In 1987, a nearby diver discovering off the coastline of Japan’s southern Ryukyu Islands stumbled across a startling discovery. Twenty-five metres below the surface area, he noticed a series of pretty much properly carved steps with straight edges. Regarded these days as the Yonaguni Monument, this huge 50m-very long-by-20m-wide behemoth is a single of the world’s most uncommon underwater internet sites.
Nicknamed “Japan’s Atlantis”, the rectangular, stacked pyramid-like monument is believed to be extra than 10,000 yrs previous. Some consider it is all that stays of a long-misplaced Pacific civilisation, probably crafted by Japan’s prehistoric Jomon men and women who inhabited these islands as early as 12000 BC. Other people say that the website resembles all-natural formations somewhere else close to the world with distinctly described edges and flat surfaces, such as Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway, whose 1000’s of interlocking basalt columns were being formed by a volcanic eruption tens of millions of many years ago.
Despite Yonaguni’s slender passageways, arched entrances and seemingly parallel 90-degree angles, the unconventional formations are largely thought to be all-natural alternatively than person-designed – particularly since the structure is hooked up to a larger rock mass. The site’s very well-described layers are also likely to have steadily formed because of to the site’s situation in an earthquake-susceptible place.
Even though the monument’s legendary origin story might be untrue, it will probably proceed to fascinate those people fortunate sufficient to dive below and get up-close to this exceptional geological phenomenon.
(Video clip by Naotomo Umewaka, textual content by Yasmin El-Beih)
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