Wiccan Shrine — Or What?
Over the past several months I have been exploring and photographing old streetcar tracks and pavements that have been exposed in the course of the many repaving projects now underway in downtown Raleigh. One of those forays took me deep beneath the city streets — and this is what I discovered.
Cautiously, I descended into an unknown netherworld.
Ultimately I found myself in a dank, dark and cold subterranean chamber. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light filtering down from above, I spotted what appeared to be a small devotional shrine someone had erected on the opposite side of the room. Wiccans! — I thought.
A box of matches lay atop the makeshift altar, so I lit the pair of candles which had been placed there; they emitted an eerie glow in the darkness.
Suddenly, I heard a distinct ‘kerplunk’ behind me, and I spun around to investigate.
Relieved that no one else had entered the chamber, I looked closer, and realized some small object must have fallen from a cloaca maxima above me into the shallow brackish water at my feet.
I continued my exploration and could see through the culvert beneath the altar that another room appeared in the distance about 50 feet away. However, as the water was considerably deeper in there, I decided to save that particular venture for another day.
As I turned to leave, I snapped a photo of myself reflected in the shiny, hieroglyph-enscribed black tiles of the shrine.
Hmm, I thought, as I extinguished the candles and made my ascent out of this mysterious and hidden, subterranean chamber — Wiccans? I dunno. But with all that concrete and brickwork down there — maybe this secret shrine has some kind of association with the Masons?










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John Morris
Raleigh Boy
Devin McKim
Sid Fowler
uliveandyouburn
Adrienne Taylor
Ian F.G. Dunn
Ben Spiker
Paul Friedrich
07/30/2010
Looks like it hasn’t been there long; the walls are too clean, and the steel hand/foot bars have no corrosion.
07/30/2010
Interesting! But doesn’t look all that Wiccany to me.
07/30/2010
Wow! I can’t believe that! I would have been terrified and fascinated at the same time. I actually am both right now, and I’m just looking at the pictures. I shared this on my Facebook!
07/30/2010
hail satan – it’s the gates of hell
07/30/2010
Urban Subterranean Spelunking again are we ;)
07/31/2010
Never seen this… downtown??
08/01/2010
Where exactly is this place?
08/01/2010
I found some similar stuff in a tunnel in downtown Durham. I’m pretty sure it’s more likely some guerrilla (sub)street art than anything related to religion or a secret society. Some pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avius/sets/72157622218581212/
08/02/2010
I love stuff like this. And Avius, your photo set is great, too. The idea of people creating little underground sewer shrines (and hopefully not sacrificing too many small children) all over the Triangle makes me smile.
08/02/2010
It would be my luck to visit during one of the recent flash storms.
08/03/2010
so the candles were lit when you entered?
08/03/2010
No, I lit the ones I found. According to the article, so did Raleigh Boy. Finding a LIT candle would be the creepiest of all, because you’d know there was someone else down there with you!
08/03/2010
Or they burn for all eternity
08/12/2010
What possessed you, or do you crawl around in the sewers on a regular basis?
08/12/2010
Curiosity possessed me. I find fascinating the hidden and forgotten places that are sometimes right beneath our feet. Truthfully, I do most of my exploring above ground, but if I find a tunnel big enough to fit into, there’s usually something interesting at the end of it.
08/12/2010
I’ve had the notion to get into urban exploration and this right here inspires me even more. Good job, dude.
08/16/2010
This ‘shrine’ and the Zodiac, as Avius calls the other location, are actually pieces to two large subterranean geocache puzzles.
08/25/2010
Creeeeeepy.