A Lost City in Cuba

 

Using a robot submarine to explore Cuba’s seabed, researchers confirmed on Thursday the discovery of some stone structures which could have been constructed by an ancient and unknown civilization thousands of years ago.

Experts from a Canadian exploration company said that during the summer they filmed ruins of a possible 'lost city' submerged off the coast of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, on the western tip of the island.

After warning that the nature of their discovery is not fully understood, the expedition leader said they would return in January for further research. 'It’s a marvelous structure which could possibly have been a great urban center,' declared Paulina Zelitsky, Canadian oceanographer from the company Advanced Digital Communications (ADC). Researchers pointed out that the mysterious structures could have been built at least 6,000 years ago, 1,500 years before the first pyramids in Giza, Egypt.

In July of 2000, ADC researchers using sonar equipment identified a great platform about 650 meters deep, where symmetrically organized stone structures, resembling an urban layout covered in sand, were clearly visible.

From above, these structures appeared to be pyramids, roads and buildings, she declared. One year later, in July 2001, the ADC team, its Cuban partner and experts from the Academy of Sciences of Cuba returned to the area on the ship called Ulises and sent a robot submarine, managed by remote control, in order to film parts of the 20-square-kilometer area.

That footage confirms the presence of large blocks of granite in circular and perpendicular formations. Most of the blocks, between two and five meters long, were not covered. Others were covered with sediment and the area’s fine white sand.

This intriguing discovery provides evidence that Cuba could have been linked to the Yucatan Peninsula by a strip of land, researchers said. "There are lots of new theories about land movement and colonization, and what we are seeing here should provide lots of new and interesting information," Zelitsky said.