|
|
|
|
|
Lost Worlds
Throughout history, reports have surfaced now and then of travellers reaching some unknown world where there more wonders than the human mind can ever imagine. They range from hidden worlds in the rainforests, to the sunken worlds beneath the sea. Little proof has been found about such worlds, and many man have died trying to get there. Until evidence can be found, these worlds remain just a fragment of the powerful human imaginations. Lost Continents Under Two Oceans
Lost Continents Under Two Oceans
Atlantis is not the only ancient land purported to have sunk beneath the sea. Scholars and fabulists alike speak of two other sunken continents, the legendary lands of Lemuria and Mu. The name Lemuria comes from the ancient family of lemurs, and was coined by nineteenth-century English zoologist P.L Sclater to account for the similarity of lemur fossils found in the southern tip of India and the Natal province of South Africa. Sclater postulated the existence of Lemuria, a drowned continent that formerly spanned the Indian Ocean connecting Southern Africa and Southern Asia. The notion of a tropical bridge once connecting the existing land masses captured the fancy and support of no less an evolutionary authority than Thomas Huxley. In Germany, biologist Ernst Haeckel went so far as to speculate that ancient Lemuria might have been the long lost Garden of Eden, the cradle of the human race. The missing land mass of Mu has also been long sought by students of the unexplained. It first surfaced in a series of books authored by James Churchward, a retired British colonel who once served with the Bengal Lancers in India. While assigned to famine relief, said Churchward, he became acquainted with a rishi, or Indian high priest, who had in his possession a library of stone tablets written in Naacal, the native tongue of Mu. According to Churchward’s theory, based on the Naacal tablets and the oral traditions of the Pacific islands and parts of South and Central America, the first humans originated in Mu some 200 million years ago. Their science, including the ability to manipulate gravity, had advanced far beyond what we know today. But approximately twelve thousand years ago, tragedy struck in the form of a cataclysmic gas explosion. Undermined, the continent of Mu collapsed into the Pacific Ocean. All that remained of the five-thousand-mile-long by three-thousand-mile-wide land mass were a few scattered islands surviving above the waves. The huge and unexplained remains on a number of Pacific Islands and the great head statues on Easter Island could not have been constructed by the manpower available on islands limited in population by their present size. It is also noted that the native Hawaiians still call this lost continent Mu. Of the people of ancient Mu, 64 million are supposed to have perished in the cosmic explosion. Those who survived eventually colonised the other continents. Churchward died in 1936, aged eighty-six, after having written five books on the subject of Mu. Other written references to Mu are supposed still to exist in certain monasteries in the high mountains of Central Asia.
According to the theory of continental drift, all of the earth’s land masses were once joined together in a single piece. Gradually that piece broke up and moved apart to form the continents as we know today. The theory explains the fact that the shapes fit together like the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle – all except for the bit between Europe and the United States. That missing piece seems to be the same size and shape as that of the Atlantic’s underwater plateau. Could that submarine land mass once have been the lost continent of Atlantis, relegated by most to the status of myth? Indeed, though many scientists consider Atlantis nothing more than legend, tales of the lost city can be found in every culture in the world. All races refer to a story of a great flood which destroyed an entire civilisation. The name Atlantis appears in various forms in the world. Whatever happened to Atlantis? Some six thousand years ago, legends say, the land was struck by some sort of sudden catastrophe. That catastrophe, today’s researchers speculate, might have been the melting of glaciers, volcanic eruptions, violent earthquakes, tidal waves, or meteors colliding with Earth. According to modern-day investigators, moreover, there is now solid physical evidence for the existence of Atlantis. Using solar equipment and other high-tech tools, scientists have located underwater islands with fresh water springs in the middle of the ocean, and land vegetation has been retrieved by scientific probes. | Back to the Top |
When European explorers first encountered the mysterious ruins of Zimbabwe in the wilds of eastern Africa in the second half of the 19th century, they were astonished to find that a busy city had once flourished here. Though they were completely baffled as to the origins of the is fallen empire, they refused to consider that it might ever have been a native civilization. Numerous explanations were put forward, including the rather farfetched notion that the reins had something to do with the biblical legends of Kin Solomon. Here, it was claimed, thousands of miles from Palestine, was where Solomon had sent his fleet to fetch his treasure of precious metals and stones. This romantic explanation of Zimbabwe struck the right not and it was soon taken up by popular adventure writers of the time, who fanned the public’s interest in the legend of King Solomon’s mines to an unprecedented degree. Unfortunately for the ruins of Zimbabwe, archaeologists later showed that the city reached its height during the Middle Ages, more than 2000 years later the reign of Solomon in the middle of the 10th century BC. However, interest in fabled treasures ot King Solomon did not wane. Amid wide speculation, it continues to this day. During Solomon’s long rule the kingdom of the Hebrews enjoyed the greatest power and wealth it was ever to attain. It dominated Palestine and straddled the major trade routes between Africa and the Middle Ease and the links between the sea routes of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Solomon established close ties with the sea-faring Phoencians, married a daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and had political links with dozens of neighbouring kingdoms. The strategic position and military strength of his empire brought him enormous wealth. Trading expedition were encouraged by land and by sea, and the travelers would return to is capital at Jerusalem bearing precious metal, exquisite stones, spices and incense, ivory and all manner of exotic products. The wealth that he received in this manner was quite staggering. Descriptions of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem tell of it being filled with carved pillars and statues and decorated with treasures of bronze, copper and gold. While some Bible scholars have cautioned that descriptions of Solomon’s treasure were overstatements made by people honouring the glory of his reign, much of it can be accounted for. A great deal of his riches were in copper and bronze. At the time, there were copper mines in the hills of the Negev Desert between the Dead Sea the Gulf of Aqabah, as well as smelting works at Ezion-Geber on the shores of the Red Sea. But the Bible is vague and unhelpful as to the source of his gold. The clues it gives are oblique, for although it provides the name of a location there is no mention of its situation, other than to say that ships would sail there to fetch the precious metal. One well-established fact is that Solomon’s merchant navies ranged far and wide to trade. Moving south along the shores of the Red Sea they picked up spices and incense, such as myrrh and frankincense, from Arabia. It has been suggested that it is from here that the gold came, for archaeologists have identified ancient gold mines in Saudi Arabia that may have been worked during Solomon’s time. Just as likely is that the gold came from further afield. Joint expeditions with the Phoenicians lasting for three years were known to have been made. The fleets cargoes of apes, Negro slaves, ivory, peacocks and other exotic creatures certainly suggest that they pushed far into the Indian Ocean. Long-distance voyages of this sort were by no means unknown in the ancient world. Around 600BC, for instance, Phoenician sailors in the employ of Egypt were supposed to have sailed right around Africa, setting out from the Red Sea and returning by way of the Pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean. An account of this epic Journey comes from Herrdotus of Greece, although he himself was sceptical that such a feat had ever occurred. However, epic journeys of this kind open the possibility that King Solomon’s gold came from anywhere along the coast of Africa. Looking to the Mediterranean where the Phoenicians traded along its entire length, their voyages to Spain would have put them into contact with the mines that supplied silver to much of the ancient would. Their close alliance with Solomon would quite naturally have made them a main supplier of his fabled treasure. Unfortunately, Solomon’s death was followed by the division of his empire, and Israel and Judah were formed. The power of the old kingdom waned rapidly and not long after, Jerusalem was attacked by an Egyptian pharaoh and the temple was looted and destroyed. Solomon’s wealth disappeared, and with it vanished any evidence that might have solved the riddle of the origins of his gold. | Back to the Top |
|
|
Home | Mysterious Happenings | UFOs | Mysterious Creatures | Links | Guestbook | Email us! | | Back to the Top | |
