If you fly over the sea between India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon), then at some point you can see a strange sandbank located literally at the very surface, which, bending slightly, connects the island and the continent. Muslims call this sandbank Adam's bridge, and Hindus call Rama's bridge.
Strange shallows
The Muslim name is associated with the fact that the followers of this religion believe that Adam, expelled from paradise, descended to earth in Ceylon. And to the continent, to India, he crossed this strange sandbank, so similar to a bridge.
Hindus believe that this is really a man-made bridge, built in time immemorial by order of Emperor Rama by an army of monkeys led by Hanuman. According to the Ramayana, Nala, the son of the legendary divine architect Vishvakarman, supervised the construction, and Rama's troops crossed this bridge to Sri Lanka to fight its ruler, the demon Ravana, who kidnapped Rama's beloved Sita.
On Arab medieval maps, it is marked as a real bridge overlooking the water, over which anyone could cross from India to Ceylon. The situation changed in 1480, when, as a result of a strong earthquake and a violent storm that followed, the bridge subsided and was partially destroyed. However, the Portuguese and British still referred to it on maps as a man-made structure, dam, or bridge.
The length of the bridge is nearly 50 kilometers, its width varies from about 1.5 to 4 kilometers, the depth of the seabed around the structure is 10-12 meters. Most of it is hidden by water, sometimes at a depth of more than a meter. So even now it is quite possible to walk along it from beginning to end, either wandering along the stone canvas knee-deep in water, then going deep up to the waist and more.
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The only major obstacle is the so-called Pambas Pass between Rameswar Island and Ramnad Cape, which is accessible to small merchant ships. Few travelers who decided to make such a transition have to use all their swimming skills here. For those who are not strong in this, it is better not to walk on the bridge at all - the strong current through Pambas strives to carry the daredevils into the open sea.
Cursed channel
Large ships are still forced to sail around Sri Lanka, which takes an extra 800 kilometers, which is 30 hours of travel. To solve this problem, back in 1850, the English commander Taylor proposed to build a canal through the Rama bridge. In 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru wished to implement this plan. Since it is somehow unethical to destroy the sacred places of one's own people, the government of the country declared in the Supreme Court of India that there was no historical evidence of the construction of the Rama bridge. Although the Ramayana is a holy book, it somehow does not count.
But real passions over the construction of the canal flared up already in the 21st century, when the Setusa Mudram corporation was formed for this. She even started construction work at the site of the future canal, but for unknown reasons, some of the dredgers were returned to the port due to breakdowns, including bucket teeth. An unexpected storm scattered the ships involved in the construction and did not allow work to continue. Hindu believers immediately stated that it was the monkey king Hanuman who was guarding his creation.
On March 27, 2007, just in time for Rama's birthday, a group of international NGOs launched the Save Ram Sethu campaign. Since for the Hindus, the Rama Bridge is living proof of their ancient history, the construction that began touched the feelings of millions of believers. Campaign activists also said that the destruction of the bridge would destroy the entire local ecosystem. Indeed, to the northeast of the bridge is the stormy and dangerous Polk Strait with its storms and cyclones, and to the southwest is the calm Manara Bay with the purest emerald water.
The Rama Bridge separates them and mitigates the dire consequences of cyclones and tsunamis. So, according to scientists, the tsunami that struck India in 2004 and claimed tens of thousands of lives was significantly weakened by the Rama Bridge. Without this ancient "dam", there could have been much more victims. Thousands of people have signed up to Save Ram Sethu. The defenders of the bridge propose to accept an alternative project: to dig a canal along a large sandbank near the village of Mandapam. Whether they will be heard by the Indian government is not yet clear.
Facts show: the bridge is man-made
We are in many ways already accustomed to the fact that legends and myths often hide reality and long-turned pages of the past of our planet. Nevertheless, the images that NASA released several years ago surprised even the residents of Sri Lanka and India.
On them, with all the clarity that modern photographic equipment gives, you can see a real bridge between the continent and Ceylon. After the NASA images were published, the Indian newspaper Hindustan Times reported that the images obtained by American satellites were proof of the reality of Indian tales, and that the events narrated by the Ramayana, including the construction of the Rama Bridge, did take place.
However, NASA chose to distance itself from any specific statements. Yes, satellite photographs clearly show the amazing geomorphology of the area. But, according to NASA experts, by themselves, "remote sensing images from orbit cannot provide specific information about the origin or age of the island chain and cannot determine human involvement in the origin of this object."
But the data that make it possible to judge this was received by the Geological Survey of India 6SI. Its specialists examined the entire structure of the Rama Bridge. 100 wells were drilled in and around the bridge, and soil samples were carefully examined. Magnetic and bathymetric scans were carried out. As a result, it was found that the low underwater ridge (bridge) is a clear anomaly, since it appears at the bottom completely unexpectedly.
The ridge is a cluster of boulders measuring 1.5x2.5 meters of regular shape, consisting of limestone, sand and coral. These boulders lie on sea sand, which is 3 to 5 meters thick. And only under the sand does a solid stone ground begin. The presence of loose sand below the boulders obviously indicates that the ridge is not a natural formation, but lies on top of the sandy ground. Some of the boulders are so light they can float on water.
It was also found that these land areas did not rise as a result of any geological processes and rather resemble a dam. A homogeneous material - limestone was found in the wells. The straightforward and orderly nature of the stacking also testifies to the fact that these boulders were brought by someone and placed in the dam.
It seems strange, of course, that the bridge has simply exorbitant width for the crossing of troops, and anything else. But this is by modern standards. Here's what Alexander Volkov, the director of the 2009 documentary "Rama's Bridge", says:
- Legends say that it was built by warriors-monkeys who were gigantic in height. And we even tried to illustrate in the film that the height of these giants was - you won't believe it - 8 meters! But, looking at this bridge, you involuntarily begin to believe in it - there is no point in building such a width for you and me. But for people eight meters tall, while possessing some kind of weaponry, there is probably a logic in the width of this bridge.
In general, there are many questions, of course, many. One such question is the age of the bridge. Based on the legends, some Hindu theologians say that the Rama bridge is a million years old, others give a more modest age - 20 thousand years. Western alternative researchers put forward a downright radical version - 17 million years. Even Indian academic science condescended to solving the problem and proposed its own version - 3500 years, apparently linking construction with the Aryan conquest of India. However, with many ambiguities, it is obvious that the Rama Bridge is indeed an artificial, man-made structure. GSI's research, I dare say, has convincingly proven this.
Valdis PEYPINSH