Seven by R. L. Cronin
Mysteries of an Age of Discovery
Explorers traveled the globe long before the 20th century, but throughout much of the 1900s, a new and very different breed of curious adventurers began exploring the world. Young men and women cast caution aside to visit long-ignored mysterious corners of the world, doing so not to conquer new territories as earlier explorers did, but to simply view that which few others had ever laid eyes on or would ever see for themselves. I’m talking about such locales as the Inca ruins high in Peru’s Andes Mountains, the Great Pyramid in Cairo, Egypt, and other remnants of an earlier civilization we know little about.
Romain Wilhelmsen was in his early 20s when he departed New York City in 1953 aboard a freighter to journey south on the Magdelena River in Colombia, South Carolina. His ultimate destination was Peru, where he wanted to discover a long-forgotten Inca city. Everild Young, a young English girl, explored the Andes Mountains that same year and sailed the Amazon River. A gentleman named Kenneth C. Dick mopped the decks of the S. S. President Harding in 1933, doing so from New York to England so he could tour parts of Europe. He returned home, but did not stay long before setting off again, this time to travel around the world, leaving home with $2 and a determination to succeed. He did so, and twenty years later, performed scientific analysis on the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.
Sacsayhuaman Fortress in Peru
One remarkable result of these brave young explorers was that they shared their experiences with the world. Following in the footsteps of a fellow named Frank G. Carpenter, this new breed of explorers during the 1900s wrote about what they did, stories that made it onto the pages of newspapers around the world. They soon added photographs to their written accounts, and as the technology advanced, these explorers turned still photos into movie pictures, producing shorts that movie theaters showed as introductions to full length picture shows. By the mid-1900s, ancient ruins around the world were viewed in technicolor, not only in movie theaters, but on television screens from sea to shining sea.
Not only did the incredible explorers of the 1900s share with us the awesome achievements of prior civilizations, these remarkable men and women also opened our eyes to mysteries of the past. It was one thing to hear about the Nazca Lines of Peru, but seeing the amazing carvings made thousands of years ago on film, from an airplane, was awe inspiring.
The Monkey, Aerial View, Nazca Lines, Peru
When we think of famous explorers we likely think first of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, or perhaps Hernando de Soto, but others who truly deserve recognition for their accomplishments include archeologist explorers Anne Kilmer, Ewa Wasilewska and Dr. Erich Schmidt. And we should not forget Dr. Edgar James Banks, one man who you might say inspired them all.
Dr. Banks traveled to Egypt and the Middle East in the 1890s. He became the first American to climb Mount Arafat in search of Noah’s Ark; was one of the earliest Americans to cross the Sahara Desert on a camel, a journey of two-weeks, sleeping on the ground at night beside his trust dromedary; and not only climbed the Great Pyramid to its 481’ summit, also explored its interior. And Dr. Edgar J. Banks accomplished all of this prior to retiring in Eustis, Florida.
Not only did Dr. Banks inspire others to explore the world he’s believed to have been the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movie character as well. (He, or maybe Charlton Heston in the role of Harry Steele in Secret of the Inca)
Nearly sixty years ago I had an idea to write a book that I planned to call “Seven”. My research back then led me to believe the number had been very important to earlier generations. A career and family prevented me from writing that book, but I never forgot the subject. Seven, found worldwide and always having a positive human quality, remains, in my view, one of the greatest of all unsolved mysteries about early mankind. What did they know that we still have not figured out?
Seven: Mysteries of an Age of Discovery is a combination of a story of true-life adventurers and the constant recurrence throughout the ages of one number. History or Historical Fiction? I provide the details of the travels of each of the new-age explorers shown in bold above, and provide you with details of the world-wide use by the Ancients of the number Seven. Then, let you decide for yourself.
Seven: Mysteries of an Age of Discovery, by yours truly, is available now at Amazon
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