Fig.97Those Who Tell
The idea of a sunken civilization in the Pacific area was first proposed by the explorer James
Churchward in the late 19th century. Churchward claimed that, through studying ancient texts, he
had discovered the signs of an advanced civilization in our distant past that existed on a long lost
continent that had sunk below the Pacific Ocean about 60,000 years ago after a cataclysmic
earthquake. He then set about publishing his findings in a series of 5 books collectively known as
the ‘Legend of Mu’. At the time Churchward had been working with a French Doctor called
Auguste Le Plongeon who believed he had managed to decipher some ancient Mayan texts.
However there are many who believe that Le Plongeon’s translations were grossly inaccurate and
that because Churchward, though a notable explorer, had never discovered anything of great
importance, he had fabricated his lost continent out of desperation. Comparisons of geological
finds containing many striking similarities between fossil and sedimentary strata found both in
India and Africa that were made in the 1800’s at first, tended to support Churchward’s theory, but
as scientists gained a better understanding of plate tectonics, opposition to his sunken continent
theory increased ever more dramatically.
Since that time however, there have been other discoveries that lend a little more weight to the
idea. A German Naturalist by the name of Ernst Heinrich Haekel also reasoned that Lemuria
could explain the absence any fossil remain of early man reasoning that any remains would now
be lost: “If man originated on a sunken continent in the Indian Ocean, all the fossils of the
‘missing link’ are now under the sea.” Many others reason that a great continent once existing in
the pacific could also account for the wide distribution of large flightless birds that only exist in
the southern hemisphere such as the Australian emu, the ostrich and once the dodo. The
distribution of Lemur’s has also been attributed to Lemuria.
Charles Hapgood published a book entitled ‘Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings’ which expanded
on Churchwards theory. Later author and ‘Maverick Archeologist’, David Hatcher-Childress,
examined Hapgood’s theory in detail in his book ‘Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria the Pacific’ and
did well to substantiate much of his work..