Exploring Underwater Ruins, Part 1: The Yonaguni Monument

If exploration is in your blood, there are some truly unique diving experiences to be had in the vast expanse of our oceans and waterways, not just on coral reefs or shipwrecks, but on the streets of submerged cities and ruins whose construction and destruction is often a mystery. They can be found around the globe or in our own backyard, and they are all worth exploring... If you can track them down. We'll start with one of the greatest mysteries of underwater archaeology...

Yonaguni Monument, Japan


These structures have puzzled scholars and scientists alike for decades. Discovered off the coast of Japan's Yonaguni Island in 1986, they appear to be large, complex pyramidal structures that have been chiseled out of the existing rockface, not placed there or constructed from free-standing rocks. The question is, chiseled by what?

There are two theories: that the monument is artificial, the remains of a forgotten (but very powerful) civilization, or that the monument is a naturally-occurring effect of erosion by strong current and rock movement along the sea floor. For a natural formation, there is a huge concentration of clean lines and angles.


Check it out with...
The man who discovered it, of course! http://www.yonaguni.jp/en/