  We describe how cosmology has converged towards a beautiful model of the
Universe: the Big Bang Universe. We praise this model, but show there is a dark
side to it. This dark side is usually called ``the cosmological problems'': a
set of coincidences and fine tuning features required for the Big Bang Universe
to be possible. After reviewing these ``riddles'' we show how they have acted
as windows into the very early Universe, revealing new physics and new
cosmology just as the Universe came into being. We describe inflation, pre Big
Bang, and varying speed of light theories. At the end of the millennium, these
proposals are seen respectively as a paradigm, a tentative idea, and outright
speculation.
