An ancient urn or a giant’s drinking fountain? Behind the mysterious plain of jars in Laos

Stonehenge is awe-inspiring, but there's an even more mysterious ancient scene in Laos. The Plain of Giles consists of thousands of prehistoric stone vessels spread over hundreds of square kilometers of hilly terrain near von Safan in the northeast of the country, despite the "plain" in its name. These giant jars create a surreal sight, with some standing up to 10 feet tall and weighing several tons. It's an archaeological wonder that experts have yet to pin down. RELATED CONTENT Exploring Laos' Plain of Jars with Drone Footage

French archaeologists began to be puzzled by the massive display in the early 20th century. One of them, Henri Parmentier, who visited in 1923, discovered that although many of the jars' contents had been looted, a typical jar might contain one or two black pots, one or two hand axes , a "strange object" he concluded to be a lamp, glass beads, drilled ruby ??beads, earrings of stone or glass, brass bells, and "often another French archaeologist Madeleine Colani Colani conducted field research on the site in the 1930s and wrote a book called "The Megaliths of Upper Laos," which the New York Times reported The book*** has 719 pages, and the two-volume hardcover edition is only available in French.

Archaeologists say the structures, some of which date back 2,000 years, may be related to burials, although an oft-reported local legend claims that "a tribe of giants used them as wine cellars to celebrate a great of victory."

Most of these jars are undecorated, but some feature carved figures or faces. Near the jars were round stone disks that were thought to be lids, and according to UNESCO, these were "sometimes also carved with symbols of humans, tigers or monkeys." Similar inventions exist elsewhere, including 600 Miles It is a part of outer India, but it is still unclear which civilization created Laos.

Recently, UNESCO listed the area as a tentative item on its World Heritage List as "important but dangerous". In fact, there is another layer of history beyond the ancient mystery. In the 1960s and 1970s, during the Indo-China War, the US military dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos, and the Giles Plain area is still full of craters caused by these explosions. The area still contains unexploded bombs, landmines and other unexploded weapons, and, as the crater reveals, is "one of the most explosive places on Earth."

< p> Despite military attacks, these mysterious works survived.

The Plain of Giles remains the most popular tourist attraction in northeastern Laos, with visitors following carefully marked safe passages to marvel at this ancient, unresolved wonder