PYGMIES, THE WAILING WALL AND THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS

As of late, my son Jacob, has been asking me a lot of questions about random things.  Usually the questions he asks are more simple, like; Why is the sun bright? or What does BMW stand for?  But recently, he's been asking questions that are a lot more strange, even for an 8 year old boy with Asperger's.  And after trying in vain to answer his questions about pygmies, the Wailing wall and Atlantis, I began to wonder where exactly he learned about these things.

At first I thought it might have been the Internet, so I asked Jacob where he learned these things.  And he said;  "Where is exactly right."  Again, I was confused, which surprisingly doesn't happen that often when I talk to Jacob.  Then I was walking by Jacob's room and I saw the answer.

At the end of the school year, Jacob's teacher gave him an old book from the school library.  It's simply titled Where.  And it's full of general information about random places and things in the world.  So as I saw Jacob reading the book and I asked what the book was about.  And Jacob answered;

"You already know dad.  It's about where things are."

And of course, there were sections on Pygmies, the Wailing wall and Atlantis.  But as soon as I enquired about the book, I had to sit with Jacob and listen to him as he read a few sections of the book to me.  Surprisingly, I now know more about these things than I ever did.  So here's what I learned about each topic.

A pygmy is any group of people whose average height is less than 59 inches.  And the most common pygmies are found in Africa.  But pygmies are also found in Australia, Indonesia and Brazil.  Pygmies have gone through much strife in their existence and have often been forced into slave labour and have been used as a form of trade currency.  And pygmies can be found all over the world.

The Wailing Wall is a place in Jerusalem that has huge religious implications.  It's over 3500 years old and stands over 60 feet tall.  Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad tied his winged horse to it during a journey.  People of Jewish faith believe it's a wall from an ancient temple.  It got the name Wailing wall form non Jewish people seeing others pray to it.  Many people visit the wall each year and often write prayers on paper and stuff them into the cracks in the wall.

The lost city of Atlantis is actually a lost continent that was in the Atlantic ocean between our continent and Africa.  It's believed that it was destroyed by a massive tsunami a long time ago.  There are many different beliefs in where Atlantis actually was, yet there is no concrete proof to its exact geographical location.  It's consistently described as a place with advanced knowledge of the world's origins.

Interesting isn't it?  I had no idea that my son was learning about these type of things.  And the book is huge and these are only 3 of the many topics in the book.  So I think I'm going to quietly take a peek at what else is in the book, just so I have an idea about what Jacob's interests are.  And then I might not be caught so off guard by his questions.  Either way, I definitely recommend this book to any curious youngster or parent.  And if a child spends half as much time reading this book as my son does, their parents will be very happy.  Again the book is called Where and it's published by Octopus Books.  Be sure to check it out.



This is the lost continent of Atlantis.  This picture is from Encyclopedia.com