UNDERWATER PYRAMIDS
One of the greatest discoveries in the history of archeology was made a few years ago off the coast of Japan. There, scattered for an incredible 311 miles and at the bottom of the ocean, the well-preserved remains of an ancient city were found. Or at least, several closely related sites.
In the waters around Okinawa and beyond the small island of Yonaguni, divers located eight separate locations as of March 1995. That first sighting was ambiguous: a tantalizing square structure, so encrusted with coral that its artificial identity was uncertain. . Then, in the summer of 1996, a sports diver accidentally discovered a huge angular platform about 40 feet below the surface, off the southwestern coast of Okinawa. The artificial provenance of the feature was beyond question. Extending their search, teams of more divers found a different monument nearby. Then another and another. They gazed at long streets, grand boulevards, majestic staircases, magnificent arches, huge perfectly carved and fitted stone blocks, all harmoniously embedded in linear architecture the likes of which had never been observed before.
In the following weeks and months, the archaeological community of Japan joined the frenzy of discovery. Trained professionals formed a timely alliance with the enthusiasts who first made the find. In an investigative spirit, academics and hobbyists joined forces to set an example of cooperation for the rest of the world. Their common cause soon paid off. By this time, not far off the coast of Yonaguni Island, more than 300 air miles south of Okinawa, they found a gigantic pyramidal structure in 100 feet of water. In what appeared to be a ceremonial center of wide walkways and flanking pylons, the gigantic edifice is 240 feet long.
The clarity of the turquoise waters is beautiful, with a visibility of 100 feet as a common factor, it allowed for complete photographic documentation, both photographs and videos. These images provided the basis for Japan's top headlines for over a year. However, not a word about the Okinawa discovery reached Western audiences, until the "Ancient American" magazine broke the news. Since that scoop, only CNN has televised a report on Japan's underwater city. Nothing has been mentioned about it in any of the other archeology publications in the country, not even in any of the newspapers. Anyone can imagine that such a mind-blowing find would be the most exciting news an archaeologist could hope to hear. Still, outside of Ancient American and CNN's unique report, the blanket of silence that covers all the facts about Okinawa's structures hides them from view more effectively than their location on the ocean floor. ¿Why? ¿How can this ghastly oversight persist in the face of a discovery of such incomparable magnitude? At the risk of being charged with paranoia, one might conclude that a true managed information conspiracy dominates the sources of public knowledge in the United States.
A structure has been discovered that is believed to be the oldest building in the world, almost twice the age of the great pyramids of Egypt. The rectangular stone ziggurat under the sea off the coast of Japan could be the first evidence of a previously unknown Stone Age civilization, archaeologists say.
The monument is 600 feet wide and 90 feet high and has been dated to at least 8000 BC. The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, was built more than 5,000 years later. The structure off Yonaguni, a small island southwest of Okinawa, was first discovered 75 feet underwater by divers and was believed by locals to be a natural phenomenon.
Professor Masaki Kimura, a geologist at Ryukyu University in Okinawa, was the first scientist to investigate the site and has concluded that the mysterious five-layer structure was created by man. “The object has not been manufactured by nature. If that had been the case, one would expect erosion debris to have accumulated around the site, but there are no rock fragments there”, he stated.
The discovery of what appears to be a road around the building was further proof that the structure was made by humans, he added. Robert Schoch, professor of geology at Boston University, this teacher also went to the place and dived to appreciate these structures. “It basically looks like a series of huge steps, each about a meter high. Essentially, it is a cliff like the side of a stepped pyramid. It's a very interesting structure”, he said. "It is possible that natural water erosion combined with the process of splitting cracked rocks created such a structure, but I have not encountered such processes creating a structure as diaphanous as this one".
More evidence that the structure is the work of humans came with the discovery of small nearby underwater stone mounds. Like the main building, these mini-ziggurats are made of stepped slabs and are about 10 m wide and 2 m high. Kimura said it is not possible to determine who built such structures. “The structure could be an ancient religious shrine, possibly celebrated to an ancient deity who resembles the god Nirai-Kanai, who the locals say brought happiness to the Okinawan people from beyond the sea. This could be evidence of a new culture as there are no records of a people smart enough to have built such a monument 10,000 years ago”, he said.
“This could only have been done by a people with a high degree of technology, probably from the Asian continent, where the oldest civilizations originate. Some kind of machinery would enter the scene to have created such an enormous structure”.
Teruaki Ishii, a geology professor at the University of Tokyo, said the structure dates back to at least 8000 BC. C. when the land on which it was built was submerged at the end of the last ice age. "I hope this site is artificial, as it would be very exciting to continue to find out what civilization built all this and for what purpose", he said.
The first signs of civilization in Japan date back to the Neolithic period around 9000 BC. The people of this time lived as hunters and gatherers of cereals and fruits. There is nothing in the archaeological record to suggest the presence of a culture advanced enough to have built a structure like the ziggurat.
Jim Mower, an archaeologist at University College London, said: “If the site is confirmed to be 10,000 years old and man-made, then this is going to change earlier thinking about the history of Southeast Asia dramatically. It would put the people who made the monument on a par with the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley".
It should be noted that this area of planet Earth is where the continental platforms of the Pacific and Asia converge, for this reason it is a place with great seismic activity, hopefully who built these structures will be defined, ¿what civilization preceded the first settlers of the Japanese islands?
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