Strange Temple

Mines (1931):

Where does a city come from? Its stone, brick, concrete, metal - all must be carved out from within the earth. For every great city, somewhere there is a greater hole.

As the sun rose I stood before a once mighty entryway into the largest mine I had ever seen. Numerous collapses over the last century have almost obscured the portal completely. Ducking under the narrow gap among the rubble surrounding me I stand up in the largest enclosed space I have ever seen in my life.

The mine has an alien atmosphere. The air is still and strangely warm. At the end of one passageway I find the intact skeleton of a deer, its bones turned the color of stone. I cannot help but feel a chill, imagining the scared animal wandering alone in the darkness and silence, unable to find its way.

Later on I discover a strange totem pole. In the midst of a collapse a 10 ft column of stone stands perfectly upright. After an 80 ft fall from the roof this rock punched enough of a hole in the surrounding dirt to remain standing upright. High above I imagined I could see its outline in ceiling.

As I pushed further into the deepest recesses of the mine the temperature dropped and I began to notice that a permanent frost grew under many of the stones lying about. Still further back the frost took over and coated the entire floor. But the crisp sound of frost underfoot was absent. Instead I felt as though I walked on a soft cloud. Upon closer examination the frost proved to be a thick coat of fungus.

There is speculation among biologists that the largest organisms on our planet may in fact be vast underground fields of mold. Looking around at the strange white fibers reaching out from every available surface I suddenly felt dwarfed by the enormity of this strange animal that surrounded me. Perhaps there, 1000 ft beneath the sunlight, I glimpsed the smallest corner of an organism so great and timeless that even the seas and continents could not bound it in.

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
Psalm 102:26,27