kihachiro aratake was diving off the
coast of Yonaguni Island in Japan
looking for hammerhead sharks in the
1980s when he made an unprecedented
discovery he found a vast underwater
structure made of large flat terraces
and strange rock formations only 16 feet
beneath the ocean surface at its tallest
point until then it had been
undiscovered now it's one of the world's
most captivating mysteries this is
unveiled and today we're answering the
extraordinary question what is the onna
goony monument are you a fiend for facts
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fascinating content at first glance the
Yonaguni monument looks as though it
must have been built by human hands it
has steps columns roads even sculptures
and drawings or hieroglyphs on the walls
some even argue that it shows the
remnants of an ancient stadium dating
the site has been subject to debate but
according to one marine geologist and
dive expedition leader Masaaki Kimura
it was probably constructed between
2,000 and 5,000 years ago to coincide
with the last time that the land it's on
was above sea level before it was sunk
by an earthquake nicknamed the Japanese
Atlantis the Yonaguni monument which is
165 feet long and 65 feet wide is now
thought by many to be a remnant of an
ancient culture in some way similar to
Stonehenge but what exactly could this
lost culture be well it may be a magnet
for Atlantis theories but Atlantis isn't
the only lost city or even lost
continent out there in the world the
lost continent of Lemuria and MU for
example are said by some to exist
beneath the Indian and Pacific Oceans at
one time it was proposed that Lemuria
was once a sweeping land bridge enabling
animal species to migrate out from
Africa specifically explaining how
lemurs hence the name could seemingly be
found in both Madagascar and India
despite such a large ocean between them
ideas on the Morea are now very outdated
but they did once serve as a genuine
scientific theory on migration mu though
has an even more contentious past with
little to no scientific thinking on
where it should be or why it should be
there today it's widely billed as the
product of 19th century pseudoscience
but in the eyes of some it's an
Atlanta's candidate and the Yonaguni
monument is evidence that mood did once
exist for Moo hunters Japan's underwater
pyramid could be a relic of an ancient
civilization and there could be more
sites just like it all over the ocean
the idea of lost continents isn't
without precedent in this part of the
world at least with Zealandia home to
the new zealand archipelago representing
a significant chunk of the Earth's crust
almost entirely submerged by the Pacific
over millions of years but is the
Yonaguni monument really evidence of an
ancient and long-lost entire
civilization somewhere off the coast of
Southeast Asia though Masaaki Kimura
brings some credibility to his side of
the debate there's mounting opposition
to his ideas with various claims that
the monument isn't a monument at all the
relevant Japanese authorities for
example appear to completely disagree
with Kimura seeing as the supposed
pyramid is not a protected site and no
preservation has been carried out for
them and for many others this underwater
wonder is just a natural if quirky rock
formation as intriguing as it is it
wasn't built by humans there is plenty
of evidence to this end as well the
Yonaguni monument isn't made of separate
carved bricks for one thing the terraces
sculptures roads and so on are all part
of seemingly solid stretches of mud and
sandstone some dating back as far as 20
million years ago
way beyond cameras predicted timeline
for the increasing numbers of Yonaguni
skeptics then these strange structures
and apparently geometric shapes are
nothing more than an interesting
geological feature formed by the strong
currents around Yonaguni Island and the
suggested hieroglyphs the pictures on
the walls are just scratches quite how
the sea has worked the monument into
such an unusual shape is still very much
up for debate though what we do know is
that water is definitely capable of
morphing a landscape in all kinds of
astonishing ways coastal erosion for
example is one factor in why continents
and land masses irrevocably change size
and shape over long periods of time
while incredible natural landmarks like
the Grand Canyon were also carved by
water elsewhere there's the Bimini Road
formation in the Bahamas created by
naturally forming limestone deposits and
one of the most famous and distinctive
rock formations in the world the Giant's
Causeway in Northern Ireland is
made up of hexagonal basalt columns
legend says that when an Irish giant was
challenged to fight a Scottish giant he
built the causeway to cross the sea and
do battle but these columns aren't
actually wholly unique to this
particular place on the map Rock
features like them form all over the
world and incredibly even on Mars in
this case as a result of lava flows so
any number of natural processes could
have contributed to the Yonaguni
monument - but none of this is to say
that unexplained man-made structures
don't sometimes appear underwater they
do you SOS or unidentified submerged
objects conjure a little less mystique
than their airborne counterparts perhaps
but they're no less mysterious when
they're discovered some usö stories
double up as alien myths inspired by
uncanny sightings of anomalous dark
masses moving underwater but others turn
out to be the uncovering of genuine
historical artifacts the Pantelleria
Vecchia Bank megalith for example is an
enormous Stonehenge style rock found in
the Sicily Channel in 2015 though the
stone itself is thought to be 40,000
years old it's believed to have been
placed there roughly 10,000 years ago
the last time the Sicily channel was
above water at luteum is another
especially notable underwater Monument a
Neolithic stone circle and village off
the coast of Israel which is at least
eighty three hundred years old both are
evidence of ancient humans living in
regions that have long since been
submerged and for one side of the
Yonaguni monument debate it's impossible
to rule out that the same might have
happened off the coast of Japan at
present the general scientific consensus
is that it's a natural rock formation
but what do you think
in either case man-made marvel or
natural wonder the Yonaguni Monument is
an incredible thing what do you think is
there anything we missed
let us know in the comments check out
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