It seemed bizarre to me that, even now, no one knows how such an elaborate creation came to be. I began researching the grotto’s origins in earnest, returning to the Shell Grotto repeatedly to pore over the on-site archive. I tracked down the few books and articles published on the topic. I got in touch with a researcher who claimed to have located evidence that the grotto was built by the Phoenicians, in worship of the hero god Melqart.