The Chimera

[inklimited00]

That was amazing. Much more exciting than our local variety of natural phenomena, which is merely burning coal, as you can see here: watch?v=zXdXvcfptdQ

[WakarimasenKa]

and thats what fracking will do to where you live

[Gauteamus]

I am sure someone has mentioned this already, but I just can'y help it:

Methane is odour-less :)

I think I must have watched close to all your non-dancing videos now.

[lindybeige]

@Gauteamus Pure methane may be odourless, but the things associated with it and its creation are not always. Anyway, to me it smelt of a camping gas stove. I hope you enjoy the dancing ones too.

[amorphusensanity]

I'm curious how the gas burning is unknown if you saw it bubbling up from under a puddle. That seems like an easy enough way to trap some and run some tests to determine such things.

[WarriorMinotaur]

How have the authorities prevented some jerk from putting the flames out, for all this time? Easiest way to get your name on a plaque ever.

[lindybeige]

@WarriorMinotaur Putting them out is very difficult.  Many have tried. The fissure have many routes to the surface, and the rock is hot enough to ignite the gas.

[TornadoCreator]

Finally someone who pronouces Chimera correctly. The number of people who prounounce in shim-eh-rah is staggering.

[n2488]

that's properly amazing 

[FrisianDude]

About the Ozzie ladies; just yesterday I visited a bit of an archaeological dig open for the public and there were people who just kept talking while I wanted to hear the things actually being said. Hrmph.

[MooseHunter911]

I wonder what made it to catch fire, what made the spark?

[lindybeige]

@MooseHunter911 The area is prone to forest fires. That would do it.

[scottbaioisdead]

i'm pretty sure that it is natural methane, theres a few things like that in some of the wetlands in america, but they haven't been burning 2000 years

[HBOrrgg]

So is the theory that it started naturally or that 2000 years ago there was a man with a torch who liked to follow his nose?

[Slithytove1000]

I genuinely learned something there; thank you. How have I got to the age of forty, and with my extensive (unlooked for, but nonetheless fairly comprehensive) knowledge of armour and mythical creatures and not known that chimaerae breathe fire?

[ArmedBrit]

i can tell im tired, I read the title as The Chiminea,,,

[unutmayacagimbirnick]

Have you been in İstanbul(Kadıköy) in these days?

[lindybeige]

@unutmayacagimbirnick In Istanbul, I spent almost all my time within the walls of Byzantium.

[youmaus]

Any "global warming" carbon credit issues here? I guess genetically modified things were not highly thought of in ancient times either.

[23penguins32]

@Catachan1brainleaf You beat me to it, mate. What a disgrace. Need more Dylan Moran types to step up and tell them to shove it - they are there, don't' need their mobiles to confirm it. The only place safe from the shrieking mobile phone women is in my flat with my headset on watching YouTube...or so I thought. Sorry, Lloyd. Is nothing sacred...

[NecroEX083]

Ever thought about seeing Derweze? I imagine that would be a very inspiring site.

[elgostine]

btw, bellerophen killed the chimera by lodging a lead sling bullet in its throat, which melted thanby the beasts firey breath, choiking it. or so the legend goes.

[MagicAccent]

It's like something taken from a cheesy fantasy novel..

[Octavius0]

Incidentally, the Royal Navy used to have a ship (in Nelsons time) called the "HMS Bellerophon", it fought at Trafalgar and was the ship that took Napoleon into exile.

The crew called it the "Billy Ruffian" and it even made it into a song of the time.

"They shipped Boney off again, away-ay-ya.

Aboard the Billy Ruffian, Jean Francois.

Boney he got sent away, away-ay-ya.

Away to St. Helena, Jean Francois."

Completely off topic I know but interesting nonetheless!

[bretlynn]

Reminds me of Centralia PA

[bretlynn]

Thank you thank you thank you for for pronouncing Chimera the correct way!!

[TheBoyFromNorfolk]

I'm rather fond of Sir pTerry's. discription of gods like Vulcan and Hyphesteus. Any Organisation/Patheon, needs, usually to their regret and finiancial cost, someone who knows how things work. Or something like that, his words are much better than mione could be.

[burningphoneix]

At first I thought no one tried drilling there just in case of the danger of accidental combustion but then I saw that puddle and I was like "Why hasn't someone taken a sample of that and analysed it?"

[snnyj]

I really look forward to watching your videos! Keep it up!

[ratmilkcheese]

You must be having a blast out there, shrieking Aussie women aside.

[300warrior300]

To be fair, later on Vulcan and Hephaestus became pretty much the same god.

[lindybeige]

@300warrior300 The Romans tended to fuse their gods with similar ones they later encountered, but they are different gods.

[Wirrn]

@lindybeige I knew they tended to merge them, but I always though Vulcan was essentially the same god to begin with, just a different name. How different were the original Roman ones from the Greek?

[lindybeige]

@Wirrn It is easy to see why they were considered equivalents, but Greek and Roman gods were not the same. Kirk is the equivalent of Picard.

[awlach8]

Damn I love your videos. You've always got such intersting tid-bits of history to share with us. That fact that they usually deals with the ancient or medieval world makes them that much more fascinating!

[MrTrykster]

by the gods...

[ironflea]

its a wonder how it would keep going even even when it  rains.....

[wesmatron]

Wasn't Vulcan the pointy-eared god of rubber?

[duran3d]

@Pipedog42 I'm not sure about this case, but usually these kind of natural phenomena is not steady enough to be used as a permanent energy source.

A different but also interesting phenomenon happends in the island of Lanzarote where the under earth is so hot you can cook on it, or you can make fire just by introducing some twig underground.

[tisFrancesfault]

people should look at the so called "The Door to Hell". a (accidental) man made inequivalent. its pretty impressive i think.

[archis84]

Hmm, ''The door to Hell'' flaming gas deposit in Turkmenistan looks more impresive.

[mastrama13]

Love it! Didn't know a place like that exists

[NathanielOfLight]

Very nice video! With a clever gag at the end, per usual :)

[IcEye89]

Chimera 2.0

Part Badger, part horse, part shark and part ladybug.

Also - according to Wikipedia - the components of the gas can't be correctly told apart because the composition is changing to much. But I guess it's rather that people don't want to know.

[lindybeige]

@IcEye89 The head of a crocodile and the body of a crocodile, but not the same crocodile!

I'm sure they could narrow down the gas's identity a bit if they tried.

[MrMekune]

@lindybeige

Thats like a duck that talks like a duck, walks like a duck and looks like a duck but isnt a duck!

[Pipedog42]

Kindda surprising that NOBODY has built on or USED that perpetual heat/light... If it has burned for millinia, that in itself seems weird.

Great vid as usual... the BBC or Discovery channel could use a man like you. :)

[themomaw]

@Pipedog42 It would be a shame to industrialize it. Sure it's a seemingly endless source of some useful natural gas, but we can get that from other places. It's unique as it is. Though sentimentality may become obsolete in a few more decades as we become ever more starved for cheap energy.

What I really want to know is, did he bring marshmallows?

[sae1095hc]

@Pipedog42

Yeah, I'd think at the very least, the romans would have used it for their famous, very large carbon footprint baths.

[ladders1]

Great video. Nice and informative.

[cilibinarii]

Some pro editing in there :3

[Boeman91]

Nice vid! Wiki states it is methane btw.