SgForums :: Singapore's Online Community - So many 'Lost Cities'...maybe global warming is seaonal!

nehpyh

1,089 posts since Apr '07

26 May `08, 11:12AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1923794.stm

Thursday, 11 April, 2002, 15:54 GMT 16:54 UK

Lost city found off Indian coast

Divers could only explore part of the site

An ancient underwater city has been found off the coast of south-eastern India.


Divers from India and England made the discovery based on the statements of local fishermen and the old Indian legend of the Seven Pagodas.
The ruins, which are off the coast of Mahabalipuram, cover many square kilometres.

A further expedition to the region is now being arranged which will take place at the beginning of 2003.

'International significance'

The discovery was made on 1 April by a joint team of divers from the Indian National Institute of Oceanography and the Scientific Exploration Society based in Dorset, UK.

Expedition leader Monty Halls said: "Our divers were presented with a series of structures that clearly showed man-made attributes.



The expedition team want to return next year

"The scale of the site appears to be extremely extensive, with 50 dives conducted over a three-day period covering only a small area of the overall ruin field.
"This is plainly a discovery of international significance that demands further exploration and detailed investigation."

During the expedition to the site, divers came across structures believed to be man-made. One of the buildings appears to be a place of worship.

Jealous Gods

The myths of Mahabalipuram were first set down in writing by British traveller J Goldingham, who visited the South Indian coastal town in 1798, at which time it was known to sailors as the Seven Pagodas.

The myths speak of six temples submerged beneath the waves with the seventh temple still standing on the seashore.



Structures are clearly visible in the murky waters

The myths also state that a large city which once stood on the site was so beautiful the gods became jealous and sent a flood that swallowed it up entirely in a single day.
One of the expedition team, Graham Hancock, said: "I have argued for many years that the world's flood myths deserve to be taken seriously, a view that most Western academics reject.

"But here in Mahabalipuram, we have proved the myths right and the academics wrong."

Scientists now want to explore the possibility that the city was submerged following the last Ice Age. If this proves correct, it would date the settlement at more than 5,000 years old.



Ancient "Lost City" Discovered in Peru, Official Claims
Kelly Hearn
for National Geographic News
January 16, 2008
Ruins recently discovered in southern Peru could be the ancient "lost city" of Paititi, according to claims that are drawing serious but cautious response from experts.

The presumptive lost city, described in written records as a stone settlement adorned with gold statues, has long been a grail for explorers—as well as a lure for local tourism businesses.

A commonly cited legend claims that Paititi was built by the Inca hero Inkarri, who founded the city of Cusco before retreating into the jungle after Spanish conquerors arrived.

On January 10 Peru's state news agency reported that "an archaeological fortress" had been discovered in the district of Kimbiri and that the district's mayor suggested it was the lost city.

Mayor Guillermo Torres described the ruins as a 430,000-square-foot (40,000-square-meter) fortification near an area known as Lobo Tahuantinsuyo.

Few other details about the site were offered, but initial reports described elaborately carved stone structures forming the base of a set of walls.

The state media report quotes Torres as saying the area will be "immediately declared" a cultural tourism site.

Officials from the Peruvian government's Cusco-based National Institute of Culture (INC) met with Torres on Tuesday, according to Francisco Solís, an INC official.

"It is far too early to make any definitive judgments," Solís told National Geographic News. "We are going to dispatch a team to investigate."

Officials expect more details to emerge in the coming days, he said.

Legend of Paititi

Paititi is believed to have been located somewhere east of the Andes Mountains in the rain forest of southeastern Peru, southwestern Brazil, or northern Bolivia (see map).

In 1600 a missionary reported seeing a large "city of gold" in the region where Paititi is believed to have been built, according to archival records discovered by an Italian archaeologist in 2001.

However, the location of the newfound site falls counter to where historical records indicate Paititi should be, Solís said.

Officials were nonetheless intrigued by the possibilities, he added.

The first task will be to determine if the newfound ruins are the work of the Inca or pre-Inca ethnic groups, Solís said.

(Read related story: "80 Ancient 'Cloud Warrior' Skeletons Found in Peru Fort" [September 26, 2007].)

Gregory Deyermenjian, a U.S.-based psychologist and explorer who has led many expeditions to investigate the Paititi legend, said many people in the tourism-rich region of Cusco have embraced the legend as a business promotion.

But he said the claims could have merit, as there are still many important sites to be found.

"It is a bit off the beaten path but still within the Inca's reach," Deyermenjian said. "I'm very interested to know more."

Daniel Gade, professor emeritus in geography at the University of Vermont, cautioned about jumping to conclusions.

"Paititi is frequently the first thing people mention when something like this is found," Gade said, adding that there are many ruins in the jungle regions of the area.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080116-lost-city.html



Ancient "Lost" City's Remains Found Under Alexandria's Waters
Dan Morrison in Alexandria, Egypt
for National Geographic News
July 31, 2007
The first physical clues to a long-rumored town that existed on the site of present-day Alexandria have been uncovered—by accident.

While searching under the waves of Alexandria's East Bay for Greek and Roman ruins, archaeologists discovered signs of building construction 700 years older than Alexander the Great's invasion of Egypt.

The conquerer founded Alexandria in 332 B.C. (Related: "Alexander the Great Conquered City via Sunken Sandbar" [May 15, 2007].)

The new find is "the first hard evidence" of Rhakotis, a town mentioned in several histories of the region but whose existence had never been substantiated, said geoarchaeologist Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

And the results, which are published in the August issue of the journal GSA Today, were "a bit of serendipity," Stanley said.

Sunken Surprise

Stanley has helped the Franck Goddio Society and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities search for clues to what might have caused the structural failure of Greek- and Roman-era buildings, roads, and piers now sitting at the bottom of the bay.

The team sunk a half-dozen vibracores—vibrating three-inch (eight-centimeter) hollow tubes—into the muck and silt of the bay's floor.

The tubes contained layered soil samples, or cores—some as long as 20 feet (7 meters).

Stanley took his samples back to Washington, D.C., and dated them using a radiocarbon technique.

Though he was searching for cracked or damaged rocks that might suggest how Greek-era structures had failed, he was surprised to find older signs of human endeavor.

The cores turned up lead and human waste that were more than 3,000 years old—evidence of a significant settlement centuries before Alexander stormed Egypt.

Stanley assembled a team of specialists in terrestrial magnetism, anthropology, paleobiology, and geology to examine the core samples.

After a few years of study, the team confirmed the findings did indeed point to Rhakotis.

In addition to the 3,000-year-old lead, which was used for construction, the cores contained stone building materials from central and southern Egypt.

"There are signs of a flourishing settlement going back to Pharaonic times, but it's too early to say anything about it," Mohamed Abdel-Maqsud, an Alexandria expert from the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the Associated Press.

Jean-Yves Empereur, director of the Center for Alexandrian Studies, said he had not yet read the findings and could not comment.

Sailor Haven

The city's bay, anchored by the island—now a peninsula—of Pharos, has long been known as a haven for sailors. The bay is even mentioned in Book Four of Homer's Odyssey: "Therein is a harbor with good anchorage, whence men launch the shapely ships into the sea. ..."

When Alexander arrived in 332 B.C., he apparently agreed with Odysseus's reasoning. His new Egyptian capital would be close enough to the Nile for southern travel, but far enough away that seasonal flooding wouldn't be a problem.

Ptolemy I, Alexander's political heir, built the nearly 500-foot (152-meter) Lighthouse of Alexandria on Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.(See an illustration of the lighthouse.)

The lighthouse served as both a beacon and a symbol of Alexandria's greatness until a pair of earthquakes sent it tumbling into the bay 1,600 years later. Alexandria today is a breezy Mediterranean city of five million people.

The next step for researchers will be unmasking the culture and people of Rhakotis, now the bay's earliest known inhabitants.

"Were they seamen, agriculturalists, traders?" Stanley said. "We don't yet know."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/2411456.html

Everything kena submerged in the water...hey, maybe global warming is just a normal phenom!!! Anyway, the energy on earth is finite, no matter what you turn it from something to another, the total engery is still the same, right?!!!!