There are immeasurable mysteries hidden in
the depths of the oceans beyond one’s imagination. The unique conditions of the
sea water preserves these things which otherwise might have deteriorated in no
time. Oceans and seas carry secrets from time unknown waiting for us to make
some incredible discoveries. Some of the unbelievable discoveries from
under the sea are:
1. Lost Kingdom Of Cleopatra
The ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion,
commonly known as the lost kingdom of Cleopatra formed the gateway to Egypt.
The city today is submerged near Alexandria in Egypt’s Aboukir Bay. The reason
behind its sinking is still a mystery and has been buried in the water for over
1,200 years with many of its artefacts fully intact till date.
Some of the amazingly well preserved artefacts found by the divers are giant statues of pharaohs, the main temple of Amun-Gerb, numerous small statues of gods and goddesses including that of Isis, 64 ancient ships, plethora of sarchophagi, weights made of stone and bronze, gold coins, 700 anchors, stone blocks with Ancient Egyptians and Greek inscriptions, foundations of the palace, a sphinx, and red granite columns.
2. Lost Continent Of Mu
In 1987, scuba diving instructor Kihachiro
Aratake while exploring good underwater diving sites came across an underwater
construction 20 feet below the water surface. The construct looked like a huge
amphitheatre with heavy blocks and steps of stone. 250 foot base of the
construct lies some 100 feet below the ocean’s surface with rising to a height
of 80 ft.
The monument though comprises from medium
to quite fine mudstones and sandstones of the Lower Miocene Yaeyama Group is
believed to be deposited some 20 million years ago. The monument however is
under debate to be completely natural, a modified natural site or a manmade
artefact. Some researchers believe that these ruins can be a part of the
mythological lost continent of Mu.
3. Madagascar’s Giant Bones
Underwater graves of prehistoric animals found
in Madagascar comprise fossils of giant animals. Among these fossils were the
remnants of lemur an extinct species weighing around 15 times of its present
day relatives. Three sunken caves which are located at the Tsimanampetsotsa
National Park have yielded huge number of bones with thousand years of
Madagascar history. One of these caves was so full of bones that each time the
divers searched it they found new bones with the most vital of them being the Archaeoindris.
The Archaeoindris is a type of lemur that was the size of a gorilla.
4. Underwater Rivers
It is hard to believe, but rivers under
water actually exist. One of the many secrets of the oceans is its underwater
rivers like the one at the Black Sea’s bottom. This river has trees, leaves and
even waterfalls and is around 350 times bigger than the River Thames and about
10 times bigger than the Rhine, Europe’s biggest river. If this river had been
on land, it could be world’s sixth largest river in terms of the quantity of
water flowing in it.
The discovery of this river can prove to be a great tool in revealing how living organisms survive in the depth of the oceans far away from the nutrient-rich waters close to the land. This underwater river is at places 115 feet deep with the waterfalls quite equivalent to the terrestrial ones.
5. Earliest Inhabitants
On exploring a sinkhole near Florida’s
Aucilla River the divers made incredible discoveries like the evidence of a
human occupation that dated 1,000 years ago than it was previously assumed. The
same sinkhole was searched a number of times from 1983 to 1997 without much
success.
However, from 2012 to 2014, it gave some
remarkable artefacts like bone, stone tools, and a bi-face that is a kind of
primitive human knife. All these
findings go to about 14,550 years back around 1000 years prior to even the
Clovis people who were the earliest inhabitants of North America.
