Turns out Santa Claus is real. Or was, anyway. He's dead now. We only missed him by about 1,700 years.
Archaeologists think that they might have found Saint Nicholas's exact burial site underneath a church in Antalya, Turkey. As the Guardian puts it, surveys found an intact temple/burial grounds beneath the 4th-century saint's church in the Turkish province he was believed to have lived his life in. Tell some kids when the time's right.
"We have obtained very good results but the real work starts now," said the province's director of surveying and monuments, Cemil Karabayram. "We will reach the ground and maybe we will find the untouched body of Saint Nicholas."
As it turns out, this particular church (near St. Nick's birthplace) had become a tourist destination after it was restored a few years ago. But it had been thought that his remains were smuggled to Italy almost 1,000 years ago, with the Turkish government even asking for his bones back.
Turkish archaeologists now think that skeleton, originally stolen by 11th-century Italian sailors, actually belonged to a local priest who nobody really gives a crap about.
As for this most recent discovery, archaeologists found the temple using ground-penetrating radars. It was inaccessible due to mosaics and sculptures that need to be preserved. When the burial site is excavated, we'll be able to learn if Santa's dead body indeed lies beneath or not.
Keep your fingers crossed.
