Bimini Road, Claimed to be a Geologic Feature
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A lost city may have been found beneath 2,300 feet of water
off the coast of Cuba, in an area just recently opened to
exploration by the Cuban government.
Several foreign companies have joined together with the
Cuban government to begin a systematic search of the
area. ?It?s a new frontier,? says Paulina Zelitsky, of the
Canadian company Advanced Digital Communications. ?We are
discovering the influence of currents on global climate,
volcanoes, the history of formation of Caribbean islands,
numerous historic wrecks and even possibly a sunken city
built in the pre-classic period and populated by an advanced
civilization similar to the early Teotihuacan culture of
Yucatan.?
However, because of the depth of the find, it may be far, far
older than would seem possible based on current theories.
Unless there was dramatic and as yet unrecorded geologic
activity in the area, the city may have been submerged for
ten thousand years or more.
This is the same company that recently discovered the
remains of the U.S. battleship ?The Maine? that mysteriously
blew up in 1898, killing 260 American sailors and touching off
the Spanish-American war. They have also been exploring a
string of underwater volcanoes about 5,000 feet deep off
Cuba?s western tip, where millions of years ago a strip of land
once joined the Island to Mexico?s Yucatan Peninsula.
Using sonar equipment, researchers have discovered a huge
land plateau at a depth of about 2,200 feet, with clear
images of what appears to be urban development partly
covered by sand. From above, the shapes resemble pyramids,
roads and buildings. A joint investigation with the Cuban
Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Geographic
Society is planned for this summer.
?It is stunning,? says Zelitsky. ?What we see in our high-
resolution sonar images are limitless, rolling, white sand plains
and, in the middle of this beautiful, white sand, there are
clear manmade large-size architectural designs. It looks like
when you fly over an urban development in a plane and you
see highways, tunnels and buildings.
?We don?t know what it is and we don?t have videotaped
evidence of this yet, but we do not believe that nature is
capable of producing planned symmetrical architecture,
unless it is a miracle.?
They have also located 700 sites where historic wrecks are
thought to lie and have recently videotaped and identified 3
of them as large, 17th century ships with valuable cargo. Any
treasure they find will help to finance their project. Says
Zelitsky, ?Our agenda is much broader. We are very anxious
about global environmental changes. Archaeology is providing
us with the means to conduct broader scientific exploration.?
Due to the U.S. embargo of Cuba, U.S. companies are
prohibited from participating in the exploration. The foreign
companies working with Cuba are Canadian, French and
South African. Each has been assigned an area of water to
search and each will share the profits on any treasure they
find with the Cuban government, which does not have the
money or the technology to do the exploration by itself.
?As you know, we have financing problems,? says Eddy
Fernandez of the Cuban company Geomar. ?This is a very
expensive study. They give us technology and financing. We
provide historical and ocean expertise. These projects are
very important in helping us rescue things from history, which
contribute to our national patrimony.?
The other Canadian company working on the project, Visa
Gold, has already brought up 7,000 artifacts, including
jewelry, diamonds and pistols from a ship called the ?Palemon?
that sank in 1839 off Cuba?s northern coast. Their next target
is the ?Atocha y San Jose,? which sank in Havana Bay in
1642. Visa Gold combines sea exploration with research,
checking archives in Spain and elsewhere to find out roughly
where ships went down.
?I know of about 1,600 boats from the 16th to the 20th
century that went down here,? says Cuban naval historian
Cesar Garcia del Pino. ?Those that came from Europe were full
of merchandise and those leaving from America were carrying
the products of the region?gold, silver and so on. I consider
the historical value greater than the commercial value
because a sunken boat is a time capsule.?
?They say there is 3 trillion dollars worth of treasure lying on
the bottom of the Caribbean, and a good part of that is near
to Cuba, because a good part of the wealth of the world
came through Cuba,? says ADC representative Paul
Weinzweig. ?But you have to bear in mind that it is ill-gotten
wealth. A lot of it is the result of rape and pillage of New
World colonies.?
Thanks to Wadespage for
Bimini Road photo.
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