The ruins of an ancient underwater city have been discovered off the coast of Mahabalipuram, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. On April 1, a Joint expedition of divers from the Dorset-based Scientific Exploration Society and the Indian National Institute of Oceanography made the discovery based on the statements of the local fishermen. Spread across several square miles, the ruins evoke vistas of a once-thriving city that hark back to an old Indian legend of the Seven Pagodas.

In the course of the expedition, divers chanced upon structures believed to be man-made. Hailing it as "a discovery of international significance", expedition leader Monty Halls says, "The scale of the site appears to be extremely extensive, with 50 dives conducted over a three-day period covering only a small area of the overall ruin field." In what could best be described as a sneak preview, one of the buildings appears to be a piace of worship.

The myths of Mahabalipuram were first crystallized in the writing of British traveller J. Goldingham. He had visited the coastal town in 1798. The town’s five rathas, or monolithic temples, are the remants of seven temples. For which it was known as Seven Pagodas. The myths refer to six temples in submergence with the seventh one still holding up on the seashore. The myths also describe a large city, so beautiful that the gods became jealous and connived to have a flood inundate it in a single day. Graham Hancock, a member of the expedition team, has been a strong votary of the world’s flood myths that he believes should be studied seriously.

Actual entity or simply mythical mystique, a further exploration of the region is being planned at the beginning of 2003. Should the hypothesis of a probable submersion sometime after the last Ice Age be proved, it would date the discovery at more than 5,000 years old.

Context

Archaeology

Also spelt archaeology, the scientific study of the material remains of past human life and activities. These include human artefacts from the very earliest stone tools to the man-made objects that are buried or thrown away in the present day: everything made by human beings-from simple tools to complex machines, from the earliest houses and temples and tombs to places, cathedrals, and pyramids. Archaeological investigations are a principal source of knowledge of prehistoric, ancient, and extinct culture. The word comes from the Greek archaia (ancient things) and logos (theory or science).