Hi guys, today I want to discuss a very intriguing stone quarry in China called Changyu Caves,
which is claimed to be over 1,500 years old. I believe, however, it’s actually much older.
Unlike ordinary open-pit ancient quarries, this majestic site is absolutely massive containing
a labyrinth with over 1,300 interconnected caves. This quarry has large, uniformed, horizontal
tool marks which I am convinced were not created from hand tools as currently claimed. I hypothesize
this is a megalithic site that proves the existence of a sophisticated prehistory ancient
civilization.
Located on hills covering an area of 16 square kilometers or over 4,000 acres, Changyu Caves
is famous for being the largest ancient stone quarry in China. Some of the man-made caves
are over 70m high - taller than a 23-story building. These sculptures and calligraphies
were added later on as tourist attractions. The quarry stone is a type of rock made of
volcanic ash ejected during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash
is lithified into a solid rock. The porous nature of the stone might be the reason why
there are small holes in some caves. I am amazed at the sheer scale, curved faces with
uniformed tool marks along with the random and spontaneous shapes that make up Changyu.
After thousands of years of erosion, the uniformed tool marks became faint and appear smooth
from a distance. Some caves are flooded and tourists can visit them over bridges or in
boats. The depths of the flooded caves has yet to be investigated which makes me wonder
how deep do they actually go? Most of these caves have amazing acoustics with one of them
used as an auditorium to present cultural music.
The biggest complex at Changyu contains 348 caves, which accounts for about a quarter
of the overall cave system. This complex alone produced over 1.3 million cubic meters of
stone – that is more than half the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza! This quarry
is truly a colossal production field. It is believed that ancient workers started
on the hilltop by opening a hole then digging downwards. The workers enlarged the caves
while moving down thus each cave eventually cut into the ones adjacent to it thereby creating
a multilayered cave system. Based on documentation, these quarried caves
are said to be over 1,500 years old. The giant bell shapes are structurally sound as the
caves have stood for thousands of years with minimal damage despite earthquakes and hurricanes
– truly remarkable! The ancient workers must have had sophisticated engineering knowledge
to be able to quarry this myriad cave system. Changyu caves with their opening holes on
top remind me of the bell caves found at Israel’s Beit Guvrin Maresha which I discussed in an
earlier video. The caves at these two sites are carved from the same volcanic stone, all
in large-scale bell shapes and all have unique tool marks. Is that a coincidence or not?
Here is a scenery model showing the assumed quarry method. I strongly disagree with this
hypothesis wherein ancient workers used chisels and pickaxes while working on stone. We can
see the tool marks on the cave walls behind the model. Are we to believe that 1,300 mammoth
caves were excavated with just hand tools? Even If that were physically possible, how
could these workers use chisels to achieve these kinds of tool marks on this grand scale?
There are at least two type of tool marks onsite. One type is the uniformed, continuous
and horizontal marks. Each mark is parallel to one another and tightly placed; it almost
looks like a fine-tooth comb, which had combed lightly over sand leaving these distinct continuous
marks. I think this is an obvious sign that the marks were not created by hand tools.
It is unnatural for us to hammer horizontally with chisels which are used for smaller scale
detailed masonry work. It would be extremely difficult if not impossible for a mason to
use a chisel to carve an accurate, continuous and smooth horizontal mark around the circumference
of a big cave, not to mention creating countless parallel marks. As for pickaxes, how could
a person swing one sideways to make horizontal marks on rock? It’s not possible. Hand tools
can’t achieve this level of accuracy or consistency especially on such a mammoth scale.
So what kinds of tools were used at this ancient quarry? A clue is that the tool marks found
on site match modern day mining machine marks. Besides the horizontal marks, there are areas
in the quarry that show diagonal uniformed and oversized tool marks. The ridge and groove
parallel marks at Changyu are similar to the marks at Yangshan Quarry, which resemble marks
from today’s continuous mining machines. The band-like layered tool marks are similar
to the ones found at Longyou caves with both resembling machine marks from the current-day
rock wheel.
Changyu quarry is at minimum 1,500 years old, yet there were no complex machines back then.
The quarry was abandoned before the introduction of modern machinery to the site, so the tool
marks here could not be a recent creation. The caves and cliffs are covered with the
same tool marks while showing consistent water stains from top to bottom, which means the
tool marks existed before the weathering. Changyu is a massive cave quarry with complex
machine marks that existed for at least 1,500 years. This means there was unknown advanced
machinery, which existed before our modern time. Was there a civilization which had the
technological ability to utilize machinery to excavate this quarry in prehistory time?
If so, then Changyu quarry would be much older than currently claimed. It was probably rediscovered
by people 1,500 years ago and subsequently used as quarries. Those who rediscovered this
quarry were given false credit for its creation
We have seen such machine marks in many ancient megalithic sites, such as Longyou caves, Yangshan
quarry, Huashan Grottos, Guishan Tomb, Baalbeck, Petra, Bazda caves, and other ancient sites
around the world. I believe this could be evidence that there was a prehistory advanced
global civilization which had the knowledge and ability to create incredible megalithic
structures. The more I investigate these clues, the more convinced I am that a global advanced
civilization got buried in the distant past.
This stunning site at Changyu is indeed special but not unique. There are over 20 similar
ancient quarries in China. Some are dated over 2,000 years old. Some are so similar
looking in photos we can’t even tell them apart. They all have the same tool marks,
similar intricate cave structures, towering cliffs, curved faces, and naturally formed
pools, almost as if these quarries were excavated by the same work crew.
I mapped out Chinese ancient quarries with similar machine marks. We can see that many
quarries congregate within one area. Based on the information I’ve gathered, Zhejiang
province contains more than 15 such ancient quarries and over 3,000 underground man-made
caves. The magnificent Longyou caves are also in this region. The ancient workers must have
chosen this region specifically. It wouldn’t be a coincidence that this area has most of
the quarries, right?
These quarries are often huge with hundreds and even thousands of quarried caves. This
large-scale quarry phenomenon leads me to think of large-scale construction; however,
there are not large-scale stone structures in ancient China. This is no surprise because
stone was never the main construction material in ancient China. Wood and rammed earth were
prevalent. Stone rubble and blocks were used for sculptures, pavements, bridges and smaller
structures. That is part of the reason why so few buildings older than 1,000 years have
survived in China; because structures made of wood have a much shorter lifespan than
ones built from stone.
Let me remind you that a quarter of Changyu quarry alone could have produced 1.3 million
cubic meters of stone, more than half the volume of the Great pyramid of Giza. That’s
an enormous amount of stone. Besides Changyu, there are more than 15 similar large scale
quarries in one region. Did ancient Chinese actually need this much stone? I highly doubt
it. If there was not much demand for stone then why put in all the effort to excavate
these quarries? This is another argument why such sites predate the claimed 1,500 or 2,000-year
timeframe.
Ok, so the quarries produced an astronomical amount of stone. Where did the stone go if
no stone structures are found? Most of the quarries are located in Zhejiang province,
which is right by the East China Sea, a Pacific marginal sea. Two thirds of this sea is composed
of a continental shelf which is largely shallow. 11,000 years ago, the sea level was 40m /131’
lower. 19,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, the sea level was 110m or 360’ lower,
which means almost the entire continental shelf at the East China Sea was above sea
level. During this time, the current day Island of Taiwan and the Japanese archipelago were
all connected on land with the Eurasia plain. Glaciers covered the entirety of Canada, part
of America and parts of Europe; though east China stayed ice free.
Back then the temperature was about 7 degrees Celsius lower than today. Here is a chart
showing the current Average High and Low Temperature in Changyu area. If we reduce it by 7 degrees
Celsius, the temperature in that region during the Last Glacial Period is still mild; where
vegetation and crops can grow. The Last Glacial Period lasted over 100,000
years; which is plenty of time for a civilization to thrive and progress. Here is a map of East
Asia at the peak of the Ice Age, the Last Glacial Maximum, when sea level was about
120m lower. Any areas with higher elevations were covered with ice. Today’s submerged
continental shelf, back then was a green and habitable oasis. If there were advanced civilizations
during that time, they could have excavated the massive quarries to build phenomenal structures
which now could be hidden by sand and submerged at the bottom of the sea.
So far not many underwater investigations have been done in the Chinese marginal sea,
so we really don’t know whether there are any old stone structures buried underwater.
I would speculate there are indeed such treasures if we only search hard enough.
The mysterious underwater city Yonaguni Monument is not too far from the quarry site at less
than 300 miles away. Currently Yonaguni is 26m below sea level – this means it was
above sea level and connected with the East China plain during the Last Glacial Period.
It is much debated among archaeologists on whether it is a man-made structure or naturally
formed. Maybe I will do a future video on this interesting site.
A Chinese alchemist who lived 1,700 years ago wrote a book about the immortals who practiced
Taoism and alchemy. The material in his book was collected from earlier books of scholars
who documented the immortals. In one of his tales, an immortal talked about seeing the
East China Sea changed to fields three times. This became an idiom to describe the dramatic
changes of life and the world in Chinese culture. You might think this is just a story but the
Paleolithic ruins at Zhejiang province show layers of marine transgression with a layer
containing human activity in between. If investigators and explorers can discover
structures under the East China Sea, we can almost be certain that they are from a lost
prehistory civilization. Such future discoveries, once revealed, could be made of the same stone
that was originally quarried from the ancient Changyu Caves.
Let’s wrap it up here. If you have any insights, please leave me a comment. I would love to
hear from you. If you like my video, please give me a thumbs up and subscribe. I have
a wide range of topics that I want to share with you. This is Curious Being, I am Tina.
Thanks for watching and see you next time!