Lost cities / archaeology / ancient history

This is interesting, too.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/01/buddha-birth-archaeology-nepal-durham

There was no gas-fired heating and power was limited to around 10 hours a day, so each morning at 5.30 Coningham would wash himself with a bucket of hot water and a cup. The diet, he says drily, was "great if you like curry and rice and dhal three times a day". The team also had to contend with thousands of pilgrims visiting the site every day from Tibet, Thailand and Sri Lanka, each bringing their own rituals. "At any one time, you were sprayed with cologne, covered with banknotes or had rice thrown at you," Coningham recalls. "Or there were nuns busy scraping mortar out from between the bricks and eating it to imbue the relics and sanctity of this sacred site into their bodies. Sometimes it can be quite distracting."

I never cease to be fascinated by the many forms that superstition can take.