Posted on 12/06/2001 9:37:13 PM PST by spycatcher
HAVANA (Reuters) - Explorers using a miniature submarine to probe the sea floor off the coast of Cuba said on Thursday they had confirmed the discovery of stone structures deep below the ocean surface that may have been built by an unknown human civilization thousands of years ago.
Researchers with a Canadian exploration company said they filmed over the summer ruins of a possible submerged ``lost city'' off the Guanahacabibes Peninsula on the Caribbean island's western tip. The researchers cautioned that they did not fully understand the nature of their find and planned to return in January for further analysis, the expedition leader said on Thursday.
The explorers said they believed the mysterious structures, discovered at the astounding depth of around 2,100 feet and laid out like an urban area, could have been built at least 6,000 years ago. That would be about 1,500 years earlier than the great Giza pyramids of Egypt.
``It's a really wonderful structure which looks like it could have been a large urban center,'' said Soviet-born Canadian ocean engineer Paulina Zelitsky, from British Columbia-based Advanced Digital Communications (ADC). ``However, it would be totally irresponsible to say what it was before we have evidence,'' Zelitsky told Reuters.
Zelitsky said the structures may have been built by unknown people when the current sea-floor actually was above the surface. She said volcanic activity may explain how the site ended up at great depths below the Caribbean Sea.
In July 2000, ADC researchers using sophisticated side-scan sonar equipment identified a large underwater plateau with clear images of symmetrically organized stone structures that looked like an urban development partly covered by sand. From above, the shapes resembled pyramids, roads and buildings, they said.
``ULISES'' ASSISTS UNDERWATER ODYSSEY
This past July, ADC researchers, along with the firm's Cuban partner and experts from the Cuban Academy of Sciences, returned to the site in their ship ``Ulises.'' They said they sent a miniature, unmanned submarine called a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) down to film parts of the 7.7-square-mile area.
Those images confirmed the presence of huge, smooth, cut granite-like blocks in perpendicular and circular formations, some in pyramid shapes, the researchers said. Most of the blocks, measuring between about 6.5 and 16 feet in length, were exposed, some stacked one on another, the researchers said. Others were covered in sediment and the fine, white sand that characterizes the area, the researchers said.
The intriguing discovery provided evidence that Cuba at one time was joined to mainland Latin America via a strip of land from the Yucatan Peninsula, the researchers said.
``There are many new hypotheses about land movement and colonialization, and what we are seeing here should provide very interesting new information,'' Zelitsky said.
ADC's deep-water equipment includes a satellite-integrated ocean bottom positioning system, high-precision side-scan double-frequency sonar, and the ROV. The company currently is commissioning what it calls the world's first custom-designed ocean excavator for marine archeology to begin work both at the Guanahacabibes site and at ship wrecks.
ADC is the deepest operator among four foreign firms working in joint venture with President Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s government to explore Cuban waters containing hundreds of treasure-laden ships from the colonial era. The Canadian company already has discovered several historic sunken Spanish ships.
In an earlier high-profile find, ADC was testing equipment in late 2000 off Havana Bay when it spotted the century-old wreck of the American battleship USS Maine. The ship had not been located since it blew up mysteriously in 1898, killing 260 American sailors and igniting the Spanish-American War.
The rush of interest in Cuba's seas in recent years is due in part to the Castro government's recognition that it does not have the money or technology to carry out systematic exploration by itself, although it does have excellent divers.
American companies are prohibited from operating in Cuba by the long-running U.S. embargo on the Communist-run island.
Very interesting. It seems that we have only slightly scratched the surface of the wonders yet to be discovered here on this small rock earth. You provide a service to FR, bringing out this topic, without jumping to some old (or new) speculative conclusion, as so often occurs with these types of discoveries.
The preliminary evidence here at least rules out the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing to the find -- especially when you read the background info about the pre-Columbian inscriptions that appear to be on the stones.
From a USA Today article:
"Most of the skeptics I have read are of the 'Atlantis is impossible' variety, and have never done any exploration in the area at all," says Doug Richards, a geologist who has carried out research and written papers for the Meridian Institute, a Virginia Beach, Va., organization that sponsors research into the connection between mind and body. "I think that most likely it is a natural formation, but neither side of the debate has done the work necessary to prove it one way or the other."
Richards says at least part of the Bimini Road may be man-made. "For example, there are large stones balanced on top of smaller stones," he says. "Beachrock does not form that way naturally, so if it is beachrock, it appears to have been moved by humans. There is also a circle of stones that looks nothing like a natural beachrock formation."
Hey, maybe Edgar Cayce WASN'T a complete whack job...
...nahhhhhh.
That's right, because there is no use imagining what Troy was like. And heaven knows that Hissilick where Dergfeld (sp?) and Schliemann dug could not be Troy, because there was no mention of Troy before Homer and Homer just made all that wacky stuff up to sell books and make money. It was like a Spielberg production.
Might as well toss Herodotus and Thucydides out as sources too. I mean what over active imaginations? No one wrote about some fabled Persian invasion of Greece before... and mice eating the Persian bowstrings? Man, it's all fantasy. We should just focus on what's on now. Where's the remote control?
Actually, there is evidence that there was contact between the east and west hemispheres. Scientists have discovered ruins of ancient statues of men with beards in South America that date back thousands of years. They have also discovered similar busts and statues of people with European features in the south Atlantic in places like Easter Island, and a few other places.
Artifacts have also been discovered in these places that don't fit with the geological background. Many scientists believe these artifacts are European in origin.
Mike
Too true. No need to go back 6000 years for that. Most people can't remember/agree/accept anything but the PC version of history from 200 years ago.
Enjoyed the article and links. Bookmarked. Thanks.
For a REAL good read ... try Velikovsky's "Worlds in Collision" and "Earth in Upheaval". These two books (+ 'Ages in Chaos') turned the scientific world on its ear back in the 50's. He was hounded for going outside the circle, but now a good deal of his theory is accepted/proven (credidted to others).
There was another submurged potential megalith site off the coast of Japan.
Hopefully the New Orleans police is on the case regarding nameless cults and that our mental health authorities is on the look-out for sensitive artists creating manifestations of terrible gods. Iä! Iä!
Big trouble in little Innsmouth, anyone?
There was another submurged potential megalith site off the coast of Japan.
Hopefully the New Orleans police is on the case regarding nameless cults and that our mental health authorities is on the look-out for sensitive artists creating manifestations of terrible gods. Iä! Iä!
Big trouble in little Innsmouth, anyone?
It's bookmarked on my profile page. Sorry, don't know how to link.
"All of mans wisdom, is but foolishness in the eyes of the Lord"
They called Henrich Schleimann an idiot for using Homer's The Illiad as a guide to finding Troy.....until he found it. Then, they called him brilliant.
Do you have any more info on this subject? I had a Colombian employee once tell me that they are still there in the high mountains of Colombia.
Here you go:
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