In the last sixteen years of his life, Leonardo Da Vinci fussed and toiled and agonized over a single portrait; a portrait he would never sell. A curious portrait of a woman with an interesting smile on her face that would eventually become famous the world over. The portrait known as simply the Mona Lisa.  But it’s possible that none but Da Vinci himself could predict some of the more elusive reasons this painting would still be under such heavy scrutiny to this day.

Da Vinci was a very secretive man and used a form of writing known as mirror writing to keep his private notes private. Anyone else trying to read them would have, unbeknownst to them, needed to use a mirror to read them. And modern researchers have found that he used the mirror effect for more than just his notes.  He used it in his paintings too. And they’ve found hundreds of examples of this phenomenon in the Mona Lisa alone.

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Old Photo of Cudjo Caverns (Gap Cave)

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years of experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter, a published photographer, and a poet.



On Memorial Day 2014, I finally got to visit Cudjo's Caverns, which is now known as Gap Cave (again). Growing up I can remember our family driving by this tourist stop many times but we never did go in and take the tour. As I grew older, Cudjo's Caverns was shut down, and the road going past it was closed off and later removed, this was done because the Cumberland Gap Tunnel was completed and you no longer had to drive over this dangerous, curvy road to visit Tennessee and Virginia. Many lives have been lost crossing this mountain.

Once we heard that the Caverns were back open and that the Cumberland Gap Park Rangers were giving guided tours, we decided to make reservations.

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