MegalithFringe site
Yonaguni Monument
Also known asYonaguni Jima Submarine Ruins
DatedEst. 1500 BCE–900 CE
Photo Melkov · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Yonaguni Monument (Japanese: Yonaguni-jima Kaitei Chikei, literally 'Yonaguni Island Seafloor Topography'), also known as the Yonaguni Submarine Ruins, is a submerged rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, in Japan. It lies approximately 100 kilometres (54 nmi; 62 mi) east of Taiwan.
Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura has argued that the formations are man-made stepped monoliths, a claim that has been described as pseudoarchaeological. Neither the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs nor the government of Okinawa Prefecture recognises the features as important cultural artifacts, and neither has carried out research or preservation work on the site. Geological studies regard the formation as natural.
Read on Wikipedia3 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Yonaguni Monument
The formations lie below the Arakawabana cliff, the southern tip of Yonaguni island, with the main face oriented south-southeast.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
The formations lie below the Arakawabana cliff, the southern tip of Yonaguni island, with the main face oriented south-southeast. They are composed of medium to very fine sandstones and mudstones of the Early Miocene 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.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
The sea off Yonaguni is a popular diving location during the winter months because of its large population of hammerhead sharks. In 1986, while seeking to observe the sharks, Kihachiro Aratake, a director of the Yonaguni-Cho Tourism Association, noticed some seabed formations resembling architectural structures. Shortly afterwards a group of scientists directed by Masaaki Kimura of the University of the Ryukyus visited the formations.
In 2019, Takayuki Ogata and other researchers carried out a topographical analysis of Yonaguni Island using a digital elevation model, together with geological field investigations of the strata, rocks and microtopography of outcrops at three geosites: Tindabana, Kube Ryofurishi and Sanninudai. They concluded that although the Yonaguni Monument may look like an artificial construction, it is a natural feature formed by weathering and erosional processes acting on bedding and linear joints in sandstone, and that similar features occur at Sanninudai and are commonly observed on the south coast of Yonaguni Island.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
Robert M. Schoch considers a natural origin most likely. He observed that the sandstones contain numerous well-defined, parallel bedding planes along which the layers easily separate, and that the rocks are criss-crossed by sets of parallel, vertically oriented joints, natural fractures by which the rectangular formations likely formed. Yonaguni lies in an earthquake-prone region, and earthquakes tend to fracture rocks in a regular manner. Schoch also regards the 'drawings' identified by Kimura as natural scratches and the alleged roads as channels in the rock. Similar formations exist on the northeast coast of Yonaguni. The German geologist Wolf Wichmann, who studied the formations in 1999 and 2001, concluded that they could have been formed by natural processes. Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Oceanic Geoscience at the University of the South Pacific, also notes that the onshore step-like sandstone formations at Sanninudai are purely natural.
Kimura first estimated that the formation must be at least 10,000 years old. In a report given to the 21st Pacific Science Congress in 2007 he revised this to 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, because sea level was then close to its present level, and suggested that tectonic activity later submerged the structure. Archaeologist Richard J. Pearson considers this unlikely. Kimura believes he can identify a pyramid, castles, roads, monuments and a stadium. Supporters of an artificial origin, such as Graham Hancock, point to the concentration of peculiar formations in a small area and to the relative absence of loose blocks on the flat areas; Schoch has noted that the rocks are swept by strong currents.
VisitingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
The formation is a relatively popular attraction for divers despite strong ocean currents. The freediver Jacques Mayol visited and wrote a book on his dives at Yonaguni.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Other prehistoric stone monuments
The Atlas uses the heading "other" for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same article serves for underground chambers that have no regional article. The records are varied. Many are ziggurats, Egyptian temples and pyramids, and Maya and Andean sites, which are treated in their own articles. What remains is a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification.
Several of these are underground. A hypogeum is literally an "underground" temple or tomb, often with niches for cremated remains or loculi for buried remains. An early example is found at the Minoan Bronze Age site of Knossos on Crete, a beehive-shaped vault cut into soft rock. The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta, is the oldest example of a prehistoric hypogeum, with its earliest phase dated to 3600 to 3300 BCE. It is a complex of underground chambers, halls and passages covering about 500 square metres on three levels, partly carved to imitate temple architecture and containing extensive prehistoric art.
A rock-cut tomb is cut into an existing rock formation, usually a cliff or sloping rock face, and was a common burial form for the wealthy in several parts of the world. Famous clusters are in Egypt, Iran, Lycia in Turkey, Petra in Jordan and Sicily. Phrygian rock-cut tombs such as the Midas monument date to about 700 BCE, and Etruscan ones to about 500 BCE.
The general rule for these records is that the type tells you how a monument was made, not who made it or when. Dating is taken from the source for each site where a source gives one, and otherwise left as a broad range.
When visiting, read the site's own description first, since the Atlas can offer only a general frame.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Hypogeum, Wikipedia: Rock-cut tomb, Wikipedia: Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1986
In 1986, while seeking to observe the sharks, Kihachiro Aratake, a director of the Yonaguni-Cho Tourism Association, noticed some seabed formations resembling architectural structures.
Source - 1999
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, concluded that they could have been formed by natural processes.
Source - 2007
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.
Source - 2019
In 2019, Takayuki Ogata and other researchers conducted a topographical analysis of Yonaguni Island using a digital elevation model and geological field investigations of the strata, rocks, and microtopography of outcrops at three locations, known as "geosites", Tindabana, Kube Ryofurishi, and Sanninudai.
Source
Photographs
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 1500 BCE–900 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a other in Japan is normally dated between 1500 BCE and 900 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Mainstream position
- Robert Schoch believes the formation was created geologically, and strong currents sweep across its rocks.Source: Mainstream position
- Location
- off the coast of Yonaguni, JapanSource: Location
- Distance east of Taiwan
- approximately 100 kilometresSource: Distance east of Taiwan
- Earliest estimate by Kimura
- at least 10,000 years oldSource: Earliest estimate by Kimura
- Revised estimate by Kimura
- 2,000 to 3,000 years agoSource: Revised estimate by Kimura
- Proposed structures
- a pyramid, castles, roads, monuments and a stadiumSource: Proposed structures
- Official recognition
- not recognised as an important cultural artifactSource: Official recognition
Alternative claims
Alternative claims about this site, kept in their own block and labelled with where they stand.
The formations are man-made stepped monoliths.
UntestedSource for this claim: The formations are man-made stepped monoliths.
The formation may be a remnant of the mythical lost continent of Mu.
UntestedSource for this claim: The formation may be a remnant of the mythical lost continent of Mu.
The structures are remnants of Yamatai culture.
UntestedSource for this claim: The structures are remnants of Yamatai culture.
The concentration of peculiar formations in a small area is highly unlikely to be natural.
Tectonic activity caused the constructed formation to sink below sea level.
DebatedSource for this claim: Tectonic activity caused the constructed formation to sink below sea level.
Where it stands
Japan
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 24°26′09″ N, 123°00′41″ EFor a GPS or map app: 24.43583, 123.01139
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Q995511wikidata.org
- 02Yonaguni_Monumenten.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Yonaguni Monument Terraces midpart NWW.jpgMelkovCC0
- Yonaguni Monument Arch.jpgMelkovCC0
- Yonaguni Monument Cross with Diver.jpgMelkovCC0
- At the Yonaguni Monument.jpgMelkovCC0
- Big Turtle Rock 大亀石 near the Yonaguni Monument.jpgMelkovCC0
- Yonaguni Monument (above the Water).jpgMelkovCC0
- Yonaguni Monument 72157641614692914 DSC02805 (12737057585).jpgVincent Lou from Shanghai, ChinaCC BY 2.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tested: not supported
The formations are man-made stepped monoliths.
Source - Tested: not supported
The formation may be a remnant of the mythical lost continent of Mu.
Source - Tested: not supported
The structures are remnants of Yamatai culture.
Source - Tested: not supported
The concentration of peculiar formations in a small area is highly unlikely to be natural.
Source - Tested: not supported
Tectonic activity caused the constructed formation to sink below sea level.
Source
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Yonaguni Monument" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): Yonaguni MonumentCC BY-SA 4.0
- Q995511CC0