Three Thousand Year Old Statue Found in Cappadocia, Turkey

A Facebook user published a photograph of a reported “three-thousand-year-old statue unearthed in Cappadocia” on April 26, 2021, in a post that consisted of an image and words — but no further details.

Two captions, one in Portuguese and one in English, would appear on Facebook accounts set to English by default:

A three-thousand-year-old statue was discovered at Capadócia.

In Cappadocia, a three-thousand-year-old statue was discovered

The picture was posted to Reddit’s r/Incredibly on May 7, 2021. The same image and language did not include any supporting material, much like the Facebook version:

The picture was shared to r/interesting by the same account:

Top commenters on the story were suspicious of the claim as provided, speculating that the image had been changed to prevent reverse image searches from revealing what the snapshot truly showed:

“Cool… Do you want to contribute an article? Do you require any other information? Is there any proof that this isn’t nonsense? Because Google returns nothing and the image appears to have been slightly rotated, you can’t imagine doing a reverse search.”

“Based on the quality of this figure, I would declare 100 percent phony before checking into it.” It’s in too nice of shape to be that A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳. After investigating this allegation with no proof and debunking similar claims of bicycles and astronaut statues on antique temples, my beginner opinion would be: false. It is, nonetheless, a cool-looking statue, if not very A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳.”

“sus”

The image was widely circulated, and it conjured up images of “A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ astronauts,” a concept that straddles the line between conjecture and pseudoscience (at least according to Wikipedia, where all conspiracy theories ultimately end up as entries):

The belief that intelligent ex̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ creatures visited Earth and established contact with humanity in antiquity and prehistoric times is referred to as “A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ astronauts” (or “A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳s”). It is sometimes portrayed in a pseudoscientific manner. According to proponents, this encounter impacted the formation of contemporary c̳i̳v̳i̳l̳i̳z̳a̳t̳i̳o̳n̳s, technology, religions, and human biology. Most, if not all, religions’ gods are ex̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ in origin, according to popular belief, and superior technology delivered to Earth by A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳s was perceived as proof of divine status by early humans.

Most academics dismiss the existence of A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ astronauts, and peer-reviewed research has found no evidence of their existence. When proponents of a concept submit evidence supporting their ideas, it is sometimes skewed or made up. Erich von Däniken, Zecharia Sitchin, Robert K. G. Temple, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, and David Hatcher Childress are well-known proponents from the latter part of the twentieth century who have produced multiple books or often appear in the media.

The 3,000-year-old Cappadocia monument was completely omitted from the page, which contained multiple photographs of objects alleged to be evidence of “A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ astronauts.”

Only a few results for the Cappadocia “A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ astronaut” popped up in Google Image Search, with the majority of them pointing to tweets from late April or early May 2021. Google recommended “artifact” as a label and produced 14 results; we discovered 18 iterations when we altered the text to “3000”:

Without a particular source for the claim, figuring out anything more about the image was impossible, and the image search engine TinEye yielded zero hits. A reverse image search tracked down the earliest iteration we found, which was shared on Facebook on April 24, 2021.

Otherwise, the image of a three-thousand-year-old Cappadocia astronaut statue was a dead end. We found no evidence of any strange discoveries that matched the post assertions, and as commentators pointed out, the reverse image search only went back to late April 2021. While we rank the claim Unknown, there’s no indication that the image or explanation was even remotely true or trustworthy — and, based on share counts, it’s reasonable to assume that the answer was added to the image to (successfully) acquire social media shares.

How did an astronaut end up carved into the entrance of the church in Salamanca?

I’m not sure if the world’s most renowned astronaut has visited the entrance of Salamanca’s Catedral Nueva, but if not, Commander Hadfield, you should board your spacecraft right now and fly to Spain.

As is the case with many churches in European cities, the Catedral Nueva, or ‘New Cathedral,’ is not new. It’s a construction project that began in 1513 and was hampered by several calamities, notably the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Chris Hadfield would be enthralled with the masonry in the portico around one of the entrances since it has a sculpture of an astronaut among the stone leaves and flora.

The astronaut is hovering above the heads of the visitors who have gathered beneath it; A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ stonemasons anticipated the arrival of spacemen. The small figure is there because the entrance’s carvings needed to be replaced in recent years. The stonemasons decided to add it as a symbol of one of the most significant events in the church’s history since it was erected.

Whether or not you understand why the stone astronaut is there, it’s a pleasant, whimsical surprise in a Unesco World Heritage city that has other surprises in store for first-time visitors.

Salamanca’s enclosed Main Square is the city’s largest and most charming surprise. It’s an 18th-century sandstone masterpiece that seemed to have remained complete, similar to the Place des Vosges in Paris. Students may rent the period flats above the stores and restaurants on the bottom levels, and they do. They would have had an unsettlingly good view of the bullfights in the square below until 150 years ago. A stone bull’s head still protrudes from one of the square’s entrances to mark the occasion.

A 3000-year-old figure was discovered in Cappadocia, Turkey. The A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ A̳l̳i̳e̳n̳’s visage even has a U̳F̳O̳ drawn on it. Mexican antiques and other artifacts from throughout the world.