Images from the Cuban Site

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MAP OF THE ISLANDS OF HISPANIOLA OR ST. DOMINGO, AND PORTO RICO...�.

Map of Hispaniola and Purto Rico with cartouche and compass rose.

Emanuel Bowen ca. 1747 

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Conservation is at work in Cuba, protecting endangered habitats, reducing the sources of pollution, promoting sustainable resource use and building local capacity for long term conservation.

WWF-Canada takes the lead in Cuba on behalf of WWF International in recognition of the strong diplomatic ties between the two countries and a 20-year history of collaboration to protect Cuba's biodiversity.
 

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"7. Nearly three years ago, two Russian scientists, Paulina Zelitski and Paul Weinzweig, discovered submerged, apparently manmade structures off the coast of Cuba that were described at the time as an underwater city and dated (mostly because of their depth in the ocean) to anywhere from 15,000 b.c. or later. Political red tape has bogged down greater, more widespread research into the area.

It is now in the hands of geologist Manuel Itturalde, who says the structures are manmade, but has yet to release any new information on it.

The idea of Atlantis in Cuba was first put forth in modern times by researcher Andrew Collins, though he concedes the idea is much older."



FROM:


dhill757
Hero Member

Posts: 330



    " Atlantis Research today "

      05-01-2004                       

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Off the Coast of Cuba



In May, 2001, an astounding discovery was made off the coast of Cuba. An ocean engineer named Paulina Zelitsky, while conducting ocean sonar research for Advanced Digital Communications, imaged something she could hardly believe. She told a reporter for Reuters: ""We are the first people ever to see the bottom of Cuban waters over 50 meters. It's so exciting. We are discovering... even possibly a sunken city built in the pre-classic period and populated by an advanced civilization similar to the early Teotihuacan culture of Yucatan."

Incredibly, the sunken city lies on the floor of the ocean at a depth of about 2,200 feet! It must therefore be a quite ancient civilization indeed!

Zelitsky said that the sonar revealed a "huge land plateau with clear images of what appears to be urban development partly covered by sand. From above, the shapes resemble pyramids, roads and buildings."

This is an incredible and potentially history-altering discovery. And it was made not by some lone diver or amateur organization. This find was made by scientists. And today no less an organization than the National Geographic Society has become involved and is investigating the site. It is not known how long the investigation will take or when National Geographic will release its findings. If the sonar images are accurate, however, we will at least have evidence of some lost, unknown culture. On the most fantastic level, we may finally have found Atlantis.   


http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa090301b.htm

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                                                       Atlantis - Cuba





Brian,

HPB of course does have some very definite statements on Atlantis. I will be getting to those.
In my opinion, though, there is much material that should be covered to do HPB the justice she deserves on this subject. I would like her to receive that justice. So, as part of working up to
her view, I will be first answering your questions as you framed them.

You asked about the Carribean as a site for Atlantis.

Background: Fidel Castro was attempting to raise funds by looking for shipwrecks with treasure
aboard that are within his territorial waters. He hired the high tech company of Advanced Digital Communications. Paulina Zelitsky is associated with that company.

On May 14, 2001 Reuters reported about her company's discovery off Cuba:

"Most intriguingly, researchers using sonar equipment have discovered, at a depth of about 2,200
feet, a huge land plateau with clear images of what appears to be urban development partly covered by sand. From above, the shapes resemble pyramids, roads and buildings."

This of course is exciting sounding material. I was looking forward to a significant find. Even though HPB (Blavatsky) asserts Atlantis was in the mid Atlantic - it could still have outposts at Cuba.

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The Reuters release further said:

``It is stunning. What we see in our high-resolution sonar images are limitless, rolling, white
sand plains and, in the middle of this beautiful white sand, there are clear manmade large-size architectural designs. It looks like when you fly over an urban development in a plane and you
see highways, tunnels and buildings,'' Zelitsky said.

``We don't know what it is and we don't have the videotaped evidence of this yet, but we do
not believe that nature is capable of producing planned symmetrical architecture, unless it is a miracle,'' she added in an interview at her office at Tarara, along the coast east of Havana.

___

This became extra interesting because Andrew Collins had recently written an excellent book
that deeply researched old documents to find traces of knowledge of the western hemisphere
in the old world. This led him to be the first to predict Cuba as the location of Atlantis.


So the Cuba find of Zelitsky directed the spotlight of attention to his book "Gateway to Atlantis"

 (at www.seekerbooks.com/atlantis/locations/index.htm#0786709634)

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It has been more than three years now and I have not heard any further positive result.
Maybe others have. But there is a negative result.

There is another book "The A.R.E.'s Search for Atlantis" by Gregory and Lora Little. It is an
excellent book and I expect to say more about it later. In that book are two quotes: "Sonar
images can be very misleading, and wrecks and debris can be mistaken for structures." (p 60).
Zelitsky had been using Sonar. And "In other cases, the sonar picture is far more geometrical
than the anomalies appear to a diver." (p62)

What we discover is that Zelitsky subsequently took video of the site to supplement her
sonar data. She then showed that video to Collins. Now, if that Little book is read, it be-
comes clear that it properly reflects the views of Collins. Collins wrote the introduction for
 it.

That book also says "Initially, ADC utilized side-scanning sonar to discover the "ruins," but
later they sent a small remote camera into the fast-moving, murky water. After viewing the
video footage ADC sent him, Collins was unconvinced that the stone features discovered by
ADC were actual ruins.

To this writing, [book published in 2003] no new information has been released by ADC, and
the world awaits the eventual outcome."

So here is the rub. Collins has much to gain if the Cuba site is verified. However, when shown
the video, he was "unconvinced".

So now, more than 3 years later, I am skeptical of the bold original claims.

_______

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There are also some theoretical problems with the Cuban theory.

Cuba is not under the sea.

Part of the alledged plain described by Plato in the dialogues, as pointed to by Collins
is indeed underwater. But other parts of alledged Posoidonis are above water. That is
not so suitable for an island that Plato says sank

                                          "in a day and a night".





Here is a key passage from Plato:


"This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was
navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you
called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together,
and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the
opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the
Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a
real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent."


A shocking note here is Plato's reference to "a boundless continent". There is wide agreement
that the reference is to the Western Hemisphere. But isn't that startling that Plato should know
about that? (It would not be shocking according to some of HPB's statements.)

Also note that Plato is quite aware here of the distinction between the Atlantic and the Medi-
terranean. That decreases the viability of the arguments of Galanopoulos.

And finally this passage reflects negatively on the arguments of Collins. He makes much in his
book of the greater and lesser Antilles. But in his case of Cuba those islands lead TO his pro-
posed Atlantis and not FROM it as Plato mentions.



So, Brian, grand conclusion:

Likely nothing Atlantean has been found in Cuba. I'll keep an open mind though.
And the details of Collins' argument, while very well done, don't satisfy all the
requirements.


Reed Carson


http://www.blavatsky.net/science/atlantis/emails/cuba.htm

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                                      Underwater world: Man's doing or nature's?




            Researchers come across mysterious shapes on the sea bottom just west of Cuba.



                                         Patterns suggest an ancient civilization.




[Courtesy of ADC Corp.]
The shapes appear to be arranged in patterns, the scientists say. The images, made with sophisticated sonar, show an area about 100 by 200 meters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 


By DAVID BALLINGRUD,
Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times - Florida
November 17, 2002


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paulina Zelitsky remembers the hot July day two summers ago and the sudden, unpleasant
feeling that she had stumbled into a place she was not supposed to be.

The research vessel Ulises sailed in the Yucatan Channel just off the west coast of Cuba
that day, hired by the Castro government to look for undersea oil and gas -- old treasure
ships, too, if they could be found.

More than 2,000 feet beneath the surface, in total blackness, the vessel towed a boombox-
sized sonar on an electronic tether. Pulsing sound waves, the sonar sketched a picture of
the sea bottom on a computer screen aboard Ulises far above.

As Zelitsky and her husband, Paul Weinzweig, watched the screen, the empty plain of sea
bed suddenly gave way to images of massive geometric shapes, apparently cut from stone.
As more shapes came into view, some appeared to be arranged in patterns over a large
area about 20-kilometers square.

Some stone appeared to be cut into blocks, and some blocks seemed perfectly aligned.
They appeared to form corridors and the outlines of rooms, the two scientists said. There
were round stones and pyramid-shaped ones, too.

The sea bottom in that area is an undulating sand plain, Zelitsky said. What they were
seeing should not have been there.

"We were shocked, and frankly we were a little frightened," said Zelitsky. "It was as though
we should not be seeing what we were seeing. Our first thought was maybe we found some
kind of secret military installation."

Finding a military installation on the bottom of the sea might unnerve anybody, and for the
next six months the two researchers stayed busy with their work for the Cuban government
and said little about their discovery. "But I tried to identify what we had seen," Zelitsky said.
"Then one day, in our office, I looked up and saw pictures of ancient Mexican ruins on a ca-
lendar, and I made a mental connection."

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Zelitsky and Weinzweig, officers in a Havana-based Canadian company called Advanced
Digital Communication (ADC), believe they might have found the remnants of a lost civili-
zation perhaps 6,000 years old.

This site, perhaps built by a culture that far pre-dates the famous Maya of the Yucatan
Peninsula, might have been the victim of a vast, mysterious cataclysm that somehow
dropped it 2,000 feet beneath the surface of the sea.

"Nothing is known for certain now," Weinzweig said, "but oral tradition in early Mexico
speaks of an advanced civilization of tall white people who came from the East, and of
an island that sank in a great natural disaster." In the ancient language of some early
Central American Indians, he said, "the word Atlanticu means 'our good father,' or, 'the
place where our good father rests.' "

Then again, maybe not.

Maybe the intriguing shapes found by the sonar are just that -- intriguing shapes,
carved over the centuries by whimsical Mother Nature.

Zelitsky and Weinzweig don't think so, though, and plan to visit the site again with a
manned submersible equipped with cameras and powerful lights -- when they have
the money.

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Others have interest in such a project, but haven't committed to it.

"They are interesting anomalies, but that's as much as anyone can say right now," said
John Echave, senior editor of National Geographic Magazine, who traveled to Cuba to
study the sonar images.

"But I'm no expert on sonar," he said, "and until we are able to actually go down there
and see, it will difficult to characterize them."

Echave pointed out that hard-to-explain undersea geologic formations have cropped up
elsewhere in the world, too, in places such as Japan and nearby in the Bahamas.

In the Bahamas, pilots and divers wondered for years about the so-called "Atlantis Road,'
a long row of seemingly connected stone blocks in about 15 feet of water. Gene Shinn of
the St. Petersburg office of the U.S. Geological Survey became fascinated by the story
and investigated in 1978.


His conclusion:

The blocks are natural, caused by a combination of sea level rise and erosion.


Nevertheless, Echave said, "we are talking to Advanced Digital and we have an interest
in their project. We have to get the protocols in motion, but at this point we have not
dotted the i's and crossed the t's." Echave said since any project undertaken would be
scientific, he did not expect problems with the Cuban or U.S. governments.

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Dr. Robert Ballard is explorer-in-residence for the National Geographic Society
and is founder and president of the Institute For Exploration at Mystic Aquarium
in Mystic, Conn. He is best known, however, for the 1985 discovery of the passen-
ger liner Titanic deep in the North Atlantic.

Ballard said he has heard of the formations in the Yucatan Channel but is not con-
vinced they are the work of humans.

"That's too deep," he said of the 2,000-foot site. "I'd be surprised if it was human.
You have to ask yourself, how did it get there?

"I've looked at a lot of sonar images in my life," Ballard said, "and it can be sort of
like looking at an an ink blot -- people can sometimes see what they want to see.

I'll just wait for a bit more data."



Zelitsky and Weinzweig say that's what they want, too: more data.

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In July 2001, the summer after the discovery, they returned to the site with geologist Manuel
Iturralde, senior researcher of Cuba's Natural History Museum. They sent down a Remotely
Operated Vehicle to examine and videotape the structures. Images sent back by the ROV
confirmed the presence of large blocks of stone -- about 8 feet by 10 feet -- some circular,
some rectangular, some in the shape of pyramids. Some blocks appeared deliberately stacked
atop one another, others appeared isolated from the rest.

"Large structures in the middle of a desert," Zelitsky called them.

Because of their white appearance underwater, Zelitsky said the structures appear to be
granite -- a good building stone but one foreign to that part of the world.

"There is no granite in Cuba or the Yucatan," Zelitsky said. "That area features limestone."
Granite is found in Central Mexico, however, and was used by ancient people such as the
Maya and an older civilization, the Olmec, in their construction of cities and buildings.

The second visit to the underwater site proved only marginally revealing, however.
Currents in the area are strong, Weinzweig said, and heavy sediment in the water made
videotaping difficult.

"We've done about as much as we can do with the technology we have," Weinzweig said.
"The next step will be to go down there with a manned submersible, so we can move from
place to place without a tether holding us back."

The new submersible will need powerful lights and better cameras, he said, and a drill to
bore into the stone to confirm they are made of granite.

Large stone pieces used by ancient civilizations in construction are called megaliths. With
this in mind, Zelitsky and Weinzweig have dubbed their discovery "Mega."

Predictably, as word got around, others quickly gave it another name:

                                         The Lost City of Atlantis.