In different places of the planet, you can see man-made grottoes in rock massifs. Somewhere it is believed that these were underground cities, and somewhere - tombs. One can talk about the purpose for a long time, but the fact of their construction raises many questions - why exactly in the rock?
For dwellings, you can build something of stone or wood on the surface, and for burials there are other rituals. Why did the ancients work so hard? Or was it easy for them to excavate tons of rock?
Let's see a few examples first:
Japan.
These are tombs, judging by the photographs given in the source.
Sardinia Domus de Janas.
Also burial. The volume of the excavated rock is simply enormous for manual labor.
Promotional video:
Balaklava and Eski Kermen, Crimea, cities in stone. Note the rut in the stone. Remember, it is useful for understanding how this could be built.
Necropolis of Macomer. There was no other place for burial - they cut a room in the rock?
Kashiya cave tombs, Japan.
A few more places from Japan and photos inside the grottoes:
Longmen grotto temples in China.
Kapylikaya in Turkey (Tumba de Kapilikaya, Kirkdilim) is a rocky tomb of the Pontine kingdom. It is located 27 km north of Chorum. Dates back to the II century. BC. An unfinished tomb. I wonder why such a high entrance?
There are dozens of similar examples, especially from those places where there is an official many-thousand-year history of the region and its inhabitants. Monolithic dolmens of the Caucasus are also part of this topic. But it's not about dating. I have a question about the construction technology of these grottoes.
Hammering the rock with a pick, and then finishing it with a hammer and chisel is a difficult and long process. I believe that the ancients valued their work and time (in contrast to the opinion of historians). And all this was built in a clay-like mass that came to the surface during a large-scale cataclysm or a series of them.
Among the terms of alternative geology, some types of such outcrops have a name - cold fluidolites. The masses tended to turn to stone quickly. But somewhere years or decades could be plastic. The curing reaction is associated with CO2 in the air.
And they cut down the grottoes with simple devices, as in this video:
Screenshots from the video:
Authors somewhere in Southeast Asia are building various structures in a primitive way. Perhaps, after a few years (or tens of years), the clay of their basin will petrify (gain strength, if we make an analogy with concretes) and will be indistinguishable from rock.
