NARRATOR: One of the most intriguing lost continents
is a land mass that is believed to have once
existed in the Pacific Ocean, a mythical land that
is known as Mu.
The first person to write extensively about the lost
continent of Mu was a Scottish writer by the name
of James Churchward.
In the 19th century, he was in India
when he visited a monastery.
And the monks there had record, apparently
tablets, that referred to this place called Mu that
was this huge continent that supposedly existed from Hawaii
in the north, down to Easter Island in the southeast,
right the way across to Micronesia in the west.
And the people there were supposedly
called the [inaudible] The continent of Mu
thrived perhaps 50,000 years ago,
and was sunk beneath the waves, possibly
at the end of the last Ice Age.
My great grandfather, James Churchward,
eventually, he became friends with the Ricci of the temple
that he visited in India.
And then the Ricci mentioned that he
was a member of the [inaudible] brotherhood,
the holders of wisdom and knowledge
of the Lost continent of Mu.
They were mighty navigators and sailors,
and established civilization in other parts of the world.
NARRATOR: According to James Churchward,
the [inaudible] civilization had a population of more than 60
million people at its peak before
a massive volcanic cataclysm caused Mu
to vanish beneath the waters.
So far, no evidence of the lost continent
has been found on the ocean floor,
but some researchers claim that, incredibly, a tiny remnant
of Mu may still exist above water
today on an island located in a remote part
of the Pacific Ocean.
Roughly 2,500 miles northeast of Australia
lie the ruins of a once great ancient city, Nan Madol.
Nan Madol is a complex of man-made islands built
with massive stone blocks that float
atop a submerged coral reef.
ANDREW COLLINS: So as you approach Nan Madol,
there are a series of islands, and they're built, actually,
on coral, the only place in the world
where this actually occurs.
And you've got all these incredible structures
made of these prismatic blocks.
At Nan Madol, you have these ridiculous basalt
columns, a huge sum of them.
Up to, like, 40 tons, even more in some cases.
Some of them are raised very high up in the air
on the very top levels.
So there's a real problem when it comes
to trying to understand how they moved these millions
of tons of basalt columns.
One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Nan Madol
is that nobody really knows who constructed it.
But there's some very strange stories about how
the city came into existence.
For instance, one of the stories talks
about it being constructed by so-called master builders
turning up and using a magical force to raise the blocks
into the air and put them into place, almost as if they
could levitate these blocks.
Some people actually suggested that maybe
Nan Madol was the last remnant of Mu
that was still above water.
And it was simply indicative of what had sunk beneath the waves
from this advanced civilization.
Nan Madol's in Micronesia, so it fit the correct general area.
And this is one reason people thought in terms of Mu.
When it comes to looking for this lost continent of Mu
places like Nan Madol really do suggest that it could be
much more down there than we realize
on the bottom of the ocean.
It's hard to picture an entire continent
with people living on it simply vanishing into the sea.
And yet, all over the world, there
are legends of lost civilizations that were
swallowed up by the oceans.
But could such legends actually be true?