Alvin
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A mysterious underwater stone platform has been discovered
in the Bahamas. Researchers Greg and Lora Little found the
huge, three-layered platform lying under just 10 feet of water
off northern Andros Island while searching for answers to
other underwater mysteries.
Although Andros is the largest island in the Bahamas, it's
almost completely unexplored and uninhabited. In the late
1960s, pilots photographed strange circular and loop
formations and off the western coast of Andros. During two
visits to Andros in February and March, the Littles located
these sites during an aerial survey and found they had
natural causes. But diver Dino Keller told them about an
unusual stone structure he once saw from a boat just after
Hurricane Andrew passed by in 1992 that "looked like the
Bimini Road, only bigger."
"We were skeptical," says Lora, "but we had to look." They
went to Andros where the stones were supposed to be and
Lora videotaped while Greg snorkeled out to look at it. He
found the strange formation about 500 yards offshore. It
looked like a gigantic, flat-stone platform made by thick,
mostly rectangular blocks of stone.
In April, they returned to the site for three days to film and
take measurements. "It appears to be composed of three flat
tiers," Greg says. "Each tier is 50 feet wide and rises two feet
above the level below it. The bottom tier has well-preserved
two-foot-thick rectangular blocks on its front edge. The
blocks are mostly 30- by 25-feet and are lying side by side in
rows. The back portion of the 50-foot-wide tier is partially
covered with sand and has smaller stone blocks comprising it.
Coral is starting to form on portions of it. Then the second
tier starts with another row of 30- by 25-foot stone blocks.
Several of these blocks are cracked and broken with seaweed
growing between the seams. The rest of the 50-foot wide
tier is partially covered by sand. This leads to the third tier,
which is also formed by the same type of huge stones. The
highest tier has more damage, and it is partially obscured by
sand and rubble."
The width of the platform seems to be 150 feet, but the
length is still unknown. "It appears to be at least 400 yards
long," Greg says, "but it ends in a huge pile of sand and
seaweed. The structure could be natural, and geologists we
have contacted think that it is quite special?whatever it is.
They have suggested that it may be a well-preserved,
ancient beach, perhaps 6,000 years old or more. But the tiers
increase in height as you move away from the present
shoreline toward the ocean. This isn't what one would usually
expect with a beach.
"At first glance it looks manmade, or perhaps at least altered
and used by ancient people. But we just don't know. More
study is needed to really determine what it is. It does bear
some resemblance to the Bimini Road, but the stones and the
structure itself are quite a bit larger."
This could be similar to the sunken pyramid off the shore of
an island near Japan, which may be a natural structure that's
been altered and used by an ancient culture. The Sphinx in
Egypt is another example of this type of alteration. Ancient
people were much more
sophisticated than science acknowledges today.
