Lost civilizations such as Atlantis and Mu, and the legends told about them.
Entries: 18
One of the largest city ruins of the Indus civilization, in the Indus River valley of Pakistan. Flourishing around 2500 BC, it was a planned city with grid streets, sewers and a great bath. Its script remains undeciphered, and it is also known for an urban legend that it was destroyed in an ancient nuclear war.
Giant stone statues of human faces on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the South Pacific. About 900 exist, carved between around the 10th and 16th centuries. Thought to honor ancestors, how they were moved was long a mystery.
A prehistoric megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain in southern England, built in stages from around 3000 BC. Its stones are aligned with the midsummer sunrise, and who built it and why remain largely a mystery.
One of the mightiest weapons in the Indian epic Mahabharata, imbued with the power of the god Vishnu. Its description of countless fiery arrows burning everything is cited as evidence for the ancient nuclear war theory.
Ancient documents said to have been handed down in the Takeuchi family of Ibaraki Prefecture. They describe super-ancient dynasties before Emperor Jimmu and a story that Christ died in Japan. Made public in 1928, they are considered modern forgeries.
One of the two great epics of ancient India: the adventure of Prince Rama, who rescues his abducted wife Sita. It features the flying vehicle vimana, spread across Asia, and is said to have influenced Sun Wukong of Journey to the West.
One of the two great epics of ancient India, a story of a great war between royal houses and one of the longest stories in the world. It is also known for descriptions of the divine weapon Brahmastra, which have been called "ancient nuclear weapons."
The theory that long ago, an advanced civilization fought a war with nuclear weapons. Descriptions in Indian epics and the ruins of Mohenjo-daro are offered as evidence, but there is no evidence such as radioactivity, and archaeology rejects it.
The theory that aliens visited the ancient Earth and influenced human civilization. It became a worldwide boom with Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods? in 1968. The pyramids and the Nazca Lines were offered as evidence, but archaeology rejects it.
Flying palaces and vehicles that appear in the epics and myths of ancient India. Some claim they prove ancient aircraft existed, but the text said to describe them has been shown to be a 20th-century work.
The legendary metal said by Plato to have been mined in Atlantis, glowing red like fire. One theory says it was a copper alloy such as brass, and in 2015 ingots of an alloy were found in a shipwreck.
A giant underwater rock formation resembling steps and terraces off Yonaguni Island, Okinawa. Discovered by a diver in 1986, it is a popular dive site where debate continues over whether it is a man-made ruin or a natural formation.
A legendary underground world said to spread through the interior of the Earth. People with an advanced civilization are said to live there, with a capital called Shambhala. It spread through the writings of a 19th-century mystic.
An imaginary continent covering much of the Southern Hemisphere on world maps of the 16th–18th centuries. Named after Magellan, it was shown not to exist by voyages such as Cook's.
A phantom continent hypothesized to have once existed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Proposed in the 1920s to explain the shared culture of the Polynesian islands, it has no geological evidence and has been rejected.
A phantom continent said to have once existed in the Indian Ocean. It was a hypothesis proposed by a scientist in the 19th century to explain the distribution of lemur fossils, later tied to mystical thought and told of as a "lost civilization."
A great island nation said to have sunk into the sea in a single day and night, described by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogues. Many theories about whether it really existed are still debated.
A phantom continent said to have existed in the Pacific and sunk into the sea along with its advanced civilization. It became known worldwide through books written in the early 20th century.
