Scientists believe they may have discovered the tomb of Santa Claus himself buried under the floor of a church in Turkey.
I know what you're thinking - if they've found Santa's tomb, then how the heck is he going to deliver our presents this evening?
Well the answer is the same as it always is, by using Christmas magic of course. However, the tomb that was discovered doesn't belong to the actual Santa, just the inspiration behind him.
The burial spot of Saint Nicholas, who died more than 1,600 years ago, is reportedly located in Turkey, archaeologists say.
But this is when it gets weird - ok so St. Nicholas' dead body was buried in an old church in Turkey’s Antalya province, but we don't actually know the exact location of his remains.
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In fact, his actual remains were stolen around 700 years after he died, so this has made the exact location of his tomb very difficult to pinpoint.
However, in 2017, researchers discovered that another church was built on top of the ancient basilica's foundation, which buried the saint's tomb.
They also uncovered unique mosaics and stone flooring, which are apparently the same design as the previous sanctuary, reports DHA.
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Prof. Dr. Osman - Chairman of the Antalya Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board - explained: "When the screed floor slab laid in the 1970s was removed where it was, an excavation was carried out to find out what's under it. The result was an early 4th century floor covering of the church.
"The current church is later dated. There are some architectural traces in various parts of the early period structure, but there were no traces in terms of flooring. This is an emerging, perhaps earlier, flooring. Our friends who made the excavation are preparing the publication of this.
"In fact, this is the floor of the period he lived in, and we are talking about the floor on which St. Nicholas' feet stepped. This is an extremely important discovery, the first find from that period.
"Therefore, we see this church as a discovery that will increase the architectural history and its iconographic value a bit more. It will be covered with a certain technique and made ready for display."
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He added: "There are probably other bones that are said to belong to him, or at least other iconographic fragments. Of course, the church has a special position today, unfortunately, due to the rising sea water in the region, the church from the early period is almost 2 meters below the sea level.
"This causes flooding from time to time. As a result of the rising waters of the Mediterranean in this region, alluviums filled the church. We don't know exactly how low it is.
"However, if a geophysical survey is conducted in this region, can we find it, I think, is a question mark. Because geophysical studies have some distractors, one of them is the humidity in the field.
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"If there is intense moisture and water, no results can be obtained. In that case, the only thing we can do left is to excavate that area.
"If these are done by the excavation heads in the future, this information will come out more concretely and we will learn new things."
Topics: Christmas
Anish Vij