France’s unsolved ancient mystery
In the heart of France’s idyllic Burgundy region, surrounded by manicured vineyards, fortified Renaissance chateaux and medieval hill towns, sits one of the bucolic area’s most mysterious attractions: a seemingly bottomless spring-fed pit in the small town of Tonnarre known as the Fosse Dionne. A torrential 311 litres of water gush from this gaping well every second, but despite countless explorers venturing into its depths over the centuries, no-one has ever been able to find its true origin. The Romans harnessed the karst spring for drinking water; the Celts considered it sacred; and the French enclosed its ever-changing turquoise, blue and brown pool in a circular stone rim with an amphitheatre and used it as a public wash house in the 1700s. It was at this time that the women who peered down into Fosse Dionne’s depths while washing began to wonder what lurked at the bottom. According to one legend, a deadly serpent patrolled the well’s base. According to others, the s...