Japan’s Underwater Pyramid

 Sunken pyramid off the island of Yonaguni near Okinawa in the Devil’s Sea / Dragons Triangle!

A structure thought to be the world's oldest building, nearly twice the age of the great pyramids of Egypt. The rectangular stone ziggurat ,under the sea off the coast of Japan, could be the first evidence of a previously unknown Stone Age civilization, say archeologists. 
The monument is 600ft wide and 90ft high and has been dated around Ten Thousand B.C. The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, was constructed more than 5,000 years later.. 

Near the pyramids was a carved stone human head, on which was engraved set of unknown characters. It is hard to imagine that this is natural.

The structure was found by dive tour operator Kihachiro Aratake in 1985 and has been a source of controversy ever since. It appears to be a construction made of wide terraces, ramps and large steps. However, American geologists have contented that the structure is not manmade, but a natural formation.
According to the report, Japanese scientists have documented marks on the stones that indicate that they were hewn. Not only that, the tools used in this process have been found in the area, and carvings have been discovered. A small stairway carved into the rocks appears to render the theory that this is a natural formation implausible.
The problem with all of this for western scientists is that it implies that an unknown eastern culture had developed a high degree of organization thousands of years before the earliest western civilizations. Geologically, the Yonaguni pyramid sank into the ocean at the end of the last ice age, around ten thousand years ago. Some western geologists have theorized that, if it is manmade, it must have risen from the sea in more recent times, and been carved then.
However, the discovery of other, similar structures beneath the sea of Japan was also announced at a conference. If these prove to be similar to the Yonaguni pyramid they may rewrite the history of early man.

What would have caused these rocks to have such angular shapes? People (such as ancient astronaut theorists) argue that the formations at Yonaguni have too many right angles (an angle that never appears in nature) to have been naturally made. If these rocks at the Yonaguni monument weren’t formed by nature, then who made them?
 These rock formations at the Yonaguni monument are too old to have been made by humans; early man just didn’t have the technology available.
 It might sound a little outlandish to some people, but the alien theory has a lot of weight behind it. Experts like sports communication and information major Giorgio Tsoukalos have lent this theory their credibility.

 First of all it’s located in the Devil’s Sea / Dragons Triangle, an area south of Japan that’s hailed as the Bermuda Triangle of the East.  An area of great danger and supernatural activity. Beware! Countless ships have vanished without a trace within the area. This region has received enormous amounts of U.S.O and U.F.O. reports as well.

( If you believe these structures are natural, you must be visually impaired because your head is up your rear!)

 Structures in stone that existed at the end of the last ice age, when the sea levels were over a hundred feet lower than today. Since the biggest cities are always built on the coast, the place to look for ancient cities would be the levels at which the ocean used to be at before all the ice melted(approx 9500 BC). There are definitely underwater ruins strewn all over the planet. Since the ocean levels are thought to have gone up and done with mini ice ages, it may be that we had civilization earlier than we thought.

 "For example, Kimura said, he has identified quarry marks in the stone, rudimentary characters etched onto carved faces, and rocks sculpted into the likenesses of animals.
"The characters and animal monuments in the water, which I have been able to partially recover in my laboratory, suggest the culture comes from the Asian continent," he said.

"One example I have described as an underwater sphinx resembles a Chinese or ancient Okinawan king." Whoever created the city, most of it apparently sank in one of the huge seismic events that this part of the Pacific Rim is famous for, Kimura said.

The world's largest recorded tsunami struck Yonaguni Jima in April 1771 with an estimated height of more than 131 feet (40 meters), he noted, so such a fate might also have befallen the ancient civilization.

Kimura said he has identified ten structures off Yonaguni and a further five related structures off the main island of Okinawa. In total the ruins cover an area spanning 984 feet by 492 feet (300 meters by 150 meters).

The structures include the ruins of a castle, a triumphal arch, five temples, and at least one large stadium, all of which are connected by roads and water channels and are partly shielded by what could be huge retaining walls.

 Submarine research surveys using SCUBA and sonic surveys reveal detailed topography similar to submarine, pyramidal features looking like a stepped pyramid off Yonaguni in Okinawa, Japan. The site is called Iseki Point(ruins site) as a leisure diving spot. Yonaguni Submarine Pyramid(YSP) is the major structure that stands under approximately 25 meters of ocean. Essentially, it has a cliff face like the side of a stepped pyramid, and dimensions of about 290m(length) by 120m(width) by 26m(height). Flat terraces, straight walls and its surface structure of walls with scars of tool marks driven in by a wedge on the structure are identified to be artificially fabricated. Appearance and size of YSP are similar to the biggest, ancient castles such as Shuri and Nakagusuku Castles in Okinawa Island, where they are called 'gusuku'. Roads associated with drainage canals were recognized, surrounding YSP, and that a retaining wall was found along a road. The southern point of the wall is composed of huge rock fragments. Stone tools and other artifacts were discovered from the sea bottom. Those evidence strongly shows that the YSP has not been manufactured by nature. It is identifie to be man-made. The formation age is estimated to be about 10,000 years ago based on 14C and 10Be age determinations.

                                                                    Underwater road


 'The sunken buildings are known to cover the ocean bottom (although not continuously) from the small island of Yonaguni in the southwest to Okinawa and its neighbouring islands, Kerama and Aguni, some 311 miles. If, after all, ongoing exploration here does indeed reveal more structures linking Yonaguni with Okinawa, the individual sites may be separate components of a huge city lying at the bottom of the Pacific. The single largest structure so far discovered lies near the eastern shore of Yonaguni at 100 feet down. It is approximately 240 feet long, 90 feet across and 45 feet high'. (2)

'The 'Yonaguni monument is over 50m long in an east-west direction and over 30m wide in a north-south direction. The top of the structure lies about 5m below sea level, whereas the base is approximately 25m below the surface' (3)

Genetic studies have revealed that native Taiwanese populations carry the purest form of Asian specific Human Lymphocyte Antigens (A24-Cw8-B48, A24-Cw9-B61 and A24-Cw10-B60). Studies have shown that the Taiwan area was the centre of dispersal for the; Tibetans, Thais, Tlingit, Kwakuitl, Haida, Hawaiian, Maori, Pima, Maya, Yakut, Inuit, Buryat,Man, Japanese from Shizuoka and Orochon from North East China (6). This major dispersal event, which happened about 6,000 years ago, suggests a major catastrophic event, such as flooding of the coastline, which caused an exodus of people, from which many new civilizations were born. Mysterious megalithic monuments on Taiwan and numerous underwater ruins north of Taiwan such as near Yonaguni confirm that a significantly organized society once existed in this area as much as 10,000 years ago and was destroyed by rapidly rising sea levels.

On Yonaguni Island and elsewhere in the Okinawa area there appears to be an ancient tradition of modifying, enhancing, and improving on nature (Shinto). On Yonaguni there are very old tombs (age unknown, but possibly on the order of thousands of years old) that stylistically appear to be comparable to the "architecture" of the Yonaguni

Monument.

The formations have been compared to the Okinawa Tomb, a rock-hewn structure of uncertain age.

How old is Yonaguni.?

'The rock-faces appear to be dressed stone. If this is an artificial, man-made structure then it is reasonable to assume that it was carved not underwater but at a time when this area was above sea level. Indeed, this area has experienced major rises in sea levels during and since the Pleistocene ("Ice Age") and based on well-established standard curves of sea level rises in the region, as recently as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago the Yonagumi Monument may have been above local sea level. Thus we can suggest with some confidence that if the Yonaguni Monument is a man-made construction then it must be at least 8,000 years old. (3),(7)

Astronomy:

10,000 years ago Yonaguni was located very close to the Tropic of Cancer. Today the Tropic of Cancer is located at approximately 23 degrees 27 minutes north latitude while Yonaguni Island is located a full degree further north. However, the position of the Tropic of Cancer varies over the millennia, from under 22 degrees to over 24 degrees, according to a 41,000 year cycle. At around 8,000 B.C. the Yonaguni Monument was located much closer to the Tropic of Cancer. 

What proof is there that the site was altered by mankind?

The archway (left), has been found composed of blocks 'beautifully fitted together' and reminiscent of the masonry of the Inca cities.(2)

The structures are said to resemble ancient buildings on Okinawa itself where sacred buildings are found near Noro, where burial vaults designed in the same rectilinear style are still venerated as repositories for the islanders' ancestral dead. (2)

Several pieces of 'Stone-tools' were recovered at the site. 'Typical ones are adzes' says Prof. Masaaki Kimura, 'They are not polished. Their age is estimated as up to 10,000 years old'. (3)

Other evidence presented by those who favour an artificial origin include the two round holes (about 2 feet wide) on the edge of the Triangle Pool feature, and a straight row of smaller holes which have been interpreted as an abandoned attempt to split off a section of the rock by means of wedges (see right), a feature common in prehistory.

 Supporters of an artificial origin also argue that, while many of the features seen at Yonaguni are also seen in natural sandstone formations throughout the world, the concentration of so many peculiar formations in such a small area is highly unlikely. They also point out the relative absence of loose blocks on the flat areas of the formation, which would be expected if they were formed solely by natural erosion and fracturing.

If any part of the Monument was deliberately constructed or modified, it must have happened during or following the last Ice Age, when the sea level was much lower than it is today (e.g. 25m lower around 10,000 years BCE). During the Ice Age, the East China Sea was a narrow bay opening to the ocean at today's Tokara Gap. The Sea of Japan was an inland sea and there was no Yellow Sea; people and animals could walk into the Ryukyu peninsula from the continent. Therefore, Yonaguni was the southern end of a land bridge that connected it to Taiwan, Ryūkyū, Japan and Asia. This fact is underscored by a rock pillar in a now-submerged cave that has been interpreted as a fused stalactite-stalagmite pair, which could only form above water.

Quote: Robert Schoch 1999

'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'. (7)

 Extraterrestrial Influences?

Ancient Japanese clay figures, or doguu  from the late Jomon period of Japanese history (14,000-400 BC). Nobody really knows what they were for or who made them, but they look like they might be wearing diving suits or space suits or something. The evidence is all around you!

 Ancient Japanese Extraterrestrial legend

  According to the legend, local fishers of the 'Harato-no-hama'  or 'Harayadōri'  shore in the Hitachi province, today Ibaraki prefecture saw an ominous ‘ship’ drifting in the waters. Becoming curious, the fishermen surrounded the object with their small boats, then they towed it to the land. The vessel was 3.30 metres high and 5.45 metres wide and reminded the witnesses of a Kōhako (Japanese incense burner), some authors write it reminded the witnesses of a rice cooking pot. Its upper part seemed to be made of red coated rosewood, others say it was black coated. The lower part was covered with brazen  plates, obviously to protect it against the sharp edged rocks. The upper part had several windows made of glass or crystal, covered with bars and clogged with some kind of tree resin. The windows were completely transparent and the baffled fishermen looked inside. The inner side of the Utsuro-bune was decorated with texts written in a unknown language. The fishermen found stuffs inside such as two bed sheets, a bottle filled with 3.6 litres of water, some cake and kneated meat. A beautiful decorated cup with ornaments no one could identify was also found. Then the fishermen saw a beautiful young woman possibly 18 or 20 years old. Her body size was said to be 1.5m. The woman had red hair and eyebrows, the hair elongated by artificially added white extensions. According to the authors, the extensions could have been made of white fur or thin, white-powdered textile streaks. The skin of the lady was a very pale pink colour. She wore precious, long and smooth clothes of unknown fabrics. Although the mysterious woman appeared friendly and courteous, she acted oddly, for she clutched an elongated box made of pale material all the time. The woman did not allow anyone to touch the box, no matter how kindly or pressingly the witnesses asked. The fishermen began to suspect that the box may contain the head of the woman´s deceased lover, since she was a princess of a foreign realm. But when she had an affair with a townsman, it caused a scandal and she was banned from home and she might have been exposed in that Utsuro-bune to leave her to destiny. The woman began speaking, but no one understood her. And she seemingly didn´t understand the fishermen. When attempted conversation fails, the fishermen decided with severe hearts to put the Utsuro-bune together with the young lady back into the ocean, where it drifted away.

 

Ancient Alien mystery of Puma Punku

 Puma Punku: Located in the Bolivian highlands, Puma Punku is a field of stone ruins scattered with giant, finely carved blocks. Ancient astronaut theorists have hypothesized that extraterrestrials with advanced engineering techniques created the site or advised the people who built it.

They are arguably the oldest, and most baffling ruins on the face of the Earth. It is hard to imagine how they did not come to be known as one of the wonders of the world like the Great Pyramid. Spectacular in its own right, the Great Pyramid is, yet it pales in comparison to the ruins of Puma Punku in Tiahuanaco, in South America.
The ruins of Puma Punku are one of four structures in the ancient city of Tiahuanaco. The others three structures are; The Akapana Pyramid, the Kalasasaya Platform, and the Subterranean Temple.
Even with modern day technology and information, these structures defy logic, and confound those who seek to solve the mysteries that lie within them. The ruins of Puma Punku are said to be the most fascinating, and most confusing of all.
Who built these structures?
How were these structures built?
Why were these structures built?
These are all questions on the minds of those researching these ancient structures, and they are not easily answerable, if they can even be answered at all.

Puma Punku

If pyramids were more than difficult to create several thousand years ago, then how much more difficult would it have been to build Puma Punku?
Puma Punku is believed to have once contained a great wharf, and a massive four part structure. Yet all that remains today are megalithic ruins from some cataclysmic event in history. A great earthquake? A comet that came too close to the Earth? A worldwide flood? These are all possible causes to the destruction of the once great structure that is now the ruins of Puma Punku.
Not only is there evidence to support the claim of a cataclysmic flood, but there is even evidence to support the theory that people once lived there before such a flood even occurred. The suspected flood could have happened somewhere around 12,000 years ago, and there is scientific evidence of tools, bones, and other material within flood alluvia, which suggests that a civilized people were there prior to any flood. Other evidence, that being carvings of bearded people that are not Andean, have been recorded throughout the area.
Could the ruins of Puma Punku be evidence of a long lost civilization?

What Makes The Ruins Unique?

It is highly unlikely that any of the stones in Puma Punku were cut using ancient stone cutting techniques, at least not those that we are aware of.
The stones in Puma Punku are made up of granite, and diorite, and the only stone that is harder that those two, is the diamond. If the people who built this place cut these stones using stone cutting techniques, then they would had to have used diamond tools.
If they didn't use diamonds to cut these stones, then what did they use?
Not only were these stones really hard to cut, but they are also extremely heavy. One of these stone ruins weighs in at about 800 tons! These are big stones, and they are really heavy. The nearest quarry is at least 10 miles away from the site of the ruins. How in the world did these people move these blocks that weighed many tons, and how were they able to form a structure with them?
With the technology that we currently have today, it would be extremely difficult to recreate the site of these ruins, if possible at all. If we can't do it, then how did these ancient people accomplish this task? This could have taken place anywhere from 500 b.c. all the way back to the Ice Age.
These ancient people had to have been very sophisticated, knowing astronomy, geomancy, and mathematics. However, there are no records of this work. To build a place like Puma Punku, there must have been significant planning, and writing involved, but there is no record of any of this.

Interlocking Stones

There is one more significant thing to mention regarding the ruins of Puma Punku. Not only were these stones cut somehow, but they were finely cut. The cuts on these stones are perfectly straight. The holes cored into these stones are perfect, and all of equal depth.
How is it that these ancient people were able to cut stones like this?
It is as if only master builders were allowed to come in and construct Puma Punku. All of the blocks are cut so that they interlock, and fit together like a puzzle. There is no mortar. There are only great stones that once fit together creating a structure some four levels high.
If these people could have moved these large stones to this precise location, then obviously they also had a way to place them one on top of another, but how in the world was this accomplished?
There are no trees in the area, the nearest quarry is at least 10 miles away, and we have no records as to how any of this could have been done. As far as most are concerned, there is no way that the Andean people could have done this 2500 years ago. If they couldn't have done it, how is it possible that an even older group of people accomplished it?

Who Did All This???

The simple answer; we have absolutely no idea who did all this, or even how they could have done it.
There have been a few suggestions, but as you could imagine, they are widely criticized for the most part.
One suggestion has been made that there had to have been some kind of ancient aliens who interceded on humanity's behalf, and our ancestors learned how to do all of this from them.
There are actual records of mythical origin, regarding gods and the part that they took in the creation of these places. Not sure how we have certain mythical records, yet no records of plans or writing that contributed to the creation of these places?
Another suggestion, is that a cataclysmic event such as a flood, wiped out these ancient peoples along with any records they may have kept. There is some evidence to support this suggestion. Perhaps these ancient people were technologically advanced at some point, and all but a few were wiped out by a major flood. The remnant would have had to start civilization all over again, and of course the ancient records would be lost.
These may be stretches of the imagination, but places like Puma Punku were constructed somehow, and if it would be very difficult for us today to build a place like Puma Punku, then how did these ancient people accomplish it?
Did they have advanced technology similar to ours, and then die off?

                                                  (The Piri Reis Map)





Maps have been found that would seem to support this theory. Maps such as the Piri Reis (1513), and the Oronteus Finaeus (1531), have been found that pre-date European discoveries. Not only are these maps precise, but they seem to claim that they are copies from even older maps.
These maps show the coastline of South America, rivers, and even part of Antarctica which was not thought to have been mapped until 1818. These maps contain landmarks, as well as depictions of the areas which appear to be very accurate. Some people don't believe that these maps could have been made without flying over these areas in the sky.
Just how much did these ancient people know, and what were they able to do?
The Bible records a worldwide flood that killed off everyone except for Noah, and his family. Some legends claim that there have been a total of 4 cataclysmic events that have wiped out the majority of the worlds population thus far.
Is this what happened to these ancient people who built Puma Punku?
To this day, it remains an ancient mystery. Our world history should be questioned

Haunted Anza Borrego State Park

  

Ghosts & Legends of San Diego's Haunted Anza Borrego's Desert

Anza Borrego Ghosts, Spirits, Ghost Lights, Treasure & more! Haunted Anza Borrego is a great place for ghost hunting! 


The Lady in White
The trip from Yuma to Vallecito was an arduous desert trek, long stretches of desperately dry sand and desiccated terrain. The stagecoach and its passengers staggered from one rancid, warm watering hole to the next, a bumpy jarring ride across baked and burning countryside. You moved at a crawl, with shuddering winds and sudden cloudbursts. Choking dust was the passengers' cruel and most steadfast escort. There were times where the road became so bad the passengers had to get out and push the coach. People went mad in the midst of this one-hundred fifty-mile trek. Some coined the name for this tract of the Butterfield Stage Coach line, "The Journey of Death." 

The most well-known ghost story of Vallecito is about "The Lady in White". Late in the 1850s, a young girl from the east arrived by stage at Vallecito. She was on her way to Sacramento to meet her lover, who had struck it rich in the Diggins. She was a frail young woman, worn with the hardships of travel and ill from improper food and doubtful water. She was carried from the coach and put to bed in the back bedroom and given the best care available. But nothing could save her and her fight was a losing one. Her journey came to an end in the dark bedroom of the Vallecito stage station.

 Her baggage was examined and a brand new white dress was found. It was decorated with lace and sewn with a fine seam. It was to have been her wedding dress. They dressed her in this and buried her in the Campo Santo, a few hundred feet east of the station. They thought they had put her to rest, but on moonlight nights, she has been seen, down through the years, walking restlessly about the station. She harms no one but her presence is disturbing even to the most obstinate non-believer.

It is no wonder that so many ghosts haunt the lonely trails, mountains, and landmarks of the forbidding desert. The desert can be so unforgiving and, at the same time, unbelievably generous. Many travelers, prospectors and adventures have gone into the desert, never to return or be seen again. Others have returned with gold nuggets and treasures so rare and unique that we could only dream of being so lucky ourselves.

Desert lore, stories and quests for loot and gold have made men greedy. Gun fights, murders, and death from starvation and dehydration have left many dead on the barren desert trails. Their ghosts still walk the mountain ridges, gullies, and deserted locations they once traveled or lived, spirits with unfinished business, who cannot rest.

Some guard buried treasures and lost mines, while others battle perpetually until death, forever replaying their last moments of life.

The Phantom Stage of Carrizo

The Lady in White is not the only ghost story attached to the Vallecito Stage Station. Not far from Vallecito is Carrizo Wash where the Phantom Stage forges it way through the deep sand, pulled by a team of four mules on moonlit nights. The Phantom Stage is driven by a lone driver hunched over as if asleep. No passengers are seen in the Stage when it passes through Carrizo Wash, hesitating for only a moment, as if planning to stop at the place where the Carrizo Station once stood, but is now only a pile of mud. The Phantom Stage continues on past the old station until out of sight. In the morning one may think twice about actually seeing the Phantom Stage, until he sees the ruts carved from wagon wheels and hoof prints left behind by the ghostly stage that travels by on occasion, as if to keep the trail alive.

There is another story that coincides with the Phantom Stage. In the 1860s, before the stage line closed, a special stage set out from El Paso headed for San Diego with a box of coins. The stage that carried the coins had one driver and a guard. When the stage reached Yuma, Arizona, the guard fell ill and the driver continued on without him. That same stage was held up by robbers somewhere in the area where the route meanders into Carrizo Wash between the Fish and Coyote Mountains. The driver was shot during the robbery and the thieves stashed the coins on the south slope of Fish Mountain. The coins remain there to this day, they say, because there were too many soldiers passing by on the trail. It is said that after the robbery, the dead driver and the stage continued through Carrizo toward Vallecito Station, but the stage disappeared, never to be seen again.

The White Horse Ghost of Vallecito

Vallecito is famous for its ghosts. Its history contains many murders, deaths, robberies, and other wicked tales. One well known story involves a double-murder at Vallecito Station. It all started with a stage hold up that yielded $65,000 worth of loot to four men on horseback, who robbed the eastbound stage before it reached Carrizo Wash en route to Vallecito Station.

As the men fled the scene, the driver of the stage fired one shot, killing one of the four men. When he reached the thief he had shot, he found not one, but two dead bodies. The driver concluded that the leader of the band of thieves, had shot one of his own men so he would not have to divide up the loot.

The bandit leader and one other thief survived the robbery and rode on to rest at Vallecito Station. Shortly before they arrived at the station, they buried their loot in some nearby hills and rode on to the station for a drink and some food. It is said that the two bandits were arguing while having a drink in the station. One of the bandits, the leader, went outside to check on his horse promising to continue the discussion when he returned. He did return to the station, entering through the doorway mounted on his big white horse, and shot his companion.

As the wounded bandit was dying, he drew his gun and fired back at the leader, killing him dead from the back of his brave white mount. The white horse, spooked by the gun fire and death of his master, ran off into the hills. It is said that when someone is in the valley around midnight, near the location where the bandits buried their loot, the ghost of a White Horse will appear from nowhere, galloping through the sand and then disappearing without a trace.

The Ghost Lights of Borrego

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Borrego Springs area of California are notorious for the many legends, ghost stories and unexplained phenomena occurring there over the years. The region of the Sonoran Desert is home to the Vallecito Stage Station, Yaqui Well, in addition to the mysterious "Ghost Lights" of Oriflamme Mountain. The first account of the "Phantom Lights" of Borrego was reported in 1858 by a Butterfield Stage driver. Since then soldiers, prospectors and explorers have reported seeing similar lights. The sightings have been reported near Oriflamme Mountain, over Borrego Valley and in other nearby areas. The occurrences are always slightly different, but the general description of the sightings is the same.

In 1892, a prospector by the name of Charles Knowles and two other men were camping near Grapevine Canyon at the entrance to the Narrows, where they reported their sighting of "Fire Balls." Knowles described the "lights" as balls of fire that rose up approximately 100 feet in the air and then exploded. Knowles compared the "Fire Balls" to fireworks. He saw three "Fire Balls" rise and cascade upon explosion, before they stopped. About 30 minutes later the "Lights" started again, but this time they were different. The "lights" rose into an arch pattern returning to the ground without exploding. The "Light" would then reverse itself and go back to the place where it started.

Scientists have tried to determine a logical explanation for the "Ghost lights." One scientific explanation suggests that when the wind blows sand against quartz outcroppings, static electricity is created, which could look like bright lights or sparks on a dark night.

Some believe that the lights were signals used by bootleggers during prohibition or US Immigration for smuggling operations related to the Mexican Boarder. The only problem with these two explanations is that the sightings had been going on long before and after the time constricted by the events described above.
Another notion is that the "Fire Balls" indicate the location of buried treasure. There are stories that support this latter theory of buried treasure. One of the stories tells of a young man who found many gold nuggets in a gully within the Oriflammes. Another man by the name of George Benton found a boulder of rock, weighing a ton, that contained gold. He found the boulder in the Oriflammes.

The Eight-Foot Skeleton

If you find yourself out late in the desert night, somewhere between the Superstition Mountains and Seventeen Palms, you may see the apparition of an 8-foot skeleton with a lantern in his chest. A prospector by the name of Charley Arizona first saw the ghost about 4 miles southeast of Borrego.

It was a dark night and Charley had already set up camp and was settling down for the night. Not long after Charley turned in for the night, something disturbed his burros and he went to investigate. Suddenly, he saw a large human skeleton with a lantern light shining through its ribs. The skeleton walked in a crazy fashion, as if looking for something or as if it were lost. Shortly after Charley sighted the skeleton, it disappeared over a small ridge.

About two years later, two prospectors had a similar experience while camping in the Superstition Mountains. They caught sight of a flickering light in the distance and wondered what it was; it quickly disappeared. One of the prospectors thought it looked like a skeleton carrying a lantern, but they figured it was the fire reflecting off a rock.

The two prospectors didn't think much of the incident until a year later, when a traveler came into the Vallecito Station with the tale of a skeleton he saw wandering in the desert carrying a light. It wasn't long before news of the skeleton got around and two adventurers went out into the desert to search for this legendary skeleton ghost.

During their third night in the desert, they encountered the ghastly lit skeleton. One of the men shot at it with a gun, but the skeleton continued on unfazed by the gun fire. The two men followed the skeleton for three miles as it wandered in a strange and intermittent gait, over ridges and through valleys, before they lost track of it.
Many believe that the skeleton is the ghost of a prospector who discovered and worked the Phantom mine, which has been lost for many years. The skeleton is no better off than the rest of us, for he too continues to search for the lost Phantom Mine, wandering the dark desert nights looking for his final resting place.

Ghosts Dancers at Yaqui Well

Not far from the Phantom Mine lies another place where skeletons have been seen. During warm summer nights, when the moon is full, ghosts dance at Yaqui Well. The ghosts are said to be the spirits of three emigrants who were traveling from Yuma to California. In search of a shorter route through the desert, the emigrants arrived at Yaqui Well, exhausted and near death from lack of food and water. One of the three travelers drank from the well as much water as he could hold. He died shortly there after.

The other two men also drank from the well, but survived.While moving their dead companion's body, the other two noticed some rock specimens that fell out of his pocket. The two men were excited to discover the rocks contained gold, but they did not know where their friend had found the samples. The two men became very excited about the gold and the excitement soon turned into a frenzy of greed and distrust. The two men began to struggle until one finally drowned the other in the muddy water of Yaqui Well.

An Indian watched these events unfold from a nearby hill. The Indian felt it was safe to talk to the one man who had survived, but the emigrant was still so excited as he described his story to the Indian, he entered a state of frenzy and ran off in to the desert yelling "Gold, Gold."

It is only during the hot summer nights of the full moon that the three emigrants return to Yaqui Well. One rises out of the muddy waters of the Yaqui Well, one emerges from the brush nearby, and the third arrives in a cool breeze out of the wash. The ghosts join hands and circle Yaqui Well in a dance. Soon after the twirling begins, they disappear, leaving only the good waters of the well and a slight chill in the air.

The desert holds many secrets of buried treasures, lost travelers and mysterious sightings. The stories shared with you on these pages are only a small sample of the tales and legends that have been spun for centuries. In the months to follow, DesertUSA Magazine will share more legends of lost mines, tales of buried treasures and more sad stories of heartsick strangers stranded on the desert sands.

Humanoid / Cryptid

TALL HUMANOIDS APPROACH CAMPSITE

Location: Anza Borrego State Park, California
Date: September 15, 2007
Time: 3:00am local time

Carl and his girlfriend had decided to go on an overnight backpacking adventure. Their destination was Mt. Laguna (unincorporated area of San Diego) however a forest fire in Julian closed off Route 78 therefore they took an alternative route and stumbled upon the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. They arrived at the park at 1700. He had never hiked, or backpacked at the park, therefore Carl went to the visitor center got the information he needed and set on his journey to Culp Valley Campground. Culp Valley campground is approximately 3500 feet in elevation. He pulled into the campground loaded their packs and set off. They only backpacked about 1 mile out due to night settling. They set up a tent about 20 feet north of the trail.

At around 0300am the night moon had sunk behind the mountains surrounding the desert, it was pitch black and Jeremy’s girlfriend was sleeping. Unable to sleep Jeremy just stares at the starry sky. Suddenly he heard a man’s voice, he looked into the direction it was coming from and saw a green light being waved back and forth. He immediately thought it was a park ranger.

The light was about 50 yards east from his tent. He could tell that whoever it was using the green light to guide somebody on the trail. The green light was coming closer and closer to the tent...probably not directly to the tent but on the trail about 20 feet away. The tent was set up on a small slope looking downward on the trail. The green light disappeared and Carl panicked. Suddenly out of nowhere a massive amount of light lit up the trail 20 feet from where he was. He was terrified, nobody was talking at this point and he didn’t hear footsteps just saw a massive amount of white light.

The light was getting closer to the trail next to his tent. He immediately ducked down and laid low in his tent scared. He then peeked out of the tent and saw 12 to 15 humanoid figures that looked like people, but some were extremely tall and the rest were really very short with large bald heads. The tall figures appeared to be wearing white cloak-like outfits and the short figures appeared to be naked. Terrified and his heart pounding Jeremy watched the beings walk very gracefully and slowly, turning their heads from left to right with each footstep. They were all holding metal rod like implements which emitted a powerful white light. They seemed to ignore the tent and walked “peacefully” by the tent. The witness remained laying down and quite as the beings “walked” by the tent. The light eventually faded as the beings continued down the trail and disappeared. Terrified he woke his girlfriend 10 minutes later because he didn’t want the beings to hear them talking.

He told the ranger the next day about what had happened and the ranger wrote it down in a report, suspecting it was some type of religious cult.

Lost Ship of the Desert

 In the 1800’s, many stories began circulating throughout Southern California and beyond about a spectral ship lying half buried in the desert sands. Around that time, many migrants after Civil War passed through the desert on their way to California. Many reported that they saw a multi mast Spanish galleon. Multiple expeditions left looking for the ship, but none found it. Some claimed it was Noah’s Ark. Many more claimed that it was loaded with pearls, a fortune’s worth, millions of dollars worth of exquisite pearls.

In 1610, King Phillip III of Spain ordered Alvarez de Cordone to search the Western coast of Mexico and recover the pearls residing there. Cordone hired two other captains, Juan de Iturbe and Pedro de Rosales. He also hired sixty pearl divers and began having three ships build. By July 1612 they set sail to plunder the west coast of its precious oysters.

Over and over again the ship would pause in its travels so the pearl divers could jump off the ship and return with the oysters they discovered on the ocean floor. But the going was slow. Eventually they discovered a Native American village and stopped, meeting with the village leaders. They discovered that the Native Americans had baskets of the pearls just lying about and they formulated a trade of their rich fancy European clothing for the pearls. However, the Spanish swindled the Native Americans and traded them only rags and dirty cloths. The Native Americans outraged attacked the ship as it was trying to set sail. Cordone was hit by an arrow and lay ill. His ship was forced to turn around, but he ordered the other two on in search of more pearls, commanding them to look up the Gulf of California.

As they journeyed up the Gulf, Rosales’s ship struck a reef. The cargo was rapidly transferred to Iturbe’s ship and they continued on. One story says that Rosales’s ship was sunk in a terrible storm. With one ship remaining they sailed up the Gulf and eventually up the Colorado River and into the Salton Sea (or the Blake Sea or Lake Cahuilla as it may have been called long ago).

Here there’s some slight departures in the story. Some stories claim that Iturbe (or another Spanish ship) sailed into the Salton Sea to find the legendary Straits of Anian, an all water route from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Mexico. Some stories claim that the Salton Sea and the Colorado River were higher and filled with water at the time. Supposedly this was during an unusual flooding season. Others claim that after Iturbe had sailed from the Gulf of California and into the Salton Sea, an earthquake happened, closing off what remained of the Salton Sea from the ocean. Regardless, when Iturbe or whatever Spanish ship had sailed into the Salton Sea, turned around to try and head back home, they were dismayed to find that it was closed off. In fact, with the outlet to the ocean blocked, the water their ship was currently in was rapidly evaporating. The water slowly receded and eventually the ship was beached on the California desert, many many miles from the ocean. The ship was abandoned, the crew grabbing what few supplies they could carry and they trudged west towards the water. Supposedly four months later the survivors were finally picked up

Other versions of the tale, involve a pirate ship loaded down with almost a million doubloons. Another story states that the ship is one of the ships from King Solomon’s navy, carrying the ten lost tribes of Israel to North America. Yet another claims the ship to be from a war like tribe formerly located in the Indian Ocean.

Another puts the Spanish galleon on Lake Cahuilla, supposedly another name for the large inland sea that eventually became the Salton Sea. Lake Cahuilla existed in the 16th century and had a tribe of Native Americans living in the area at the time. Knowing that the Spanish were coming to take their treasures and probably hurt the tribe, the Cahuilla Indians instead ambushed the Spanish party that came ashore from the ship. Then the tribe mounted a full attack on the galleon and after a fierce battle, annihilated all the crew on board claiming the ship for the tribe. The Cahuillas began looting the ship of the clothes, foods, and exotic items that the Spanish had brought with them, but they could not move nor break into the heavy large iron chests that were in the hold. While they were debating what to do with the treasure chests a storm brewed up, and began attacking the galleon. The Native Americans were forced to desert the ship which broke from its anchor, driffted off into the storm, overturned and soon sunk into the sea taking its precious cargo with it. By the time the lake supposedly dried up, the ship had been long buried under tons of dirt, sand and silt.

Lastly, one story discusses a viking ship that could be found sticking out of the side of a mountain in the Tierra Blanco Canyon near Agua Caliente Springs. Legends of Native Americans speak of the arrival of the visitors that supposedly had a boat with the head of a snake on it. Sightings of the mysterious viking ship apparently ended after a 1933 earthquake.

How true could this story be? It is surprisingly possible that a flood occurred connecting the Salton Sea to the Gulf of California. Supposedly in the past the two were connected at one time. The area between the desert and the gulf has the potential to be hit with massive flooding. And it would have been plausible for a ship to get carried in on the waves and the stranded afterwards as the water receded. Additionally the waters there have been known in the past to have strange tidal bores that would sweep waves in land. A ship could have been carried inland by one of those. However, it must be from the sheer number of stories and legends told by both Native Americans and frontiersmen, that makes this story quite possibly true.

In the 1800s the legends, stories, and failed expeditions began. Some claimed that the ship seen in the desert was haunted and could only be found at certain times of the year. Native Americans told tales about it, which was apparently good enough to confirm its existence. One group claimed that the ship came from 1862 when several people built a twenty-one foot single mast skiff mounted on wheels to transport themselves across the desert. Sadly when they reached the lowest point in the desert, they were forced to abandon the ship and continue on without it. They claim that the ship people saw in the desert was their abandoned wheel mounted skiff.

In 1870 several Indians reported seeing the ship, supplying a location of approximately 30 miles west of Dos Palmas and 40 miles north of the then San Bernardino - Yuma road.

1870 continued to bring attention to the ship in the form of a series of stories in the Los Angeles Star on November 12th and December 1st of 1870. The stories spoke of a man named Charley Clusker who claimed to have located the ship and was organizing several expeditions to return to it and bring back the missing ship which he claimed was filled with crosses and had broken masts. It was reportedly fifty miles or more from Dos Palmas in a region of boiling mud springs. Sadly there was nothing afterwards, and Mr. Clusker appears to have simply disappeared much like the elusive ship.

In 1878, three German prospectors saw the ship around sundown about 120 miles northwest of Yuma and 40 miles east of Indio. The two survivors reported seeing an immense ship under full sail, floating over the desert, sailing like a cloud into the sunset. One of the three prospectors went after it the next morning, but never returned. A rescue party eventually found him dead from lack of water and strangely naked. Later one old timer, reportedly spent several days camping inside the slowly rotting hull of the old galleon, completely unaware of the pearls and immense wealth that lay buried under the sand beneath him. Obviously, he was never able to relocated the derelict ship.

In 1905, a prospector named Butcherknife Ike, claimed to have discovered a fossile ship buried in the san dunes of Borrego Springs. And in 1915, a Yuma Indian arrived in one town paying for his merchandise with pearls. After being questioned, he claimed to have spent the night in a strangely shaped wooden house that was partially covered by sand. The people he spoke to offered him several hundreds of dollars plus a place to sleep for the night if he would take them back there in the morning. He agreed, collected his pay, agreed to be lodged for the night, and was no where to be seen come morning, having completely vanished.
In 1933, Antonio de Fierro Blanco wrote a book that discussed the story of Tiburcio Manquerna, a young mule driver who had apparently come across the lost Spanish Galleon. At the time Tiburcio was operating as a mule driver for Juan Baptista de Anza who was searching for a land route from Sonora to Alta California. He even went into the hold of the ship, saw the pearls, but was never able to relocate the evasive ship.    These events occurred around 1775.

Even as early as 1949, three UCLA students, armed with old newspaper accounts, 1910 Imperial Irrigation District Maps, and old stories from Cahuilla Indians, went out to search for a Viking ship. The Los Angeles Times reported the undertaking, but sadly never told the results of the expedition, which leads me to believe that like so many others before, it too met in failure. Many treasure hunters have gone after the missing treasure of pearls. None has brought back evidence of finding it. One of the presumed reasons for this, is that the sands of the desert shift sometimes moving or obscuring or revealing the lost ship.

And of course a ghost story has sprung up around the incident. According to story tellers, the ship itself, now bleached white and desiccated by the whipping sands blown by the desert winds, has become a ghost. With an eerie otherworld glow and singing dead sailors, the skeleton of a ghost ship sails the desert. often being seen sailing into the sunset or along the moonlight. Of course, ghost stories are often in dispute, as another ghost tale places the phantom ship near Kane Springs, and the ship doesn't make a sound as it glides silently pass. Nor are any sailors in view.

Does the mysterious ship laden with a fortune in pearls still reside in the desert? Or is it simply a strange story that has been passed down through the decades? Does it still sail spectrally over the sands, heading off into the sunset? Perhaps one day, when the sands blow the correct way, we’ll be lucky enough to find out.

The Lost Viking Ship

Quite possibly buried in the 1933 earthquake, a lost Viking Ship apparently resides in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County . In 1933, near Agua Caliente Springs, Louis and Myrtle Botts from the small town of Julian under directions from a strange prospector they had met the night before, stumbled upon the forward half of an old viking ship sticking part way out of the mountains in Tierra Blanco Canyon. Sadly shortly after they discovered it and before they could take any photgraphic evidence, a huge earthquake occurred and covered up the finding.

Strangely enough, Native American legends actually support the theory that a Viking ship made it all the way around Canada, through the Arctic Circle and down the west coast. The Seri Indians' legend states that the "Come From Afar Men" arrived in a long boat with a head like a snake. These men apparently all had yellow beards and hair. They were also accompanied by a red haired woman.
The Mayo Indians also have legends involving a possible Viking Ship. Their legend states that the ship sank off the coast and that the Mayo Indians took in the survivors. These survivors inter married with the tribe and this is the reason why even today occasionally descendants of the Mayo Indians are born with blonde hair and blue eyes.

So just like a lost Spanish Galleon loaded up with pearls, a lost Viking Ship buried under rubble might exist in San Diego County.

U.F.O. nearly causes mid-air collision over Denver

DENVER - The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a mystery in the sky. A mysterious object flying over Denver nearly caused a mid-air collision Monday evening, 9Wants to Know has learned.
As far as investigators know, the mystery object did not show up on radar Monday.
Investigators believe this object, whatever it is, could pose a serious safety hazard to planes.
Radio transmissions from LiveATC.net confirm a nervous-sounding pilot reported a strange object at 5:17 p.m. Monday.
The pilot is heard telling air traffic control: "A remote controlled aircraft, or what? Something just went by the other way ... About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a large remote-controlled aircraft."
The corporate jet, a Cessna Citation 525 CJ1, was flying at 8,000 feet above sea level over Cherry Creek when the mystery object came close enough to make any pilot nervous.
"That's an issue because now we have something in controlled airspace that poses a danger," Former NTSB Investigator and 9NEWS Aviation Analyst Greg Feith said.
Feith listened to the air traffic recordings and believes the object could be one of three things:
- A military or law enforcement drone.
- A remote controlled aircraft.
- A large bird.
"Was this an unmanned vehicle that was part of some sort of law enforcement operation? Was this somebody that had flown a large model aircraft inadvertently into the airspace? Or was it just [a bird that] caught the pilot's eye so he believed it was an aircraft but could have been a very large wing span bird," Feith said.
Any one of those things can be catastrophic if it collides with an airplane.
Three years ago, a bird strike took down a commercial airliner that managed to land safely in the Hudson River. All the passengers survived.
FAA spokesman Mike Fergus says investigators will talk to the pilot and look at other clues.
"The threat is there from a collision standpoint. We'll do as much as we can here to try to track back what time it was. Probably talk with some remote-control clubs, that type of thing," Fergus said.
The mission of investigators now is to identify that mystery object before another close call, or worse.
9Wants to Know has reached out to sources in the military, local, and federal law enforcement.
So far, nobody has been able to tell us if a drone was flying over Denver.
We also called local airports and model aircraft clubs.
John Dickens, president of the Denver RC Eagles, says members are not permitted to fly more than 400 feet above ground level or about 5,700 feet above sea level, due to possible air traffic interference with Centennial Airport. Dickens said he would look into the incident.

Easter Island heads have full bodies?

 Excavations of the bodies have been going on for many years, you can find out more from the Easter Island Project.   It’s generally accepted that the statues were made sometime between 1100 and 1800AD.  There is controversy surrounding why the bodies are buried. Was it time and erosion, or were they buried on purpose?  Aliens?   The soil surrounding the bodies for so long has preserved interesting carvings (petroglyphs, or rock markings).

New photographs reveal what lies beneath the surface of Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world -- the carved bodies of the island's 887 famous guardians.
Most people think of the 63-square-mile Pacific island’s silent stone sentinels as simple heads. But the heads all have bodies -- and a backstory that's only now being pieced together, explained Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project.
“Those statues which are the most photographed are standing in the quarry. They’re buried up to mid-torso level. So it’s understandable that the general public didn’t have a clue that those statues had bodies,” she told FoxNews.com.
Current belief is that the statues were carved between A.D.1100 up until the 1800s, when an influx of Westerners transformed the culture. Van Tilburg, a fellow with The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology  at the University of California, Los Angeles, has only been coming to Easter Island (called Rapa Nui) to do research for twenty years, since 1992. But she first came more than thirty years ago -- and stayed for one clear reason.

'It’s understandable that the general public didn’t have a clue that those statues had bodies.'

- Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project

“I fell in love with the statues,” she said simply.
“I came to Easter Island in 1981. I was impressed with the number of statues and that they seemed accessible to me, they were on the surface. I wanted to know what was below the surface.”
First Van Tilburg documented the island’s statues and those that have been removed to museums; there are 887 inventoried, though she says the number is closer to 1,000. Then she began the next phase of work to reveal what lay beneath the ground -- covered up not intentionally by men, but through centuries of exposure to the environment.
That process has taken 12 years so far, and may take a lifetime of work.
“It’s the first time that one has been excavated in such a way that the documentation was complete and scientific,” she told FoxNews.com. Other groups have dug in the past, and looters have found their way to the remote island as well.
“People have been treasure hunting there for a long time.”
Van Tilburg is conducting a far more thorough examination, however, working in collaboration with a staff of three in California and ten Rapa Nui natives who are doing all of the excavation work. She is currently gearing up for the sixth scheduled dig on the island, which should run from October through November 2012.
Work so far has revealed evidence of ceremonies and very large quantities of paint; the archaeologists believe the workers painted the statues as well as their own bodies.
She found evidence of human burials nearby as well.
And recent digs have revealed just how the massive heads were carved -- some of which tower more than 30 feet in height, from base to top, and weigh more than 80 tons.
“We found over 500 stone tools. The statues were carved with different types, big heavy picks and finer basalt and obsidian tools to finish details,” she explained. Other tools were used to rub surfaces and burnish the statues. Van Tilburg found evidence of post holes as well, big enough for a tree trunk, and rope guides carved in some statues to elevate them into standing position.
But the intent of the giant sculptures, their reason for being, is still not totally clear.
“Think of China where they buried an army of standing warriors. That group was intended to be together as part of a burial feature. Here, on Easter Island, each statue is individually constructed by groups.”
A signed stone recently discovered beneath one of the heads held a petroglyph of a Polynesian style canoe, and a clue: It was meant to signify identity, Van Tilburg said.
“It was meant to identify that statue either to a family group of people or a subgroup, either carvers or the family unit the carvers came from, or beyond that, to the chief,” she told FoxNews.com. The giant sculptures were most likely relatives and not guardians, in other words.
Later sculptures were far more realistic and individualistic, she noted, which also reveals something about the changing culture, as native peoples moved from highly controlled fiefdoms to a society allowing for more individual expression.
“It’s always important to get beneath the surface of things,” she said.