Near the small city of Phonsavan, Laos lie 68 sites that contain over 2000 ancient stone jars.  While scientists have worked hard to find the origins and age of the jars, there has been little headway, and the odd feeling invoked when visiting the sites is reminiscent of visiting Stonehenge in the UK but with a higher threat of landmines.

Three sites are now open to the public after UNESCO declared them a World Heritage Site in 2002. Our guide told us that he and his friends used to play in the fields among the jars when he was younger.  At that time, the grass was so tall the jars were largely invisible. He explained that many local people collect the land mines to sell them as scrap metal which lead to many injuries. In one site alone, over 127 pieces of UXO were cleared. The Laotian government hopes to open more sites to the public, but clearing mines is expensive and time-consuming.

One unexpected feature of the Jars was the huge colonies of spiders inhabiting the shadiest jars. These jars had what looked like black splotches, which turned out to be thousands of daddy-long-legs-like spiders sleeping on top of one another. When poked with a stick they scattered, but would return in a few minutes.

In order to get a photo while inside of the jars, we had to be very careful not to touch the colonies of spiders.   It turns out that the movement of air from climbing into a jar was enough to scatter them.  With 100s of spiders dropping on us, we took very quick photos!