What you missed: The world’s richest dog, a pledge for the planet, a lost temple and more!7 min read
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Missed Out is a lowdown on all the wacky, wonderful and sometimes, plain weird, happenings in the world around us. Little videos, facts and tidbits that make for an ideal, fun and educational break.
This week on Missed Out, let’s travel to Egypt to check out a very fascinating discovery, meet the richest dog in the world, and celebrate women in power. Scroll down to know more!
The great Sun Temple discovery!
The biggest archaeological discovery of the past five decades was recently uncovered in Egypt — a 4,500-year-old temple. The discovery of what is believed to be one of Egypt’s six ‘lost temples of the sun’ was been made by a team of archaeologists. Researchers excavating the Abu Ghurab site, south of Cairo, uncovered the remnants of a sun temple.
According to the reports, Egyptian pharaohs are thought to have built just six sun temples. While pyramids were built to preserve a pharaoh’s standing as a heavenly entity in the afterlife, sun temples acted as their shrines and were much smaller in size.
This sun temple is an extremely rare find, being the third ever discovered and the first unearthed in the last five decades. This temple is considered to have been erected between 2400 and 2370 BCE.
The remains were discovered buried beneath another temple near Abu Ghurab, some 12 miles south of Cairo. Archaeologists digging at the Abu Ghurab site in 1898 unearthed the sun temple of Nyuserra, the sixth pharaoh of Egypt’s 5th dynasty, who ruled about the mid-25th century BCE. Since then, there have been no other finds, until now.
Discoveries made among the ruins of the older temple include seals engraved with the names of kings, dozens of intact beer jugs, and portions of a limestone threshold and entrance portico.
Owliver’s Obscure Observations
Ancient Egyptians mummified the dead to ensure their rebirth in the afterlife. In addition to humans, animals were mummified too as companions or as food for the humans in the afterlife. Commonly mummified animals included cats, hawks, snakes, crocodiles and dogs.
The team plans to conduct further analysis of the pottery in hopes of finding out more about the lifestyle, beliefs and diet of the people who used the temple.
The European Union’s plan to ban some imports from deforested areas
The European Commission has proposed a law to curb the import of food and wood imports from deforested areas, as the European Union pushes ahead with its sustainability goals.
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or a stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests.
The law would require companies to prove their global supply chains are not contributing to the destruction of forests. Commodities such as soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and wood – as well as some derived products such as leather and chocolate – would need to be certified “deforestation-free”.
Imports from higher-risk countries would be subject to tighter checks.
Ever wondered which countries have seen the most amount of deforestation? Owliver has rounded up a list for you:
Honduras
Nigeria
The Philippines
Benin
Ghana
Indonesia
Nepal
North Korea
Haiti
Ecuador
The US’ first female president for a little more than an hour
US President Joe Biden transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris for a historic one hour and 25 minutes on November 19, while he was getting a health check.
Though brief, Harris became the first woman to hold presidential power in the United States. She is already the first female vice president. The White House press office said that official letters to Congress declaring the temporary transfer of power were sent at 10:10 am.
“The president resumed his duties at 11:35 am,” the White House said in a statement.
The oldest person to hold the presidency in US history, Biden went in for his medical check-up on the eve of his 79th birthday. The White House described the appointment as a “routine annual physical.” It was Biden’s first since taking office in January.
Owliver’s Obscure Observations
The first woman to actively pursue the US’ highest office was Victoria Woodhull—a stockbroker, newspaper publisher, and champion of social reform who ran for the presidency in 1872. This was some 50 years before women throughout the United States had achieved the right to vote.
The world’s richest dog is selling his mansion!
Wait, what?!
Yes, you read that right. The world’s wealthiest dog, a German shepherd named Gunther VI, is selling his sprawling Miami mansion for $32 million (approximately Rs 238 crore). Gunther inherited a $500 million fortune from his granddad Gunther IV!
According to news reports, countess Karlotta Liebenstein, when she passed away in 1992, gifted her dog Gunther III a multimillion-dollar trust, which reportedly was worth $58 million. After this, the tradition continued.
The estate is operated by a group of Italian businessmen under The Gunther Group, but the mansion in Miami is owned and operated by The Gunther Corporation, which is a part of the Group.
Interestingly, the villa once belonged to music icon Madonna, and was purchased from her in 2000, reportedly for $7.5 million.
That’s it for this week! Catch more ‘Missed Out’, and tell us what kind of content you’d like to see more of! Write to us at hello@owliverpost.com, or comment on this article.
