A sunken ‘pyramid’ near Taiwan may rewrite everything we thought we knew about the ancient world.
Sitting just 82 feet below sea level near the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, a mysterious object called the Yonaguni monument continues to stump and astonish researchers since its discovery in 1986.
This giant structure with sharp-angled steps stands roughly 90 feet tall and appears to be made entirely of stone, leading many to believe it was man-made.
However, tests of the stone show it to be over 10,000 years old, meaning that if a civilization built this pyramid by hand, it would have taken place before this region sank under water – more than 12,000 years ago.
That would place it further back in history than most other ancient structures by several thousand years, including the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge.
Currently, scientists believe that the ability for ancient humans to construct large structures like temples and pyramids evolved alongside the development of agriculture 12,000 years ago.
If an advanced society was already building giant step pyramids long before this time, however, it could change the history books forever and reveal another lost tribe of humans – just like the myths of Atlantis.
In fact, Yonaguni monument is often called ‘Japan’s Atlantis,’ but skeptics continue to poke holes in the theory that this structure was actually built by human hands.
The site recently gained widespread attention after scientists sparred over its origins on the Joe Rogen Experience podcast.
Graham Hancock, an author focused on lost civilizations and archaeologist Flint Dibble debated over the pictures of Yonaguni monument, with Dibble refusing to concede that any of the structures found by divers could have been made by humans.
‘I’ve seen a lot of crazy natural stuff and I see nothing here that to me reminds me of human architecture,’ Dibble said while a guest on Rogan’s podcast last April.
‘To me, Flint, it’s stunning that you see that as a totally natural thing, but I guess we’ve just got very different eyes,’ Hancock countered.
Hancock added that photographs from dives at the site clearly show human-made arches, megaliths, steps, terraces, and what seem to be a carved rock ‘face.’
If Yonaguni monument really was built by a mysterious civilization over 10,000 years ago, it would add it to the growing list of puzzling structures that should have been impossible to construct that long ago.
Read More: Mysterious underwater ‘pyramid’ believed to be 12,000 years old reshapes history
