Midyat, which is almost an open-air museum with its history and culture, offers a magical atmosphere to its visitors with stone houses, inns, mosques, churches and monasteries that are thousands of years old. In the district, a cave was found within the scope of a project started two years ago for cleaning and conservation of the historical streets and houses. After it was determined that the cave is a passage to different places with corridors, excavation works were launched to unearth the underground city. During these excavations, sustained with the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, Mardin Museum and Midyat Municipality, places of worship, silos, water wells and passages with corridors have been unearthed in the underground city, which is called “Matiate.” Experts also found many artifacts dating back to the second and third centuries A.D. in various parts of the city…

Is there a doorway on Mars? That’s the question being asked by conspiracists online after NASA released a new picture taken by NASA Curiosity rover. Snapped by the explorer’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Sol 3466 (May 7), the grainy image appears to show a cleanly-cut hole in a rockface. There has been no official NASA explanation of the sighting, but that hasn’t stop debate online about just what it shows. The Mars discovery comes at a time that the U.S. Congress is to hold an open hearing next Tuesday about UFOs for the first time in over 50 years. The House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee will tackle the subject…

George Yancey (PhD, University of Texas) is a professor of sociology at Baylor University and the author of a number of books on racial reconciliation, as well as books on the increasingly hostile, anti-Christian environment in America, especially in academia. And he is a fair-minded scholar, basing his views on hard data and not afraid to criticize his own, evangelical side. Yet he, too, is sounding the alarm, with one volume actually titled, So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States? Prof. Yancey began his 2015 book, Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias, with a striking personal illustration. He wrote: “I remember vividly a disturbing conversation that I once had with a good Christian friend who taught in a high school. He told me that he mentioned one day in class that some Christians around the world were being killed for their faith. To his amazement, some students approved of these murders. In their minds, it was time for Christians to face the same death that Christians had inflicted on others. I was struck by the ahistorical nature of this line of thought…

A House subcommittee will hold a hearing next week about UFOs, the first open congressional hearing about UFOs in more than 50 years. “Congress hasn’t held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UFO’s) in over 50 years,” Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana, tweeted Tuesday morning. “That will change next week when I lead a hearing in @HouseIntel on this topic & the national security risk it poses. Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences.” The hearing will be held Tuesday, May 17 in front of a subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by California Rep. Adam Schiff. Schiff told the New York Times that the committee is holding the series to explore “one of the great mysteries of our time and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency.” Two current Pentagon officials will testify at the hearing…

Scientists have moved a step further in finding out whether alien life really does exist. One place they’ve long believed life could be is on one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. The moon in question is Europa – and there’s a very valid reason why. Europa has water and oxygen, the essentials for sustaining life, as well as chemicals that could serve as nutrients… Nasa is planning to send an orbiter called the Europa Clipper out in 2024, which could build on their findings. British Professor Monica Grady has previously said she believes we have a better chance of finding alien life on Europa than Mars, which tends to steal most of the focus. And if there is, it could be octopus-like. “I think we’ve got a better chance of having higher forms of life on Europa, perhaps similar to the intelligence of an octopus,” she said…

Representative leaders from the Evangelical, Muslim and Jewish faiths affirmed their commitment to addressing polarization and politicization within their own communities. They also resolved to collectively break down barriers of fear between different faiths and further cultivate multi-faith relationships to build bridges of understanding and collaboration while maintaining their respective and distinct theologies and identities…