Nan Madol, off Pohnpei in Micronesia, is over 100 artificial islands threaded with canals. Its log-cabin basalt walls use 30-40 ft columns of up to about 50 tons; archaeologists estimate over 150 million tons of basalt, yet the quarry is unknown 🌊
Nan Madol: 100+ artificial basalt islands holding 150 million tons of stone
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Key facts
- Nan Madol, off Pohnpei in Micronesia, comprises more than 100 artificial islands built up in the ocean and lagoon on a coral reef, threaded with canals and covering about 10 square miles.
- Walls of stacked basalt columns, some 30-40 feet high and up to about 50 tons each, are described as log-cabin style construction.
- Archaeologists estimate more than 150 million tons of basalt in the city's walls; the source of the stone is unknown and the presenter notes whole mountains could have been dismantled.
- Local belief holds that staying overnight in the ruins means death and islanders avoid the area; moving balls of light are reported there at night.
- Underwater survey found the walls dropping to 80-100 feet in a deep channel, with columns and possible standing stones encrusted in coral, and a submerged city named Canamiso by the local chief Masau Hadley.
- Archaeologist Arthur Sax surveyed the area to delineate a national park boundary and documented cave-like openings cut into the reef.
- Kosrae Island and Saipan also have large basalt walls and standing stones nearby.
Sources
adventuresunlimitedpress.com
Linked in video description
Nan Madol: “In the space between things”khanacademy.org
The basalt columns used to build Nan Madol are almost as extraordinary as the megalithic structures they comprise. Columnar grey basalt is a volcanic rock
Nan Madol (U.S. National Park Service)nps.gov
Carved basalt stones carefully placed on top of each other in a crisscross pattern formed the walls of each of the 130 buildings.
Nan Madolen.wikipedia.org
They found a number of prone basalt columns on the sea floor seaward of Nan Madol. They concluded that these columns consisted of lost, discarded or fallen ...
Monumental Architecture of Nan Madoliarii.org
These basalt columns, weighing up to several tons or more (and there were much heavier boulders), were quarried from outcrops on the main island of Pohnpei.
Nan Madol: Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesiawhc.unesco.org
Nan Madol is a series of more than 100 islets off the south-east coast of Pohnpei that were constructed with walls of basalt and coral boulders.
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