#ubar

[uwlmvac]

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for March 2025

Sands of Doom by Jethro Wegener (3/4 trowels)

Heroes and villains fight it out in Arabia’s Empty Quarter as intrepid explorers seek out the lost city of Ubar—the “Atlantis of the Sands.”

Read the entire review at:  https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/book-reviews/?review=320329

[jj-baruch]

Legends of Webber Mesa

Northwest of Coventry, across the line into Seelig County, one finds the strange location known as Webber Mesa. The only sign within the distance of the horizon of modern white settlement in the area is a group of roving Arabian oryx, their tawny white coats stark against the reddish-black of the land, that escaped from an attempt at domestication of the beasts in the 1960s. Compared to their far more arid homeland, the region is a veritable paradise with its seasonal rains and scattered scrub. Their curling, twisted horns, if seen without the beast and only one at a time, might well explain later legends of the unicorn so prominent in European myth. But there are stories enough about Webber Mesa not to worry about them.

Rising above a skirt of fallen rubble, the mesa itself is hardly an imposing structure, perhaps 100 feet in height, all banded and colored with different layers of harder rock left behind when the Great Plains were eroding away to their present level, and covering some three square miles at its top. The ascent is marked by a wide, flat, and obviously artificial path of uncertain antiquity. The summit is deceptively smooth when seen from the air or by the few visitors on the ground. Around the edge, one finds a narrow walkway or trail, theories diverge as to its origin, with solid, smooth stone, pallid white against the ochre of the material underneath. Woe unto any who strays too far away from this edge! The stories are many of ranch hands and entire herds lost after making their arduous way up the trail to the crown. For, beneath a thin coating of dust that often swirls with heat vortices, lies a strange layer of material with nigh unto zero friction and sworn by some not to be of this Earth.

Scientists at Coventry University were and still are quite baffled as to the origins of this material, which, up on examination, appears to be an exotic species of buckminsterfullerene unknown in any other natural context and which, indeed, would seem to deny full classification. While the exterior shells of the little spherules are comprised of a lattice of iron, copper, and aluminum, as one might expect, the atom trapped within is a mystery. Analysis shows it to have an absurdly high atomic weight and number, leading some to speculate privately about a “Second Island of Stability” well beyond the range of known elements. None has yet published on the matter, so the question may remain forever unanswered.

Whatever the case, surely this strange composition cannot fully explain the more than supernal horror at mere impending death that infused the final shout of one Thaddeus Spencer (d. 1903), who called out as he was lost, “It’s got me, Dan!” Speculation was rife at the time and, no doubt, would continue to be so if anyone of a modern mindset gave more credence to such legendry as low dunes that shifted and swirled of themselves, or of occasional sightings of what appeared to be a pair of many-tined antlers rising therefrom in the sunset light. Few have dared to stay long enough for a good look and fewer still who have had no look at all believe them.

Native legends are, of course, not believed, though perhaps they should be. The Comanche, when they would speak of the place at all, called it Hweebuur, which may in fact be the origin of the English name, as no one named Webber can be associated with the geologic structure by antiquarian investigators. The meaning is obscure and even the Tribe’s oldest elders admit they do not know the meaning of it.

Their stories tell of a once-great city, fallen to ruin when its people displeased the gods, of a Lord of Obsidian and a Lady of Quicksilver who ruled over the People of Stone. They grew haughty in their wealth and power in a great edifice of brass that surrounded an ever-full spring set amid a courtyard of many pillars. Merchants came from all the world over, as they knew it, to exchange their wares and do homage to the Lord and Lady and People. Jade and feathers from the far south. Maize and beans from the east. Gold and medicines from the west. Furs and hides from the north. Dreams and far stranger things from somewhere known only as “Below.” All that the Lord and Lady and People might desire was brought to them and came to them in the tithe of the traders as they met and assembled in the court of pillars around the only source of water for many, many miles around.

As profits rose, so did prophets, denouncing the debaucheries and cruelties of the Lord of Obsidian and Lady of Quicksilver and People of Stone. Foul treatments did they give to strangers who did not amuse or enrich them as much as they might desire. And these prophets denounced the Lord and Lady and People for seven years. Their hearts were hardened. For seven years, the spring ran dry and the traders came no more. Still, their hearts were hardened and what had formerly been brought to them, they now went out and took by force of arms, heaping cruelty upon cruelty, making their former depredations seem as the blushing sins of youth against those of men and women full grown in evil.

And then the prophets, those who had survived the tortures of the Lord and Lady and the People, left one night. The many-pillared court of brass resounded with triumph, songs of how they had proven themselves mightier than the gods themselves. And on the seventh day of feasting, they were taken. An antlered serpent, miles long with eyes of obsidian and scales of quicksilver and teeth of stone, arose over the mesa and breathed out smoke and fire and dust, melting and burning and burying all. This serpent, called Hweebuur in the telling gathered by an ethnologist of a century ago interested in snake tales, took up residence in the shifting piles of death and destruction, to guard against any who might dare to resurrect the lost splendor of the city that had fallen to its wrath.

Thus does the legend end and none today visits Webber Mesa save the fleet oryxes of distant Arabia in their gamboling search for scrub plants upon which to feast in the craggy outskirts of a place avoided by mankind.

For this and more stories, visit me at https://patreon.com/jjbaruch

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[woodshedge]

The first left-side book I bought last weekend. It doesn't have any stories that I don't already have but hey, it's got tentacles on the cover.

Now, the second pic/book is another recommended (non-fiction) book from my collection about the possible/probable discovery of the lost city of Ubar, a place that has been called by several names (including Irem). Right up front I'll say that a city was discovered, but not everyone agrees that it is Ubar. Although the book is non-fiction, it is easy to read.

The author recounts learning about the lost city from such places as the Koran, Arabian Nights, and the writings of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia). Later he was able to "see" ruins and caravan routes via imagery made available by NASA. He was eventually able to put together an expedition and visit the area, which lies in the desert named the Empty Quarter. While on site, the team did visit an ancient city or outpost that was buried beneath the sands of the Empty Quarter.

This first attracted my attention because Lovecraft used the area and the city in his writings. In The Call of Cthulhu he wrote, "Of the cult, he said that he thought the centre lay amid the pathless deserts of Arabia, where Irem, the City of Pillars, dreams hidden and untouched." Note that "The Nameless City" takes place within this same area, and S.T. Joshi mentions Lovecraft's use of "Irem, the City of Pillars."

I'm sure that most who will read this post will already know more about this than I do, but this book is really good reading material. I'm sure that anyone with an interest in HPL will want to read it. The complete title is: The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands. The author is Nicholas Clapp. I got my copy from Amazon about 5 years ago or so. 4/18/2021

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[trailisblog]

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