the ancient underwater pyramid structure off the coast of
Yonaguni-jima, Japan
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as seen by Dr. Robert M. Schoch
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page two
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The following pages are intended to provide news of recent developments in various studies of the mysterious pyramid
structure that was discovered in 1985 by dive tour operator, Kihachiro Aratake, off the coast of the island of
Yonaguni-jima, Japan. Since 1999, when the Morien Institute first set up some webpages detailing the
'1999 Yonaguni Expedition' of Dr Robert M. Schoch we have been inundated with enquiries from
all parts of the world. Those initial pages contained only the opinions of Dr Schoch, and were
liberally illustrated with underwater photographs taken by Dr Schoch during that
1999 expedition. Others who have dived at Yonaguni have different opinions of
the structure, and we also intend to present their views on these pages.
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Books about Yonaguni
"Pyramid Quest: Secrets of the Great Pyramid and the Dawn of Civilization"
"Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations"
"The great 19th-century battle between catastrophists and uniformitarians seemed to end with the notion of global cataclysms being dismissed as a back door to the supernatural. But the catastrophist theory has gradually become more and more plausible, so that now, less than a hundred years later, it is widely believed that mass extinctions are linked to meteor strikes."
Marine Archæology
"Voyages of the
"Is it a mere coincidence that pyramids are found across our globe? Did cultures ranging across vast spaces in geography and time, such as the ancient Egyptians; early Buddhists; the Maya, Inca, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations of the Americas; the Celts of the British Isles; and even the Mississippi Indians of pre-Columbian Illinois, simply dream the same dreams and envision the same structures? In this dramatic and meticulously reasoned book, Schoch, like anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl in his classic Kon-Tiki, argues that ancient cultures traveled great distances by sea. Indeed, he believes that primeval sailors traveled from the Eastern continent, primarily Southeast Asia, and spread the idea of pyramids across the Earth, involving the human species in a far greater degree of contact and exchange than experts have previously thought possible."
Japan's Mysterious Pyramids:
"Underworld: Flooded
"From Graham Hancock, bestselling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, comes a mesmerizing book that takes us on a captivating underwater voyage to find the ruins of a lost civilization that’s been hidden for thousands of years beneath the world’s oceans. While Graham Hancock is no stranger to stirring up heated controversy among scientific experts, his books and television documentaries have intrigued millions of people around the world and influenced many to rethink their views about the origins of human civilization. Now he returns with an explosive new work of archaeological detection. In Underworld, Hancock continues his remarkable quest underwater, where, according to almost a thousand ancient myths from every part of the globe, the ruins of a lost civilization, obliterated in a universal flood, are to be found."
Marine Archæology
"Heaven's Mirror"
Hancock's chief thesis in "Heaven's Mirror" is that numerous ancient sites and monuments - the pyramids of Mexico and Egypt, the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the monuments of Yonaguni in the Pacific, and the megaliths of Peru and Bolivia - are situated in such a way, geodetically, that they point towards some separate and uniform influence, some lost civilization or "invisible college" of astronomer-priests.
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Dr Robert M. Schoch continues his During my own research on the Yonaguni Monument, one of the first things I found is that the structure is, as far as I could determine, composed entirely of solid "living" bedrock. No part of the monument is constructed of separate blocks of rock that have been placed into position. This is an important point, for carved and arranged rock blocks would definitively indicate a man-made origin for the structure - yet I could find no such evidence. During my initial two dives of September 1997 I was unable to determine, even in a general way, the stone of which the Yonaguni Monument is composed. This was due to the fact that the surfaces of the rocks are covered by various organisms (algae, corals, sponges, and so forth) that obscure the actual surfaces. I believe that this coating of organic material tends to make the surfaces of the Yonaguni Monument appear more regular and homogeneous than they actually are. This, in part, enhances the impression that this must be an artificial, man-made structure. On some of my later dives I spent time scraping the organisms off the rocks in several places, so as to gain views of the actual rock faces, and also brought some samples of the rock to the surface. The Yonaguni Monument is composed predominantly of medium to very fine sandstones and mudstones of the Lower Miocene Yaeyama Group (the rocks themselves were deposited about 20 million years ago).
These rocks 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 and vertical (relative to the horizontal bedding planes of the rocks) joints and fractures. Yonaguni lies in an earthquake-prone region; such earthquakes tend to fracture the rocks in a regular manner. The more I compared the natural, but highly regular, weathering and erosional features observed on the modern coast of the island with the structural characteristics of the Yonaguni Monument, the more I became convinced that the Yonaguni Monument is primarily the result of natural geological and geomorphological processes at work. On the surface I also found depressions and cavities forming naturally that look exactly like the supposed "post holes" that some researchers have noticed on the underwater Yonaguni Monument. I have also spent a fair amount of time traveling the length and breadth of Yonaguni Island so as to examine and gain an understanding of the local geology and geomorphology of the island.
Along the southeast and northeast coasts of Yonaguni Island the Yaeyama Group sandstones are abundantly exposed, and here I could observe them weathering and eroding under current conditions. I became convinced that presently, at the surface, natural wave and tidal action is responsible for eroding and removing the sandstones in such a way that very regular step-like and terrace-like structures remain. In fairness to Dr. Kimura's position, I must point out that he believes that at least some of the surface features that I here interpret as the result of natural weathering and erosion are either man-made or were modified by humans. However, I could not find any surface evidence (such as tool marks on the rock surfaces or carved blocks that had been moved into place) that, in my opinion, would substantiate his contention of artificiality. Of course, I have had only a very short time to search for such evidence, and just because I did not find it does not mean it does not exist. However, at this time based on my own findings and analysis, I cannot agree with Dr. Kimura's conclusion that the Yonaguni Monument is primarily a man-made structure. My current working hypothesis is that the Yonaguni Monument is primarily of natural origin; that is, its overall structure is the result of natural geological and geomorphological processes. I think it should be considered a primarily natural structure until more evidence is found to the contrary. However, by no means do I feel that this is an absolutely closed case. The question of its genesis - artificial versus natural - may not be an all or nothing question.
We should also consider the possibility that the Yonaguni Monument is fundamentally a natural structure that was utilized, enhanced, and modified by humans in ancient times. The Yonaguni Monument may even have been a quarry from which blocks were cut, utilizing natural bedding, joint, and fracture planes of the rock, and thence removed for the purpose of constructing other structures which are long since gone."
Dr Robert M. Schoch's Yonaguni
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The Morien Institute
a selection of books from our Ancient Mysteries Bookshoppe
"Ancient Jomon of Japan"
"Prehistoric Japan:
"Jomon of Japan: The World's Oldest Pottery"
"In the Wake of Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across
"An Archaeological History of Japan, 30,000 B.P. to A.D. 700"
"Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D.697"
"Sacred Texts and Buried Treasure:
"Shinto: The Sacred Art of Ancient Japan"
"Basic Decompression Theory and Application, Second Edition"
The Morien Institute |
please take a look at our Ancient Mysteries Bookshoppe for a wide selection of books
that challenge orthodox views of prehistory on every continent
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