89-618: Glastonbury Tor is a tor near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset , topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building . The site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument . The Tor is mentioned in Celtic mythology , particularly in myths linked to King Arthur , and has several other enduring mythological and spiritual associations. The conical hill of clay and Blue Lias rises from
178-462: A C-47 transport flight, was recounted: We were going along smoothly and all of a sudden a mountain peak seemed to rise up out of nowhere up ahead. We looked again and it was gone. A couple of minutes later it popped up again rising some 300 feet higher than our altitude. We never seemed to get any closer to it. The peak just kept popping up and down, getting higher and higher and higher every time it reappeared. Rear Adm. Fred E. Bakutis, commanding
267-965: A Celtic etymology, the Oxford English Dictionary lists no cognates to the Old English word in either the Breton or Cornish languages (the Scottish Gaelic tòrr is thought to derive from the Old English word). It is therefore accepted that the English word Tor derives from the Old Welsh word tẁrr or twr , meaning a cluster or heap. Tors are landforms created by the erosion and weathering of rock; most commonly granites , but also schists , dacites , dolerites , ignimbrites , coarse sandstones and others. Tors are mostly less than 5 meters (16 ft) high. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain their origin and this remains
356-460: A caprock , protecting the lower layers from erosion. The iron-rich waters of Chalice Well , a spring at the base of the Tor, flow out as an artesian well impregnating the sandstone around it with iron oxides that have reinforced it to produce the caprock. Iron-rich but oxygen-poor water in the aquifer carries dissolved iron (II) "ferrous" iron , but as the water surfaces and its oxygen content rises,
445-458: A telescope , or as is the case in the images here, through a telephoto lens . Gabriel Gruber (1740–1805) and Tobias Gruber [ sl ] (1744–1806), who observed Fata Morgana above Lake Cerknica , were the first to study it in a laboratory setting. La Fata Morgana ("The Fairy Morgana") is the Italian name of Morgan le Fay , also known as Morgana and other variants, who was described as
534-558: A century later, in 1886, Baron Eduard Toll , a Baltic German explorer in Russian service, reported observing Sannikov Land during another expedition to the New Siberian Islands. In 1900, he would lead still another expedition to the region , which had among its objectives the location and exploration of Sannikov Land. The expedition was unsuccessful in this respect. Toll and three others were lost after they departed their ship, which
623-502: A cloud or trace of mist; if land could be seen, now was our time. Yes, there it was! It could even be seen without a glass, extending from southwest true to north-northeast. Our powerful glasses, however, brought out more clearly the dark background in contrast with the white, the whole resembling hills, valleys and snow-capped peaks to such a degree that, had we not been out on the frozen sea for 150 miles [240 km], we would have staked our lives upon its reality. Our judgment then, as now,
712-483: A desert might have been an imaginative illustration for the poem, but in reality no mirage ever looks like this. Andy Young writes, "They're always confined to a narrow strip of sky—less than a finger's width at arm's length—at the horizon." The 18th-century poet Christoph Martin Wieland wrote about "Fata Morgana's castles in the air". The idea of castles in the air was probably so irresistible that many languages still use
801-409: A double appearance. While she appeared slightly distorted on the surface of the water, her image was inverted upon the background of the cloud referred to, and both blending together produced a curious sight. At the same time the ship and its shadow were again repeated in a more shadowy form, but distinct, in the foreground, the base being a line of smooth water. Another bark whose hull was entirely below
890-427: A huge island on the north-western horizon. As MacMillan later said, "Hills, valleys, snow-capped peaks extending through at least one hundred and twenty degrees of the horizon". Piugaattoq, a member of the expedition and an Inuit hunter with 20 years of experience of the area, explained that it was just an illusion. He called it poo-jok , which means ' mist '. However, MacMillan insisted that they press on, even though it
979-501: A land mass in the distance. He said that it was north-west from the highest point of Cape Thomas Hubbard , which is situated in what is now the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut , and he estimated it to be 210 km (130 miles) away, at about 83 degrees N, longitude 100 degrees W. He named it Crocker Land, after George Crocker of the Peary Arctic Club. As Peary's diary contradicts his public claim that he had sighted land, it
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#17328811354541068-523: A mirage of the Farallon Islands as seen from San Francisco; the images were all taken on the same day. In the first fourteen frames, elements of the Fata Morgana mirage display alternations of compressed and stretched zones. The last two frames were photographed a few hours later, around sunset time. At that point in time, the air was cooler while the ocean was probably a little bit warmer, which caused
1157-586: A mirage. Ross made two errors. First, he refused to listen to the counsel of his officers, who may have been more familiar with mirages than he was. Second, his attempt to honour Croker by naming a mountain range after him backfired when the mountains turned out to be non-existent. Ross could not obtain ships, or funds, from the government for his subsequent expeditions, and was forced to rely on private backers instead. Benjamin Morrell reported that, in March 1823, while on
1246-512: A narrow band right above the horizon. The term Fata Morgana is the Italian translation of "Morgan the Fairy" ( Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend). These mirages are often seen in the Italian Strait of Messina , and were described as fairy castles in the air or false land conjured by her magic. Fata Morgana mirages significantly distort the object or objects on which they are based, often such that
1335-533: A person or kinship group named Glast. The second half of the name, -burg , is Anglo-Saxon in origin and could refer to either a fortified place such as a burh or, more likely, a monastic enclosure. Tor is an English word referring to "a bare rock mass surmounted and surrounded by blocks and boulders", deriving from the Old English torr . The Celtic name of the Tor was Ynys Wydryn , or sometimes Ynys Gutrin , meaning 'Isle of Glass'. At this time
1424-552: A powerful sorceress in Arthurian legend . As her name indicates, the figure of Morgan appears to have been originally a fairy figure rather than a human woman. The early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate on her nature, other than describing her role as that of a fairy or magician. Later, she was described as a King Arthur's half-sister and an enchantress. After King Arthur's final battle at Camlann , Morgan takes her half-brother Arthur to Avalon . In medieval times, suggestions for
1513-489: A projection east of Toronto. A side-wheel steamer could be seen traveling in a line from Charlotte to Toronto Bay. Two dark objects were at last found to be the steamers of the New York Central plying between Lewiston and Toronto. A sail-boat was also visible and disappeared suddenly. Slowly the mirage began to fade away, to the disappointment of thousands who crowded the roofs of houses and office buildings. A bank of clouds
1602-403: A remarkable mirage, between ten and eleven o'clock, on the morning of 16 August, [1894]. It was the city of Toronto with its harbor and small island to the south of the city. Toronto is fifty-six miles [90 km] from Buffalo, but the church spires could be counted with the greatest ease. The mirage took in the whole breadth of Lake Ontario, Charlotte, the suburbs of Rochester, being recognized as
1691-430: A river running directly through it. Lake Ontario is said to be famous for mirages, with opposite shorelines becoming clearly visible during the events. In July 1866, mirages of boats and islands were seen from Kingston, Ontario . A Mirage – The atmospheric phenomenon known as "mirage" might have been observed on Sunday evening between 6 and 7 o'clock, by looking towards the lake. The line beyond which this phenomenon
1780-405: A ship to appear to float inside the waves, at other times an inverted ship appears to sail above its real companion. In fact, with a Fata Morgana it can be hard to say which individual segment of the mirage is real and which is not real: when a real ship is out of sight because it is below the horizon line, a Fata Morgana can cause the image of it to be elevated, and then everything which is seen by
1869-531: A steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. In calm weather, a layer of significantly warmer air may rest over colder dense air, forming an atmospheric duct that acts like a refracting lens , producing a series of both inverted and erect images. A Fata Morgana requires a duct to be present; thermal inversion alone is not enough to produce this kind of mirage. While a thermal inversion often takes place without there being an atmospheric duct, an atmospheric duct cannot exist without there first being
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#17328811354541958-411: A thermal inversion. A Fata Morgana is most commonly seen in polar regions , especially over large sheets of ice that have a uniform low temperature. It may, however, be observed in almost any area. In polar regions the Fata Morgana phenomenon is observed on relatively cold days. In deserts, over oceans, and over lakes, a Fata Morgana may be observed on hot days. To generate the Fata Morgana phenomenon,
2047-544: A topic of discussion among geologists and geomorphologists , and physical geographers . It is considered likely that tors were created by geomorphic processes that differed widely in type and duration according to regional and local differences in climate and rock types. For example, the Dartmoor granite was emplaced around 280 million years ago. When the cover rocks eroded away it was exposed to chemical and physical weathering processes. Where joints are closely spaced,
2136-535: A voyage to the Antarctic and southern Pacific Ocean, he had explored what he thought was the east coast of New South Greenland. The west coast of New South Greenland had been explored two years earlier by Robert Johnson, who had given the land its name. This name was not adopted, however, and the area, which is the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula, is now known as Graham Land . Morrell's reported position
2225-403: A worn hollow bronze head which may have topped a Saxon staff. During the late Saxon and early medieval period, there were at least four buildings on the summit. The base of a stone cross demonstrates Christian use of the site during this period, and it may have been a hermitage. The broken head of a wheel cross dated to the 10th or 11th century was found partway down the hill and may have been
2314-517: A year later, brought to light this disagreement, and the ensuing controversy over the existence of the Croker Mountains ruined Ross's reputation. The year after Ross's expedition, in 1819, Parry was given command of his own Arctic expedition, and proved Ross wrong by continuing west beyond where Ross had turned back, and sailing through the supposed location of the Croker Mountains. The mountain range that had caused Ross to abandon his mission had been
2403-653: Is also known by geomorphologists as either a castle koppie or kopje , is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England , the term is commonly also used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall . Although English topographical names often have
2492-565: Is derived from the name of Morgan le Fay , a powerful sorceress in Arthurian legend . The sides of the Tor have seven deep, roughly symmetrical terraces, or lynchets . Their formation remains a mystery with many possible explanations. They may have been formed as a result of natural differentiation of the layers of Lias stone and clay or used by farmers during the Middle Ages as terraced hills to make ploughing for crops easier. Author Nicholas Mann questions this theory. If agriculture had been
2581-406: Is gone, and I wonder and wait For the vision to reappear. In the lines, "the weary traveller sees / In desert or prairie vast, / Blue lakes, overhung with trees / That a pleasant shadow cast", because of the mention of blue lakes, it is clear that the author is actually describing not a Fata Morgana, but rather a common inferior or desert mirage. The 1886 drawing shown here of a "Fata Morgana" in
2670-479: Is now believed that Crocker Land was a fraudulent invention of Peary, created in an unsuccessful attempt to secure further funding from Crocker. In 1913, unaware that Crocker Land was merely an invention, Donald Baxter MacMillan organised the Crocker Land Expedition, which set out to reach and explore the supposed land mass. On 21 April, the members of the expedition did, in fact, see what appeared to be
2759-556: Is one of the possible locations of the Holy Grail , because it is close to the monastery that housed the Nanteos Cup . The Tor has been a place of Christian pilgrimage at least since the 11th-century and continues to be so, both because of the long-standing dedication to St. Michael the Archangel (the patron of many sacred mountains and hills) and more recently because of the martyrdoms of
Glastonbury Tor - Misplaced Pages Continue
2848-425: Is that this was a mirage or loom of the sea ice. The expedition collected interesting samples, but is still considered to be a failure and a very expensive mistake. The final cost was $ 100,000 (equivalent to $ 2.3 million in 2023). Hy Brasil is an island that was said to appear once every few years off the coast of County Kerry , Ireland. Hy Brasil has been drawn on ancient maps as a perfectly circular island with
2937-444: Is well known, atmospheric ducting is the explanation for certain optical mirages, and in particular the arctic illusion called "fata morgana" where distant ocean or surface ice, which is essentially flat, appears to the viewer in the form of vertical columns and spires, or "castles in the air". People often assume that mirages occur only rarely. This may be true of optical mirages, but conditions for radar mirages are more common, due to
3026-538: The Glastonbury Tribunal . After his death in 1936 it was sold to The National Trust who raised money by Public Subscription for its upkeep. The National Trust took control of the Tor in 1937, but repairs were delayed until after the Second World War . During the 1960s, excavations identified cracks in the rock, suggesting the ground had moved in the past. This, combined with wind erosion, started to expose
3115-576: The Hadspen Quarry . A model vaguely based on Glastonbury Tor (albeit with a tree instead of the tower) was incorporated into the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. As the athletes entered the stadium, their flags were displayed on the terraces of the model. The Tor seems to have been called Ynys yr Afalon (meaning "The Isle of Avalon") by the Britons and is believed by some, including
3204-455: The Iron Age to Roman eras. Several buildings were constructed on the summit during Saxon and early medieval periods ; they have been interpreted as an early church and monks' hermitage. The head of a wheel cross dating from the 10th or 11th century has been recovered. The original wooden church was destroyed by an earthquake in 1275 , and the stone Church of St Michael was built on the site in
3293-688: The River Brue . The Tor is formed from rocks dating from the early Jurassic Period, namely varied layers of Lias Group strata. The uppermost of these, forming the Tor itself, are a succession of rocks assigned to the Bridport Sand Formation . These rocks sit upon strata forming the broader hill on which the Tor stands; the various layers of the Beacon Limestone Formation and the Dyrham Formation . The Bridport Sands have acted as
3382-510: The Somerset Levels . It was formed when surrounding softer deposits were eroded, leaving a hard cap of sandstone exposed. The slopes of the hill are terraced, but the method by which they were formed remains unexplained. Archaeological excavations during the 20th century sought to clarify the background of the monument and church, but some aspects of their history remain unexplained. Artefacts from human visitation have been found, dating from
3471-484: The pack ice , or the uneven surface of the ice itself, may have contributed to the illusion of distant land features. Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom claimed to have seen a land mass north of Kotelny Island during their 1809–1810 cartographic expedition to the New Siberian Islands . Sannikov reported this sighting of a "new land" in 1811, and the supposed island was named after him. Three-quarters of
3560-503: The thermal inversion has to be strong enough that the curvature of the light rays within the inversion layer is stronger than the curvature of the Earth . Under these conditions, the rays bend and create arcs . An observer needs to be within or below an atmospheric duct in order to be able to see a Fata Morgana. Fata Morgana may be observed from any altitude within the Earth's atmosphere , from sea level up to mountaintops, and even including
3649-414: The thermal inversion to be not as extreme as it was few hours before. A mirage was still present at that point, but it was not so complex as a few hours before sunset: the mirage was no longer a Fata Morgana, but instead had become a simple superior mirage. Fata Morgana mirages are visible to the naked eye, but in order to be able to see the detail within them, it is best to view them through binoculars ,
Glastonbury Tor - Misplaced Pages Continue
3738-451: The 12th and 13th century writer Gerald of Wales , to be the Avalon of Arthurian legend . The Tor has been associated with the name Avalon, and identified with King Arthur , since the alleged discovery of his and Queen Guinevere's neatly labelled coffins in 1191, recounted by Gerald of Wales . Author Christopher L. Hodapp asserts in his book The Templar Code for Dummies that Glastonbury Tor
3827-609: The 13th century, Floriant et Florete , she is called "mistress of the fairies of the salt sea" ( La mestresse [des] fées de la mer salée ). Ever since that time, Fata Morgana has been associated with Sicily in the Italian folklore and literature. For example, a local legend connects Morgan and her magical mirages with Roger I of Sicily and the Norman conquest of the island from the Arabs. Walter Charleton , in his 1654 treatise "Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana", devotes several pages to
3916-402: The 14th century. Its tower remains, although it has been restored and partially rebuilt several times. The origin of the name Glastonbury is unclear, but when the settlement was first recorded in the late 7th and early 8th centuries it was called Glestingaburg . Of the latter name, Glestinga is obscure and may derive from an Old English word or Celtic personal name. It may derive from
4005-674: The Antarctic Navy Support Activities Fata Morgana mirages may continue to trick some observers and are still sometimes mistaken for otherworldly objects such as UFOs. A Fata Morgana can display an object that is located below the astronomical horizon as an apparent object hovering in the sky. A Fata Morgana can also magnify such an object vertically and make it look absolutely unrecognizable. Some UFOs which are seen on radar may also be due to Fata Morgana mirages. Official UFO investigations in France indicate: As
4094-495: The Monasteries in 1539 when, except for the tower, it was demolished. The Tor was the place of execution where Richard Whiting , the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, was hanged, drawn and quartered along with two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James . The three-storey tower of St Michael's Church survives. It has corner buttresses and perpendicular bell openings. There is a sculptured tablet with an image of an eagle below
4183-551: The Rhegium mirage in his book of travels. An early mention of the term Fata Morgana in English, in 1818, referred to such a mirage noticed in the Strait of Messina , between Calabria and Sicily. The Flying Dutchman , according to folklore , is a ghost ship that can never go home, and is doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The Flying Dutchman is usually spotted from afar, sometimes seen to be glowing with ghostly light. One of
4272-468: The Tor has seven rings and very little space on top for the safekeeping of a community. It has been suggested, that a defensive function may have been linked with Ponter's Ball Dyke , a linear earthwork about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Tor. It consists of an embankment with a ditch on the east side. The purpose and provenance of the dyke are unclear. It is possible that it was part of a longer defensive barrier associated with New Ditch , three miles to
4361-587: The Tor so that by walking around the terraces a person eventually reaches the top in the same pattern. Evaluating this hypothesis is not easy. A labyrinth would very likely place the terraces in the Neolithic era, but given the amount of occupation since then, there may have been substantial modifications by farmers or monks, and conclusive excavations have not been carried out. In a more recent book, Hutton writes that "the labyrinth does not seem to be an ancient sacred structure". Some Neolithic flint tools recovered from
4450-468: The described mirages of vessels "could only be seen with the aid of a telescope ". It is often the case when observing a Fata Morgana that one needs to use a telescope or binoculars to really make out the mirage. The "cloud" that the article mentions a few times probably refers to a duct . On 25 August 1894, Scientific American described a "remarkable mirage" seen by the citizens of Buffalo, New York . The people of Buffalo, N.Y., were treated to
4539-621: The description of the Morgana of Rhegium, in the Strait of Messina (Book III, Chap. II, Sect. II). He records that a similar phenomenon was reported in Africa by Diodorus Siculus , a Greek historian writing in the first century BC, and that the Rhegium Fata Morgana was described by Damascius , a Greek philosopher of the sixth century AD. In addition, Charleton tells us that Athanasius Kircher described
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#17328811354544628-496: The distance, a land mass with mountains, directly ahead in the ship's course. He named the mountain range the Croker Mountains, after First Secretary to the Admiralty John Wilson Croker , and ordered the ship to turn around and return to England. Several of his officers protested, including First Mate William Edward Parry and Edward Sabine , but they could not dissuade him. The account of Ross's voyage, published
4717-566: The fairies. The Tor is supposedly a gateway into "The Land of the Dead (Avalon)". A persistent myth of more recent origin is that of the Glastonbury Zodiac , a purported astrological zodiac of gargantuan proportions said to have been carved into the land along ancient hedgerows and trackways, in which the Tor forms part of the figure representing Aquarius. The theory was first put forward in 1927 by Katherine Maltwood , an artist with interest in
4806-456: The first and second orders, but appearing like a perfect landscape far away in the sky. Scientific American , 25 August 1894 This description might refer to looming owing to inversion rather than to an actual mirage. From McMurdo Station in Antarctica, Fata Morganas are often seen during the Antarctic spring and summer, across McMurdo Sound . An Antarctic Fata Morgana, seen from
4895-524: The flow from the Chalice Well seen as representing menstrual flow and the Tor being seen as either a breast or the whole figure of the Goddess. This has been celebrated with an effigy of the Goddess leading an annual procession up the Tor. It is said that Brigid of Kildare is depicted milking a cow as a stone carving above one of the entrances to the tower. Tor (rock formation) A tor , which
4984-451: The footings of the tower, which were repaired with concrete. Erosion caused by the feet of the increasing number of visitors was also a problem and paths were laid to enable them to reach the summit without damaging the terraces. After 2000, enhancements to the access and repairs to the tower, including rebuilding of the parapet, were carried out. These included the replacement of some of the masonry damaged by earlier repairs with new stone from
5073-499: The head of the cross that stood on the summit. The head of the cross is now in the Museum of Somerset in Taunton . The earliest timber church, dedicated to St Michael , is believed to have been constructed in the 11th or 12th century; from which post holes have since been identified. Associated monk cells have also been identified. In 1243 Henry III granted a charter for a six-day fair at
5162-431: The horizon, the topsails alone being visible, had its hull shadowed on this foreground, but no inversion in this case could be observed. It may be added that these optical phenomena in regard to the vessels could only be seen with the aid of a telescope, for the nearest vessel was at the time fully sixteen miles [26 km] distant. The phenomena lasted over an hour, the illusion changing every moment in its character. Here
5251-581: The inversion. Fata Morgana Land is a phantom island in the Arctic , reported first in 1907. After an unfruitful search, it was deemed to be Tobias Island . A Fata Morgana is usually associated with something mysterious, something that never could be approached. O sweet illusions of song That tempt me everywhere, In the lonely fields, and the throng Of the crowded thoroughfare! I approach and ye vanish away, I grasp you, and ye are gone; But ever by night and by day, The melody soundeth on. As
5340-601: The labour involved. Other explanations have been suggested for the terraces, including the construction of defensive ramparts. Iron Age hill forts including the nearby Cadbury Castle in Somerset show evidence of extensive fortification of their slopes. The normal form of ramparts is a bank and ditch, but there is no evidence of this arrangement on the Tor. South Cadbury, one of the most extensively fortified places in early Britain, had three concentric rings of banks and ditches supporting an 44-acre (18 ha) enclosure. By contrast,
5429-840: The large crystals in the granite readily disintegrate to form a sandy regolith known locally as growan . This is readily stripped off by solifluction or surface wash when not protected by vegetation, notably during prolonged cold phases during the Quaternary ice ages – periglaciation . Where joints happen to be unusually widely spaced, core blocks can survive and remain above the weathering surface, developing into tors. These can be monolithic, as at Haytor and Blackingstone Rock, but are more usually subdivided into stacks , often arranged in avenues. Each stack may include several tiers or pillows , which may become separated: rocking pillows are called logan stones. These stacks are vulnerable to frost action and often collapse leaving trails of blocks down
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#17328811354545518-543: The last major ice age ( Devensian ). By contrast the Scottish Cairngorms, which is the other classic granite tor concentration in Britain, the oldest tors dated are between 200 and 675 thousand years of exposure, with even glacially-modified ones having dates of 100–150,000 years. Fata Morgana (mirage) A Fata Morgana ( Italian: [ˈfaːta morˈɡaːna] ) is a complex form of superior mirage visible in
5607-536: The location of Avalon included the other side of the Earth at the antipodes , Sicily , and other locations in the Mediterranean . Legends claimed that sirens in the waters around Sicily lured the unwary to their death. Morgan is associated not only with Sicily's Mount Etna (the supposedly hollow mountain locally identified as Avalon since the 12th century ), but also with sirens. In a medieval French Arthurian romance of
5696-453: The mysterious Australian Min Min light phenomenon. This would also explain the way in which the legend has changed over time: The first reports were of a stationary light, which in a Fata Morgana effect would be an image of a campfire. In more recent reports this has changed to moving lights, which in an inversion reflection such as Fata Morgana would be headlights over the horizon being reflected by
5785-555: The object is completely unrecognizable. A Fata Morgana may be seen on land or at sea, in polar regions, or in deserts. It may involve almost any kind of distant object, including boats, islands, and the coastline. Often, a Fata Morgana changes rapidly. The mirage comprises several inverted (upside down) and upright images stacked on top of one another. Fata Morgana mirages also show alternating compressed and stretched zones. The optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light bend when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in
5874-402: The observer is a mirage. On the other hand, if the real ship is still above the horizon, the image of it can be duplicated many times and elaborately distorted by a Fata Morgana. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Fata Morgana mirages may have played a role in a number of unrelated "discoveries" of arctic and antarctic land masses which were later shown not to exist. Icebergs frozen into
5963-471: The occult, who thought the zodiac was constructed approximately 5,000 years ago. But the vast majority of the land said by Maltwood to be covered by the zodiac was under several feet of water at the proposed time of its construction, and many of the features such as field boundaries and roads are recent. The Tor and other sites in Glastonbury have also been significant in the modern-day Goddess movement , with
6052-490: The oxidised iron (III) "ferric" iron drops out as insoluble "rusty" oxides that bind to the surrounding stone, hardening it. The low-lying damp ground can produce a visual effect known as a Fata Morgana when the Tor appears to rise out of the mist. This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. The Italian term Fata Morgana
6141-577: The parapet. In 1786, Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead bought the Tor and funded the repair of the tower in 1804, including the rebuilding of the north-east corner. It was then sold to the Very Rev. Hon. George Neville-Grenville and included in the Butleigh Manor until the 20th century. The last owner of the Tor was Robert Neville-Grenville who wished to give the Tor to the National Trust along with
6230-452: The phrase Fata Morgana to describe a mirage. In the book Thunder Below! about the submarine USS Barb , the crew sees a Fata Morgana (called an "arctic mirage" in the book) of four ships trapped in the ice. As they try to approach the ships the mirage vanishes. The Fata Morgana is briefly mentioned in the 1936 H. P. Lovecraft horror novel At the Mountains of Madness , in which
6319-461: The plain was flooded, the isle becoming a peninsula at low tide. The Tor is in the middle of the Summerland Meadows, part of the Somerset Levels , rising to an elevation of 518 feet (158 m). The plain is reclaimed fen above which the Tor is clearly visible for miles around. It has been described as an island, but actually sits at the western end of a peninsula washed on three sides by
6408-457: The possible explanations of the origin of the Flying Dutchman legend is a Fata Morgana mirage seen at sea. A Fata Morgana superior mirage of a ship can take many different forms. Even when the boat in the mirage does not seem to be suspended in the air, it still looks ghostly, and unusual, and what is even more important, it is ever-changing in its appearance. Sometimes a Fata Morgana causes
6497-417: The reason for the creation of the terraces, it would be expected that the effort would be concentrated on the south side, where the sunny conditions would provide a good yield, but the terraces are equally deep on the northern side, which would provide little benefit. Additionally, none of the other slopes of the island have been terraced, even though the more sheltered locations would provide a greater return on
6586-541: The role played by water vapor which strongly affects the atmospheric refractivity in relation to radio waves. Since clouds are closely associated with high levels of water vapor, optical mirages due to water vapor are often rendered undetectable by the accompanying opaque cloud. On the other hand, radar propagation is essentially unaffected by the water droplets of the cloud so that changes in water vapor content with altitude are very effective in producing atmospheric ducting and radar mirages. Fata Morgana mirages could explain
6675-641: The site. St Michael's Church was destroyed by an earthquake on 11 September 1275 . According to the British Geological Survey , the earthquake was felt in London, Canterbury and Wales, and was reported to have destroyed many houses and churches in England. The intensity of shaking was greater than 6 on the Richter scale (7 MSK ), with its epicentre in the area around Portsmouth or Chichester , South England. A second church, also dedicated to St Michael,
6764-406: The slopes called clitter or clatter . Weathering has also given rise to circular "rock basins" formed by the accumulation of water and repeated freezing and thawing. An example is found at Kes Tor on Dartmoor. Dating of 28 tors on Dartmoor showed that most are surprisingly young, less than 100,000 years of surface exposure, with none over 200,000 years old. They probably emerged at the start of
6853-480: The south-west, which is built in a similar manner. It has been suggested by Ralegh Radford that it is part of a great Celtic sanctuary, probably 3rd century BC, while others, including Philip Rahtz , date it to the post-Roman period and link it to the Dark Age occupation on Glastonbury Tor. The 1970 excavation suggests the 12th century or later. The historian Ronald Hutton also mentions the alternative possibility that
6942-417: The terraces are the remains of a medieval "spiral walkway" created for pilgrims to reach the church on the summit, similar to that at Whitby Abbey . Another suggestion is that the terraces are the remains of a three-dimensional labyrinth, first proposed by Geoffrey Russell in 1968. He states that the classical labyrinth ( Caerdroia ), a design found all over the Neolithic world, can be easily transposed onto
7031-506: The three beatified Benedictine monks on its summit in the 16th-century Abbot Whiting , John Thorne and Roger James . With the 19th-century resurgence of interest in Celtic mythology , the Tor became associated with Gwyn ap Nudd , the first Lord of the Otherworld ( Annwn ) and later King of the Fairies . The Tor came to be represented as an entrance to Annwn or to Avalon, the land of
7120-440: The top of the Tor show that the site has been visited, perhaps with a lasting occupation, since prehistory . The nearby remains of Glastonbury Lake Village were identified at the site in 1892, which confirmed that there was an Iron Age settlement in about 300–200 BC on what was an easily defended island in the fens. There is no evidence of permanent occupation of the Tor, but finds, including Roman pottery, do suggest that it
7209-426: The view from airplanes. A Fata Morgana may be described as a very complex superior mirage with more than three distorted erect and inverted images. Because of the constantly changing conditions of the atmosphere, a Fata Morgana may change in various ways within just a few seconds of time, including changing to become a straightforward superior mirage. The sequential image here shows sixteen photographic frames of
7298-440: The weary traveler sees In desert or prairie vast, Blue lakes, overhung with trees That a pleasant shadow cast; Fair towns with turrets high, And shining roofs of gold, That vanish as he draws nigh, Like mists together rolled— So I wander and wander along, And forever before me gleams The shining city of song, In the beautiful land of dreams. But when I would enter the gate Of that golden atmosphere, It
7387-424: Was actually far to the east of Graham Land. Searches for the land that Morrell claimed to have explored would continue into the early 20th century before New South Greenland's existence was conclusively disproven. Why Morrell reported exploring a non-existent land is unclear, but one possibility is that he mistook a Fata Morgana for actual land. Robert Peary claimed to have seen, while on a 1906 Arctic expedition,
7476-559: Was built of local sandstone in the 14th century by the Abbot Adam of Sodbury, incorporating the foundations of the previous building. It included stained glass and decorated floor tiles. There was also a portable altar of Purbeck Marble ; it is likely that the Monastery of St Michael on the Tor was a daughter house of Glastonbury Abbey . St Michael's Church survived until the Dissolution of
7565-399: Was late in the season and the sea ice was breaking up. For five days they went on, following the mirage. Finally, on 27 April, after they had covered some 200 km (125 miles) of dangerous sea ice, MacMillan was forced to admit that Piugaattoq was right—the land that they had sighted was in fact a mirage (probably a Fata Morgana). Later, MacMillan wrote: The day was exceptionally clear, not
7654-465: Was observable seemed to strike from about the middle portion of Amherst Island across to the southeast, for while the lower half of the island presented its usual appearance, the upper half was unnaturally distorted and thrown upward in columnar shape with an apparent height of two to three hundred feet. The upper line or cloud from this elevation stretched southward, upon which was thrown the image of objects. A barque sailing in front of this cloud presented
7743-568: Was stuck in ice for the winter, and embarked on a risky expedition by dog sled. In 1937, the Soviet icebreaker Sadko also tried and failed to find Sannikov Land. Some historians and geographers have theorised that the land mass that Sannikov and Toll saw was actually Fata Morganas of Bennett Island . In 1818, Sir John Ross led an expedition to discover the long-sought-after Northwest Passage . When he reached Lancaster Sound in Canada, he sighted, in
7832-426: Was the cause of the disappearance of the mirage. A close examination of the map showed the mirage did not cause the slightest distortion, the gradual rise of the city from the water being rendered perfectly. It is estimated that at least 20,000 spectators saw the novel spectacle. This mirage is what is known as that of the third order; that is, the object looms up far above the level and not inverted, as with mirages of
7921-487: Was visited on a regular basis. Excavations on Glastonbury Tor, undertaken by a team led by Philip Rahtz between 1964 and 1966, revealed evidence of Dark Age occupation during the 5th to 7th centuries around the later medieval church of St. Michael. Finds included postholes , two hearths including a metalworker's forge , two burials oriented north–south (thus unlikely to be Christian), fragments of 6th-century Mediterranean amphorae (vases for wine or cooking oil), and
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