Travel Channel’s Off Limits premiere tonight

by Chris Owen on
On the new Travel Channel series, Off Limits, host Don Wildman makes it his mission to reveal some of the most amazing off-limits sites in the country.

Tonight’s premiere episode, set in Wildman’s home town of Los Angeles, shows the adventurer kayaking the LA River, risking fines and jail time, taking a film crew for a first-ever look inside the LA aqueducts, climbing one of the city’s 30.000 active oil rigs, following the lost 16 miles of canals in Venice beach and more.

Upcoming episodes take us along with Off Limits to sites off the grid, revealing a side rarely, if ever, seen before.

“Travel should be an investigation, yes. But it can also be a rediscovery of ourselves and the heights to which we aspire in life.” says Wildman, a self-proclaimed “silly romantic” about travel.


In San Francisco Wildman and his Off Limits crew explore a San Quentin dungeon, a once-great shipyard, a top secret POW interrogation center and an abandoned hospital that was the inspiration for Scientology.

“Even while I make my career diving into hideously unappealing environments to get the story, a large part of myself would often prefer to be strolling through the Marais in Paris or cozying into my seat at Carnegie Hall” says Wildman.

In Seattle, Wildman braves mountain passes where an army of men tunneled through miles of mountain to build safe passage for early settlers. He will hang from a zip line a hundred feet up to get a look at the deadly job the city’s first loggers faced. He will dive into the frigid waters to see the remains of the steamboats that once shuttled Seattleites across the Puget Sound. And he’ll take a boat across Lake Washington and step inside the longest floating bridge in the world.

Each hour-long episode follows Wildman as he investigates sites that are dangerous, hands-on, and, in many cases, extreme. Off Limits premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern time.

Archaeologists in Syria discover Byzantine mosaic

by Sean McLachlan on

Just when you thought all news coming out of Syria was bad, an archaeology team has discovered a Byzantine mosaic in a medieval church.

The mosaic was discovered last week at the Deir Sounbol Church on al-Zawieh Mountain. Syrian investigators say the mosaic measures 4×5 meters (13×16 ft.). While portions are damaged or missing, floral and geometric shapes are clearly visible and there are inscriptions in Greek. These are prayers that include the names of the owner of the church and the person who supervised the creation of the mosaic.

The Byzantine Empire was the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Long after the Western Empire collapsed, the Byzantines continued Roman culture with a distinctive Greek flair. Syria was Byzantine territory and was the battlefront in the Empire’s grueling war with Persia.

The war weakened both sides so much that they were easy pickings when the followers of Mohammed burst out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. Persia quickly fell, but Byzantium held on, shrinking gradually until the end came in 1453. In that year the capital Constantinople, modern Istanbul, fell to the Ottoman Turks.

One of Byzantium’s greatest achievements were its sumptuous mosaics. Made of little colored tiles called tesserae, they depict elaborate scenes and some have tesserae made of gold. A copyright-free image of the Syrian mosaics was not available. You can see them here. This picture, courtesy of Berthold Werner, shows a mosaic floor in Jerash, Jordan. It’s interesting in that it contains swastikas, a symbol of peace and harmony for centuries before the Nazis twisted its meaning.

I love the fact that Syrian archaeologists are continuing to dig despite the chaos and repression going on in their country. These guys obviously love their work and won’t let anything stop them from doing what they feel is important. It reminds me of a literary journal that was published in Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war. The offices were right next to the no-man’s land between two factions, and yet they still managed to publish literature on a regular basis. The name of the journal escapes me. Any Lebanese out there remember it?

Zurich to vote on suicide tourism

by Sean McLachlan on

Zurich is set to vote on whether to continue allowing foreigners to seek assisted suicide in the city.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, but the public has become increasingly concerned about the number of people coming to their country with the intention of killing themselves.

Two proposals are on the table: one to ban assisted suicide for everyone, the other to limit it to city residents.

While assisted suicide is banned in most nations, the Swiss emphasis on personal liberty has meant the practice has been legal in Switzerland for many years.

Opinion polls indicate that the majority of people want it to remain so, but are opposed to international travelers flying to their country to end it all.

What do you think about assisted suicide? Tell us what you think in the poll and comments section!

[Photo courtesy Vassil via Wikimedia Commons]

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Archaeologists to raise 17th century shipwreck

by Sean McLachlan on


The shipwreck of a 17th century merchant vessel off the coast of England is going to be raised from the sea, the BBC reports.

An armed merchant vessel that plied the high seas sank in the Swash Channel off the coast of Dorset more than 300 years ago. Underwater archaeology teams have been studying the wreck and have found cannon, pottery, and an intriguing face of a man carved into the rudder. Their work has had to speed up as sediment is eroding away, leaving the old wood exposed to decay and attack by shipworms, which cut holes into the wood.

Researchers have decided the only thing to do is to raise the ship out of the water and conserve the wood for future study. Sadly, some of the ship is so decayed that it will have to be left on the sea bottom. It will be reburied in sediment to prevent further decay.

The salvage operation planned for this summer is going to be a tricky one. A ship hasn’t been raised from UK waters since the Mary Rose was brought to the surface in 1982. This 16th century warship, shown here in a Wikimedia Commons image, is now the subject of its own museum in Portsmouth, England.

While historic shipwrecks are often taken to the surface to be studied and conserved, or their locations kept secret to avoid looting, the shipwreck of Captain Kidd’s pirate ship will become an underwater museum.

“Mona Lisa model” to be exhumed

by Sean McLachlan on

Scientists are opening the grave of a nun to see if she was the model for Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The 16th century tomb of Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo is being explored in the hopes of finding her skull. With modern facial reconstruction techniques, it’s possible to tell what she looked like, and this will confirm or deny a popular theory that she was the model for the famous painting.

Archaeologists are using subsurface imaging to probe the area under a crypt and staircase they’ve uncovered inside an old convent where the women is presumed to have been buried. They believe that several tombs lie at the bottom of the stairs.

Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo was the wife of a wealthy merchant and when her husband died she became a nun at the convent of San Orsula in Florence, where she died in 1542. It was common in those days for women to join a convent when they were widowed. One has to wonder what Sister Del Giocondo thought of being the subject of the most talked-about portrait in history.

The Mona Lisa has been argued about for generations. Some researchers say the model was Da Vinci’s gay lover, while others say it’s Da Vinci himself in drag.

The lower tombs will be opened in the next few days. Stayed tuned to see if the team finds Mona Lisa’s celebrated head among the remains.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]