Castro Finds Atlantis?

This article as reported by Kevin Sullivan in the October 10th, 2002 edition of the Washington Post the government of former President Fidel Castro had contracted a Canadian company to map the ocean floor in the western tip of Cuba. Paul Weinzweig and wife Paulina Zelitsky scoured the ocean floor using their vessel - Ulises. Weinzweig and Zelitsky work for Advanced Digital Communications and are essentially treasure hunting as well as prospecting using sonar on their 260 foot trawler formerly owned by Jacques Cousteau. Paulina Zelitsky had also designed submarine bases for the Soviet military and was born in Russia.

One day in the summer of 2000 they stumbled across some unusual rock formations appearing between 1,900 to 2,500 feet below. These rocks appeared in a symmetrical geometric formation unlike anything Paul and Paulina had ever seen. The sonar reveals what appears to be a city composed of roads, pyramids and buildings spread out over miles of the ocean floor. Naturally this brought about more discussion about the lost city of Atlantis.

Atlantis was discussed by the famous philosopher Plato in the dialogues of Timaeus and Critias. In those writings Plato had heard discussions between Socrates and Critias about the Egyptian priest Solon who was told of Atlantis by other Egyptian priests. The location was described as being beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar) and was larger than Libya and Asia combined. This island was lost to earthquakes and floods and disappeared into the sea according to this recount. This geographical description doesn't quite place it anywhere near Cuba however I would not throw out the baby with the bathwater. If the Atlanteans were an advanced civilization it wouldn't be unreasonable to believe they had possibly explored the nearby Atlantic to places near Cuba and anywhere else on the globe for that matter.

The only opposing theory to Atlantis is put forth by Manuel Iturralde who said that if there is conclusive evidence that these structures are man-made then it would suggest that these could have in fact been Mayan structures and the oral tradition that some Mayans disappeared on an island in a deluge. Iturralde said also it is still possiblel it could be a natural formation.

In an interview with researcher, Linda Moulton Howe (best known for her research into cattle mutilations), Zelitsky and Weinzweig revealed a few fascinating details which were not disclosed in the Washington Post article. What they found using the Robotic Ocean Vehicle (ROV) was that the structures were composed of large stones that are approximately five feet on a side by fifteen feet long which resemble those at Easter Island and Stonehenge and contain inscriptions.
One inscription was identified as a Central American cross.

According to an article by NARKAS, Scientific and Archaeological Association published 3/10/2007, some of the stones were rectangular, others circular, and pyramidal. The stones were white and not dark volcanic rock as expected. The blocks were sampled for analysis and discovered to be granite which is not found in Cuba nor the Yucatan but rather Central Mexico! The stones also had organic fossils which are only found near the surface.

A co-worker brought this article to my attention back in 2002. He had emailed the National Geographic Society for further information regarding the findings in March 2002 and essentially was told "An expedition to explore the area off the Cuban coast began this past summer, with permits from the government of Cuba. At this time nothing definitive has been reported." They also told him he might find an article in the July 2001 issue of National Geographic of interest about sunken galleons. This was more or less a canned response and left much to be desired. My colleague at work wanted me to independently inquire about this with NGS as well. What I got was an index card with the NGS logo on it and a photocopy of the Washington Post article which basically tells me that there is no additional information that they wish to share.

Most of these articles are old but this topic warrants interest and further investigation which to my knowledge has been on media silence since the original article was published. A few other online articles have been published which don't reveal any real new developments beyond the original discovery and exploration in the summer of 2001. The National Geographic Society expressed interest in this discovery so one would think that there would be quite a bit of information since the first article was published yet it seems to have been dropped.

My opinion is that Atlantis was not limited to the area near the Pillars of Hercules but rather was an advanced civilization which could have been seafaring and had explored many continents, islands and influenced other cultures all over the world.

Anyone with further information or recent developments please post a reply.


References and related articles:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/05/0528_020528_sunkencities.html
http://www.narkas.org/EN/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=29
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover031505.htm
http://www.cuba.cu/ciencia/citma/ama/museo/exmar.htm
http://www.earthfiles.com