3. Atlantis’ expeditions

This chapter offers an insight to some expeditions made by people in search of Atlantis or any possible lost civilisation.

Atlantis’ mystery didn’t give birth only to theoretical discussions and books but it even inspired several archaeological expeditions around the world. The lost realm wasn’t obviously found but some expeditions revealed interesting implications on our prehistory and suggest that mankind civilization’s dawn, thanks more or less to Atlantis, rose up much time before we can think.

Archaeological digs are always a hard job which involve different problems: political, lack of funds, logistic and so on. In the first case are very famous the rows between Zhai Hawass, supervisor and main chief of the archaeologists in Giza, and some dudes like Graham Hancock, John West and Robert Scoch. The last ones argue, reasonably enough, the unlikely Egyptian paternity of the place while Hawass forbids them some more physical research and defend the place claiming it’s really work of the well known Egyptians.

It’s very difficult finding a large amount of funds for doing excavations, especially for Atlantis. Who does want to risk many money for something that could be no more than a myth?

Then digging is slow and hard. Think to the Bolivian Altiplano, which his desert and poor of resources. How can archaeologists live there without the correct technological support?

Finding the X where we can dig isn’t so easy and can take to many mistakes before locating the right cross: that would mean a waste of time, money and resources for everyone. Then, if Atlantis really sunk, like many people believe, it’s much better throwing the shovel away because submarine digs are too complex: underwater you have limited movement, light and permanency time. In this case we’re lucky when we’re in shallow waters were solar light is still efficient. Anyway in these places we found some surprises and we are going to speak about them right now.

Expeditions in the Caribbean sea. In 1968 the findings of the naturalist J. Manson Valentine near Bimini caused sensation. At about thirty meters underwater some formations shaped like walls and roads were located. Local authorities sonly invited researchers, naturalists and archaeologists to visit the sit and to search for some more. The early opinion of some orthodox scientists pointed out they were work of nature, thus giving these clues:

1)                      The road – like formations followed the same way of the closest coasts.

2)                      In the coasts there were rocky layers which were eroded by weaves along straight lines and so gave the impression to be an artificial covering. So it was possible that the underwater formation were older coastlines when water level was lower.

Meanwhile the list of possible underwater archaeological sites grew bigger and the same happened for sights from aeroplane, since the shallow and clean waters revealed some regular shapes of the local vegetation, which seemed to follow a kind of building where it grew.

The deepest studies in the site were made during ‘70s by David Zink (1), English teacher at Lamar University in Texas. In his immersions between 1974 and 1979 he extracted out some blocks (2) from the submarine roads and also drew a detailed map of the place. The first amazing fact was that some roads didn’t follow the relative coasts but had their own way. The regular blocks then couldn’t be compared to the straight superficial erosion of the coasts. They were effectively worked blocks! In the main site, the one found in 1968, there was a 90 degrees bend which gave the shape of J to a road.

C14 dated back to 6,000 years ago the blocks through a measure on the roots of mangrove which grew over. Though Zink’s work is the most valuable and complete it was snubbed because in his book, “The stones of Atlantis” , he didn’t conclude it was just work of mankind but even extraterrestrial. Actually, regarding these sites, people talk about “Scott Stones” and some believe they are the ruins of Atlantis and that there are many secret clues about that. These submarine roads have been publicized even by the recent theories on Cuba and by hypothetical findings of regular buildings 2,000 meters under the ocean level (they speak about a city). Anyway news or photos more truthful and important than Zink’s ones were never shown. There are just many words on internet pages. There are many voices about the water of Bahamas. Divers, aeroplane drivers, suns claim they saw temples, walls, columns and many other architectonical structures, then forgotten. Many words, few facts, maybe because underwater researches are difficult and so for locating the same place twice.

Expeditions in Yonaguni, Japan. In 1997, near Yonaguni’s coasts, at 20 meters below sea level some divers found a giant building of squared blocks which was shaped like a castle. The news caught the attention of Masaaki Rimura, a geologist of international fame and university teacher at Okinawa. After he analyzed carefully the site he concluded beyond all doubt it was an artificial work, realized when waters were lower, 12,000 years ago. Here the situation is different from Bimini’s one, which features only stone roads. In this site in fact there are roads, walls, holes, tools, clues of fire, glyphs and a stylized turtle head. The building’s basis measures 250x150 meters and a top of 26 meters. It’s hard understanding the purpose of the building: maybe a quarry or a ceremonial place. The site was also explored by Hancock, Scoch (geologist of Boston), & company who confirmed the evident artificial nature of the site.

There were also other findings in 1999 in the small island of Okinoshima at 30 meters below sea level. Four towers, featuring spiral staircases and measuring a height of 35 meters. Geologist Nobuhiro Yoshida studied these formations and concluded they’re artificial.

Research at Giza. Inevitably when people speak about the marvellous antiquities of Egypt they sometimes invoke the name of Atlantis. Giza’s plateau, where the three great pyramids and the Sphinx lay, has always been featured by a paternity not so close to Egyptians. The “Inventary” obelisk testifies that Cheope was the restorer of the Sphinx and the relative pyramid, which were badly damaged. He was just the restorer, not the builder. At the same time the Egyptian historian Maneto wrote that those buildings dated back thousands and thousands years before the constitution of the first historical reign of Egypt.

Many people think Atlanteans were authors of such buildings and they wait for discovering some more documents in the hypothetical hidden chambers of the Giza’s plateau. During ‘70s researchers did many experiments for probing the ground below the Sphinx. They used to measure the electric resistance of the ground and they found some anomalies. During ‘80s the more sophisticated technology allowed some more experiments which confirmed these anomalies and even found some others. Maybe they’re chambers and passages.

The exam, in 1991, of the Sphinx’s degrade state allowed Professor Robert Scoch to conclude there was the presence of water erosion. That would mean that the body of the Sphinx, which is more spoiled than the anterior part which was restored by Egyptians, was for long time attacked by rains. That could happen only thousands and thousands years before the age of pharaohs. On the other side Zhai Hawass claimed the opinion of two other geologists that explain how that kind of erosion can take place even without rains. The row is still open but Hawass practically embalmed the site together with its mummies forbidding some more researches and saying he’s protecting the national treasure of Egypt.

Many scientists would like to do more researches there but they can’t. Few years ago, inserting a small robot in a duct, they discovered something like a metal door in the Great Pyramid. But this subject was then early forgotten.