Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 338 Heading to Sweden
Stockholm is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is located on the east coast of Sweden, near the Baltic Sea, where Lake Mälaren enters the sea. It has beautiful scenery and is a famous tourist attraction.

The urban area is distributed on 14 islands and a peninsula, and more than 70 bridges connect these islands together, so it enjoys the reputation of "Venice of the North".

Of course, probably because the name Venice is so famous, not only Stockholm is called the Venice of the North, but also St. Petersburg in Russia.

Because it is not clear how much information the group of people who were arrested before the show had, Liang En and the others didn't have time to visit the city at all, but took action as soon as they got off the plane.

Because the place Liang En and the others were going to was located on a branch of the waterway between Stockholm and Syrahmar, no matter from which point of view, taking a boat was obviously the most convenient travel plan.

Because the transportation of the ancients was achieved by water, it is obviously more beneficial for Liang En and others to sail along the river in a boat to complete this search operation.

Fortunately, because there are a lot of water systems around you in Stockholm, it is not too difficult to rent a boat.

So three hours after the plane landed, Liang En and the others had completed a series of procedures and sailed on Lake Mälaren in a boat.

It's a pity that neither Liang En nor Joan can sail a boat, so they had to hire a captain to help them steer the boat.

In fact, if Fan Meng had nothing to do, he could sail this kind of boat, but this time he had his own things to do, so it was inappropriate for Liang En to call him over at this time.

And from another perspective, what Liang En and the others are doing now is in the scope of publicity, so there is no need to cover up and make it so complicated.

Lake Mälaren is the third largest lake in Sweden, with a water area of ​​1 square kilometers and a water depth of 140 meters, second only to Lake Vänern and Lake Vättern.At the same time, this lake is one of the birthplaces of Viking culture in Sweden.

Mälaren comes from the Viking language, meaning stone beach, and the entire lake extends westward from Stockholm.It is 120 kilometers long from east to west and 1.6-40 kilometers wide. There are 1260 islands in the lake, covering an area of ​​488 square kilometers. It is a famous sanatorium in Sweden.

Also because of this situation, the traffic in the entire lake was very busy, even Liang En and the others were stuck in a narrow waterway for a while when they left Stockholm.

"Are you historians? Why don't you go to Birka?" At first, the gray-bearded captain thought that Liang En and the others were a couple on a trip, until Liang En revealed his purpose.

The Birka mentioned by the captain was the most important trading center in Sweden in the early Middle Ages, that is, the Viking Age. It was built around 800 AD and was responsible for the transit work between Eastern Europe and Western European trade routes.

At the same time, because of the city's unique geographical environment and location, it is also a relay station in the Baltic Sea for the amphibious transport route from Rus to Byzantium.

However, the prosperous period of the whole city was only about 100 years. After 975 AD, this trading hub gradually declined due to the diversion of trade routes or the drop of water level, and its status was replaced by Gotland.

According to the surviving archaeological remains, the whole site includes the city itself and a castle built on the cliff.The city wall is about 1.8 meters high, 6-12 meters wide, and 5.2 kilometers long, with six entrances and exits.

There are nearly [-] cremation and burial mounds outside the city.Most nobles were buried with female slaves, horses, weapons, precious ornaments and daily utensils in wooden tombs.

And from the excavated items, it can be seen that there are goods from Russia, Arabia, Byzantium and Western Europe, which means that it is very prosperous in history.

Because this place left the remains of the entire city and a large number of tombs, there are a large number of cultural relics in the local area, and many of them have not been excavated until now.

Therefore, when many scholars talk about archaeology in this area, they often choose to go to this site, and this is why the captain asked Liang En and Joan of Arc why they didn't go to Birka.

"Because we want to find something that others haven't found." Liang En explained after thinking about it. "For example, we are looking for traces of ancient Viking quarries this time."

"The quarry—what's there to dig for?" The old captain expressed some confusion about Liang En's research topic, because in the eyes of ordinary people, archeology is digging for tombs or hidden treasures, while the quarry is Neither of these two.

"This is very useful. For example, if you know where the raw materials come from for a stone building, you can infer the ancient material distribution channels—" Liang En explained.

Obviously, this kind of knowledge is like a heavenly book to laymen who don't like it, but the well-organized narrative in it also obviously makes the old man feel a sense of ignorance.

"It does sound very important." The old captain nodded. "As far as I know, the place you're looking for is close to a village. You can ask the locals what they know."

It seems that the captain who was active in this area should have received scholars like Liang En, so he made such a suggestion. After all, asking the surrounding people before archaeological excavation is also a good way to obtain information.

It is about 170 kilometers away from Stockholm to the destination, although Liang En and the others took a small boat with a cruising speed of only about 12 knots.

But because the boat didn't stop along the way, and the old captain is indeed a veteran who often travels here, before the sun goes down in the afternoon, the boat that Liang En and the others took has successfully arrived at a place only 2 or 3 kilometers away from the destination. in one of the rivers.

"I can only send you to this place, and I don't have any hydrological data about the river, so the boat can't move forward at all." After docking in a shoal, the captain looked regretful Said to Liang En confidently.

"But I will wait here for you to come back." Said the captain patted the fishing rod beside him, "I can just use my fishing license these days."

"Also, take the high-power walkie-talkie and the rifle you rented with you. If there is any emergency, this is the only thing that can help you."

Unlike the chaos in the forests of the Russian Far East, purely from the perspective of security, the forests in northern Europe are obviously much safer, at least there are not so many dangerous humans.

This situation is mainly because the locals are richer than the Russians, and those new immigrants who are the makers of security problems are simply not suitable for the primitive jungle here.

It's just that it's summer now, and there are many wild animals active in this area, especially it is easier to attract all kinds of animals near the water source, so it will be troublesome if you don't have weapons to defend yourself.

Fortunately, when preparing yesterday, Liang En thought of this and applied for a hunting license, and used his gun license to rent a shotgun from a shop that specializes in providing such services for tourists.

After checking their luggage, Liang En and the others bid farewell to the captain and jumped onto the river bank, then stepped on the gravel river bank with one foot deep and one foot shallow towards a valley not far away.

(End of this chapter)