Darkness is approaching, reigns over the light. The midnight land is caught in distress. The bodies of fallen heroes rot at the foot of the sacred mountain. The army of the forces of darkness approach from the west; The masses of the voiceless wildly approach from the east. Babylon is beyond saving, Assur is no longer there to help – paralyzed the northern land’s child. Marduk lonely mourns on top of the earthly mountain. The home of the gods is lost(gone). They sing do not sing, they do not celebrate festivals, nor they hastily prepare for battle. Even their thoughts are captive in chains. Ishtar cries for her people. Marduk raises his eyes up to the limits of the highest light, where Ishtar is crying. And he hears Ishtar’s voice to sound him: Lord Marduk! Protector of the midnight mountain! Hurl your spear against the enemy! But save our people! Then said Marduk and answered her: 0 Ishtar! I would love to do what you said to me! But the people are down, crushed the realm/empire, violence of our enemies is numberless – and the new Sargon, the liberator, the Avenger, which is not here. Ishtar, but looked at him and said: O Marduk! See what has come from below on earth, and dominates our people who came from the top once. Do not tolerate any longer that the below dominates the above! Hurl your spear! The one of our men who catches it, will be the new Sargon! As Marduk pulled out the spear from the ground, lifted it and threw it with force down on the earthly world. And while Marduk did this, Ishtar ordered the stars to send out a new light, invisible.

Originally posted by curtius
reply to post by Skyfloating

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Interestingly, my family owned this mountain in the 1500's-1700's. The family castle is still there next to the mountain.
For those wishing to see, google castle Goldenstein or check Elspethen Austria. No family stories about tunnels and caves, which isn't surprising since they were a pretty conservative bunch. If I ever get back there I certainly would like to check it out.

my family motto as related to castle goldenstein which lies near the mountain in Elspethen is auri sacra fames or "o cursed lust for gold"

Originally posted by BlueOrb
reply to post by white eagle

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White Eagle,

Is this the cave that you visited?

Close up of the plan and section view only:

This cave (if it is the correct one), is included in the cave book i have. It is named "Wohnhoehle bei Fuerstenbrunn", is registed with the land registry under the number 1339/121, is approximately 30m in length, the opening is located at a height above sea level of 700m, rises in height approximately 5m along the length, and was first reported/recorded in 1974, by Walther Klappacher, who is responsible for a lot of the input in the book i have from the Landesverien fuer Hoehlenkunde Salzburg.

The above plans are indeed from the book, and by Klappacher himself.

It is described much as you said, and with a fireplace, and partial wooden floor in places, and an area where drinking water can be collected.

The book suggests that it could have benn used as a pace of safety during the wars (one, or other or both?), but it clearly refers to it as a place where people lived, in so much as it refer to a living room area.

Of course, how and when it was originally formed is still a mystery.

Source of my information is, of course, the Salzburger Hoehlenbuch (Landesverein fuer Hoehlenkunde Salzburg), Volume 1. Everything is acknowledged, in terms of copyright etc, in this and in any subsequent post i may or not make, and in any case, they should consider this as a very good advert for their book.......

Originally posted by Vanitas
reply to post by white eagle

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Hello, WhiteEagle,

my apologies in advance if I have missed some vital piece of information here - which is quite possible - but what is the significance of that Virgin Mary statue, in your opinion?

I am wondering because people often placed - some still do - images of "protective" saints or of the Virgin Mary near places like caves, especially in areas where Marian worship was strong (as it was/is in most traditionally Catholic regions).

edit on 1-5-2012 by Vanitas because: (no reason given)