Secret City in Middle of Pacific Creates New Mystery
Archeologists are learning more and more about the ancient Micronesian city of Nan Madol, but the more they learn, the more mysterious it becomes.
https://www.trunews.com/article/secret-city-in-middle-of-pacific-creates-new-mystery
When scientists first discovered the ancient city dubbed “Nan Madol” off the coast of the remote Micronesian island of Pohnpei, they knew they had discovered something important. Some have concluded it may even be the mythical “Lost City of Atlantis.” Now that archeologists have begun digging into their discovery, however, the tiny island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is creating an even greater mystery. For starters, they’re not entirely sure how old it is.
One study suggested a 12th century origin, about 400 years prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. Another has suggested it’s at least 1,000 years older than that, perhaps built as early as the first century AD. The older it is eventually determined to be, the more amazing the discovery will be. Nan Madol is a city built over a lagoon, consisting of small, artificial islands made with stone and coral-filled platforms. These are linked by a network of canals not dissimilar to Venice, Italy. Stone walls partition off an area approximately one mile long by one-third mile wide with up to 100 artificial inlets.
The city is recorded to have served as the seat of political power until the mid-17th century on the tiny island, which today has a population of roughly 25,000. Local legend says it was constructed by two “sorcerers” who arrived on a “large canoe” and built the city as a place to worship their “god of agriculture,” which eventually led to a 12-generation dynastic rule of the entire island. Micronesia is a former U.S. administered “trust territory” located in the South Pacific Ocean, north of Australia and Papua-New Guinea and southeast of the U.S. territory of Guam. It consists of more than 600 Polynesian islands that make up the four states of the federation.