The Starry Ceiling of Waitomo
Drifting in a boat on an underground river in New Zealand, you look up into the dark and see a sky full of tiny blue-green stars.
What was reported
In 1887, a Māori chief, Tane Tinorau, and an English surveyor, Fred Mace, floated by raft into a cave at Waitomo, where a stream disappears underground. Looking up, they saw the roof covered in thousands of points of blue-green light.
Visitors are still taken through the Glowworm Grotto by boat, in silence, so as not to disturb the lights.
Explanations offered
The lights are made by the larvae of a fungus gnat found only in New Zealand. Each larva glows to attract insects, which get caught in sticky threads it hangs down from the ceiling, like fishing lines. The cave is run jointly with descendants of Tane Tinorau.
- When
- Explored in 1887
- Where
- Waitomo, Waikato, New Zealand
- Witnesses
- Visitors in boats on an underground river
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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