Search For Atlantis Project: 2012
Has Cayce’s “Temple of the Poseidians” Finally Been Found?
by: Dr. Greg Little
Click here to watch the video
The term “Search for Atlantis” probably brings to mind a massive underwater complex of stone ruins including pyramids, temples with columns, stone-paved streets, and various buildings spread out over a vast area. Plato’s description of the center city of Atlantis is, in fact, what most Atlantis researchers are seeking. However, while the Atlantis described by Edgar Cayce was similar to Plato’s description in many ways, a key difference motivates those who have searched the areas where Cayce related some ruins of Atlantis were to be found. This difference is a particular temple that apparently contains a “Hall of Records” left by the Atlanteans.
In a 1927 reading Cayce was asked if the small Bahamas island of Bimini was part of Atlantis. He replied, “A temple of the Poseidians was in a portion of this land.” He also related that evidence “of the first highest civilization [i.e. Poseidia] will be uncovered in some of the adjacent lands to the west and south of the isles [i.e. the Bahamas]. In a 1933 reading, Cayce recommended that a survey be made near the Gulf Stream near Bimini and so that “a portion of Atlantis or Poseidia, where a portion of the temples may yet be discovered, under the slime of ages of seawater—near what is known as Bimini…” In other readings Cayce called it the “temple of Atlan.” Atlan was a high priest—one of three individuals who established sites to preserve a record hall containing the history of Atlantis and other information. The three Halls of Records supposedly contain identical records on stone tablets and are located in Egypt, the Yucatan Peninsula (apparently at Piedras Negras, Guatemala), and in a now-submerged temple near Bimini. While Atlantis “searchers” looking everywhere but the Bahamas look for Plato’s Center City, the search near Bimini has actually been seeking the submerged temple.
Announcement & Presentation by Dr. Lora Little—October 27, 2012
For 10 consecutive years Dr. Lora Little and I have made expeditions in vast areas of the Bahamas. The trips were typically week long, water-based explorations that now number 25 separate trips. It has been a costly venture that has been completely self-funded. August 2012 was the last trip and, while we looked at several crashed planes and other areas as a Bermuda Triangle project, our main focus was on an area called “Brown’s Ruins,” named for the two people who found the site—Bahamas’ boat/diving operators Eslie and Krista Brown. Eslie and Krista served as our boat Captains as they have in the past. We first announced the site in October 2011.
At an ARE conference at Montgomery Bell State Park near Nashville, TN, attended by over 200 people, Dr. Lora Little released our latest finding from Brown’s Ruins for the first time. She showed numerous photos, film, and the results of geological testing conducted by two different geology labs. This laboratory work is continuing. A brief film showing a small portion of the site is above. It shows a section toward the top of the formation.
Lora’s Overall Summary: Brown’s Ruins is located approximately 30+ miles to the south of Bimini at the edge of the Great Bahama Bank near the deeper Gulf Stream. This matches Cayce’s statement that a search to the south of Bimini near the Gulf Stream should be done. The area surrounding the ruins consists of a mostly flat, sandy bottom covered with turtle grass. The water depth around the site is about 20-feet. The ruins are a massive mound of rectangular stone blocks, cubic blocks, long beams, smaller building blocks, triangular blocks, huge flat slabs, round columns, fluted columns, and a host of broken blocks of various sizes and shapes. The mass of stone rises from the bottom to about 3-7 feet from the surface depending on the tides. There is nothing like it anywhere we have been in the Bahamas nor have the Brown’s ever encountered anything else like it. The extent of the mass is huge and is so large that we had to use GPS coordinates to measure it. The site is over 530-feet long and is shaped somewhat like an irregular teardrop. Near the middle at the top are numerous huge flat slabs forming a level platform. The flat slabs are 4-6 feet in length and width. Around this top area are massive blocks that appear to have been shaken down or impacted by something highly destructive. One huge slab that had the appearance of a refrigerator was measured at 8-feet in length, over 3-feet wide, and 2-feet thick. Its weight is 3.8 tons, determined by geological calculations. It is by no means the largest block among the thousands of blocks at the site. There are definitive tool marks on several stones. Measurements were also made on several columns and beams. Most of the columns, both fluted and rounded, are located on the perimeter of the mass of stone, as if they tumbled down the pile. Many of these were broken and split having an appearance quite similar seen at ancient Greek temple ruin sites. Nothing else we have seen in the Bahamas compares to this site.
It took us several months to gather background information on the site and a lot of data was gathered. The stones at Brown’s Ruins are apparently all of the same type. They consist of a specific type of Biotite-quartz schist that (when underwater) glows an intense blue-purple. The quartz crystal content in the stone is high. The quartz crystals are easily seen and sparkle brightly in sunlight. One fluted column (of the same type of schist) had opal splotches on its exterior. The geological laboratories believe that the schist probably comes from Jamaica, however, that is simply dumbfounding because there is no history of quarries removing this type of schist from the known sites on Jamaica. In addition, both geology labs concluded that none of this stone was ballast, relating that it was obviously quarried for specific building purposes. In brief, anyone who has seen actual ballast knows that ballast was collected by hand and was meant to be small enough to be quickly thrown overboard. There is a possibility that the stone could originate from Cuba.
In her presentation Lora also related that in 1906 the mass of stone was accidentally struck by a large, 3-mast wooden boat that wandered off course—but the captain thought they were in deep water when they struck the underwater obstruction. It is an amazing story that was reported in three different articles in the New York Times. The ship’s bottom was torn apart when it hit and it instantly came to rest on the formation. The ship was carrying no cargo and had only sand for ballast. The crew of the ship made a 25-mile trip on rowboats to Cat Cay, and from there, 2 small sponge boats took them to Nassau. A Bahamas’ crew then returned to the remains of the boat and stripped the wood as salvage. Scattered on top of some of the stones of Brown’s Ruins are brass and iron nails from the salvage. However, there is no wood around the site nor are any wood pieces or metal visible under the huge mass. It appears that all of the stones lie on the bottom. We have also found that it is possible that the formation was struck in the early 1800’s by another boat. However, we know that the formation was present in 1906.
In summary, Brown’s Ruins is a huge pile of building ruins. There definitely are fluted columns, other smooth columns, and so much other stone that several large buildings could have been constructed from it. The size of the site, 530-feet by 160-feet makes it far larger than historic and even the vast majority of modern ships, thus, it is truly enigmatic. Oddly, we found that many Greek and Roman ruins were built from schist—assuming as do many people that marble and limestone were the only materials typically used. However, the stones at Brown’s Ruins look more like South and Central American construction and there are several huge stones that look like stellas.
Overall, the site fits Cayce’s description of the location of the Temple of Atlan, however, more has to be done. So the answer to the question posed in the title of this article is “maybe.” But it is clear that whatever it is it is a genuine enigma. We will be issuing a film on the site soon, perhaps for ARE members, but for the moment, this is all the information that we are releasing. The appropriate Bahamas’ authorities were notified of the find as soon as it was realized it was genuinely archaeological remains.
