Yonaguni: the Underwater Pyramids of Japan

[dasa]

These are underwater photos of what are called the "pyramids of japan". I think they were just discovered in 1985. Some scientists think they are a natural formation, others think that the sharp angles to the structures would indicate that they are man made. They are just off one of the japanese islands called Yonaguni. I believe i got these basic facts correct. What is interesting about them is that if they are man made, it would completely throw off the timeline most scientists accept today for the dateing of civilization. I think some of the earliest structures, say in egypt, are said to be a few thousand years old. But if these stuctures underwater off japan are man made, they would have had to been made over 11,000 years ago. Their reasoning for that is that the only time this area was not underwater, and therefore could have been made by man, would have been during the last ice age which was 11,000 or more years ago. This would fit in with the vedic understanding that civilization is much older than modern science thinks. That is why i found the article interesting. But at the same time, i wonder if it does fit in with the vedic view for it depends on the existence of an ice age on the earth. Does anyone know if there is any concept of an "ice age" in the earth's history according to vedic scipture?

 

Edited July 2, 2015 by The Editor

[Gauracandra]

A few weeks back the Discovery channel had a program on these Yonaguni structures. It was very interesting. Basically this Japanese Archaeologist discovered the structures. The program was going back and forth between him and some other scientists. He was arguing that these were man made. By looking at the structures they certainly do look man made. They are very sharply cut, many at 90 degree angles, and they are very platformed. The other scientist was claiming that “No, these are naturally formed. The strong ocean currents would break off large portions of the rock.” When asked if the ocean broke the rock like this, shouldn’t there be lots of fragments around the guy said “No, the ocean currents are strong and would carry them away”. Ok, nothing yet. So next they show some circular type divots next to each other on various parts of these platforms. The Japanese Archaeologist was saying “I think these circular cuts were used to hold wooden poles upright.” It was pointed out that they were not just random circles, but that they seemed to line up with other indentations. The other scientist again said “No, no, you can find any pattern you want. Nature does a lot of these sorts of things where parts of rock break away….”. Ok, so nothing. Then it was pointed out that the structures underwater appeared similar in design to some catacombs that were on dry land. There were some old burial chambers. The skeptical scientist admitted they looked similar, and suggested that likely the catacomb builders had been underwater and seen these naturally formed structures and mimicked them having been inspired. Ok, either way. So the program continued like this and no one really conclusively proved their point. But at the end of the program the Discovery channel crew decided to go underwater some more, this time to a section that had been unexplored. So they are swimming around, here and there. And what to they come across?….

 

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[dramatic interlude]

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…. But a giant carved head. I would guess the head was 10-15 feet high, with a flowing headdress carved into the rock. Ummmm…. How do you explain this? It was very clear, with eyes and everything. It was very interesting to see. As far as I’m concerned, seeing a giant submerged stone carved head is proof enough for me.

[Gauracandra]

Here are pictures of the underwater head. I won’t vouch for the website I’m getting these off from, but the one I saw that was on the Discovery channel is the second one. I didn’t see the first one, which I guess is a front view.

 

Edited July 2, 2015 by The Editor

[gHari]

Ha ha ha. Well-presented, the punch line, it was, Yoda. Punch picture, to be more exact.

 

I keep expecting a similar suspense breaker in the battle of the Vedic transmigration of the soul versus evolution from ooze theories. But I fear that truth may be buried even farther down.

[Gauracandra]

Ghari, that was my reaction too. I was sitting there watching the back and forth lobs, and then at the end there was a massive "spike" straight down the middle. Game Over. I only had wished they then went back and interviewed the skeptic and showed him the underwater head. It would have been great to hear him say "Oh no, nature can produce that. Its like looking at the clouds, you can see all sorts of shapes that aren't there". That would have been priceless.

[dasa]

Stone Monuments or Natural Geology?

Japan's Mysterious Submerged Stone Structures:

New evidence suggests they may have been used by Man

 

Man-made, made by Nature, or did humankind finish what Nature started? These enigmatic, sunken stone structures off Okinawa, Japan, located 60 to 100 feet beneath the ocean surface, have the Japanese wondering if their homeland was once part of the lost continent of Mu.

 

Stone terraces, right angled block and walls, and stone circles encompassing hexagonal columns look intriguingly, if not conclusively, man made. A few more clues: an encircling road, what might be post holes supported long-gone wooden structures, what look like cut steps, and castles with similar archietecture located nearby and still on land.

 

The two sites that are getting the most attention: near the city of Naha is Okinawa is what looks like a wall, with a coral encrusted right angled block. Another, just off the southern end of the tiny island of Yonaguni, the southernmost island of Japan, is an extensive site, with five irregular layers that look like ceremonial, terraced platforms. There are eight anomalous, underwater sites found to date.

 

Prof. Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologist with the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa has spent several years studying all eight sties, especially Yonaguni, which was found 13 years ago, in 1985.

 

Kimura believes these are monuments made by man, left by an unknown civilization, perhaps from the Asian mainland, home of our oldest civilizations. He reasons that if the five layers on the Yonaguni site had been carved by nature, you would find debris from the erosion to have collected around the site, but no rock fragments have yet been found. He adds that there is what look like a road encircling the site as further indication it was used by man. He believes building this monument necessitated a high degree of technology, and some sort of machinery.

 

How to date these sites? A few possible scenarios have been suggested. The sites may have been submerged when sea levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age as the continental ice sheets melted. Or, as Japan sits on the Ring of Fire, tectonic activity might have caused subsidence of the land. Or perhaps a combination of subsidence and inundation from rising sea levels, or some catastrophic event, dropped it, intact and upright, into the ocean. Teruaki Ishii, a professor of geology at Tokyo University, believes the site is partly man-made, partly natural, and suggests a date of 8,000 B.C., contemporary to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. Others have suggested a date of 12,00 years.

 

The preliminary reports from the fist Americans to dive the sites:

 

Just back (May 1998) from diving two of the eight known sites are Mike Arbuthnot, an amateur underwater archeologist adventurer, and Boris Said, Executive Producer of the NBC documentary, "Mystery of the Sphinx." Both are experienced divers. Arbuthnot explored a three-mast schooner wrecked off Grand Cayman Island, and Said has been diving for 40 years.

 

It was treacherous terrain even for experienced divers. "The Yonaguni site is fairly near the shore, so there was heavy surge (the up and down motion of waves) as well as swift currents, and sharks," says Arbuthnot. "One the up side, the area has the third clearest water in the world, with visibility to 200 feet. And the corals were gorgeous."

 

"The two sites are very different, though both are at a comparable depth, 60 to 100 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. The Yonaguni site might be ceremonial platforms, and the Okinawa site seems similar to a castle wall, a conjecture that is supported by nearby castles on the island with a similar architectural style," says Arbuthnot.

 

Arbuthnot says that when he came up after the first dive, at Yonaguni, he found little to suggest that it was man made. It was only after diving the Okinawa site, and interviewing Prof. Kimura for two days, that he began to entertain the notion. The conversations with Prof. Kimura were all the more productive and in-depth, with the translating skills of Corina Tettinger, who speaks fluent Japanese. "The case for the sites being artificial, or modified by man, requires supporting evidence," he says, and "we found very precise rectilinear stone features that seem to be indicative of either artificial tooling, or modifying the natural geology." A particularly intriguing find: holes in the rock platforms. Could these be post holes to support a wooden structure? The terraces are massive, by human standards. But we can imagine naturally terraced platforms easily utilized for ceremonial purposes with the addition of wooden structures built atop them. You’d simply need to insert the supporting beams into the rock, by drilling a few holes.

 

"What we were able to observe was fascinating and warrants additional research," he says. "There is some false information on the sites out there. We want to bring clarity to the situation, and intend to mount a full-scale scientific expedition to do further investigation."

We'll report new developments on this project as they happen.

 

Geologist Robert Schoch and Egyptologist John Anthony West (both featured in the NBC documentary "The Mystery of the Sphinx") dove many months ago at Yonaguni, also without arriving at any conclusions, only more questions. Schoch focused on determining what geological forces might have been at work here. While he notes that the strong currents might have cut the terraces out of the layered sediments, he has not ruled out human modification. Schoch says he very much wants to go back to dive again before arriving at any conclusions. "I have not seen the other sites," he says, "and, not having previous diving experience, I spent much of my time underwater just staying alive."

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by dasa (edited 04-19-2002).]

[Gauracandra]

They showed this program again tonight. It was on the History Channel (so I may have been wrong last time when I said Discovery Channel, unless it played on both). The skeptical scientist was actually more open minded. He has a Ph.D. in geology and has made some non-traditional assessments such as the Sphinx being dated at 5000 B.C. It really was fairly even handed, with neither side being able to conclusively prove their case, until the very end when the submerged head was found.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

The identical spacing between one step and the next clearly shows it is not a random occurence.

 

Its amazing how far some scientists will go to avoid accepting evidence of ancient civilizations.

 

[Note: some more updated photos add to this thread below.]

 

Edited July 2, 2015 by The Editor

[Tarun]

Their jobs depend on no change (status quo)or at most, slow change (status slow).

dasaji: great fotos + balanced story!

Gauracandraji: Ditto + 2 divers in lower foto must be on atop head, no?

Please let us know ahead of time if they ever show YonaguNi or similars again.

We get Discovery Channel here in Holland. History Channel maybe not.

gHariji + jndasji: we'll have to personally lower those skeptics so they can see + touch themselves.

Make sure their airhose is thinner, more vulnerable.

Once they're down there cozy, ask them: "Now u believe? Fair warning: The Truth Shall Set U Free."

[dasa]

 

Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age US Premiere

TLC October 10th: Flooded Kingdoms premiers in USA

 

Posted on October 9 2002.

 

Malta and Bimini

 

Delve into a missing chapter in mankind's history with a visit to the ancient monoliths, prehistoric offshore temples and grooved channels of Malta. Investigate the submerged stone blocks of Bimini Road in the Bahamas, the mecca of Atlantis researchers.

 

[Follow article link...]

 

http://tlc.discovery.com/schedule/episode.jsp?episode=552173001

 

[Guest guest]

Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau unveiled a plan to utilize the under water ruins off Yonaguni Island for tourism.

 

In its plan the bureau proposed to build a visitor center and a theme park on the island in order to ensure visitors wanting to see the site can get as much information as possible even if it is impossible to dive at the site due to bad weather. The bureau plan also suggests that the presentation of the site should proceed in a storytelling style with a catch theme of “Mysterious Mu Continent; Exploring the Under Water Ruins”. The plan envisions the center hosting dioramas in a virtual reality theater in order for visitors to enjoy the ruin site regardless the weather. The plan also includes an exhibition hall and souvenir shops.

[Guest guest]

when there is order, specific pattern or design,

there is designer.

 

just as an explosion in a printing press cannot create a book, so a structure like these cannot not happen by chance.

 

jai sri krishna!

 

 

[Guest guest]

I know that you have underwater picture of Ineki Point/Yonaguni Island Hexagonal monolith. Is there any place to acquire drawings of what the monolith overall may look like. If found in 1985, someone may have committed the picture to ink, especially as a tourism piece. If a drawing exhists, where would I find it? Patsy Sporer

[Guest guest]

I need to contact the researchers of the Malta portion of this program to exchange important aerial observations I found while flying helicopters over nearby waters.

 

George W. Page

Col. < U.S. Army (Ret.)

[Guest guest]

Listen up, people. I think these structures are very similar to NAN MADOL Island in Micronesia...And the most interesting fact is SITUATION. As in Nan Madol structures are near the island in South-East direction. It was great civilization there

[nekozuki]

Naturally made. Give me a break. Designs are carved in those stones. Human civilization is older than what is accepted, they need to get over it.

[Nrsinghadev]

 

Here are pictures of the underwater head. I won’t vouch for the website I’m getting these off from, but the one I saw that was on the Discovery channel is the second one. I didn’t see the first one, which I guess is a front view.

http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/attachment.php?attachmentid=1069&stc=1&d=1144640667

http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/attachment.php?attachmentid=1070&stc=1&d=1144640667

Did they show this picture with the divers or a video of it? This picture looks heavily photoshopped plus I can't find this picture anywhere on the net. Only one on a japanese site without the divers and without the clear lionhead carvings.

[Jaisrikrishna]

Vow

 

Interesting

[Guest guest]

pre-inca craftsmanship, must´ve been a wide spread culture. the head is very similar to eastern island sculpted heads, whereas on eastern island similar walls as in peru have been found. anyone has a clue as to how this widespread culture was named, questionsign, sorry my keyboard zucks and i can´t login quite helpless......

[shambu]

It was me, shambu, who posted the previous post. Nice to meet you! I especially mentioned "pre-inca" since I believe to have understood that the Incas as well as their descendants deny to have created the huge and impressive walls and certain other structures to be found in Peru and beyond. How could they have done so, given the poor means they availed of? These pre-inca structures are real wonders of stone-molding. And there is at least a great deal of superficial similarity with the photographic images taken near the Japanese island of Yonaguni. Cultural links between the Inca or pre-inca culture and that of Eastern Island are pretty much accepted. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

Did any of you, who are interested in unbiased archaeological research, hear about the "pyramids" that were recently discovered in Bosnia? So now not only Japan, but even Europe claims to have pyramids.

 

Hoping to be of service to you,

 

shambu.

[zjj]

I saw this documentary on the history channel too.

 

It was amazing and the documentary divers themselves were convinced that those structures were man-made. One of them said that it was so eerie, there was just no way those structures were naturally formed. And they were the ones who discovered the carving of the headress. It looks like a spectacular location.

 

It made me want to learn diving even though I've never yet had the inclination.

 

Haribol!

 

Jai

[Taipan]

Ancestors of this mob perhaps:

 

[url="http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/english/eng01.html"]<link no longer exits>

[annazd1]

Has there been any further research, albeit engineering, archeo-architectural, and radio-carbon dating testing on the monoliths. It's obvious from the photos that the angles of the surfaces have clearly but cut to a high-degree of accuracy. Is the site being side-stepped; something like this is usually ignored by the orthodox archaeo community.

This site and the massive blocks at BalBeek are testaments to a civil-engineering expertise long forgotten.

I can envision peoples walking along beside these impressive strutures going about whatever business they had prior to the site being submerged.

[Sephiroth]

Unfortunately, Western researchers are hell-bent in labelling structures like Yonaguni as "natural formed" structures. It means that underwater earthquakes and volcanic activities have pushed rocks up in a perfect square-shaped structures. To say otherwise, could be "unintelligent" as believed by this Westerners.

 

They have continued to ignore legends of the folks living there as myth, even so these people have never came across this underwater structures for generations.

 

Similar situation occurs with the status of Dwarka. The Westerners were busy trying to find Atlantis, stating that it was the "Eden" where Humans first appeared. They say it have been sanked off the coast of Africa (most likely Mediterranean) but refused to accept that Dwarka could be Atlantis, since that could make them feel "unclean" for thinking that they were once Hindus.

 

Riddiculos and close-minded bunch ... these Westerners.

[krishnadasa]

However, nevertheless, nontheless TRUTH ONLY WINS in the end....