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Explorers View 'Lost City' Ruins Under Caribbean
Reuters ^ | December 6, 2001 | Andrew Cawthorne

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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Canada; Cuba; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: atlantis; canada; caribbean; catastrophism; cuba; godsgravesglyphs; history; noteworthy; paulinazelitsky; paulinazelitzky; plato; russia; russianreliability; sunkencivilizations
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To: blam
http://www2.privatei.com/~bartjean/mainpage.htm

Thanks. Looks interesting.

161 posted on 12/13/2001 9:05:07 PM PST by LostTribe
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To: blam
Speaking of Romans in South America, you oughta get the book "The Friar's Map of Ancient America" by Gunnar Thompson. It covers a lot of the recorded pre-Columbus intercontinental travel. It pretty well shoots down the myth that Colunbus knew nothing about the Americas before he sailed.
162 posted on 12/16/2001 1:09:39 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: fnord
Sorry for the delay, I've been working on a project that's kept me very busy.

Help me out here, please. I tried to see what you are describing east of the PI, but I aint getting it. Can you zoom in, on your computer, exactly where you are describing, and then post the full URL here? Thanks for the info anyway.

No, I tried but couldn't. I'll give a step by step:

1: Click on my map link and let it completely load. You'll see a big center world map and an upper left little globe map.

2: You'll see 6 zoom in/zoom out circles on the right side of the big center map. Click on the fourth one down and let it completely load. You'll see part of Africa and part of the Atlantic show up in the big center map and a red rectangle show up in the little globe map.

3: Go to the little globe map, click just barely east of the Philippines. In the big center map you'll see a part of the big triangle show up on the ocean floor.

4: Go to the big center map and center your crosshairs right in the middle of the triangle and click. This will center the triangle on the big center map. You'll see the southwest flank bordering the Philippines, the northwest flank touching southern Japan (exactly where they found that big underwater stage), with the Marianas trench on the northeast flank, Guam on the southeast flank. Looks a lot like Plato's description.

163 posted on 12/16/2001 1:39:33 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: blam
Thanks for posting the Chachapoyan info. I've seen reports of ancient blond-haired-peoples outposts all through these regions, from the Sahara desert, to the Atlantic Islands, to the Americas, to Japan. By ancient, I mean BC.
164 posted on 12/16/2001 1:46:23 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: blam
Isaiah, Chapter 23 is interesting. It uses the term "daughter of Zidon" when speaking of the destruction of Tyre. Usually when the term "daughter" is used with respect to nations, it seems to mean a nation that left it's original habitation. Was Tyre and Zidon/Sidon the daughter of an island nation in the sea of ancient days that was destroyed? Just like we have "New" York and "New" England, maybe Tyre and Zidon/Sidon were the daughter of a great Zidon? Great Zidon=Poseidon? Just speculating.
165 posted on 12/16/2001 2:04:06 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: #3Fan
OK, thanks ... I see what you are referring to, but do not necessarily have the same interpretation. Interesting idea nonetheless.
166 posted on 12/16/2001 6:14:01 PM PST by fnord
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To: fnord
OK, thanks ... I see what you are referring to, but do not necessarily have the same interpretation. Interesting idea nonetheless.

There's no other area of the ocean floor with these well-defined mountain ranges.

167 posted on 12/17/2001 9:02:41 AM PST by #3Fan
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To: jrhepfer
Another early city is Catal Huyuk in Anatolia region of Turkey. It had 5,000 people and goes back to 6,000BC!
168 posted on 12/19/2001 11:44:23 AM PST by ExiledInTaiwan
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To: noteworthy
Added to Noteworthy list.
169 posted on 01/25/2002 2:38:16 PM PST by vannrox
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Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
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170 posted on 09/03/2005 9:46:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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From December 2001.
 
Catastrophism
 
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171 posted on 06/25/2007 10:16:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated June 23, 2007.)
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Just updating the lists info, not sending a general distribution.
 
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172 posted on 11/13/2010 8:06:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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