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Atlantis Debunked
by D. Trull, Enigma Editor
The island of Bimini in the Bahamas has long been a favorite
hotspot in the search for Atlantis. Speculation has centered around
a supposed "Bimini Road" (or "Bimini Wall"), a structure often said
to have been paved on the ocean floor by Atlanteans, which is
actually a natural formation of limestone. There have also been
unfounded reports of stone columns and giant pyramids in the
island's waters. Now another claim has surfaced of a great discovery
at Bimini, and it appears that it will prove just as insubstantial
as the Atlantis theories that have come and gone before.
Aaron Du Val, president of the Miami-based Egyptology Society,
recently announced that a team of underwater explorers has found the
ruins of 12,000-year-old temples off the coast of Bimini. Du Val
claimed the structures bear markings and architectural
specifications that match well-known megaliths in Egypt, South
America and other parts of the world. The noted similarities to
Egyptian ruins included distinctive quarry marks on the rocks and
the same geometric angles present in the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Other markings were said to match the Altamira cave paintings of
Spain. To make his claims even more fantastic, Du Val said the
Bimini ruins contained "exact orbital plots of the planets and what
seem to have been intricate star shafts, metal-coated walls, and
intermingled stones of various colors."
In the initial press release, dated July 6, 1997, Du Val made no
specific reference to Atlantis. Later, in an interview conducted by
a new age organization called New Heaven New Earth, he stopped short
of claiming that these ruins were evidence of the legendary sunken
city, although he seemed to relish the possibility.
"Atlantis is a pretty touchy subject," Du Val said.
"Maybe this will be the trigger to bring more people forth to
explore ideas that have been taboo in the past. Megalithic
structures are not supposed to be in the Bahamas. These are closer
to what you would find at Giza than what you would find in Mexico or
Peru, which is very strange. People are saying unbelievable things
like it could force the re-interpretation of the course of human
history."
Du Val was quick to agree when the interviewer noted how his
announcement seemed to fulfill the predictions of alleged prophet
Edgar Cayce, one of the top Atlantis advocates of all time.
"This discovery fits right with his predictions," Du Val
said. "Now we are not saying it is Atlantis, but it sure is
strange how these findings not only match Cayce's predictions but
Plato's writings as well, even to the metal-coated walls."
In fact, Cayce actually prophesied -- among other things -- that
Atlantis would rise again to the surface in 1968 or 1969. Plato's
description of Atlantis was most likely a reference to the Minoan
island of Santorini, near Crete, which was devastated by a volcano.
Du Val remained tight-lipped on crucial details of the Bimini
ruins, including the exact location of the findings and the names of
the explorers who found them. He explained that he needed to work
out arrangements with museums and the Bahamian government to protect
the site before its location was made public. Du Val planned a press
conference for July 25, promising full disclosure and presentation
of video tapes and photographs of the ruins. He also stated that he
had never claimed the ruins were Atlantis, apparently to combat the
"Atlantis fever" word of his announcement had triggered on the
Internet.
Du Val's claims garnered a stern rebuke from Dr. Paul Pettennude,
an underwater archaeologist with the Maya Underwater Research
Center, who is intimately familiar with the waters around Bimini. In
a statement issued to New Heaven New Earth, he listed several
reasons why nothing like the ruins Du Val describes could possibly
exist. Among the points of Pettennude's argument:
-- "Bimini is not the lost world. It is a very, very popular
resort destination and thousands of divers visit it every year.
Every available reef is dived frequently and nothing else has turned
up."
-- Equipment used by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of
Melbourne, Florida, and the Rosenteil School of Oceanography at the
University of Miami "is very sophisticated and there is nothing but
known wrecks being found."
-- "In 1986, NASA had the Navy scour everything north of Cuba to
north of North Carolina looking for pieces of the exploded
Challenger shuttle. Every square foot of bottom down to 6,000 feet
was examined and every piece of the wreck larger than a dinner plate
was recovered."
-- "The U.S. Navy maintains a system called SOSUS which cost $16
billion to secure the ocean floor from foreign subs. It paints a
picture of everything from the bottom up."
-- "The reefs off Bimini from 300 feet up to the surface are less
than 14,000 years old. This is the level to which the water rose at
the end of the last ice age. There could not be a sunken city
because the Bahama Islands are not shrinking but actually growing
inches per year. This would have made any ancient city unstable."
-- "Divers could not have found a city below 250 feet without
special diving gases. ... There are only a handful of people in the
world trained and certified to dive these research blends. I am one
of them and the group is a close knit family. No one has any
knowledge nor has been asked to find an ancient city."
Pettennude also mentioned the spurious "Bimini Road" and noted
that the man who discovered it in 1968, J. Manson Valentine, was one
of his professors at the University of Miami. Another red herring
that has thrown off Atlantis seekers at Bimini are stone pillars on
the ocean floor that resemble shattered marble columns. These
artifacts were actually formed by barrels of cement and similar
materials that sunk from ships and hardened underwater, leaving
stone casts after the wood staves of the barrels rotted away.
The weight of the evidence certainly seems to be stacked against
Du Val. As it turned out, he canceled the July 25th, 1997 press
conference at the last minute. He indicated that more time was
necessary to ensure the safety of the ruins, lest they fall victim
to looters and vandals. Du Val rescheduled the press conference for
August 8, '97 but it was postponed a second time.
After extensive research, ParaScope has found no further
information on this supposed discovery or any subsequent public
remarks from Du Val. Obviously, the mass media has made no
announcement on the discovery of Atlantis. The only news outlet that
seems to be following the story is the web site of New Heaven New
Earth, whose news bulletins are available to members only -- at a
cost of $100 a year. News concerning the Bimini discovery is to be
posted by NHNE "four weeks after our subscribers have received it."
At ParaScope, where we believe the news should always be free for
everyone, we may have more to report on this story after all the
details have surfaced. Source:
http://www.greatdreams.com/bermuda.htm
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