In The Underwater World: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, Graham Hancock describes the numerous structures that have been discovered underwater around the world. Most of the finds that Hancock talks about are located at a depth of no more than 120 meters. This is not surprising, since the sea level never dropped below this mark during the time the Homosapiens roamed the land. The city sunk at a depth of 700 meters off the coast of Cuba, discovered by Polina Zelitzky and Paul Weinzweig during a joint Cuban-Canadian expedition, is a rare exception.
Refuting old theories
How does the existence of an underwater city at such depth fit in with the conventional wisdom that sea levels have never dropped so low? Hancock writes in his book: "No one expected to find a sunken city at a depth of 700 m - this could have happened only as a result of a colossal tectonic catastrophe, and not because of a rise in sea level."
However, the assumption that the city was originally built above sea level, and then sank to a depth due to tectonic activity, did not stand up to careful study by experts. Grenville Draper of Florida International University thinks it is highly unlikely that this could happen: "No disaster of this magnitude has ever been reported."
If we assume that Draper's remark, refuting the likelihood that the city could have sunk, is credible, we will be forced to admit that the city was built at about the same depth at which it is now. In other words, we have come to the absurd conclusion that the city was built under water! While proponents of the aquatic monkey theory may disagree, it is clear that we are at an impasse. What if there is an alternative theory that satisfactorily explains the existence of structures at that depth?
Great seas and immense depths
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On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea is the Mediterranean Sea. This huge sea (its area is over 2,500,000 square kilometers), separating Europe and Africa, has always existed, at least since the appearance of modern man. For millennia, successive great nations and empires, among them the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans, have sailed in the Mediterranean. In 146 BC, thanks to the victories in the Punic wars against Carthage, Rome achieved what no other civilization known at that time had achieved, namely: control over the entire Mediterranean Sea in the hands of one power.
The Romans rightfully called the sea they ruled, marenostrum - our sea. Could the Romans have imagined that "their" sea once, long before the appearance of man, was a dry closed pool? Perhaps they knew about it. In his Natural History, Pliny, referring to the traditional ideas of the peoples living near Gibraltar, wrote: “They also believed that (the Strait of Gibraltar) was dug by him; after which the sea, previously closed, gained access to the ocean and, thus, changed the face of nature."
Piri Reis historical map of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Photo: Public Domain
Is it possible for the Caribbean to have a similar geological history as the Mediterranean? That is, is it possible that the Caribbean Sea was a dry basin during the period of modern man's existence? After conducting an exhaustive search on this topic, I could not find a single source among alternative literature, let alone scientific articles, which would put forward such a hypothesis. As improbable as this hypothesis may seem, if it turned out to be true, it would provide a simple and elegant solution to the problem under discussion, namely: how could a city be built near or below sea level? Perhaps during the maximum decrease in the level of the world ocean. If the Caribbean Sea simply did not exist for a long period of time in the history of mankind, then a sufficiently developed civilization inhabiting this region,could build cities on land 300 meters below sea level, even over 3000 meters below sea level.
When the Caribbean Sea formed, these cities would submerge to a depth equivalent to the depth of the level at which they were built. An underwater city off the coast of Cuba could be one of these hypothetical cities. Thus, an explanation would be found for the existence of the city at such a depth.
Land and sea
What are the prerequisites for the Caribbean to become dry land?
First, the West Indies archipelago, which is now a group of islands (lying above sea level) separated by waterways, was supposed to be a strip of land lying above sea level along its entire length. In other words, between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba, instead of the strait separating them, there should have been a land bridge, the same between about. Cuba and about. Haiti, between about. Haiti and about. Puerto Rico and so on, and finally about. Grenada was to be connected to the South American mainland through a land bridge at the point where the strait separates them.
A perspective view of the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Photo: Public Domain
Indeed, if the Antilles resembled the Central American isthmus, extending in an unbroken and uniform chain above sea level, the Caribbean would be a closed basin isolated from the world's oceans. However, the isolation of the Caribbean from the world ocean, although a necessary condition, is not sufficient for it to become land-based. For this, there must be one more condition, namely: evaporation must exceed precipitation in its catchment area. Evaporation does exceed precipitation in the Caribbean today, but has this been the case throughout the entire existence of modern man with multiple changes in climatic conditions? The answer is likely to be yes, as the tropical and subtropical regions to which the Caribbean belongssurvived minimal climate change even in the midst of the turmoil of the ice ages and interglacials during the Pleistocene era. Therefore, there is reason to conclude that evaporation in the Caribbean has exceeded precipitation for a long time, possibly throughout the entire history of mankind, just as it is now.
Underground ruins.
Photo: Saramarielin / CC BY 2.0)
These two conditions are sufficient for the Caribbean to become land-based. That is, if the Caribbean were isolated from the Atlantic Ocean, and evaporation exceeded precipitation in its catchment area, then it would be land.
Thus, we have proved that the Caribbean could be land if the Caribbean was isolated from the ocean. This begs the question: is it possible for the Caribbean to be isolated? In other words, how is it possible that the archipelago of the West Indies, consisting of scattered islands separated by numerous deep waterways, resembling an arc, was once a continuous strip of land, rising above sea level like the Central American isthmus?