From: Andrew Johnson
Date: 2008-12-16 09:48:48
Just in case anyone had seen this! www.hoax-slayer.com/… —–Original Message—–From: Tom Baldwin [mailto:tombaldwin@ireland.c…]Sent: 02 August 2008 17:01To: tombaldwin@ireland.c…Subject: Salamanca “astronaut” – Mystery Solved ANY EXPLANATION FOR THE “ANCIENT ASTRONAUT” ON THE CATHEDRAL AT SALAMANCA IN SPAIN? Anti-Hoax site on Internet Answer:Commentary:The above photographs and text are circulating via email in the form of an attached PowerPoint slide show. The photographs show a carving of an astronaut on the facade of a cathedral in Salamanca, Spain. A carving of an astronaut was added to the New Cathedral in Salamanca, Spain during restoration work in 1992 The same photographs have also been posted to a number of online forums and blogs on which they have generated a considerable amount of debate. While some commentators have suggested that the astronaut has been added using image manipulation software, other observers have come up with more outlandish explanations, including time travel, alien visitations in ancient times and amazingly precise predictions of the future by the artists who decorated the original buildings.More down-to-earth observers have drawn the most obvious conclusion, which is that the astronaut carving was added to the building in much more recent times. And, in fact, this more sensible explanation for the “mystery” is entirely correct.The astronaut, along with other contemporary symbols was added in 1992 during restoration work on the “new” cathedral. The person responsible for the restoration, Jeronimo Garcia, reportedly chose an astronaut as a fitting symbol of the twentieth century. According to an article about the restoration (in Spanish – Click here for Google translation to English), it is a tradition of cathedral builders and restorers to include a contemporary symbol on the building as a means of “signing” their work.
