhuamán. Other historical chronicles also mentioned the existence of the tunnel network. (Read more.)