# Ghosts! Secret Rooms! Hidden Treasure! People walled up alive, hundreds of years ago! newslink **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 22, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594 "2010-11-22T23:16:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/1 "2010-11-22T23:16:28Z")
Ghosts! Secret Rooms! Hidden Treasure! People walled up alive, hundreds of years ago! India has the coolest library! > **[Secret chamber in National Library | Kolkata News - Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Secret-chamber-in-National-Library/articleshow/6957358.cms)** > > National Library has always been reputed to haunted. Now, here is a really eerie secret. A mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old bui > [@](#): > > KOLKATA: National Library has always been reputed to haunted. Now, here is a really eerie secret. A mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old building a room that no one knew about and no one can enter because it seems to have no opening of kind, not even trapdoors. > > The chamber has lain untouched for over two centuries. Wonder what secrets it holds. The archaeologists who discovered it have no clue either, their theories range from a torture chamber, or a sealed tomb for an unfortunate soul or the most favoured of all a treasure room. Some say they wouldn’t be surprised if both skeletons and jewels… ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/2 "2010-11-23T11:12:24Z")
Can anybody find any reference to the British walling up prisoners in Colonial India in “death chambers”, never mind this being a common practice? ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/3 "2010-11-23T13:53:54Z")
Did they find it with a secret map on the back of their Declaration of Independence? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/4 "2010-11-23T15:25:50Z")
34 American warships? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/5 "2010-11-23T15:30:05Z")
Funny comment from the article: “It’s a call center.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/6 "2010-11-23T15:55:44Z")
I hope they find a cask of Amontillado! ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/7 "2010-11-23T16:32:27Z")
Or a tell-tale heart! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/8 "2010-11-23T16:33:54Z")
I told a friend about this, and her reaction was “Have they tried speaking Parseltongue?” Which was so much better than my suggestion of saying “friend” in Elvish. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Surb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/9 "2010-11-23T16:34:23Z")
Quick, someone call Geraldo! ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/10 "2010-11-23T16:46:21Z")
Elvis and Judge Crater are going to have to find a new love nest. I wonder if Bigfoot has a spare room? ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/11 "2010-11-23T16:49:02Z")
> [@The\_Surb](#): > > Quick, someone call Geraldo! Beat me, dammit! As you imply, my money’s on “not much”. Maybe some material culture artifacts interesting to archaeologists and historians, but probably not treasure. Then again, who knows? ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/12 "2010-11-23T16:58:42Z")
On further reading, this article is really very odd. “What happened to the house between 1780, when Hastings is said to have sold it, and 1854, when it became the official residence of the Lt Governor of Bengal, is uncertain.” What? This isn’t like a book of uncertain provenance–this is a house. It hasn’t moved. Are there not records–perhaps not a true title history, but references to it by neighbors? Perhaps the article was hasily written, but I’m having a hard time believing that the library administration really doesn’t know what the place was used for in those 70+ years. Were it in Britain, I’d be thinking it was a priest hole that had been done over. Is there some analog to this in India? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/13 "2010-11-23T17:19:04Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > On further reading, this article is really very odd. “What happened to the house between 1780, when Hastings is said to have sold it, and 1854, when it became the official residence of the Lt Governor of Bengal, is uncertain.” What? This isn’t like a book of uncertain provenance–this is a house. It hasn’t moved. Are there not records–perhaps not a true title history, but references to it by neighbors? Perhaps the article was hasily written, but I’m having a hard time believing that the library administration really doesn’t know what the place was used for in those 70+ years. > > Were it in Britain, I’d be thinking it was a priest hole that had been done over. Is there some analog to this in India? Obviously the headquarters of the Illuminati. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/14 "2010-11-23T21:30:31Z")
Open Saskatchewan! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/15 "2010-11-23T22:53:07Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Were it in Britain, I’d be thinking it was a priest hole that had been done over. Is there some analog to this in India? FILTHY BEGGAR! Nobody wants to hear about you & priests’ holes! :p;)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/16 "2010-11-23T22:59:40Z")
It’s probably just a library or a pet sematary. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/17 "2010-11-24T05:19:42Z")
It’s the portal to hell; it came to me in a vision. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/18 "2010-11-24T08:55:34Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > On further reading, this article is really very odd. “What happened to the house between 1780, when Hastings is said to have sold it, and 1854, when it became the official residence of the Lt Governor of Bengal, is uncertain.” What? This isn’t like a book of uncertain provenance–this is a house. It’s like the space ship in Event Horizon. It disappeared into an alternate dimension - a dimension of . . . EVIL!!! Now it’s back . . . OK, it’s been back for over a century, but it’s not like evil has to punch a clock or anything. Also, I’ve always believed that evil is incorrigibly lazy. Saying that is probably going to cost me a goat and a couple of chickens, but it had to be said. > [@furryman](#): > > Obviously the headquarters of the Illuminati. They have long since transcended time and space. It is only their lap dogs that want to keep the myth alive - people like the CFR, Trilaterals and Bilderbergers. Just the idea of the Illuminati being corporeal is extremely humorous. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/19 "2010-11-24T14:39:04Z")
Jumanji…? Sorry, I’m just having trouble imagining a treasure in a library. _opens book_ ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594/20 "2010-11-24T15:19:43Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Open Saskatchewan! No! Wait! Open Sarsparilla! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghosts-secret-rooms-hidden-treasure-people-walled-up-alive-hundreds-of-years-ago-newslink/561594.md?page=2)