The huge archipelago of the Caroline Islands, lying in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, includes a group of islands named after D. N. Senyavin, a Russian naval commander who defeated the Turkish fleet in 1807. Among them is a small volcanic land area called Temuen, which has attracted the attention of historians and archaeologists for more than one century …
Riddle in the middle of the ocean
Why is this piece of land lost among tens of thousands of Micronesian islands so interesting? The fact is that on Temuen itself, and even more so on its underwater, reef part, there are the remains of a huge, very ancient and unusually mysterious city, which historians call Nan Madol, or Pacific Venice.
The second name appeared due to the fact that the ancient builders who built Nan Madol. using the underwater part of the reef as a foundation, they created many small artificial islands connected by "streets" - channels. And the first name is translated from the local dialect literally as "transition between worlds" …
In the middle of the 19th century, a certain Belgian anthropologist, interested in "Venice", spent quite a long time there and collected many interesting items from the point of view of archeology. However, the ship on which the Belgian was returning home was wrecked, and all the finds made in the dead city went to the bottom of the ocean.
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At the end of the 19th century, the German archaeologist Paul Hambruch carried out a rather thorough topographical survey of Nan Mandol and mapped ninety-two “quarters” separated by canals. And the famous Czechoslovak ethnographer and writer Miroslav Stingl, visiting Temuen, wrote the following: “Unknown creators of the first Micronesian city of Nan Madol built dozens of magnificent buildings: temples, fortresses, small“palaces”, and also created artificial lakes and so on.
The purpose of many buildings has not yet been finally established. This mystery is just one of the many mysteries of an incomprehensible artificial archipelago. a stone city, the likes of which is not found in all Oceania."
Megacomplex
From a distance the whole complex looks like a chaotic jumble of strange square logs, stones and sticks. It is worth getting closer to make sure that there is no chaos: mighty walls up to four meters thick are clearly visible, reaching the height of a five-story building; steps leading to unknown dwellings. tall columns, ponds, mausoleums …
The canals between the islands are neatly lined with the same mysterious square logs.
A closer look will reveal another mystery: all the "logs" and "sticks" from which the city was built are carefully carved from the strongest basalt - some elements weigh up to twenty-five tons. But. despite the enormous mass, everything has been put together on conscience and still successfully withstands the blows of time.
Even more impressive is the central structure of Nan Madol - Nan Duvas. It is a moat surrounded by two concentric walls, filled with sea water, in the center of which there is a mound of unknown purpose. The walls of the moat are made of basalt blocks weighing fifty tons.
Builder Gods
Local residents claim that their ancestors had nothing to do with the construction of Nan Madol. According to legends, the creators of the city were two god-kings - Olosop and Olosip. who arrived from across the ocean on amazing boats. These gods built four cities on the island, and then for some unknown reason left them. Nan Madol became the fifth city built by guests from the west. (Archaeologists have found the remains of the first four cities, which confirms the legend.)
Further, the legends say that the basalt blocks from which the city was built, according to the will of the builder gods, themselves flew through the air and each took its place. The channels surrounding Nan Madol were dug by a huge dragon spewing fire …
It was not by chance that Olosop and Olosip chose the site for the construction of Nan Madol. Before they climbed to the top of a high mountain, from which they examined the entire island. And from there, from above, “they saw the city of the gods under the water and took it as a sign that they should build their city on this place. And they built Nan Madol as a "mirror image" of its sunken brother. " The sunken city was called Hanimweiso …
Mirror city
More recently, a group of Australian scientists led by David Childers conducted a thorough study of the ancient complex and found out many interesting points. First, the architecture of Nan Madol turned out to be so peculiar that it cannot be found a clear analogy in other parts of the planet. Secondly, the age of Nan Madol was approximately determined - about a thousand years. Scientists have also suggested that it took at least two hundred years to build the city. And finally, the most interesting thing: not far from the basalt structures, under water, scientists have discovered another city, most likely the same "city of the gods" Hanimweiso, which is no less than ten thousand years old.
The find was not accidental. Scientists deliberately searched for Hanimweiso, about which not only ancient legends were told.
Even on the eve of World War II. When the Senyavin Islands belonged to Japan, there were rumors that Japanese pearl divers saw the columns and houses that stood on the seabed. Some local residents claimed that Japanese divers found several platinum sarcophagi in the flooded city and raised to the surface. So it is or not - now it is difficult to say, but the very fact of the existence of even more ancient than Nan Madol. but at the same time the flooded city was now finally confirmed. Childers wrote: "Huge columns, decorated with corals, rose from the bottom of the lagoon, and sharks swam out to meet us from the depths." Divers who dived to a depth of thirty meters counted a dozen such columns. In addition, on the basalt boulders resting on the bottom, it was possible to find clear patterns, which were geometric shapes. And that was just the beginningstreets and remnants of structures went deeper and deeper into the ocean …
Source: Magazine "Secrets of the XX century", author: Igor Savelyev