The Unsolved

The Bimini Road is a highly contested phenomenon. To some, it is merely a natural underwater stone formation near North Bimini island, discovered in 1968. To others, the Bimini Road is an ancient road, or perhaps a collapsed wall of the civilization of Atlantis.

Supporters of the Atlantis theory note that the stone formation is far too unusual to be naturally formed. Supporters also quote the famous American psychic Edgar Cayce who predicted the discovery of the Bimini Road in 1938. Said Cayce, "A portion of the temples may yet be discovered under the slime of ages and sea water near Bimini... Expect it in '68 or '69, not so far away."

In his 2002 book 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, author Gavin Menzies proposed that the road is a submerged emergency drydock used by a Chinese Imperial fleet exploring the Caribbean between 1421 and 1423. Menzies hypothesizes that the ships were caught in a storm and that to commence repairs, the fleet had to create an ad hoc drydock using their large, rectangular ballast stones. Since sea levels were approximately six feet lower six centuries ago, Menzies believes that the now submerged Bimini Road stones were once on the shore of North Bimini Island.

Recent discoveries seem to support Gavin Menzies' theory of the road being an Imperial Chinese drydock.

Sci-Fi's "Declassified: Quest for Atlantis: Startling New Secrets" aired July 2006. The show followed several different Atlantis groups, one of which focused on the Bimini Road. Dr. Greg Little led one team of researchers on a dive to recover what he believes are Atlantean-era objects at the famed 'Bimini Road' off the coast of Bimini Island. However, what they found may not be from Atlantis, but also makes it suggestive that the road could possibly be derived of another ancient civilization.

Dr. Little and his team made a discovery that would baffle some skeptics, an entire second layer of square-cut rocks with similar dimensions beneath the stones Bimini Road.

Most geologists have long claimed that the Bimini Road is a natural occurrence, which would mean that if you lifted the rocks, only sand and water bed should be beneath the Bimini stones. Greg Little's discovery suggests the Bimini Road may actually be part of an entire wall or water dock of some sort.

Little also discovered a series of heart-shaped rocks, all with un-natural holes bore in their centers, some with multiple holes. Little believed that these were most likely used for anchors of some sort, and the Bimini Road may have been a type of docking wall. While the Bimini Road is believed by some to be associated with Atlantis, Dr. Little's discovery may end up resulting in conclusions that suggest the road is from a different civilization.

However, the rocks and evidence gathered from his study are still being studied and dated, still leaving some debate open over the origin of the Bimini Road. In another quest not associated with the Bimini Road but with Atlantis, American explorer Robert Sarmast continues funded research near the Straits of Gibraltar.

In 2002 he discovered an underwater formation fifty miles off the coast of Cyprus while using side scan sonar, and based on his own extensive research of Plato's Atlantis. The submerged island bears a striking resemblance to that of Plato's description of Atlantis and is still being studied.

Everyone has heard the story of the lost city of Atlantis, but what about the Bimini Road? In 1968 an underwater rock formation was found near North Bimini Island in the Bahamas. It is considered by many to be naturally made, but because of the unusual arrangement of the stones, many believe it to be a part of the lost city of Atlantis (first spoken of by Plato).

Another curious element of this mystery is a prediction made in 1938 by Edgar Cayce: “A portion of the temples may yet be discovered under the slime of ages and sea water near Bimini… Expect it in ‘68 or ‘69 - not so far away.” In a more recent expidition, amateur archeologist Dr Greg Little discovered another row of rocks in the same formation directly below the first, leading him to believe that the road is actually the top of a wall or water dock.

One possible natural explanation is that the “road” is an example of tessellated pavement, a natural phenomenon. Concretions of shell and sand form hard sedimentary rock which over time fractures in straight lines and then at ninety degree angles. They are quite common and a popular tourist attraction on the island of Tasmania.

Although no monumental buildings were found on Bimini, in Arawak, Guanahani meant “the Place of the Encircling Walls”; in Arawak, hani was also synonymous for “crown” or “wreath.” This oldest known name for the island may have referred to a large stone formation lying in 19 feet of water less than 2 miles off Bimini’s northernmost point. It is composed of so far unnumbered but certainly no less than 5,000, mostly square-cut blocks running in a straight line for about 1,900 feet, before swinging back on itself to create a J-formation. To early observers, it resembled a paved road running across the bottom of the sea. But the general consensus of investigators since then tentatively identifies the structure as a cyclopean wall, not unlike Andean examples found in Peru, specifically, at Cuzco and Sacsahuaman.

Unfortunately, it continues to be known by its first and misleading appellation. In 1933, Edgar Cayce, during one of his trance states, said that records from Atlantis still existed “where a portion of the temples may yet be discovered, under the slime of ages of sea water—near what is known as Bimini.” The little island was not Atlantis itself, he explained, but its outpost, known many thousands of years ago as Alta, extending (politically) to east-coastal Florida, and part of a wider Atlantean administration known as Poseidia, comprising the Lesser Antilles. In 1940, the “Sleeping Prophet” predicted, “Poseidia will be among the first portion of Atlantis to rise again. Expect it in ’68 and ’69; not so far away!” The so-called “Bimini Road” was, in fact, “discovered” in 1968 by maverick archaeologist Mason Valentine, while looking for Atlantean remains around the island in hopes of confirming Cayce’s prophesy.

Since then, the underwater site has been subjected to continuous investigation by researchers convinced it is an Atlantean ruin and critics sure it is nothing more than a natural formation of beach rock. The latter, despite their standard array of academic credentials, have for more than 30 years failed to show an analogous arrangement of beach rock, not only at Bimini, but anywhere else in the world. Allegedly similar examples from Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas, or near Sri Lanka, cited as evidence for its entirely natural provenance, are so unlike the linear, organized blocks found at Bimini that such comparisons are worthless. Moreover, core-drillings at the Bimini Road, beginning in the mid-1980s, extracted micrite, which does not occur in beach rock. Some of its stones contain conglomerations of aragonite and calcite, patterns likewise missing from beach rock. Florida geologist, Eugene A. Shinn, a harsh critic of theories on behalf of the Bimini structure’s artificiality, radio-carbon dated the stones, which range in age from 2,000 to 4,000 years before present.

The oldest end of this time parameter coincides with the Middle Bronze Age, just when port facilities resembling the Bimini site were being constructed in the Near East, and Atlantis was nearing the apogee of its material greatness, according to researchers who argue that Plato’s sunken city flourished from 3000 to 1200 B.C. Serious investigation of the Bahama site began in the late 1960s under the direction of Valentine and his scientific colleague, Dimitri Rebikoff, continuing into the 1970s and early 80s through the work of Dr. David Zink, whose Stones of Atlantis was the first full-length book published on the subject. During the 1990s and early years of the 21st century, numerous underwater expeditions to Bimini conducted by William Donato, president of The Atlantis Organization (Buena Park, California), have contributed significantly toward a general appreciation of the structure’s real identity.

The underwater ruin appears to be the foundation of a continuous rampart which originally formed an elongated oval (the Lucayans’ “Encircling Wall”?) to shelter seagoing vessels. A harbor at the north end of Bimini makes abundant maritime sense, because its location serves two fundamentally important prerequisites for transoceanic travel: First, the island stands directly in the path of an Atlantic current that travels like an underwater conveyor belt—northward, parallel to New England shores, then due east toward the Azores, the British Isles, and Western Europe. Second, Bimini is the last landfall for fresh water before a transatlantic voyage from North America. The discovery at Bimini of additional, prehistoric evidence underscores the site’s ancient, man-made identity.

These include colossal effigy mounds shaped like fish and other zoomorphic and geometric figures, together with additional blocks also found at 19-foot depths, about 3 miles northeast of the road, resembling Tiahuanaco’s squared columns in the high Andes of Bolivia. But what divers see at Bimini today are the ruins of a ruin. As recently as the early years of the 20th century, the surface of the Road was visible at low tide, when its location was even designated “a navigational hazard.”

Older natives still living in the 1990s personally testified they saw waves washing over the tops of the stones on numerous occasions when they were young, although most inhabitants of the island avoided the site with superstitious dread. In the early 1920s, a Florida salvage company dismantled the structure down to its bottom course. The blocks were removed to Miami, where they were used as fill for the city’s new quayside. Cayce may in fact have described the Bimini Road as early as 1932. He said in a reading for May 5: This we find (at Poseidia) not an altogether walled city, but a portion of same built so that the waters of these rivers became as the pools about which both sacrifice and sport, and those necessities for the cleansing of the body, home and all, were obtained, and these—kept constantly in motion so that it purified itself in its course;—water in motion over stone—purifies itself in twenty feet of space.

The base of the Bimini Road is 1 foot short of 20 feet underwater. Rivers do not exist on the island today, but they did in its geologic past. Cayce seems to have portrayed the Road, not as part of a harbor, but a ritual and recreational feature. Ongoing investigations at Bimini with increasingly sophisticated search technology may prove that “the Place of the Encircling Walls” was indeed Cayce’s Alta, where ships 3,000 years ago, heavy-laden with copper ore mined in North America, replenished their provisions of fresh water on the last leg of their return voyages to Atlantis.

Angkor Wat, one of the most beautiful and mysterious historical sites in the world. Located over 192 miles to the North-West of Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, Angkor has been "protected" from tourism, and the customs and the cultures of the people living there have not changed much. However, intense internal warfare for over fifty years has impacted on the people and to an extent on the physical structure of the temples at Angkor.

In 1991, the Khmer Rouge, the guerrilla movement, controlled the area. It was then very difficult to visit the area, and the only way to get there was by Helicopter from Phnom Penh. I will never forget when I first got out from the Helicopter, and stepped into the land of history, a land which the western civilization had forgotten. In this paper, I would like to discuss the history of the great temples of the "lost city" of Angkor Wat, but I would also like to describe some of my own observations from the summer of 1991.

For many years, Angkor Wat was totally isolated from the Western World. Large, thick jungles covers the area, and it is located in the center of Cambodia. The French colonialists were the first westerners to get exposed to Angkor. They heard rumors from the local population about "temples built by gods or by giants." Most of the colonialists these rumors to folk tales, but some believed that there really was a "lost city of a Cambodian empire", which had once been powerful and wealthy.

The temples were first discovered by French missionaries in 1860. Henri Mahout, a French botanist started intensive research and restoration programs. These research efforts continued until 1968, when the Vietnam war disrupted the studies. Initially, he did not believe that the temples were built by Cambodians, but by another race which had concurred and occupied Cambodia for over 2000 years ago. His theory would later be proven to be incorrect, after that researchers discovered scripts on the walls of the temples, and stone sculptures, that have made it possible for archeologists to piece together the history of Cambodia. Now it is known that Angkor, was the great capital city of the Khmer empire from the city's founding in about AD 880 until about 1225.

The history of Angkor Wat dates back to the kingdom of Funan. This kingdom was established by an Indian Brahmin, and in AD200, the country was peacefully settled by Indian traders. Four hundred years later, the kingdom had become a prosperous trading region. As the area was located on the Pilgrim rout between China and India, Hinduism and Chinese Buddhism was adopted by the new settlers. The Indian and Chinese influence can still be felt in Cambodia, and the temples of Angkor Wat closely resembles Hindu and Buddhist temples that can be found in Northern India and in Nepal. In the end of AD600, the Funan Empire lost much of its power to the kingdom of Chenla. The capital of this new empire, Sambor, was located about 40 miles to the Southeast of Angkor. During this time, beautiful sculptures and carvings in sand-stone was popular. In AD750, a king with a reputation of being a war-like person, who was able to expand the Chenla kingdom. However, trade with India stopped, and the Indonesian Empire raised to power.

In AD800, the kingdom of Kambuja was established, and king Jayavarman I took control over the kingdom. He built several capitals near Angkor Wat, were responsible for many social changes, and was able to size land to the North and to the East. In AD889, a nephew of Jayavaram became the new emperor, and he was able to bring peace and unity to the Khmer Kingdom. In AD944, Jayavarman V established many Mahayana Buddhist temples near Angkor, and moved the court to Yasodharapura, at Angkor. Cultures prospered, and so did the Khmer empire. In AD1000, Suryavarman, a young man who may have come from the Malayan provinces of the empire, ascends the throne of Kambuja. He would become the king of Kambuja for over 50 years. He is responsible for the planning and foundations of the city of Angkor. In AD1051, Udayadityavarman II succeed Suryavarman, and continued to build the city of Angkor, and restored many of the temples. Angkor was now both a sacred temple city and the center of a vast irrigation system.

Massive expansion of the city continued throughout the next 200 years, and ambitious building programs expanded the city. Many temples were built. The temples are spread out over about 40 miles around the village of Siem Reap. Temples and similar structures to the temples that can be found in the city of Angkor are common sights in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and in China. Perhaps the most famous temple, Angkor Wat, is a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu was built during this period.

Angkor Wat is the highest achievement of Khmer temple architecture, and is today the "flagship" of the temples at Angkor. The temple is a huge pyramid structure. The compound at Angkor Wat covers an area of 1,500 by 1,300 m (4,920 by 4,265 ft) and is surrounded by a vast moat 180 m (590 ft) wide. Along the causeway leading to the enormous entrance gate are balustrades shaped as giant serpents, which are believed to represent emblems of cosmic fertility. The temple consists of a towering complex of terraces and small buildings that are arranged in a series of three diminishing stories and surmounted by five towers. The roofed and unroofed structures are covered with bands of finely carved stone sculptures. The walls are covered with carved reliefs that illustrate Hindu mythology, principally scenes relating to the god Vishnu, to whom the temple was dedicated. The "mass of bas-relief carving is of the highest quality and the most beautifully executed in Angkor." All the temple mountains of Angkor were filled with three-dimensional images and every inch of the walls are covered by sculptures.

In the beginning of AD1200, the Angkor and the Khmer empire started to decline. When jayavarman VII died, the Thai Empire in the West emerged as a major power in the region. The Thai capital was moved to Ayudhya, near Angkor, and obviously threatened the Cambodian kingdom. In AD1389 the Thais attacked Angkor, and the city fell into the hands of the Thais. The 15th-century conquest of the Khmer kingdom by the Thais resulted (1431) in the final abandonment of Angkor. The city was deserted and the capital was moved to Eastward to the region of the present capital Phnom Penh.

Miraculously, very little damage has been made on the Angkor region as a result of the bloody civil that has terrorized the Cambodia for over 30 years. The Khmer Rouge, an extreme-left organization has actively organized guerrilla activities against Prince Sihanouk's government. In 1975, many Buddhist monks who lived in the Angkor temples were massacred along with the majority of the Buddhist population as a result of a "social reorganization". However, Angkor Wat suffered very little structural damage in that attack. Today, archeologists from all over the world are actively involved in the restoration process of the temples. Much of the history of the "Lost city" of Angkor is still a mystery, but Angkor has entered the "Coca Cola" and "Kodak" age, and as Cambodia is becoming more developed, the mystical atmosphere at Angkor will disappear.

Expeditions

El Dorado is applied to a legendary story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins. The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the previous myth were also combined with those of the legendary city. The resulting El Dorado enticed European explorers for two centuries, and was eventually found to be in Colombia.

Among the earliest stories was the one told by Diego de Ordaz's lieutenant Martinez, who claimed to have been rescued from shipwreck, conveyed inland, and entertained by "El Dorado" himself (1531).

In 1540 Gonzalo Pizarro, the younger half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, was made the governor of the provenance of Quito in northern Ecuador. Shortly after taking lead in Quito, Gonzalo learned from many of the natives of a valley far to the east rich in both cinnamon and gold. He banded together 340 soldiers and about 4000 Indians in 1541 and led them eastward down the Rio Coca and Rio Napo. Francisco de Orellana, Gonzalo’s nephew, accompanied his uncle on this expedition. Gonzalo quit after many of the soldiers and Indians had died from hunger, disease, and periodic attacks by hostile natives. He ordered Orellana to continue downstream, where he eventually made it to the Atlantic Ocean, discovering the Amazon (named Amazon because of a tribe of female warriors that attacked Orellana’s men while on their voyage.)


Other expeditions include that of Philipp von Hutten (1541–1545), who led an exploring party from Coro on the coast of Venezuela; and of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the Governor of El Dorado, who started from Bogotá (1569).
Parime Lacus on a map by Hessel Gerritsz (1625)

Sir Walter Raleigh, who resumed the search in 1595, described El Dorado as a city on Lake Parime far up the Orinoco River in Guyana. This city on the lake was marked on English and other maps until its existence was disproved by Alexander von Humboldt during his Latin-America expedition (1799–1804)


HISTORY

The year was 1969. Some farm workers were working in a cave near Bogata in South America. Suddenly their hands struck against a model of a raft. As soon as they saw it clearly, they shrieked with surprise - “Eldorado! Eldorado!”. It meant the Golden Man. The model showed a king on a raft standing with his bodyguards. The solid gold model raft is similar to the one taken from Lake Siecha in the 19th century by the adventures of Spain

and Britain who were on their mission to discover the golden land. They couldn't find the golden land. And soon people forgot all about it. But in 1969 the discovery of golden man once again forced the people to search for the land - the Golden Land whose very existence till now is in doubt.

The mania for gold started in 1530 with the Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro who set sail from Panama to plunder the treasures of the Inca Empire in Peru. In 1535, Sebastian de Belalcazar, veteran of the Inca conquest and founder of Quito, the capital of Equador, met an Indian, who told him of a far off tribe King who sprinkled his body with gold dust before swimming in a sacred mountain lake. After hearing this story Belalcazar coined a new name for this mysterious king Eldorado, meaning the Golden Man. It was this name which became so famous among the adventurers. The word Eldorado signified different things to different adventurers. To some it meant the Golden Man but to some it signified the Golden Land. Anyhow, Eldorado became a hypnotic legend and allured many adventures to loose their fortune, reputation, life itself in its vain pursuit.

The first man to think of Eldorado was Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesda. He started on his journey in 1536 with 900 men from Santa Marta, situated on Colombia's northern coast.

Quesada's journey was full of peril. He and his men had to face various animals and had to fight diseases and were often decimated by fever, malaria and the attacks of hostile natives before they reached Chibehas. At Chibehas, Spaniards were told of some more tales about the Golden Man. Going by the tales, Quesada preceded the Guatavita Lake with an Indian guide. They reached the lake which was deep, dark expanse of water set in the crater of an extinct volcano almost 9,000 feet above sea-level. Few huts were there but nowhere could Quesada and his left over 200 men see the Golden Man or the Golden Land.

Quesada returned, but only to sit quiet for sometime. In 1568, the old Quesada, haunted by the lake and the possible treasures hidden beneath it restarted the journey. He left Bogota, the new city he discovered, with a force of 2,800 men. They hunted in vain for three years before Quesada gave up the search.

So even after four decades of expeditions the men had failed to find any gold, leave aside discovering a Golden Man or a Golden Land. In return, expeditions had cost huge amounts. Nevertheless, the lure of discovering huge mass of gold made the men to pursue their search. But by the end of the 16th century the interest shifted from Columbia to Guyana.

In 1584, Antonio de Berrio, Governor of a vast tract of land between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, set off from Tunja in central Colombia to explore the hinterland of Guyana. He was convinced that the Golden Man was to be found at the lake surrounded my mountains. His expedition was unsuccessful. So was his second expedition which lasted from 1585 to 1588.

In 1591, Berrio launched a third expedition and traveled down the Orinoco. He sailed to the island of Trinidad and established his base for future expeditions to Eldorado. In Trinidad, he met Sir Walter Raleigh, who was searching for a new source of wealth for the queen, Elizabeth I. Berrio passed on the information to Raleigh who published his journal - The Discovery of the Empire of Guyana. In this journal, he described extensively about the golden city, although with very little truth in it.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. Raleigh was also convicted of trumped-up charges of treason and sentenced to death. The sentence was however suspended for sometime. Raleigh led a second expedition. But was unsuccessful and when he returned he was beheaded in 1618.

His death did not deter other men from searching for the Golden Man. Right up to the end of the 18th century, search for the Parima Lake continued. This was the lake which Raleigh described in his journal “Discovery of the Empire of Guyana”. He had shown that on its shores stood the imperial city of Manoa - the City of Gold. The explorers searched for the lake Parima. And like earlier quests, the explorers failed in their effort.

The last Spanish expedition in search of Eldorado was led by Diez de la Furente. He set off into the Caroni river region of south-east Venezuela. At this point, he divided his expedition into three columns. The expedition put under the command of Gonzalo Suarez Rondon, it was assumed, nearly reached Lake Parima. But a sudden attack by Indians forced Spaniards to turn back. The Spaniards finally had to give up the search and leave Guyana. The English, Dutch and French divided the colony among themselves.

People began to wonder whether Eldorado really existed. But myths die hard. And by the beginning of the 19th century the quest for Eldorado passed to a new breed of adventurers. The two new adventurers were Humboldt (with scientific interest) and Bonpland (a botanist). They traveled extensively and finally concluded that the search for Eldorado was futile and that there was no such lake as Parima. However, Hamboldt noted the spot where Sepulveda's expedition had made a breach in the crater wall in the 1580's. So once again interest was drawn on Lake Guatavita. Humboldt had no interest in the treasure of the lakes but others had. So, in 1912, a British company - "Contractors Ltd" arrived in Colombia with 150,000 dollars worth of equipment to pump out Lake Guatavita's water. The company did partially succeed in pumping out the water. But lo! What they found was not worth the effort. The ground was covered with thick black mud and little bit of gold, which was not even enough to repay a fraction of the cost spent. More valuable than this find was the raft gold model found at Lake Siecha earlier in the 19th century.

Thus, ended the search of Eldorado - the Golden Man - the Golden Land. The expeditions failed to discover the Golden Man or the Golden Land but in their pursuit they discovered unknown tribes, platinum, silver, bauxite and manganese. And above all, they discovered oil in the Lake Maracaibo basin of Venezuela. The Golden Man on the raft still stares into the eyes of the adventurers, as if asking - “Are you ready to unfold to y mystery - the mystery of Eldorado?”

A mermaid (masculine Merman) was a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish. Similar divine or semidivine beings appear in ancient mythologies (e.g., the Chaldean sea god Ea, or Oannes). In European folklore, mermaids (sometimes called sirens) and mermen were natural beings who, like fairies, had magical and prophetic powers. They loved music and often sang. Though very long-lived, they were mortal and had no souls.

Many folktales record marriages between mermaids (who might assume human form) and men. In most, the man steals the mermaid's cap or belt, her comb or mirror. While the objects are hidden she lives with him; if she finds them she returns at once to the sea. In some variants the marriage lasts while certain agreed-upon conditions are fulfilled, and it ends when the conditions are broken.

Though sometimes kindly, mermaids and mermen were usually dangerous to man. Their gifts brought misfortune, and, if offended, the beings caused floods or other disasters. To see one on a voyage was an omen of shipwreck. They sometimes lured mortals to death by drowning, as did the Lorelei of the Rhine, or enticed young people to live with them underwater, as did the mermaid whose image is carved on a bench in the church of Zennor, Cornwall, Eng.

Some Mermaid Facts

The first mermaid was actually a man. He was the god Oannes from Babylon. He is often shown as a man with a fish's tail. According to written descriptions he had the head and body of a fish but under the fish head is a human head and under the tail are human feet.

Originally the sirens were bird-women. This is the source of their beautiful singing voices. There were two, three or eleven of them according to different authors.

The Nereids were sea-nymphs and the daughters of Nereus and Doris. There were 50 of them. Their father was famous for his ability to foretell the future and change form. The former ability appears from time to time in merfolk stories. His form-changing ability also reappears now and again. Especially, with those who have legs on land and a tail in the sea.

Going beyond mere mermaid facts: the goddesses Venus and Aphrodite are both associated with the sea. Aphrodite was born from the sea-foam, in fact her name means "foam-born". When the powerful god Typhon attacked Olympus the frightened gods fled to Egypt and disguised themselves as animals. Aphrodite took the form of a fish.

Two important mermaid facts are the symbols of the comb and mirror, which come from the goddess Venus. The mirror is so closely associated with Venus that the symbol for the planet Venus is a mirror (the circle with the "+" under it).

In heraldry the two-tailed mermaid is shown full face with the ends of her tails held in each hand. Both single-tailed and double-tailed varieties symbolize eloquence. If she has her comb and mirror with her then it means vanity.

A two-tailed mermaid is the basis for the Starbuck's logo. It has been somewhat edited because some people found the original image too sexually suggestive.

For a brief period during the Middle Ages mer-ladies with wings were carved on tombstones. These are probably descendents of the bird-sirens used in classical times. They are meant to represent both mourners and guides bringing the spirit of the dead to the afterlife.

THE CONSIDERED HISTORY OF MERMAIDS

The official explanation of the mermaid myth goes like this: Sailors see manatees, walruses or seals, and mistake them for women with a fish’s tail. Which suggests these sailors were either drunk, idiots or very ignorant. It is claimed that even famous explorers like Christopher Columbus and Henry Hudson have made this error because they also reported seeing these creatures. As did John Smith, who became the Governor of the Virginia Colony in the early 17th century. So are we to believe that even Columbus, Hudson and Smith were so stupid as to mistake a sea cow or walrus for a mermaid? These men were experienced sailors and very well acquainted with marine life in the ocean. Either they were half-bind and credulous, or is there some other explanation for the mermaid myth?

To explain the apparent confusion some people have pointed out that the vagina of female sea-cows is very similar to that of a human female. So it could be that sailors may have had sex with manatees, and to cover up this act of bestiality they claimed they had intercourse with a mermaid. The problem is that there are thousands of stories about shepherds who have sex with sheep and they certainly don’t invent a mythical creature to hide this act. They simply keep quiet about it. Another explanation supposes that sailors on long sea voyages without the company of women, become so sex-starved that anything remotely resembling a woman in the sea becomes a ‘mermaid’. The problem with this explanation is that most mermaid stories come from Europe, spread by local fishermen who don’t spend months or years at sea.

Mermaids are reported all over Europe. In Ireland they are called Merrows or Murirruhgachs, in Cornwall, Merrymaids, in the Shetland islands, Sea-trows, while the Germans on the Rhine called them Meerfraus. The Scandanavians called them Navmands and the Russians, Rusalkas. Reports of mermaids go right back to the ancient Greeks and continued right up to the end of the 19th century. There have even been a few in the 20th century. So what are we to make of this?

Perhaps we need to look at the mermaid story from a different perspective. In most stories of mermaids, a female is sighted, though there are a few reports of mermen. Whereas logic would say there should be as many reports of merman as there are of mermaids. In many mermaid stories we are told they come out of the sea and even marry fishermen. Which is a very clever trick for someone with a fish’s tail, except that in some reports a fish tail is not always mentioned. The ancient Greeks called mermaids ‘sea nymphs’ or ‘nereids’ and describe them as simply nude women who swam in the sea, similar to a reported sighing in the 19th century.

On September 8 1809 and school master in England wrote to “The Times” stating that twelve years previous he was on the shore of Sandside Bay when he saw a naked woman sitting on a rock. He then only concluded she was a mermaid because, he then realised that the rock she was sitting on was too dangerous for swimmers. She then dropped in the sea and swam away, and other people also witnessed the same incident.

The School Master clearly states at first, that what he saw was a naked women, he made no mention of a fish’s tail. It seems he only changed his mind when he realised that where she sat was dangerous for swimmers. Another question he may have asked himself was, what was a naked women doing swimming in the sea in 19th century Britain? Such behaviour may not be so unusual in the 21st century, but women in those times didn’t go in for athletic sports like swimming in dangerous waters, or parade themselves completely nude in public.

Reports of mermaids having legs are not that unusual. In Ireland old tales claim that the mermaids lived on dry land below the sea. (Which sounds like a very Irish story). In the Shetland islands they say that mermaids wear animal skins to swim in the water and then take them off to walk on land. (A early form of wet-suit?). These islanders also report that they themselves are descendants of mermaids. The Orkney Islanders claim that mermaids don’t have fish’s tails, but instead wear long petticoats that resemble a fish’s tail when they swim in the sea. There are also many reports of mermaids having two tails. Could they be two legs instead, ending in an early type of flipper? (In 1500 Leonardo da Vinci invented flippers for divers, so this is not a new idea).

The key to making sense of all these tales comes through the story of a Dutch seaman called Hamel. He was on a Dutch ship, ‘Sperwer’ that was wrecked near the Korean island of Cheju in 1653. Where he and the other survivors of the wreck spent ten months on the island. On returning to Holland, he wrote a book about his experiences and claimed that there were mermaids on the island. What’s interesting is that even today women from the island dive for shellfish and edible seaweed. Does this mean that what we refer to as mermaids are simply women divers?

There have been reports of women divers working of the coasts and islands of Japan going back 1500 years. They dive for shellfish, seaweed, starfish, octopuses and pearls and do this all year round, even in the winter were the water temperature is down to 50°F. They have been known to dive as deep as 30M and stay underwater for over 3 minutes. The food they gather, they place in a net around their waists and many keep on diving to up to 60 years of age or more. In the past they only dived in a loincloth but in more recent times they use modern flippers, face masks and snorkels. Scuba gear was banned by the authorities as they feared that the use of modern equipment would over fish the area. In Korea they allow wet suits but they are banned in Japan. There are a few male divers as well but women are able to work far longer in cold water than the average man.

In the 1960’s western journalists discovered these divers and topless photos of some of the more attractive women appeared in magazines and books. Yet it seems these women were not just half-naked bimbos, swimming in the warm shallow waters of a tropical sea. They are tough working women. A clue to how tough they are comes from the fact that both the Chinese and Japanese call mermaids, ‘dragon-wives’. The Cheju-do women are referred to by some Korean commentators as amazons, because they are far more assertive than ordinary Korean women. It seems that while the women are out diving, the men stay at home and look after the children and house. In the extremely “macho” society of Korea, these “tough” women and their “weak” husbands are an embarrassment. For this reason at one time no documents exist about the women divers in Korea, because historically records concerning them were forbidden.

Now the waters around Japan and Korea are fairly cold but north of Japan in the Ussuri Territory, there was also once a local tradition of using professional women-divers. Even in these freezing waters women divers would continue diving even in the cold autumn months. Then in the 1920’s the Russian authorities began to use modern diving gear and motorboats equipped with dredges. Needless to say, when they adopted modern equipment the area in time became over fished until shell fishing was banned in 1960. Demonstrating the wisdom of the Korean and Japanese authorities in banning modern equipment for shell fishing.

According to the late Jacques Cousteau there was once women who dived completely naked for clams and crabs in Tierra del Fuego. These islands are at the most southern point of South America in waters of 42°F. So how is it that women divers were able to dive in very cold waters near the Arctic and Antarctic circles? Conditions that would kill a normal man within twenty minutes. It seems that women possess a higher percentage of subcutaneous fat all around their bodies that protect them from the cold in the water. In much the same way, marine animals like dolphins and seals have a layer of blubber to keep them warm. The fact that women can survive in these waters was proven by Lynne Cox. In 1987 this American women swam across the Bering Strait, from the U.S. to the Soviet Union with water temperatures down to 38°F. She achieved this without a wet-suit, wearing only a normal swim suit, cap and goggles.

In the sporting world we are used to men outperforming women, yet there is one sport where women now outperform men, the sport of marathon open water swimming. The first woman to swim 21 miles across the English Channel, was Gertrude Caroline Ederle of USA. In 1926 she broke the record held by the fastest man by one hour and fifty-nine minutes, in spite of having to battle through heavy seas in the second half of her swim. Since then the record for the fastest channel swim has been held at different times by both men and women. It seems that the longer the marathon swim, the easier it is for women to beat men.

Another sport where women can out-perform men is the very modern sport of “free-diving”, that is to say, diving without the use of air tanks. This sport has surprised scientists who have found that in deep dives the bodies of trained free-divers reacts exactly like that of a marine mammal. Where the human heart beat goes right down until it is barely beating. The water pressure crushes the lungs until they are the size of a drink can, without ill effects to the diver. Then what little oxygen is left in the body is used to keep the heart and brain just ticking over. This is exactly what happens to the bodies of whales and dolphins when they deep dive. This makes the human body more than capable of dealing with the problems of deep diving. As we can see from the following information.

On August 17, 2002- A new Freediving World Record was set by Tanya Streeter, at a depth of 160m/525ft in a total dive time of 3 minutes and 26 seconds. This dive shattered the previous women's No Limits World Record held by Canadian, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank (136m/446ft) and even surpasses the men's No Limits World Record of 154m/505ft held by Frenchman, Loic LeFerme.

If we assume that mermaids are in fact women divers, then it means that the many sightings of mermaids indicate a past tradition of women divers throughout Europe, (as well as America before it was conquered by Europeans). What is more, judging by the sightings of mermaids, this tradition must have continued into the 19th century. However this leads us to another mystery. If this was the case, why do we not read about it in our history books? Why was it kept secret? We can get a clue to the reason from historical accounts dating back to Medieval times. Where there were bizarre stories of priests who encountering mermaids on the sea shore, would curse them as devils and threaten them with eternal damnation. The mermaids’ usual response was to burst into tears. These stories only sounds weird if we take the traditional view of a mermaid. If we assume that mermaids are women divers then it makes a lot of sense and gives an insight into the Christian Churches’ hostility to these working women. It seems that mermaids were associated with witches as being evil women and we know what the Christian Church did to witches. The infamous witch hunts of the Middle Ages completely wiped out the profession of women healers and herbalists, allowing this vocation to be taken over by male doctors. It must also be remembered that up until the 20th century women were discouraged from doing any work except the lowest paid menial jobs. Or work with no pay as a housewife. The experience from Japan and Korea shows that divers were well paid and this may be true of divers in Europe. Then the coming of anti-female religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Confucianism brought about a change in attitude towards this ancient tradition. It is of interest that one of the foods banned by Judaism is shell-fish. Was this because it was women who traditionally harvest this food? Likewise in the 19th century pearl industry, western traders were horrified to learn that the locals used women pearl divers and even banned them in the Torres Strait islands.

Many mermaid stories are about a mermaid marries a fishermen and has children, but still has a yearning to return to the sea. In some tales she does do this and leaves both her husband and children behind. This resembles the plight of modern day women who try to juggle a job, husband and children at the same time. A woman working as a diver full time wouldn’t have the time or energy to look after a husband and children as well. So these mermaid stories may be about the dilemma faced by women divers concerning society’s rules that women should look after the home and children as her primary responsibility. Female wool spinners before the industrial revolution had the same problem. Spinning wool by hand was a high skilled job and women on average were far better at it than men. This gave these women a well paying job and the more highly skilled, even become very wealthy. So it is of interest that the word spinster comes from the word spinner. This indicates that even hundreds of years ago many women preferred the independence a well paying job like wool spinning, than becoming a wife and mother. Another point is that in some fairy stories, the wicked witch has a spinning wheel and use it to perform magic. So we find a connection of witchcraft to both spinners and divers.

What comes across is a form of discrimination against women similar to black people in the southern state of USA, after slavery was make illegal. Where successful or educated blacks were attacked and murdered by the Ku-Klu-Klan. Likewise successful women healers, herbalists, spinners and divers were probably threatened by witch hunters. The only reason wool spinners and divers escaped persecution was that they were unable to replace them with men.

It seems that women divers completely undermine patriarchal stereotypes of men and women. Up until the stirrings of feminism in the 20th century, women throughout the world were referred to as the “weaker sex”. Men claimed that they were not only bigger and stronger than women, but more intelligent and more capable doing everything better than women, (except of-course childbirth). Women divers were a big blow to men’s fragile egos because it was one job that women could do better than they could. It also seems that being able to out perform men, gave women a strong ego boost. Because throughout the world, women divers seem to have been very confident and assertive women. As mentioned before the Chinese and Japanese referred to mermaids as dragon wives while in Africa they were called river-witches. It seems the only reason why women divers survived in Korea into modern times is because they lived on remote islands and diving for food was vital for the islander’s survival.

The same thing must have happened in Europe. Male hostility would have discouraged the use of women divers, but in remote fishing villages along the coast, people living on the edge of starvation couldn’t afford to ignore an important food resource like shell fish and edible seaweed. So they continued this ancient tradition, in secret. The problem would be that outsiders, who are unaware of what is going on, would occasionally see the divers working. In an age when women were supposed to be physically weak, modest and submissive, these outsiders would be shocked to see, naked, athletic and assertive women confidently diving for marine food. It would be unlikely that the women would be clothed because wet clothing would be too much of a drag in water, and swimming costumes were not introduced until the Victorian times. Though reports from Shetland islands of mermaids wearing animal skins make sense providing they are from marine mammals. But the claim from the Orkney islands of mermaids wearing petticoats sounds incredible as not only would they give too much drag in the water but would be dangerous if caught in rocks, while underwater.

It means that it was sightings from outsiders that created the mermaid legend. Fishing villages that used women divers would greatly encourage this legend and embellish it even more, to divert attention away from the fact, it was village women who were the mermaids. Because they didn’t want their women to be accused of witch-craft. The Church may even have gone along with this, preferring to have stories of mythical mermaids rather than accounts of diving women who could a job better than men. So everyone involved had a reason to keep it secret.

This then is why mermaid stories are really a secret chapter of women’s history.

Is there any point in the Atlantic ocean which is suicidal? Or is Bermuda Triangle mere writer’s imagination? Many books have been even done a long arduous research on the Bermuda Triangle. Yet, till now, no satisfactorily evidence has come forth. The Triangle still baffles everybody and people avoid taking that route. Perhaps, the mystery of Bermuda Triangle can be summed up in the following sentence – ‘at times truth is stranger than fiction’.

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels are alleged to have disappeared in mysterious circumstances which fall beyond the boundaries of human error, piracy, equipment failure, or natural disasters. Popular culture has attributed some of these disappearances to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings.
While a substantial body of documentation exists showing numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have gone on record as stating that the number and nature of disappearances is similar to any other area of ocean, there are incidents that remain unexplained despite considerable investigation

The area of the Triangle varies

The boundaries of the triangle cover the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores; others add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.

The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South America from points north.

It is said that much before Summerian civilization, a great civilization existed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was a paradise, where civilization was at its zenith. But then a volcano erupted and the entire grand civilization was washed away. The story of Atlantis civilization was first told by Greek philosopher Plato. But how far can we believe Plato? This is a question which many ask. After all where did Atlantis disappear? Why do we have no historical proof? Or was the story of Plato a fable? True or fiction? Myth or reality? These are the questions which have inspired many to carry out research. Yet the truth is unknown, untold.

The History behind this:

The story reads like a fairy tale.

The time is 3500 years ago. A long hazy summer day was coming to an end. The rays of the sun were shining on a tiny island. The island appeared inexplicably beautiful with sun rays highlighting the volcano. The narrow streets were filled with people. Women enjoyed the pleasant evening. They were laughing and chattering.

The evening passed away. Night came. And with time the pleasant, peaceful atmosphere changed into a turbulent, violent one. The sea changed its color. From within the earth came muffling voices. The islanders grew worried. They thought that 5000 ft. high volcano was about to erupt. They thought that the God controlling the violent forces of the earth had awakened from the ling slumber. They did not know that those were just signs of a great cataclysm. And that happened. Their whole civilization was destroyed.

First a dark smoke engulfed the entire island. Then a blitzkrieg of pumice stones occurred. This was followed by ash which poured down heavily. A big bang occurred. The great volcano erupted forming a crater of 37 miles. Into this gap rushed the sea water and the great civilization finished, leaving behind no trace.

The scientists and seismologists see the destruction of the island in this way. According to them the destructive forces must have been equivalent to 500-1000 atomic bombs. According to them the dark ash which fell down on the Aegean must have plunged the entire area into darkness. The deposits of it were found on the remains of the island and the ancient Greeks called it "Kalliste".

Scientists believe that Kalliste is the only particle which can solve the riddle that has made the historians and geographers mum on the topic, which the great Greek philosopher, Plato had extensively described in his discoveries.

According to Plato, Atlantis was a paradise. It was a vast island with green plains and impressive mountain ranges. The island had variety of animals, even elephants and fruit gardens. The island was rich with precious metals alloy of copper and orichalc. The city was arranged in five zones and was built in perfect concentric circles. The ports were served with canals.

Plato always says that the city had a great palace and a temple, which were covered with silver and gold. The interior of the temple was ivory and walls, pillars and floors were coated with orchil. A statue of the God was built with gold. This God, standing on a chariot with six winged horses has been described as the God of the sea and Shaker of the Earth. The inhabitants worshipped this God.

Plato has not only described the good points of the society, but, being a great judge of human nature describes, “When the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted with mortal admixture… (Society) became full of avarice and unrighteous power”. Atlantis embarked on the career of war and conquests. They defeated most of the surrounding areas. The only power that stood against them brilliantly was of Athens. But the defeat was not enough to teach Atlantis a lesson. After the moral decay, even Gods grew against Atlantis and punished them with severe earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. And Plato describes, “Afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune… the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.”

According to Plato this happened 12,000 years ago in the Straits of Gibraltar. And from this point starts the great controversy of Atlantis. Historians ask whether Plato's story can be trusted. And then what were the circumstances in which he wrote it.

Plato's story passed from generation to generation. The main source of Plato's story was his nephew Critias. And Critias claimed that he heard the story from his grandfather - Dropides and the latter heard it from Solan, who was famous for his truthfulness and was considered to be one of the wisest law givers and the seven sages of Greece. Solan lived from 640 B.C. to 558 B.C. Plato wrote the story two centuries later.

Solan himself claimed that the story was not original. He heard it from a priest in Egypt. Solan was so impressed with the story that he translated it into a poem in Grrek.

From this account, it appears that the Egyptians knew about the Atlantis or perhaps trade existed between them.

However, as far as Plato's version matters, it was more philosophical than historical. Plato's student, Aristotle believed that it was not more than a poetic fiction. Many scholars think on the lines of Aristotle.

But there are some scholars who believe in the truthfulness of the story. Crantor (300 B.C.) who was the first commentator on Plato's work believed that the account was true. Even Stoic philosopher and scholar Posidonius (135-50 B.C.) refused to believe it as mind's imagination.

Even after 23 centuries, the controversy haunts - truth or fiction? So much so that many have taken advantage of the situation and have started weaving uncommon stories about black magic, clairvoyance, etc.

Plato believed that Atlantis was in the Atlantic itself. This led to serious research and historians found out that there once existed a continent in the middle of the ocean. According to these historians, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands, the Canaries and Madeira were the mountain peaks of Atlantis.

The 15th Century cartographers included Atlantis into the world map, purely out of imagination. When America was discovered, it was thought that Atlantis had been unearthed. Gradually the interest in this mysterious island gave birth to a new science department Atlantology, in the 19th century. The prominent member of Atlantology was the American politician and member of the US Congress, Ignatius Donnelly. He published a book “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World”. The book became a best seller.

Donnelly observed some comparisions between pre-Columbian civilizations and ancient Egyptian culture. He gave the examples of pyramids, mummy and the art of developing 365 day calendar. He emphasized that the two civilizations had a common seed - Atlantis. And after its destruction, both the civilizations grew up differently.

Donnelly took the help of archaeology, mythology, ethnology, geology and botany. He scientifically prepared the documents and proved that Atlantis existed. Many believed in Donnelly's Theory.

However, 20th century oceanographic studies have completely negated the work of Donnelly. According to the oceanographers, the 36 million sq. miles Atlantic shows no evidence that a cataclysm ever took place and that there existed a continent. Although 12,500 miles long mountain range runs from north to south in the Atlantic Ocean, this in no way could be remains of that Atlantis, as it is rinsing up at the place where Atlantis should have subsided.

In 1912, the controversy again flared up. An article appeared in the newspaper - New York American. The title of the article was How I found the lost Atlantis, the source of all civilizations and the author was Dr. Paul Schliemann, grandson of the discoverer of Troy.

Dr. Paul claimed that he possessed some valuable documents and articles passed on by his grandfather. Dr. Paul showed the bronze vase which was unearthed at Troy and which bore the inscription: “This was the gift of Cronos, king of Atlantis”. Dr. Paul tried earnestly to prove his evidence but nobody believed him.

So much has been written on Atlantis that recently, a German archaeologist journalist, C.W. Ceram counted the number of volumes written on Atlantis. The number was astonishing. About 20,000 volumes have been written on the subject.

The unique write up had been by the American prophet and clairvoyant, Edgar Cayce (1877 - 1945). Cayce claimed that number of his clients were reincarnated Atlanteans. His picture of Atlantis , which emerged during various trances was quite similar to Plato's vision, though he had never read Plato. According to Cayce, Atlanteans were advanced people who brought about their own destruction and that Atlantis was between the Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Gibraltar. Perhaps, he was hinting towards America.

Again in 1968, Dr. Valentine discovered some walls which sparked the Atlantis controversy again. He saw a giant wall, submerged in the waters of North Bimini Island. He linked this wall with the Atlantis.

Earlier in 1967, a Greek Archaeologist, Sypridon Marinatos made an excavation and discovered Santorini. He compared the cataclysm of 1883 which occurred in Java and Sumatra with the information of a similar cataclysm which occurred 3,500 years ago at Santorini. The Santorini cataclysm was earlier researched in 1965 by two American scientists Dragolslav Ninkovich and B.C.Heezen. Marinatos concluded that the sequence of events both the volcanic explosions was identical. Moreover, the excavation at Santorini resolved many archaeological doubts.

As the science of archaeology is day by day becoming scientific, historians and archaeologists think that eventually Atlantis mystery will also be solved. Till then, various stories and legends continue to hound around the mysterious, vanished civilization. Rivers of ink continue to flow in constructing a new story or a new discovery about Atlantis.