Pohnpei?

A Pacific Atlantis off Pohnpei?

American archaeologist, writer and traveller, David Childress, is convinced that two sunken cities lie in waters opposite the ancient city of Nan Modal on the island of Pohnpei in Mic ronesia.

He says they could be be tween 15,000 and 20,000 years old, and contain artefacts proving the existence of the legendary Pacific continent of Mu, or Lemuria.

Nan Modal is well known for its canals, temples and walls built up from the lagoon bed with blocks of basalt, weighing up to 50 tonnes.

According to Childress, one fact long kept a secret by the island’s locals is that Nan Modal was built 1000 years ago as a mirror image of a city that was sunk in the harbor, and at that time could be seen from the top of a mountain.

Childress and his 13-member expedition dived 60 metres be low the surface of Madolanym Harbor. They found coral-en crusted columns, standing 12 metres tall. These had been documented by previous ex plorers, but were considered part of Nan Modal.

In deeper water beyond the reef, they found what they believe is a second city known as Kahnmw.

“We saw 20-tonne basalt stones, octagonal basalt logs and perfectly straight cracks, or lines in the coral. Even though we did not see the city itself, we know it’s there under the coral.

“The angular lines of the reef, and the straight lines and indentations show the founda tions and walls of an ancient, gigantic city.

“Some of the submerged stones had inscriptions on them crosses, triangles, squares which haven’t been found in this area before,” he said.

An archaeologist and former director of the Micronesian Archaeological Survey, Dr Graeme Ward, said there had been “much romantic specula tion about Nan Modal over the past 150 years.”

“Pohnpei itself dates back to

4000 years ago but Nan Modal wasn’t built until the 10th and 11th century AD by the Sau Deleur dynasty on the island,” he said.

“They used hexagonal blocks of basalt, some weighing five tonnes each, to build plat forms in the lagoon.

“The city was traditionally inhabited until the mid-1800s

when the Pohnpei society was disrupted by disease and the influences of visiting Spanish armies, American whalers and American missionaries.”

The area was extensively ex cavated in 1982 by an archaeological team from the University of Oregon, but they had found no evidence to back up sunken city theories, he said.