The , also known as , is a submerged rock formation off the coast of

Yonaguni , one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost inhabited island of Japan, lying from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean proper. The island is administered as the town of Yonaguni, Yaeyama Gun, Okin ...

, the southernmost of the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

, in Japan. It lies approximately a hundred kilometres east of Taiwan. Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura claims that the formations are man-made stepped

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often ma ...

s. These claims have been described as

pseudoarchaeological Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...

. Neither the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs nor the government of Okinawa Prefecture recognise the features as important cultural artifacts and neither government agency has carried out research or preservation work on the site.

Discovery

The sea off Yonaguni is a popular diving location during the winter months because of its large population of

hammerhead shark The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a "hammer" shape called a cephalofoil. Most hammerhe ...

s. In 1986, while looking for a good place to observe the sharks, Kihachiro Aratake, a director of the Yonaguni-Cho Tourism Association, noticed some singular seabed formations resembling architectural structures. Shortly thereafter, a group of scientists directed by Masaaki Kimura of the University of the Ryūkyūs visited the formations. The formation has since become a relatively popular attraction for divers despite strong

current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

s. In 1997, Japanese industrialist Yasuo Watanabe sponsored an informal expedition including pseudoarchaeology writers

John Anthony West John Anthony West (September 7, 1932 – February 6, 2018) was an American author and lecturer and a proponent of the Sphinx water erosion hypothesis. His early career was as a copywriter in Manhattan and science fiction writer. He received a ...

and

Graham Hancock Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British writer who promotes pseudoscientific theories involving ancient civilizations and lost lands. Hancock speculates that an advanced ice age civilization was destroyed in a cataclysm, but t ...

, geologist and fringe theorist Robert Schoch, photographer Santha Faiia, a few sport divers and instructors and a film crew for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

and Discovery Channel. Another notable visitor was

freediver Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breath- ...

Jacques Mayol Jacques Mayol (1 April 1927 – 22 December 2001) was a French diver and the holder of many world records in free diving. The 1988 film ''The Big Blue'', directed by Luc Besson, was inspired by his life story and that of his friend, Enzo Maiorca. ...

, who wrote a book on his dives at Yonaguni.

Location and geology

The formations are located below Arakawabana (新川鼻;

: ''Araga-bana'') cliff which is the southern tip of

island, with its main face oriented south-southeast. It is composed of medium to very fine

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s and mudstones of the

Lower Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was prec ...

Yaeyama Group believed to have been deposited about 20 million years ago. Most of the rocks in the formations are connected to the underlying rock mass (as opposed to being assembled out of freestanding rocks).

Natural formation

Geologist Robert Schoch believes that it is most likely natural. Schoch observed the sandstones that make up the Yonaguni formation to "contain numerous well-defined, parallel bedding planes along which the layers easily separate. The rocks of this group are also criss-crossed by numerous sets of parallel, vertically oriented joints in the rock. These joints are natural, parallel fractures by which the rectangular formations seen in the area likely formed. Yonaguni lies in an earthquake-prone region; such earthquakes tend to fracture the rocks in a regular manner." He also observes that there are similar formations on the northeast coast of Yonaguni.

visited the formation with Schoch and agreed that it was a natural formation and that Kimura "had not looked carefully enough at the natural processes at work." Schoch also believes that the "drawings" identified by Kimura are natural scratches on the rocks, and suggests that the "walls" are simply natural horizontal platforms which fell into a vertical position when rock below them eroded, and the alleged roads are simply channels in the rock. German geologist Wolf Wichmann, who studied the formations in 1999 during an expedition organized by Spiegel TV, and in 2001 by invitation of Graham Hancock, concludes that it could be formed by natural process. At Sanninudai, there are onshore step-like sandstone formations similar to those of the Yonaguni. Robert Schoch, as well as Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Oceanic Geoscience at the

University of the South Pacific The University of the South Pacific (USP) is a public research university with locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. Established in 1968, the university is organised as an intergovernmental organisation and is owned by the go ...

, note that the formations are purely natural.

Pseudoarchaeological claims of artificial structures

Kimura first estimated that the formation must be at least 10,000 years old, dating it to a period when it would have been above water, and therefore surmised that the site may be a remnant of the mythical lost continent of Mu. In a report given to the 21st Pacific Science Congress in 2007, he revised this estimate and dated it to 2,000 to 3,000 years ago because the sea level then was close to current levels. He suggested that after construction, tectonic activity caused it to be submerged below sea level. Archaeologist

Richard J. Pearson Richard Joseph Pearson (born May 2, 1938) is a Canadian archaeology, archaeologist. He grew up in Toronto and Oakville, Ontario, and graduated with a bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto in 1960. Richard Pearson studied at the Univers ...

believes this to be unlikely. Kimura believes he can identify a pyramid, castles, roads, monuments and a stadium. He further stated that he believes the structures to be remnants of

Yamatai Yamatai or Yamatai-koku is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period The Chinese text '' Records of the Three Kingdoms'' first recorded the name as () or (; using reconstructed Middle Chinese ...

culture. Supporters of artificial origin, such as Graham Hancock, also argue that while many of the features seen at Yonaguni are also seen in natural sandstone formations throughout the world, the concentration of so many peculiar formations in such a small area is highly unlikely. They also point to the relative absence of loose blocks on the flat areas of the formation, which would be expected if they were formed solely by natural erosion and fracturing. Robert M. Schoch, who believes the formation was formed geologically, has noted that the rocks are swept with strong currents.

References

External links