The Mysterious Nan Madol.
A
short distance off the coast of the remote Micronesian island of Pohnpei
lies one of the greatest archeological mysteries in the world, the Lost
City of Nan Madol. Built on an ancient coral reef and covering more than
11 square miles, this ancient city is made up of hundreds of artificial
islets, intersected by numerous manmade canals. Even more curious, many
of the city’s larger islands are connected by submerged tunnels. First
discovered in the early 1800’s by European sailors, this baffling and
immense megalithic stone city may contain evidence for the fabled lost
continent of Mu.
The mysterious Nan Madol is built entirely out of gigantic magnetized
basalt crystals, some weighing as much as fifty tons. In fact, the entire city
contains an estimated 250 million tons of the prismatic basalt rock.
How
this city came into existence, continues to baffle archeologists.
Considering that radiocarbon dating and archeological excavations
establishes Nan Madol to be as old as 200 BC, any conventional
explanation for this massive construction (such as brute force) simply
does not work very well. Native mythology suggests that the stones were
magically flown through the air and placed in the city.
Nan
Madol is steeped in scientific controversy and legend. The word 'Pohn-pei'
means 'on the alter' and 'Nan-Madol' means 'the spaces between',
indicating the canals - or spaces between the artificial islands.
The
origin of the basalt building stones of Nan Madol is unknown. It did not
come from the immediate area. The hexagonal shape of the stones is
natural and is not man-made, however, due to the sheer size of the
basalt blocks, one has to question how they could have possibly been
transported to the coral reef.
The
massive basalt logs are stacked to form walls as high as 50 feet and as
thick as 17 feet. How was this accomplished in an age before machines?
Additionally, the numerous canals were clearly cut into the reef with a
very high degree of precision, but how?
While
the architecture of Nan Madol is anything but ornate (its design is
sober and very utilitarian), there are rumors of incredible treasures
being found there.
Before the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese administered the
strange island. The Japanese investigated a Nan Madol legend that
referred to corpses resting in the 'House of the Dead', and allegedly
their divers discovered an underwater structure containing elaborate
watertight coffins made of pure platinum. Records indicating how much of
the platinum may have been removed by the Japanese, or if any of the
platinum watertight coffins still exist, has been either hidden away or
destroyed in the Second World War.
By any
measure, the city is impressive. The work is of such scale that it
easily compares in scope with the building of the Great Wall of China or
the Great Pyramid of Egypt (the average weight of a stone in the Great
Pyramid was only three tons). It becomes even more remarkable, however,
when you consider that many of the areas current inhabitants live in
humble grass huts and not massive stone buildings. What could have possibly
caused such a regression of technology and culture in the area?
There
are no existing records that can answer questions about who built the
city, when the city was built, how it was built, or even why it was
built. Archeologists have uncovered human bones that belonged to people
considerably larger than the Micronesians who live there today. They have also
uncovered pottery shards that have been "thermo-luminescence"
dated as being at least 2000 years old. Adding to the mystery are the
persistent rumors and physical evidence of another sunken city, Madolynym, in the water near Nan Madol.
