Yonaguni Island is located in the west of Japan - this is the westernmost part of the country. The area of Yonaguni is only 28.88 km ?, and the population is about 2 thousand people. Yonaguni became famous in the mid-80s when divers discovered mysterious rocky terraces and pyramids with sharp angles underwater. Controversy is still going on, but no one knows what secrets the island hides. Scientists are inclined to believe that these pyramids were created artificially many millennia ago by an unknown civilization that disappeared from the face of the earth. I suggest you take a trip to the underwater world of Yonaguni, full of secrets and mysteries.
The mysterious underwater pyramids of Yonaguni Island off the coast of Japan are still controversial - is it a natural phenomenon, or a human creation? If the Yonaguni monument was created by man, it will radically change the history of mankind. The history of these underwater pyramids dates back to 1986, when divers discovered an unusual rock formation at a depth of 25 meters under water. These were rocks in the form of flat stepped terraces, pyramids and platforms. One of the tallest pyramids was 600 feet wide and 90 feet high
There are traces of processing and carving on the stone blocks, which confirms the theory of scientists that the Yonaguni monument was not a natural formation, but was created artificially. Masaki Kimura, a marine geologist at the University of Japan, has been studying underwater pyramids for over 15 years. The scientist believes that this place is more than five thousand years old, but it was flooded 2 thousand years ago during an earthquake.
Other scientists believe the structure is much older, including Teruaki Ishi, a geology professor at the University of Tokyo. He determined that the sinking of the terraces under the water took place at the end of the last ice age - about 10 thousand years ago. In this case, the age of the Yonaguni pyramids is twice that of the Egyptian pyramids. Interestingly, the number of artifacts found was approximately the same on land and under water. Not far from the pyramids, a man's head carved from stone was discovered, on which many unknown hieroglyphs were carved. It is hard to imagine that this is a natural formation.
The Japan Times added intrigue with the legend of Yonaguni Island:
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"There is a land of the Gods, called Nirai-Kanai, where the ancient gods live - this unknown distant place is the source of happiness for the whole world."
The opposite point of view was held by Robert Schoch, professor of mathematics at Boston University. He believed that the Yonaguni pyramids formed naturally - this is how nature tried. According to him, this is a natural tectonic activity, as evidenced by the photo below, in which a similar formation on land created by nature. There is also a possibility that the monument was formed naturally, but was then processed by people. Shoch was of this opinion before meeting Kimura. The arguments of Kimura, more familiar with the features of the monument, strongly influenced Shoch's opinion. Moreover, the arguments were supported by photographs of details that Shoch simply did not see during his dives, since he dived only a few times.
For all the similarities between the Yonaguni rocks, there are very strong differences between them. In a limited area of the Monument, elements of completely different types appear very close to each other. For example: sharp-edged face, round holes, stepped slope, perfectly straight narrow trench. If the reason was only natural erosion, then it would be logical to expect the same shapes throughout the entire piece of rock. The fact that such different elements are located side by side is a strong argument in favor of their artificial origin. Here is an example of one of such formations called the Turtle.
Moreover, very close, literally a few tens of meters on the same rock of the same rock, is a radically different landscape. There is no doubt that it was created by nature. But even with the naked eye you can see its sharp difference from the treated part of the rock.
The next argument is that the blocks, separated from the rock, do not lie where they should fall under the influence of gravity. Instead, they are either collected in one place or not at all. If the object was created by erosion, then at the bottom next to it there would be a lot of debris, as on the modern shores of the island. And this is not here …
The meeting of two professional geologists was literally epoch-making for the Yonaguni monument. If earlier Shoch adhered to the version of the natural nature of the object, then Kimura insisted on its completely artificial origin. As a result of taking into account all the available facts, both specialists agreed on a kind of "compromise", together abandoning extreme points of view. They came to the conclusion that the Monument belongs to the so-called "terra-formations", that is, the original natural "preparation" was later changed and modified by human hands. Such formations are not unusual, they were quite common in the ancient world …
“After meeting with Professor Kimura,” Shoch later wrote, “I cannot completely rule out the possibility that the Yonaguni monument was at least partially processed and altered by human hands. Professor Kimura pointed out a number of important elements that I did not see during my first, short visit …”.
However, the Yonaguni Monument has not been recognized by the Japanese government as a cultural heritage site that needs to be protected and cherished, although the existence of stone processing on the island has been proven. This is confirmed by the ancient catacombs of indeterminate age.