I don't blame you. That place got no "soul". There's an awkwardness about places like that. Like the smell of death lurks around. You gotto look over your shoulder all the time.

It's not really a destination spot for a vacation.
...well unless you're employed as a waiter or chef on blorange' yacht while he does his business with the Saudi king

@TimeOutForMe Ir looks like a huge sandy beach....a good place to work on my tan.

...but off course yes! The Saudi king and blorange are longstanding "friends".

Terrorist muslims get drones and fighter jets sellling USA poison fuel...NEVER FORGET SADEQ MULLAHAH beheaded for the crime of Atheism 25 years ago

I heard its a Hindu Linghum stone guarded by a few thousand soldiers at the Kabaa. Anyone else heard something to that effect?

@TimeOutForMe
Lol, there are huge conspiracy theories that go on in India that I have been hearing about since childhood but no one had an answer when asked ... "with all the glory and achievements, why could we not create simple toilets for people in 8,000 years?"

@St-Sinner I've never been to India. My great great great grandfather travelled from India to Mauritius and then to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The landed there before it was called Algoa Bay. More than 2 decades ago they found artefacts dating back to this time which came with them from India. Indians and the Portuguese interbred at a sea point what is now known as the Hermanus area on the west coast of Cape Town. This is way before the time the British brought Indians on false pretences and lies to South Africa. ...when they got here they were told to work the sugar cane fields and there were no escape. ...so they brought them to Durban as slaves. That was 1800 something. I would love to visit India someday but I would need 6 month's perhaps.
I agree they could at least give their people bloody decent toilets. ...bloody Modi can do much better for his country.

@FrankA i don't think I'd ever visit that place. Doesn't sound appealing at all.

@TimeOutForMe

Fascinating and sad as well. I have heard first hand and also read many of those horror stories of atrocities by the English in their colonies.

I met an Indian origin women from Fiji in California whose great great grandmother was on the boat that sailed to Fiji from India in the 1800's. Laborers were promised a good pay, home and coming home to India for the major holiday like Diwali or Holi. People excitedly packed a lot of stuff, many said good bye to they families, some took the family members. In the middle of the voyage, they were told that they were not going back ever! Many just jumped into the ocean in fear of slavery and bonded labor. My friend's great great grandmother was just 9 years old then. She grew up and people got used to it. There were African and local slaves too. Inter-marriages happened and the rest is history. It was heart-wrenching.

My brother visited a West Indies / Caribbean Island of Guyana and lived with an Indian origin family years ago. He saw the family wore Indian dresses, knew no a single word of any Indian language but listened to latest songs of Bollywood, prepared Indian food, had Indian gods and celebrated Indian festivals.

Talking about you visiting India. You do not need 6 months or even a month to visit. The right approach is in doing it piece meal considering the climate and tourist seasons. There are many many places worth seeing. India has fantastic history and great monuments. You can do Delhi and Agra (The Taj Mahal) in a week. It will fill your heart. You can cover South India next in 7 days. That will work better. I have traveled wide in India. I will be happy to answer more questions if you want.

@St-Sinner I've always said Catholicism is the offset of hinduism. ...even their "holy rosary" has the same number of beads that the Hindu priests do their botri botri and om namas from. Their 9 day novena comes from saraswathi poojay after the fasting period of puratasi - abstinence of meat for a month. All their saints is just another copy cat of all the gods viz vara9luxmi, saraswathi, vinayagar, muruga, ganesh, etc... The west just doesn't understand this.
My family continued in their South Indian following. I had to know my language by the time I was 4 yo. I had to fast for all the prayers including sivarathree where sleep wasn't required until the next evening. They found buried temples and mines here with the language in it, so history being unearthed. ...so my family followed everything. My language - see texts. Sumerians spoke the same language of the first sangam. Indians in Port Elizabeth, their second home are the temples. I left home in 1983 and didn't return to live, but just to visit out of respect.

Bah humbug, a rock, who gives a crap?!

@TimeOutForMe

It is easy to understand but the religious refuse to understand because of the constant brainwash since childhood that they must believe what they are told and questioning what they are taught and the holy scriptures, traditions is not good. This brainwash is powerful when propagated for decades. A person loses his natural sense of the right and wrong. We atheists should be proud that we dared to question, to doubt, to reject and decided become free thing individuals of reason. I feel very liberated as an atheist.

Now it is widely written how myths, history, stories and traditions were stolen from one land to the next and from one religion to another. What you described is very true. It is all borrowing from one another.

The carrying of myths and stories started by story tellers. It was a very rewarding profession back then when just being well-fed, well-clothed and freedom were prized possessions. The story telling was an art and good story tellers built good lives and saw more lands.

Here are some examples of how similar myths and stories traveled from one land to another:

Lord Ram - Hinduism in India (7300 BCE)
Gilgamesh - Uruk in Mesopotamia- Today's Syria and Iraq (2150 BCE)
Odysseus - Greek Myths in Greece (1178 B.C)**

1. The only kings who could lift an string the heavy bow and shoot the eye of the fish high above by looking at its reflection in the water below
2. Rama and Odysseus were both leaders of their people and military warriors. Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk in Mesopotamia.
3. Rama and Odysseus were kings left kingdoms and went into exile for 10 years or more. went on his journey to try and rescue his dear friend, Enkidu, after his death.
4. Rama and Odysseus killed people who kept their wives captive. Odysseus killed all the suitors who were reaping his wealth and trying to marry his wife, while Rama killed Ravanna who kidnapped and held Sita captive.
5. Rama came across Soorpanaka who tried to attack; however when Soorpanaka tries to attack, she is attacked by Lakshmana and when Lakshmana injures Soorpanka who goes and goes back and tells Ravanna, so that Ravanna may become an obstacle in the journey of Rama. Odysseus injured the cyclops and the cyclops went to go tell Poseidon that Odysseus had blinded him. The cyclops telling his father, Poseidon, that Odysseus blinded him causes Poseidon to become an obstacle in the journey of Odysseus

Virgin Mothers

1. India, Kunti - Mother of Karna before wedding (3138 BCE)
2. India, Kausalya - Mother of Lord Rama (7306 BCE)
3. India, Gautami - Mother of Buddha's (624 BCE)
4. India, Devaki - Mother of Krishna (3228 BCE)
5. China, Fubao - Mother of Yellow Emperor
6. Cannan, Mary - Mother of Jesus
7. Egypt, Queen Ahmose - Mother of Hatshepsut.
8. Jerusalem, Sarah - Mother of Isaac
9. Syria, Sofonim - Mother of Melchizedek
10. Azerbaijan, Dughdova - Mother of Zarathushtra
11. Mecca, Aminah - Mother of Mohammed
12. India, Hindu Mother of Kabir (1440 AD)
13. Mexico, Coatlicue - Mother of Huitzilopochtli
14. Chile, Chimalman - Mother of Quetzalcoatl
15. Mongolia, Alan Gua Mother of Bodonchar - a direct ancestor of Genghis Khan
16. Japan, - Mother of Momotarō
17. Native America Lands, Unknown Mother of Deganawida or Dekanawida (Iroquois) was born a Huron

Unwed Mothers who floated infants in a river who were raised by kings

1. Egypt, Jochebed - Mother of Moses
2. India, Kunti - Mother of Karna
3. India, Hindu Woman - Mother of Kabir
4. Japan, Unknown - Mother of Momotarō the Peach Boy (who was found inside a giant peach floating on a river), Kintarō (about whom several origin myths are told), and Kaguya-hime (who was born inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant)

BULLSHIT UNLIMITED!

@St-Sinner plenty truth to this including the stories told and myths from one land to the other. I'm proud to be a liberated Atheist too. ...washed off all the BS
PS love that term - religious refuse!

@AnneWimsey

The Black Stone of Mecca, Al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad, “Black Stone”, or Kaaba Stone, is a Muslim relic, which according to Islamic tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.

When Abraham (Ibrahim) sent his son to find a unique stone to put in the Kabaa, Ishmael (Ismail) found this meteorite. It is believed that it was a gift from God and was all white first. But because of the sins of humans, it absorbed those sins and turned black.

The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 meters (5 ft.) above the ground. When pilgrims circle the Kaaba as part of the Tawaf ritual of the Hajj, many of them try, if possible, to stop and kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that it received from the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Read more [geologypage.com]

Religions were very good at making up BS that people could believe and the BS has lasted for thousands of years. We atheists are not good salesmen and would not be popular. The truth is not popular.

@AnonySchmoose
I read once there's more than a million closeted Atheists in Saudi Arabia. I wonder whether the Saudi King got wind of that, or better still "know" of that, therefore his declaration as an excuse to behead his own people.

@TimeOutForMe
That is really good news that there are so many Saudi atheists. I hope their real beliefs never get exposed during the current repressive regime. The mere thought of all of those 'Sleazy Fundamentalist Saudi Kings and Princes' threatens to make me feel ill, but I refuse to feel anything other than revulsion for such power hungry sleaze balls. I'd love to punch those sadists where it hurts. without actually having to touch them.

@AnonySchmoose exactly that - power hungry oil rich slimy sleaze balls!!!!

@Lorajay definately not. There are more than a dozen Muslim Atheists on our local Johannesburg telegram chat group. I've got a few Muslim friends too and we get on very well.

All Sharia LawBOTS are terrorists just like anyone who will enforce bible orders literally from the text

I asked a local agnostic Muslin friend of mine that if moderate Muslims do not like what is going on like extremism, terrorism why don't they come ahead and oppose that behavior openly, publicly and in one-voice? His answer was... "They have been saying but the Western media does not cover it. That is why you do not hear, read or see it."

From my personal experience, my best teachers since elementary school, my best friends, colleagues have been Muslim. I have been particularity impressed with how respectful and non-critical they have been of other cultures, families and people in general. Maybe that mastered the art of assimilation because they have been scattered in different parts of the world through invasion, conversion, trade and migration. But I found many things they did very impressive. Some of them were how they treated elders and women at home, how they always wash hand, feet and face before they went inside mosques to pray. My Muslim friend although agnostic goes to the washroom to wash hands every single time when we go to a restaurant for food. I have watched him for 12-13 years now.

@Sticks48 Double standards too. The King & Co are always in contradiction of their own laws for their own benefit. The rest guilty of the same deeds are decapitated.