- Source: List of time capsules
This is a list of time capsules. The register of The International Time Capsule Society estimates there are between 10,000 and 15,000 time capsules worldwide. An estimated 95% of time capsules are lost track of by the fifth anniversary of their burial.
An active list of time capsules is maintained by the NotForgotten Digital Preservation Library.
Asia
= India
=Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had buried a time capsule outside one of the gate of Red Fort complex,The Indira Gandhi government named this time capsule "Kalpaatra", Delhi containing post-independence history of India on 15 August 1972 amid political opposition. It was scheduled to be opened after 1000 years. The next Janata government unearthed it in 1977 but its contents were never made public and were lost.
A time capsule was buried in the presence of the President of India near the auditorium of IIT Kanpur on 6 March 2010.
Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar containing the history of Indian state of Gujarat marking the 50 years of its foundation. Installed in 2010.
Alexandra Girls' English Institution, a school in Fort, South Mumbai buried a time capsule in 2014, scheduling it to be opened on 1 September 2062, on the bi-centennial anniversary of the school.
Under the flag holding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a time-capsule was buried in the premises of Lovely Professional University, a University located in Jalandhar, Punjab on the second day of Indian National Congress dated 4 January 2019. The occasion was attended by Nobel laureates, including biochemist Avram Hershko and physicist Duncan Haldane. They lowered a 8x8 time capsule-box made of aluminium and wood with a glass door. 10 feet into the ground. A smart phone, landline telephone, VCR, stereo player, stop watch, computer parts like hard disk, mouse, laptop, central processing unit, a motherboard, hard disk with the latest documentaries and movies, a camera, science-text books and scientific equipment like rheostat, refrectorscope and double microscope are some of the things that will remain buried for 100 years. The area where the capsule has been buried would be cemented and earmarked.
On 26 January 2021, a 1.5 tonne time capsule encapsulating the history of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) history spanning over a century was buried 30 feet deep in the park opposite Victoria Gate during Republic Day celebrations to mark the university's eventful centenary year on Tuesday.
= Japan
=The Expo '70 time capsule is located near Osaka Castle, donated by Panasonic and the Mainichi Newspapers. It was opened for the first time in 2000, and then the second time expected to be opened in 2100. The time capsule remains sealed until 6970.
= Kazakhstan
=In Aktau, people of 1967 sent a message showing the chronology of the development of Mangyshlak Peninsula with the names of the people who helped to build the town in the desert. The letter was put in a metallic cylinder in a triangular marble urn. It opened in November 2017.
= South Korea
=During the inaugural Youth Day event in 2020, K-pop group BTS handed a time capsule to president Moon Jae-in to be opened in the year 2039, during the 20th Youth Day event. It was currently stored in the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. The purple time capsule contains some of the best memories BTS had during their entire career.
The Seoul Millennium Time Capsule in Namsangol Hanok Village was buried in 1994 to celebrate Seoul's 600th anniversary as the capital of Korea. It contains 600 items chosen to represent the city. The time capsule is set to be opened on 29 November 2394, on the city's 1000th anniversary.
= Malaysia
=Rotary Club Time Capsule Monument (GPS: 3.15912, 101.69825) is a commemorative monument along Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur. It was originally located at Dataran Merdeka, but was relocated to Jalan Sultan Ismail around 2016. It comprises a stainless steel column topped with a Rotary International logo. At the base is a black marble-encased pedestal under which a time capsule is buried. The monument was erected to celebrate the presence of Rotary in Malaysia since 1929. It was officiated by the mayor of Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Dato' Kamaruzzaman bin Shariff, on 26 June 2000.
= Philippines
=The El Hogar Building in Escolta, Manila contained a time capsule behind a copper plaque and is believed to contain mostly Spanish-language works. It was reportedly removed from the building in 2018.
Three time capsules were sealed near the town hall of Naguilian, La Union containing memorabilia related to the town's history and culture. These are to be opened after 25, 50, and 100 years.
= Russia
=On 7 May 2005, a time capsule was placed at the Kumzhensky memorial in Russia with an instruction to open on 9 May 2045.
In 2012, a time capsule dating from 15 July 1979 was found in Vulkanny (Yelizovsky District, Kamchatka peninsula) under a statue of Lenin. It contained messages to the "Soviet Russian master society in 2024",
= Singapore
=The oldest known time capsule in Singapore was rediscovered in early 2016, beneath the foundation stone of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. The shoebox-sized time capsule from 18 June 1843 was found to include a prayer booklet and newspapers, and international coins. The capsule is thought to have been buried by French Catholic missionary priests and other founding communities of Singapore.
On April 1st 1937, a capsule containing coins and newspapers from the time was buried under the foundation stone of the former Supreme Court building with the intention that it be opened in the year 3000. The building now houses the National Gallery Singapore, where the foundation stone can still be seen today.
In 1949, a capsule was buried at Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) containing school magazines, a bible and records of major donors. Thought to be lost, the capsule was rediscovered in 2000 with the help of a former student who had attended the burial ceremony.
A capsule buried in 1950 under the then Royal Island Club (now the Singapore Island Country Club) was thought to be lost but later found by construction workers in 2010. It contained photographs and newspapers.
In 1970, one of Singapore's founding leaders, Dr Goh Keng Swee laid a copper cylinder containing newspapers and Singapore bank notes from the era, somewhere in the former National Stadium. Unfortunately the location has been lost and metal detectors have failed to find it despite a $50,000 reward on offer.
Since 1973, Science Centre Singapore has been depositing gadgets and examples of significant technologies in a time capsule inaugurated by then Science and Technology Minister Dr Toh Chin Chye. The first 112 items deposited included a black and white television receiver, a camera and samples of pig feed. After additional deposits were made in 1983, 2001 and 2013, the original capsule was replaced with a larger stainless steel container that now holds over 800 items in an atmosphere of inert nitrogen gas in the hope that this will better preserve the artefacts inside.
The Jurong Town Corporation buried a time capsule under Jurong Town Hall in 1974. When opened in 2001, the capsule was found to contain reports, articles and photographs illustrating the industrialisation of Jurong.
In 1975, part of Singapore's contribution to an International Ocean Exposition held in Okinawa, Japan entitled The Sea We Would Like to See was a research project using floating time capsules. The previous year, 50 small round capsules were released from Raffles Lighthouse as part of a global fleet of 2,800 to measure oceanic tides and currents. Each capsule contained information about the Exposition, a goodwill message from a Japanese child and a voucher for a Citizen Blackie watch to incentivise finders to fill in a post card with details of where the capsule were found. 24 of the capsules released in Singapore were later recovered.
1990 saw the unexpected unearthing of a time capsule from the 1950s by contractors working at the demolished American Insurance building in Robinson Road. Buried on 26 April 1956, the copper canister contained English and Chinese newspapers, a financial report, photographs, posters and an insurance agent's manual.
In 2015, a time capsule buried to celebrate Singapore's 25th year of independence was dug up and replaced with one celebrating 50 years as a sovereign nation. The original canister held 88 "symbols of progress" including a video tape of the 1966 National Day (Singapore), water from the Singapore River and the first sarong kebaya uniforms designed by Pierre Balmain for Singapore Airlines in 1968. The replacement capsule, made from stainless steel, was buried by then Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong outside Empress Place.
On 31 August 2005, Singapore Polytechnic buried a time capsule in order to conclude year-long celebrations of its 50th anniversary of its founding in 1954. Located near its main library, it is scheduled to be re-opened in 2029 for its 75th anniversary. Items in the time capsule included staff and student admission cards, a CD of 2004's graduation ceremony and a bottle of locally brewed red wine.
Caribbean
Europe
= France
=Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.
Strasbourg Cathedral.
Le Lieu unique.
= Iceland
=Erected in 2014, the monument is located in Reykjavik, Iceland, has of three differently shaped 15 feet tall spires, two made of stone and one metal center pillar.
= Italy
=A ~20-man, White War military barracks on Mount Scorluzzo—which had been locked up at the end of World War I—became partly accessible from the 1990s and completely accessible in 2015 because of melting glaciers. The barracks contained beds made of straw, clothes, lanterns, newspapers, postcards, coins, tinned food and animal bones empty of marrow.
= Norway
=On 17 September 2017 near the Polish Polar Station, Hornsund in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, scientific researchers buried a 60-centimeter stainless steel tube containing samples designed to tell finders as long as half a million years into the future, about the current state of knowledge in such areas as geology, biology, and technology.
= Poland
=Prisoners from the Auschwitz concentration camp concealed bottles containing sketches and writings that were found after World War II.
In 2016, a copper-cylinder time capsule dating to 1934 was found beneath the former Nazi training facility in the Ordensburg Krössinsee building in Złocieniec, Poland. The time capsule, which contained photographs, newspapers, coins, and two copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf, was retrieved by researchers who navigated through thick concrete, German mines, and groundwater.
= Spain
=An 1834 time capsule was discovered in 2009 under a statue of Miguel de Cervantes in Madrid. It contains a guide and four volumes of the 1819 edition of Don Quixote.
A time capsule was buried in Motril, Granada. It was opened on 22 July 2023 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the cantonal movement.
A 1777 time capsule was discovered within a religious statue in Sotillo de la Ribera (Burgos). It contained two handwritten pages describing details of the political, religious, and economic situation of the region at the time.
= Switzerland
=On 13 January 2024, The Arch Mission Foundation installed the Global Knowledge Vault inside the Hagerbach deep underground tunnel system, near Flums Switzerland, containing the Wikipedia and the Rosetta language archives.
= United Kingdom
=Kingussie, Scotland: in August 2015, workers discovered a metal box containing a newspaper from 29 September 1894, a paper scroll and a bottle believed to contain whisky.
Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, England: On 21 March 2017, a time capsule bearing the name of its creator, James D Robinson, was 'sealed' at an informal gathering in a local church hall. It was subsequently transferred to the nearby Durham County Record Office, at County Hall, in the City of Durham, where it will reside in their archive facility for the next 300 years. The capsule contains an eclectic mix of texts and images along with a number of artefacts, and is scheduled to be opened on 21 March 2317.
The children's television show Blue Peter has buried several time capsules during its run. Ones buried in London in 1971 and 1984 were opened in January 2000. A third was then buried to be opened in 2029, and has since been relocated to Salford, Greater Manchester. One was also placed under the Millennium Dome in London in 1998, to be opened in 2050, but was accidentally unearthed and damaged during construction work in 2017. It was reburied once it was repaired.
Southampton, Hampshire: a 1935 message in a lemonade bottle, correctly portending difficult times lying ahead, was found in 2016 by masons restoring damaged Portland stone at Southampton Guildhall.
Millennium Vault, Europe's largest time capsule was built in 2000 in Guildford, Surrey. The capsule, which contains lots of mementos, is set to be opened in 3000.
North America
= Canada
=On 26 July 1830, a formal procession and ceremony took place to deposit coins and bottled newspapers into a carved hollow of the cornerstone of the new courthouse building at Harbour Grace, NL Witnessed by more than 1000 residents and dignitaries, several symbolic items (corn, oil, wine) were poured over the stone. The Harbour Grace Court House is the oldest surviving public building in Newfoundland and one of the National Historic Sites of Canada.
The British Columbia Time Capsule in Victoria, British Columbia. Built near the Confederation Garden Court adjacent to the provincial Parliament buildings on 31 December 1967, it is set to be opened 100 years later as part of what will be Canada's bi-centennial celebrations.
A geologist left a bottled message in 1959 in a cairn on Ward Hunt Island (83°N latitude), allowing its finders in 2013 to determine that a nearby glacier had retreated over 200 feet in 54 years.
Inside the head of the World's Largest Axe in Nackawic-Millville, New Brunswick.
6 Feet underground in the Chinook Centre in Calgary, Alberta; to be opened on 31 December 2999.
1234 Main Street, Moncton, New Brunswick
Inside Joseph Salter memorial, Main Street, Moncton, New Brunswick
Inside the CN Tower, in Toronto, Ontario. To be opened at the CN Tower's 100th anniversary On 1 October 2076.
= United States
=Middle East
= Kuwait
=In 2019, a time capsule was commissioned by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research to observe the grand opening of the Shagaya Renewable Energy Park. Generally known as "KISR Time Capsule 2061", the cylindrical canister (approximately 80x45 cm) contains material relevant to the renewable energy project, research activities of the institute, items and publications covering general aspects of the local culture of Kuwait along with various messages and contributions from several sources (including children). It is scheduled to be opened in 2061 when the State of Kuwait celebrates its centenary.
On 15 December 2013, a time capsule was buried in the garden of the English School, Kuwait to commemorate the school's 60th anniversary. It is to be opened in 2073.
On 20 December 2005, a time capsule was installed by National Library of Kuwait, and is scheduled to be opened in 2105.
Oceania
= Indonesia
=On 1 June 1976, as the construction of Hayam Wuruk Building (Wisma Hayam Wuruk) in Central Jakarta, Jakarta finished, a time capsule was buried in the building's structure. The capsule contains polaroid pictures of the capsule burying ceremony, some coins, and daily newspapers in Jakarta published on that date. The opening date, however, remains unknown.
At the start of the construction of the Matahari Tower in Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang Regency, Banten in 1994, a time capsule was embedded. It is not known where it was located, what was in it and when it will be opened.
To commemorate 70th anniversary of Indonesian independence, a time capsule was buried in a square of Merauke town, Merauke Regency, South Papua in 2015, near Mopah International Airport. Inside the capsule are "the dreams and hopes" of Indonesian children for the next 70 years, planned to be opened in 2085. Merauke Time Capsule Monument is built upon the buried capsule, it was inaugurated on 16 November 2018.
= Tasmania
="Earth's Black Box"—a city bus-sized structure with steel walls, battery storage and solar panels located at a remote site in Tasmania—will accumulate and electronically store comprehensive climate research and related data, including land and sea temperature changes, ocean acidification, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, human population, energy consumption, military spending, and policy changes. The box was conceived to tell future civilizations how humankind created the climate crisis, and how it failed or succeeded to address it.
South America
= Chile
=A privately funded time capsule, buried in front of the former city hall of Puerto Montt in October 2010, to be opened by February 2053.
The Cápsula Bicentenario (Bicentennial Capsule), a publicly funded capsule created to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Chile, was buried on 29 September 2010 at the Plaza de Armas in Santiago. It is set to be opened in 18 September 2110.
= Uruguay
=The Monument to Christopher Columbus in Durazno was designed in 1892, the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, and a spherical time capsule was placed on top of the monument. In 1992, the time capsule was opened, and the original artifacts were replaced with new objects to be retrieved in 2092.
Other
= In space
=Apollo 11 goodwill messages, on the Moon
Arch Mission 1.2 on the Tesla Roadster in solar orbit and the Lunar Library in the Beresheet moon lander.
Arch Mission Lunar Library 2.0 on the Astrobotic Peregrine
Immortality Drive, in the International Space Station
Lunar Codex's Peregrine, Nova, and Polaris archives on the Peregrine, Nova-C, and Griffin lunar landers
Plaque on LAGEOS-1
Plaque on Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11
Voyager Golden Record on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
Rosetta disk prototype, on the Rosetta space probe
Two Voyager Golden Records on board Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
The Arch Mission Foundation Lunar Library on the Moon, with Intuitive Machines and the GLL Lunaprise mission.
Echoes From The Valley of Existence time capsule including DNA, by Amy Karle on Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lunar lander carried by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, 2024. (Another copy will be aboard Astrolab’s lunar rover, set to be launched on SpaceX’s Starship rocket in 2026).
= In film
=100 Years, a film shot and produced in 2015 with release scheduled for 18 November 2115. It is being kept in a high-tech safe behind bulletproof glass that will open automatically on the film's premiere.
= Internet
=Yahoo Time Capsule, open as Yahoo.com 20th anniversary
= Projected
=KEO
Lansing Time Capsule
Openings
Dates and times of opening of already opened capsules.
Scheduled openings
Scheduled opening dates and times for already installed capsules.
= North America
== Asia
== Middle East
== Caribbean
== Oceania
== South America
== Europe
== Canada
=See also
Message in a bottle
Notes
References
External links
Ten most-wanted time capsules, Oglethorpe University
Register of Time Capsules
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- SpaceX Dragon 2
- List of time capsules
- Time capsule
- International Time Capsule Society
- Westinghouse Time Capsules
- Yahoo Time Capsule
- Time (magazine)
- Nakagin Capsule Tower
- Memory of Mankind
- Crypt of Civilization
- And the Big Red Nebula Band
