[MRM]

The idea of huge caverns at the North and South Poles has been around for a long time. In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a popular belief that at the poles of the world the earth opened up into large caves that ran straight down to the center of the earth. In the Age of Exploration anything fantastical like this seemed possible and somehow the idea struck a cord with the public craving for new scientific understanding.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe and Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne are two of the most famous stories centered around this belief. There were actually expeditions that set out to travel through these caves to get to the center of the earth.

The alien/Nazi stories are probably the modern day extension of that line of fiction. I kind of think I prefer the Nazi/alien story to Gordon Pym's frozen sailing ship or Axel's crazy Uncle Otto. Uncle Otto? Uncle Otto the German? Hmmm . . . maybe there is more to this phenomenon than I originally thought and the stories we've been told were fiction is just part of the cover-up . . .