Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

by Graham Hancock

From the author of the bestselling Fingerprints of the Gods comes a fascinating voyage of underwater discovery that will forever change the way we think about the birth of civilization.

Fans of The Sign and the Seal and Heaven’s Mirro r will delight in Graham Hancock’s Underworld , his latest work of archaeological detection. In this mesmerizing book, Hancock merges cutting-edge science with historical myth to come up with a new explanation for the origins of civilization as we know it today. At the end of the last Ice Age melting ice caused sea levels around the world to rise by approximately 400 feet, radically changing the shape of the world. Hancock, steeped in the ancient flood myths that speak of early civilizations, sets out to discover whether these myths have any basis in reality. Using the latest computerized “inundation maps” that show the shape of the world’s coastlines as they looked at intervals throughout the meltdown, Hancock finds astonishing correspondences with the ancient flood myths. And, when he starts to explore these areas underwater on several diving expeditions, he actually discovers ruins beneath the sea exactly where the myths say they should be. Hancock offers dramatic accounts of his explorations of the waters of the Arabian Sea, the Mediterranean, and the sea of Japan. This entertaining and provocative book of discovery presents the first hard evidence of these ancient cities, and gives all of us stunning insight into the origins and development of civilization.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Archaeology, Anthropology, Ancient History, Audiobook

784 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Graham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx), The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval), Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind and Magicians of the Gods. He also wrote and presented the Channel 4 documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age and Quest for the Lost Civilisation. His first novel, Entangled, was published in 2010.

Reviews

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars for Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization (audiobook) by Graham Hancock read by Dennis Kleinman.
I’m just fascinated by this subject. Graham Hancock does an amazing job researching early civilizations. This book is a really in-depth look into all the research he has done over several decades looking for evidence of man-made structures that were built during the last ice age. Some of these structures are estimated to have been built twelve thousand years ago. Since the melting of the ice age, sea level has risen four hundred feet, and that has made exploring these sites extremely difficult. I’m glad that Hancock has persevered and found this evidence that challenges academia’s notion of how civilization started.

[Jon Ureña · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enormous and fantastic early book of Hancock’s path towards proving the existence of lost civilizations. This one was written in the late 90s and very early 2000s, pre 9/11, and its leisurely pace differs from his latter books. I don’t know whether to attribute this to the different mindset present in those times before the organized chaos and destruction of 9/11 corrupted the West, or that in his later years Hancock has been more focused on getting his arguments out, but in this one he sets up the places he investigates, the people he meets, how the specific diving attempts go, etc. You learn what he’s gone through to get his information, but if you are just after the information itself, it might feel superfluous at times.

I went to this one after his latest book “America Before”. Hancock and others have seeded into the public consciousness the knowledge that a lot of the exposed landmass of the earth disappeared during the cataclysmic meltwater pulses that happened from around 12,800 years ago to 8000 years ago. That's a reliable scientific reality, and these days people can make with a computer maps of the continents as they were then. I thought that this book I’m reviewing would have focused almost exclusively in the ruins found in the submerged lands, but during this time all the dates for the meltwater pulses hadn’t been narrowed down to their current years, and also there was no hint that the Ice Age “began to end” because a series of comet fragment impacts bombarded this planet during 21 years or so, essentially destroying the world 12,800 years ago (link for a single article of the evidence that has mounted these last years). I go more in depth about this in my review of his most recent book “America Before”.

Those who devote their lives to finding out the real history of humanity clash with tremendous enemies: the public, that has been indoctrinated into a narrative that has little to do with reality, and the academic and political authorities, that have reasons related to power, ideologies and religions to ignore or attack any evidence that threatens the narrative. As far as the West is told over and over, history began with Sumeria around 6000 years ago in the Middle East, the same region of the world that spawned the alien Abrahamic religions that hijacked our civilization (thank you for giving in to the murderous mob, Constantine, you complete dickhead), the area we are dragged to over and over to sacrifice our people in wars that only “benefit” us in new mounting doses of induced guilt and floods of incompatible populations (but that serve their purpose as Israel's and Saudi Arabia’s ambitions are concerned).

The following are realities, for some of which evidence keeps mounting, that most people simply aren’t aware of, but that once you realize them the holes in the history of this planet become evident.
-) The landmasses of this planet during the Ice Age were significantly different:

The areas painted red were lost in distinct meltwater pulses from 12,800 years ago, when the Taurid meteor stream bombarded us, to around 8000 years ago. All the areas lost were coasts and fertile lowlands. Notice how most of our currently prosperous areas were then entirely or significantly buried under two miles thick ice sheets, or close enough that the temperatures would have been unpalatable. Entire subcontinents disappeared, along with myriads of islands that don’t appear given the resolution of the image. Those were the best places in which to settle. Human beings had already been anatomically modern for around 120,000 years in conservative estimates, not to mention there were other species of human beings who even reached the Neolithic before we did (the Neanderthals and the Denisovans to name two). It’s not speculation that human beings created cities in areas that are now submerged: the Indians found one of the previously thought to be mythical cities underwater, and its artifacts date to as late as 9000 years ago. However, no significant underwater archeological surveys have been done not only because it would cost a lot and bring little money in: most people even in academia believe it to be a waste of time. In this book, one of the people Hancock interviews mentions that he thinks that marine archeology would be a waste of time, because, paraphrasing, “you could only find arrowheads down there, buried in sediment”. We have the scientific establishment of the last two centuries or so to thank for this, with its consistent “nudging” of dates to fit a certain narrative, attributing certain remains or ruins to far later periods, ignoring evidence contrary to the narrative and even directly destroying it (Hancock learns here of one particularly infuriating case in Malta). Agriculture didn’t start in Sumeria either: it’s well known that people were planting stuff in Turkey and the Middle East at least as early as when the Younger Dryas ended 11,600 years ago. In other parts of the world, the Jomon people that operated in Japan uninterrupted for around 14,000 years were planting crops even earlier than that. Why do we keep hearing over and over in the media and from the establishment that Sumeria started it all?
-) A cataclysm killed the last Ice Age. The evidence is mainly a sheet of microspherules and in general impact proxies only known to be produced in that configuration with extraterrestrial impacts, along with the effects of 10% of the planet’s biomass having burned (the equivalent of the entire Amazon burning), in a geological strata present seemingly in most of the world, and dating from 12,800 years ago. Craters have been found recently, for example in Greenland, that might have been produced in that period, but the dating for those needs more work. As a result, huge areas of the two miles thick ice sheets broke off, and the immediately heated water poured into the oceans destroying the natural heater of the planet, plummeting the temperatures and causing an enormous deluge, plunging the planet into the Younger Dryas. It was the first deluge of a series. The other biggest seemed to have happened at the end of the Younger Dryas 11,600 years ago, and another 8000 years ago, both from meltwater pulses. As Hancock documents in this book and others, in the myths that have dates attached to them they point to these meltwater pulses where deluges actually happened, and are scientific realities.
-) Our ancestors weren’t idiots. Even homo sapiens sapiens, a species I’m not very fond of, has been anatomically modern, so basically as intelligent as we are, for about 120,000 years in conservative estimates. Given what we already know from the previous points, is it reasonable to believe that we started doing complicated shit only after the Ice Age ended? Or is it more likely that the works of our distant ancestors have been more or less deliberately nudged into a specific narrative that supports the religious/ideological establishment, including monuments such as the Sphynx (evidence regarding geological erosion says that it must be at the very latest 7000 years old, which is impossible for contemporary archaeology)? Apart from our line, the Apocalypse at the end of the last Ice Age seemed to have killed off every remaining human species, including the Neanderthals and Denisovans (although there are strange remnants from later millennia in different places of the world, markedly those that didn’t suffer significant changes in their geography, such as Peru, where mummies with genetically elongated skulls and non-local hair colors are relatively common. See below).


As an aside, wherever you find skulls like that or a local history of ancient weird people that suggests it, you find angular, very proficiently made megalithic stuff devoid of writing, like the following in Peru:


They were attributed to the Incas, although the later constructions for which they were definitely responsible don't come remotely close to the above, and back when the Spanish conquistadors were around and asking about who made this impressive stuff (because even the Europeans in the age of discovery weren't able to reproduce it), the locals said that their ancestors weren't responsible, that it was already there when they came.

The Neanderthals and Denisovans weren’t stupid subhumans, as we have been led to believe with those depictions of hunched cavemen. They were already creating art around 20,000 years before we did. As we’ll see regarding Malta, some of the most ancient megalithic complexes might have been made by one or more of these species.

In this book Hancock investigates underwater ruins, and what the history of the area might relate to them, mainly in India, Malta, Japan and the Bahamas. In India he connects with a local team that was following reports of local fishermen regarding ruins 5 kilometres from the coast and at around 20 metres in depth. With limited funding, because no government seems to want to get involved in this stuff, they do find obvious man-made remains of submerged buildings which, because of the geological history of inundations in that area, put them deep into the past. As mentioned in the appendix, Indian researchers found much greater ruins around 2002, but further explorations have clashed with the local government; as in the case of research into the man-made mountain of Gunung Padang in Indonesia, excavations were underway until a Muslim got in charge of the country, and consequently work stopped. Or when some people wanted to excavate around the tower of Harran, an enormously significant astronomical site in what is now Turkey, the government said that they weren’t “interested in the city’s pre-Islamic past”.

Malta’s case regarding its amazing megalithic monumental complexes is indicative of how scientific progress clashes with human stupidity: the local government and authorities wanted to set the earliest populations of the island in the Neolithic both because of personal ambitions and to contradict certain remains that spoke of a Neanderthal Paleolithic presence in the islands: Neanderthals were thought as subhuman, so some government officials didn’t believe that the possibility of the locals having significant Neanderthal ancestry was a good look for their attempts to become a part of the EU (which is even more ironic given the nature of the EU). Then we have the Hypogeum, an insane underground “temple” complex (everything seems to be a temple for archaeologists), which looks like this:


Apart from the remains of around 7000 people that were found inside in what many think now was the result of a flood or several scouring the island and pouring the remains inside the complex, in the walls of the Hypogeum there was art that wouldn’t be out of place in caverns dating from the Upper Palaeolithic. Hancock learns from a local researcher, something that seems to be corroborated by others, that there used to be a painting that depicted a bison-bull that went extinct when the Ice Age ended, but because that would obviously mean that the Hypogeum was built during the Ice Age, and the official narrative considers it impossible, the painting was deliberately destroyed. Apart from paintings, inside were found depictions of the Mother Goddess, particularly this fine statue:

Troublingly, the “cult” of the Mother Goddess, depictions of it, has been around for some 20,000 years, since the Palaeolithic. So either the cult survived unchanged until the Hypogeum was built according to the official narrative around 5,000 BC, or this is another piece of evidence setting back the construction of the complex to the middle of the last Ice Age.
There are also strange man-made “cart ruts” that run along the islands:

There are many, many of them, and there's no doubt that they are man made. Although they seem like the indentations made by wheels, the ground is hard rock. There's no way a simple cart would do that no matter how often it passed. More intriguingly, many of those ruts go underwater and run through submerged areas that also feature excavated and quarried caves, making it obvious that there was a sophisticated human presence before at least the last major deluge 8000 years ago.

Japan has the Jomon culture. They officially invented pottery, which looked Cthulhian as fuck:

Their anthropomorphic figurines also looked really weird:

They were known to create megalithic monuments and complexes such as this (assuming some of them aren’t older):

But regarding more ancient Japan, Hancock and company looked into the mesmerizing underwater Yonaguni monument, a large and multifaceted, for many clearly man-made megalithic complex with an unknown purpose, and that must have been created when that area was above water, so during the Younger Dryas (before 11,600 years ago) or during the Ice Age:


In the Bahamas one can find the Bimini Road, a mostly uniform sort of “highway” made of megaliths, that for some is man-made and for others an accident of nature. The most interesting part for me about this is that the Bimini Road seems to be depicted in the Piri Reis map above water, and as part of an enlarged Bahamas complex (top left):



As it's well known, Piri Reis made a world map compiled from “extremely ancient, crumbling maps” that had originally seemed to come from the library of Alexandria before their relatively short stint in Constantinople.

Through the book, Hancock considers the cartographical evidence that in the deep past, possibly in the late Ice Age, some civilization or civilizations mapped the entire world, and more or less distorted copies of their knowledge have appeared over and over in maps from the ancient Greek and Egyptian era to the age of discovery (including Columbus' influences for exploring West). If you don’t know anything about this it might sound nuts, but it bears considering maps like the portolan charts that navigators used: they appeared out of nowhere fully formed having extremely accurate depictions of the coasts (in contraposition to the crappier maps of the era), and then failed to progress in later years. The more interesting part is that in these kinds of maps found all over the world and adapted from older sources, some areas were “wildly incorrect”: the navigators exploring those areas found that the information didn’t match what they were seeing (some islands didn’t exist, some land bridges were straits, some coasts were shortened), but when comparing those “made up” features with modern maps of the landmasses as they looked before and after the various deluges (so from 12,800 years ago to 8000 years ago), those “made up” features match consistently with the world as it was then. As a single example, the legends in Ireland told of an island east of their coast called Hy-Brasil, and it appeared in many of these maps copied from ancient sources. However, none that looked for it found it, and they wouldn’t have been able to, because it now lies submerged, and has lied there since some deluge, more than 20 metres under the surface of the Atlantic in the same place the maps placed it. There are countless examples of this phenomenon. More likely than coincidence it seems to me that there was, as Hancock and others put it, a now lost civilization that collapsed with the cataclysm that ended the Ice Age, a civilization able to map the entire world, whose influence possibly spanned most of it.

Recent technological advances such as LIDAR managed to find what was considered impossible: interconnected cities in the Amazonian area now overrun by vegetation, and that housed millions of people. Before that point it was thought to be impossible that the Amazon rainforest could support towns, let alone millions of people. And yet, there they are, waiting for the brave teams that can venture their way into the ruins. In a similar manner, I hope some technological advance allows teams of marine archaeologists to easily map the lands that the deluges at the end of the Ice Age submerged in a matter of days or hours. Just imagine the wonders that are waiting down there, untouched by the greedy, corrupt hands of this stupid species.

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explored underwater archaeology with Mr Hancock. Found his theories interesting, but 'over the top.'
The book's segment about Ancient Japan/Jomon held my attention ... Would like to read a condensed version of his research, one less speculative ...

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This hefty tome describes Hancock's search for archaeological evidence of human civilizations prior to the rise of Sumer and Egypt. Describing contemporary understandings of geography consequent upon changing climate, his focus is on lands submerged since the last global ice age maximum. This takes him around the globe, to India, Malta, Taiwan and Japan.

The book is ultimately inconclusive and may be seen, like Hancock's other books, as an assortment of reasons to think such investigations are worth pursuing. Personally, I appreciate Hancock's avoidance of bold assertion and his inclusion of mainstream, contrarian opinions. While not convinced of an antediluvian civilization, he did make me feel grateful for the work he and others have put into such researches.

The book is nicely illustrated with colored plates. Some of the black and white maps, however, are inadequate, either being too small or insufficiently notated as regards textual references.

[Wee Lassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this book has taught me only one thing, it’s that no one throws shade like an author forced to put up with scientists and their egos. But in all seriousness, a truly fascinating look into humanity’s lost history.

[The Overflowing Inkwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to call this one done. I skimmed massive portions of the last 30% of this book, but I don't honestly think I'm missing out on anything here.
Unlike the previous three books of his I've read (Fingerprints of the Gods, America Before, and Supernatural), this book felt incredibly different in writing style: lots of what ifs???? and Headline Worthy Sentence That Trails Off......
It felt gimmicky.
I don't know if it's because I'd read several of his works prior to this, and didn't need as much convincing about his theories, but this book felt exhausting. I didn't feel the need to go into every tiny detail of every map and inundation. It was like going to buy something from a salesman, having already heard the pitch, and being forced to wait through the pitch again before he'd ring you up. It doesn't sound crazy to think that there's a lot of land underwater that didn't used to be, that these old coastlines were inhabited and that there was/maybe still is more evidence on the start of our civilizations and cultures and ideas out there under the waves.
It didn't feel necessary for him to have included places like the Maldives where he didn't really get time to go in depth (both literally with the dives he was unable to do much of and metaphorically with the chapters he wrote on them). The Maldives could definitely have been left out, and accounts of all the dives that failed to reach the site he was looking for could also have been cut in length or left out entirely.
I'm not as technically minded as he is, and it was difficult to read through so many accounts concerning depth readings, measurements, directions things were laid out in and how much they leaned in what direction to what height -- it just wasn't as pleasant a reading experience as other books of his have been. I finished Fingerprints in two days, Supernatural in three; America Before took me just under a fortnight, but this one I've been picking up and putting down and coming back to and setting aside for nearly three months now. It's probably just me on this one, since, like I said, I didn't need all the convincing he set out to do to explain why he thought his theories were strong, and I'm not that into numbers, but it definitely feels like this one could have been condensed a bit more.

[Hyzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a lot more boring than I was expecting. I enjoy what I shelve as "weird shit"--stuff like this, where they are basically historical conspiracy theories. But this involved a lot more specific math and general details (how a diving suit works in horrific detail, for instance) than a lot of other books like this I read (including other Hancock stuff I've read) and I was just a bit bored throughout.

[Mike Gowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining book. I like the idea that there was a world wide civilization that was the source of the flood myth that seem to be common among different cultures. It makes sense that human beings sailed and settled all over the world in the past 20,000 years and mapped it and observed the stars. It makes sense that a lot of the settlement and building was done along the coastlines and that these were the places that were most vulnerable to a rise in the oceans that occurred as the last Ice Ages ended. Of course, it's tough to prove any of this, and ultimately, pushing back prehistory by several thousand years gets you mostly more museum fatigue if you factor in the artifacts put on display. It also might contribute to juvenile delinquency and other symptoms of adolescent rebellion when the kids are forced to swallow this stuff in school, but I am primarily neither a scientist nor a journalist, merely a conduit for speculative correlations. Butterfly conjectures and who knows what all.

Atlantis comes into this story, too, and how Columbus knew where he was going, so it's a great read. It is quite long, though, and I wish that the maps were bigger and that the photographs were more revealing.

[Spencer Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was infuriating. Graham Hancock has the idea that the flooding resulting from the last ice age submerged several advanced civilizations from around the world, which is an interesting idea and is all that this 800 page book says. Graham, who makes it clear countless times throughout the book that he's not a scientist and doesn't have any expertise or training, DOES have his SCUBA license and he believes, and posits at excruciating length, that he will find these submerged civilizations. He describes various dives he undertakes, various arguments he has with scientists, and ends the book having discovered nothing, but urging the scientists to do more research on his ideas. All in all, a waste of time. 1 star because I hate it, 2 stars for the idea behind it.

[Nasty Lady MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was given the book to borrow due to my likings of all weird things History (I am currently watching that ridiculous Ancient Aliens show which should tell you a lot about me-no aliens in this book, thankfully). This was overall a pretty dry read, but there were some interesting bits here and there. I also liked that it focused on more obscure ancient societies than the ones you learn about in World History. I doubt I'll do a full review on this, but I did enjoy reading it even though some of the things were a bit out there.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Demonstrates that remains of ancient (pre 8,000-10,000 BCE) cultures would most likely be found off present coasts, as sea level has risen hundreds of feet since the end of the last ice age.

[Debasish Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mind Game of Interpreting Mythology:

The book is a monument.. a big fat volume with small fonts and compressed spacing, of exactly 674 pages –if you excuse yourself from the postscripts and appendices, and at the end of the book, Hancock rues “ even so, there has not been space in this book for me to recount the results and experiences of all my own dives and expeditions – let alone all the dives and explorations that should be done in the future if we really want to know what’s out there”


The book divided into six parts:
Part 1: Initiation : 80 pages
Part 2: India-1: ~100 pages
Part 3: India-2: ~100 pages
Part 4: Malta : ~150 pages
Part 5: Ancient Maps : ~100 pages
Part 6: Japan, Taiwan, China: ~120 pages


The author is by no means an armchair theorist : one who learnt diving only to experience the subjects of his book & has gone through the entire unabridged six volume set of Ralph Griffith’s translations of the Rig, Atharva, Yajur & Sama Vedas, could hardly be called so. Not only he has undertaken expensive trips to far-away places to explore and co-relate the evidences , he had hired a dedicated research assistant from Oxford : Sharif Sakr to research the book’s subject & a ‘resident expert’ on sea level changes : Dr Glenn Milne of Durham University. And to top it all, dealing with the red tape and ancient bureaucracy of India, is a feat in itself!


Neither the books is targeted for casual readers.


Packed with more in-depth and hands-on research than the FOTG, the book may sometimes read like a textbook demanding skim-reading, but I felt those portions are equally important in a sense that the book is written in two layers : the first layer is the author’s travelogue and photographic co-relations making a fast reading pace & once through with all the interesting anecdotes and challenging incidents the author undertook in exploring the underworld, the reader may well re-read and uncover the second layer of the book : the book of mythology and scientific explanations.


His dive explorations can be chronologically mentioned as below:
- Leant Diving : Nov 1996
- Yonaguni, Japan: March1997
- Kerama, Japan: April 1999
- Yonaguni, Japan: June 1999,
- Bimini Road, Bahamas: Aug 1999
- Alexandria, Egypt : Sept 1999
- Dwarka, Western India : March 2000
- Kerama, Japan: April 2000
- Yonaguni, Japan: Sept 2000,
- Maldives: Feb 2001
- Poompuhur, South India: Feb 2001
- Yonaguni, Japan: March 2001
- Kerama, Japan: March 2001
- Qawra Point, Malta: June 2001
- Taiwan: August 2001


The history of pre-history:

- Modern human beings appeared around 40,000 years back. Inaccessible European cave arts ( e.g. Chauvet Cave in France) are attributed to an age of 30,000 to 12,000 years back.
- LCM ( Last Glacial Maximum) is referred to the time between 22000 years and 17000 years back, when the ice sheets were at their maximum cover
- Palaeo-lithic or Old Stone Age refers to all history before 12000 years ago. Neo-lithic refers to New Stone Age from 12,000 years ago ( 10,000 BC) onwards. Copper Age started in 3000 BC ; Bronze Age in 2000 BC; and Iron Age began in 1000 BC
- Palaelithic human activities are believed to be that of hunter gatherers, while the onset of agriculture & farming are attributed to neo-lithic humans.
- Global super-floods of huge 100 meter high Ocean wave rise caused due to rapid ice melting; accompanied by un-imaginable volcanoes and earth quakes gripped the planet from 17000 years back upto 7000 years back. Almost 25 million square kilometres of earth’s surface was inundated during this period.
- Specifically, there were three Global super-floods: around 14000 years back, 11000 years back and again 7000 years back; that caused disappearance of many lands and life-forms & made seemingly safe places as beachfront properties.


The Indian hypothesis:


North India:

- At the end of the Ice Age, a costal civilization on the Western shores (may be in the present day Gulf of Cambay/Khambat where an underwater city spreading 9 km has recently been discovered in 2001 and wooden pieces from the site has been carbon dated to 7500 BC) who memorized the Vedas from an earlier epoch and practiced Yoga, and was lost by the Great Global Floods.
- The survivors migrated northwards and set up fully-functional village farming communities at Mehrgarh ( in Pakistan) and other Indus-Saraswati civilizations in the foothills of Hindukush, Karakoram & Himalayas at around 7000BC – a precursor to Cities like Mohenjodaro & Harappa . Legends suggest Manu and the Seven Sages ( Viswamitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja, Gotama, Atri, Vasistha & Kasyapa) survived the flood and, migrated to the Himalayas along with plant seeds for a new agricultural beginning, and they were responsible for renewing life and reproducing the four Veda’s from their memories. Moreover, the similarity of the Vedic flood and the Seven sages with Sumerian & Egyptian mythology suggests that the seven sages in the retreat of the Himalayas, not only manipulated the kingdoms in India but in Egypt, Mesopotamia, South India and elsewhere as well.
- That the Vedas were written by the ancients of Indus-Saraswati civilization, rules out the theory that Europeans called as “Aryas” once migrated to India and took control and therefore are the creators of these ancient texts such as Vedas, Mahabharata, Ramayan, Puranas etc.


South India:

- An ancient civilization called Kumari Kandam once spread upto 1500 km into the Ocean, from present day Kanya Kumari upto a much larger Maldives. The cities of Ten-madurai, Kavatapuram & Uttara Madurai played role as seats of Academic learnings respectively around 11600, 7200 and 3500 years ago-coinciding with the three Great Global Floods. When the Kumari Kandam civilization that also included Ravana’s kingdom was destroyed by rising oceans, the surviving Seven Sages( Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu & Vasistha) retreated to Arunachela mountain at Tiruvannamalai. By precession concepts, Arunachela lies 48 degrees east of Giza and 24 degrees east of Angkor Wat : other sites of flood survival.
- Both the Dravidian civilization of Kumari Kandam & the Vedic civilization of Indus & the North Western India seem to be intimately inter-related. Also the ancient Redins of the Maldives are found to share their culture with the olden civilization on the Gulf of Cambay. Obliquely enough, Maldives is theorised to be the remains of a lost island, Taprobana, or Tribubhana because the references of this lost island to Sri Lanka looks misplaced because of their offset in ancient maps.



The Malta hypothesis:


- An ancient palaeo-lithic civilization once lived on the Plaines of Europe, well skilled with building megalithic structures with astronomical precision, and at the end of the Ice Age between 17000 years ago and 12000 years ago, they migrated to the warm climate of the southern point of Europe- via Italy, Sicily -to the present day disjointed island of Malta.
- Skills of the ancients are evident from the gigantic Gigantija; the Hypogeum – representative of a vast underground network of tunnels; and the solar temple of Mnajdra – where the sunrays follow a cyclical pre-designed pendulum path between the summer and winter solstices. But still un-interpreted are the submerged cart-ruts. Hypogeum was found to be filled with human skeletons in an earthen mixture, that may be due to the Global Floods pushing the human remains into the underground caves.


The Japanese hypothesis:


- Japan, the land beloved of the Gods, is one of those rare lands which did not suffer the complete annihilation of its ancient culture at the end of the Ice Age due to reverse floods and tectonic re-adjustments between 17000 & 7000 years ago. Japan and Taiwan appear in old Ice Age maps as Antilia & Santanaze, the lure of which drew Columbus erroneously to set out westwards on the Atlantic but he made the obvious landfall at America, and not Japan. Japan was home to the Jomon who inhabited that land some 16500 years ago, deep in the palaeo-lithic pre-history. The Jomon were a sea-faring civilization frequenting and migrating to North and South Americas, Fiji and other places; and are believed to be a rice-cultivating and makers of exquisite potteries.
- There existed a large landmass near the yellow sea and Korean peninsula that figure in ancient Japanese and Chinese mythology, now under the sea, which was populated by Yayoi tribe of the Koreas, and there existed an increasing inter-cultural fusion between the Yayoi and Jomon.
- The Japanese mythology of the sea-king sanctuary, the enchanted Spirit island and the Land of Yomi described in Kojiki and Nihongi texts; the Chinese mythological íslands of the Sea Mage’ recorded in the Shih Chi & Hua I Thu.. all point to a place under the sea somewhere between Okinawa, Taiwan and the Yellow Sea.


Theories not fully developed:


There are few theories that demand a detailed treatment:
- The ancient landmass of Sunda Shelf that covered the present geographies of Malaysia & Indonesia: what are their myths and ancient civilization. Were they having regular interaction with ancient civilizations in the Indian continent, as evident from Hindu icons in Balinese & other south eastern mythologies.
- The story of Ramayan and the mythology of creating the land bridge between India and Sri Lanka by the monkey army of Lord Hanuman: how does it gel with the scientific finding that the two lands were once connected. And if it is one of those cases of corruption in the re-telling the fables, do we have some evidence of the original pre-history?
- The story of Mahabharat & that of Lord Krishna need more close inter-relation with the suggested pre-history of Indus valley, in view of the steatite tablets unearthed at Mohenjo Daro depicting Krishna & also the iconography of Lord Krishna appearing in other religions such as the Todaiji temple at Nara,Japan and in Balinese texts and temples
- The pre-history of Orissa & the Solar temple of Konark built by Lord Krishna’s son, Samba.



A strong cocktail of geology, archaeology, pre-history, mythology, ancient texts and maps, and science of inundation mapping; the book grips the reader in its flow with every swirl of its audacious sweep of pre-history. Slowly but surely. The very ancient maps like the Ptolemic maps, Reinal’s map, Cantino planispheres, Hereford mappamundi – though gives the general idea of the ancient’s knowledge, the details and the texts in the maps themselves are hardly readable, may be due to the fact that they are copies of copies of ancient copies that have landed in the book- surely if we could have the maps re-drawn and presented with all their details, it would have made it more enjoyable.



Finally, as the author says..”one of the problems with the game of interpreting myth : the meaning ascribed may be more in the eye of the beholder than anything else..”

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be required reading for students in ancient history and archeology. The data is stunning. I'm very glad the author took the time (and money) to research and write this book. It is not light reading, as Hancock writes meticulously, probably in order to be verifiable in his assumptions, to record the controversy/different opinions, and possibly to have these monuments described so that future generations can reconstruct what was there. Therefore, at times, there are more details than a casual reader will be interested in. And even I, at times, despaired when listening to the audio book detailing failed dives while comuting. Hence the one star less than perfect.
However, as a source about the submerged cultures it is invaluable and marvelous in its rich details. I am sure there will be a time when generations will look back on Graham Hancock and know he had been right all along, and wonder why people in the 20th/21th century refused to see the massive amount of evidence and the logic he uses.

One other thing: reading about many cities submerged by meltwater after the last glacial maximum, it is inescapable to envision what we are in for now that the last of that ice is melting. One can only cross one's fingers and hope that the three worldwide floods from ice damns breakage, will not, in our time, be followed by fourth one. Flooded cities are no longer an anomaly - after reading this book. All of this has happened before.

[Bhuwan Chand · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliantly research book which opens our eyes to so much hidden under water, across the world. I was truly amazed by the in-depth research done by Graham Hancock, it truly is his passion. There is so much more to learn. This book opened up a whole new path for me to pursue further study and gain better understanding of the Indian civilization, which is bucketted under mythology by biased experts and historians.

And not just about India, the book as opened my eyes towards the old forgotten history of the world - facts are hidden under water around Malta, Japan, Maldive, all around the world.

We are trying to go deep into space, while as a human race we have forgotten and ignoring our past which is so much closer to us. Same space age technology can help us understand these mysteries of our own past which will ultimately help us understand the future as well. Whatever happened in the past, Its all going to happen again...

[Trisha Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, I've read most of Hancocks books , this one makes me want to take up diving

[Annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is thought provoking and possible, but a bit too much like a travel blog, which made it very long. I would like more facts and less storytelling. Other than that I liked it. The fact that landmasses change as do waterways is a very good point. Also it changes a lot where people live.

[Amy O · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought a globe to follow along with Graham Hancock in all his books and documentaries. It's so interesting to me that these underworld relics exist.... I really love this book.

[Chris Marchan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are not very many books on this subject (YET), so I had to read it for the second time in a couple of years. It could have gotten the job done in half the pages, but the territory covered is well worth the wade.

Graham is now a fixture in the ongoing study of our very ancient past. He is a very thorough researcher, yet he is not stodgy. You feel like you are right there with him on a dive or negotiating with officials or having an off the cuff discussion with a scientist. Increasingly, there are more and more sites discovered and realized as important clues to our lost human history on land. Just about anyone can go there and walk around and touch the stones.

But there is something utterly otherworldly and mysterious about poking around 90 feet below the ocean's surface and realizing that what is seen was made by humans long, long ago. The implications of the correlated calamity are brought into staggering reality once the reader grasps the universality of the transformation of the earth's climate at the end of the ice age. One then realizes the extremity of the test put upon mankind and can easily extrapolate all the consequences into a modern scenario.

I would have liked to have seen more detailed drawings of the sites explored in this book as it is often difficult to imagine the layout just by a verbal description, though Graham does a marvelous job. Schematics or even maps with cardinal point designations might have made it possible for a reader to do additional research and open a wide range of discussions pertaining to the purpose of such enigmatic structures. In the same way as the Nazca lines are not discernible until you fly over them, perhaps we might have an objective advantage in seeing the results of a careful survey.

All of Mr. Hancock's books are fascinating and I would recommend them to anyone who hungers for insightful, intelligent exploration of our history on this planet. As many have expressed when looking into the rapidly increasing body of evidence resulting from modern day archeological investigations, it occurs to me that in a previous incarnation, the human race may have solved some of the oppressive growing pains now experienced by our burgeoning population. While reading this book, at several times I would pause to wonder what this world would be like if we were to pool our resources more in the direction of Mr. Hancock's queries and less in the multitude of destructive endeavors which suck our finances and souls into their depths. Bravo, Graham. Keep up the good work !

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm almost done with this one. This book held my attention very well. Mr. Hancock explores under water coastal areas of India, Malta, Japan, etc in this book...for evidence of ancient civilizations.

Lots of color pics in this book and a lot of amazing information is presented here. I'm amazed to learn about how little of the coastal regions have actually been studied by marine archeologists.

Hancocks research is all spelled out in this book complete with many maps of the world before, after and during ice age melting over the last 20,000 years. To look at the coastlines of all the countries and see the stark difference of then and now is stunning. So much is waiting to be discovered under the waters. The possibilities are endless and exciting.

Hancock provides a wealth of information on India and it's history of the country and people. And the vast knowledge of these ancient Indians is astonishing in the way they built, lived, prayed, and passed down their knowledge.

Learn all about ancient maps that were once thought to be from the 1400's...are now proving to be copied from thousands & thousands of years earlier. Who were these people who navigated the worlds oceans so many millenia ago? Where did there knowledge come from?

This book is a great read if you are interested in the history of man, and ancient civilizations, ice ages and archeology.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be a better read than his earlier books, he's clearly progressed in his novel writing skills. As usual the books are though provoking, and make you want to hitch up your own scuba gear and go for a look see yourself. I think this would have worked better as a large coffee table type book with stunning pictures, but alas all we have are dark and unremarkable pictures of things that maybe kinda perhaps in the right light could be interpreted the way the author portrays them. But this is the difference between being there and seeing pics, and the book makes it plain the issues involved in getting more and better pictures. The vast majority of us will never see these things up close and personal as Graham has, and that's probably a shame, but he does a good job of relating his experiences to the reader despite the lack of stunning visuals.

The whole concept of drowned civilizations sounds plausible to me, and the discovery recently of the underwater city of Cambay in India reinforces this theory. I predict we will find more of these sites as our underwater explorations of the worlds ocean continue and as technology makes these explorations easier and more cost effective.

It's certainly not for everyone, and it is quite a large book and sometimes long winded, but if this subject piques your interest you will probably find it fascinating.

[Jenny Delandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find this type of book fancinating
I have always had an interest in ancient history and studied it at high school

This book studies actual facts of extensive civilisations that are underwater now and trying to work out where they went

Not enough maps though .... I had to look up the Japanese islands mentioned in the 1st chapter online because I did not know where they were.

I now know that Okinowa is on a island south west of Japan's southern island and is in a string of smaller islands where a lot of submerged evidence of ancient buildings are found.

Just ploughed my way through a massive chapter about India pre history and the fact that ruins in Pakistan are the oldest city sized relics ever found.... 9000 years ago!!!!!

More chapters.. more evidence that civilisation was far more advanced then previously thought and everywhere a flood that wiped the cities off the maps and forever changed the landscape

Secrets lie underwater and it is tempting to go to these places just to touch what has been found to believe that it is all real.

Deeply moving
Questions to last a lifetime

[SAM · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Sign and the Seal and Fingersprints of the Gods were decent enough but i think i've gone a step too far in my fandom with this. Big, Ugly and a Chore. I was expecting revelations about underwater relics but he's spent way too long on the origins of agriculture. Snoooooozzzzzeeeeeee

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually bought this book after loving the C4 series of the same name. Therefore I only skim-read it, but I still really enjoyed it.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't make it all the way through, but I feel this could have been edited and made a lot more concise.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, because Graham Hancock has done such a good job on previous books, but for me it fell flat. He jumped around a lot.

[Giorgio Comel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great, astonishing, very clearly written, surprising wonderful work of under-rated researcher Graham Hancock. pure pleasure.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have only read Graham Hancock’s last book (America Before) so far and was doubting if it was worth going back over twenty years to his earlier work Underworld. However, the sad reality is that not much has been updated or discovered since that time to enhance what he has found, and it thus is still one of the most relevant and thought provoking books in this regard.

While there are lengthy moments, it is well written and structured. He describes his own experiences and attempts of research during several years, when he was diving in the Mediterranean, near India, Japan, and Taiwan. In each case, there is compelling evidence, even though not according to scientific standards absolutely proven, that there were advanced civilizations in the distant past, and the story of humanity is very different from what mainstream archeology thinks.

The inundation maps provided are an absolute eye opener! I did not know that so much land was above sea level before the end of the last Ice Age. It is unbelievable, that archeologists are not looking at those areas for sunken treasures, simple because humans were not thought to have been able to built anything meaningful at that time anyway because they were only primitive hunter gatherers. I guess the problem, as Professor Kimura stated, is that “(Japanese) archeologists cannot dive”.

Reading the book, there is unfortunately a repeated sense of disappointment. On Malta, there is the story of a sunken temple, but the person who discovered it just passed away and a few diving attempts by Graham to find it fail. On India’s east coast, there are mysterious underwater structures, but on the day of the dive Graham has a migraine and diving conditions are difficult, so nothing can really be confirmed. On Japan, there is the German geologists, who thinks everything can be a miracle of nature and not be man-made. Only on India’s northwest coast underwater structures can finally be confirmed after most of the book was already written.

After I finished the book, I watched the three part BBC documentary Graham made at the time. While he described the same situations there as well, his case was much more compelling and convincing because the video footage was much more in his favor. There is no way that every feature at Yonaguni is accidentally made by nature. There was still not much to be seen from the dive at India’s East Coast, but it was supported by a graphic of how the structure looked as a whole. There were also graphics of the structures in the Ocean at the Gulf of Cambay (Northwest India). And that’s where I think the book could have been better. While it contains some photographs, I wish there had been more graphics and better photos.

My favorite chapter and another eye opener for me is chapter 3 (Meltdown, page 50). While there might have been additional influences during the meltdown of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age (see Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis), I never considered how the massive weight redistribution from the land masses to the ocean caused massive tectonic movement and earthquakes.

The chapters about ancient maps and the surprising similarities of those with the inundation maps (how earth looked at the end of the Ice Age rather than at the time the maps were drawn) were also very interesting and surprising, supporting Graham’s theory that there was an advanced seafaring civilization in the past.

Overall, Underworld has many fascinating aspects for the reader and is (unfortunately) still pretty much up to date on the described mysteries. It could have been a bit better with more convincing evidence, but it was not meant to be. I understand, I tried scuba diving and it’s not an easy thing to do.

[Andreas Schmidt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure if trolling or entirely delusional ...
Posso però capire che la motivazione di Graham Hancock sia quasi esclusivamente economica. Nel corso degli anni, da questo giornalista di stronzate ne sono volate parecchie, da principio pensavo (e anzi ho voluto sperare) che in realtà la sua sia la lunga evoluzione dello "studioso" (chi cerca questo genere di conoscenza finisce per essere uno studioso, e solo con il tempo la sua conoscenza si perfeziona). Volevo sperare che dopo Impronte degli Dei (non menzioniamo le altre sconcezze che quest'autore ha pubblicato, come quella del volto di Marte, che evoca un po' la psicofonia: in una fotografia il cervello umano che funziona per elaborazione di dati in forma di mappa mentale, vede un po' quello che ci vuole), il suo stile e le sue conoscenze andassero migliorando, ma alla fine mi sono dovuto ricredere. Impronte degli Dei è nato e fonda sulla teoria dello slittamento delle zolle crostali (teoria apparentemente confutata) e sul raccattare miti e leggende, memorabile il passo in cui dice che siccome gli antichi aztechi come rito ciclico guardano in direzione delle Pleiadi, beh chiaro la cometa di cui parlo nel libro, è arrivata da lì! Civiltà Sommerse è un guazzabuglio di idee. L'autore prende in considerazione le strutture sommerse, che di per sé sono pure un argomento valido su cui dibattere (ma dibattere solamente, visto che non esiste più alcun genere di documentazione storica né altro genere a parte miti e leggende finite poi in chissà quanti libri sacri, la cui interpretazione è difficile e spesso esagerata dal "boccalonismo" o semplicemente dal modo in cui all'epoca della stesura venivano intese le cose). - faccio un esempio pratico: nel Corano l'autore di Ubar, ha trovato le indicazioni delle antiche rovine di Shisur, in Oman, indicate con termini di difficile comprensione (o all'apparenza esagerati) nella realtà moderna (si parla di palazzi, e in realtà si fa riferimento a torri in pietra sul perimetro delle mura). Di per sé le strutture ormai sommerse, che stanno su un fondo dai 20 ai 100 metri sotto il livello del mare, sono un ottimo indice di una società umana in grado di costruirle. Ma procediamo con ordine. Al di là della spacconaggine con cui l'autore afferma "devo vedere le rovine di persona per capire di cosa si tratta", Hancock tira l'acqua al suo mulino. Parla delle strutture delle isole tra Cina e Giappone, dicendo che sono di diecimila anni precedenti alla data in cui scrive, senza avere idea che gli archeologi moderni hanno già trovato riferimenti a strutture già esistenti e databili il 1500/1600 d.C. Scende prima sul personale perché sua moglie, beh sua moglie è indiana, ergo ... l'India è il primo viaggio. Dopodiché continua ad analizzare le varie strutture sommerse, fino a quando giunge alle mappe. Le mappe mi hanno incuriosito, l'intero discorso mi ha incuriosito. Fino a quando mi sono caduti i coglioni. E per una buona ragione. (qui nel sito ci sono le stesse due immagini con le stesse due parti del libro di Hancock relativamente all'India) -> http://humanpast.net/environment/envi... Mappe che l'autore persiste a voler confrontare con dati ottenuti al computer (come faceva in Impronte degli Dei) in simulazioni che hanno scarsa attinenza al reale (dire che il livello dei mari era "boh forse 20 metri inferiore?" 10 mila anni fa, non vuol dire assolutamente nulla senza prove che lo confermino o senza prove che stabiliscano esattamente di quanto durante l'era glaciale gli oceani erano più bassi). Ho guardato la mappa di Reinal del 1502, che secondo l'autore è presa da mappe disegnate quando gli oceani erano più bassi, e mi sembra una ripetizione di quanto diceva invece della carta di Piri Reis. Ho guardato quella mappa e l'ho confrontata con le foto satellitari e le differenze semplicemente stanno nel fatto che l'autore o consapevolmente legge male le distanze (sono un architetto e mai in vita mia ho visto nella stessa mappa una differenza di scala da una parte all'altra della stessa...), oppure non è in grado di leggere una carta. Ha chiaramente reinterpretato la mappa di Reinal come meglio gli piaceva, quando in realtà è il frutto di un sistema di cartografia. Uno su tutto: prende assolutamente per buone le dimensioni delle Maldive, e mi viene a dire che la parte superiore è l'Oman??? Le Maldive sono state cartografate dai portoghesi che hanno disegnato la mappa attorno al 1502, ma sicuramente non saranno scesi dal vascello se non per fare rifornimento e chiaramente non si sono messi a fare la cultellatio romana per disegnarne le distanze, questo è ovvio. E' una carta a sufficienza approssimata e al contempo molto buona delle coste. Ma ciò non vuol dire che sia presa da una di diecimila anni fa. E poi parliamo di Hancock, in Impronte degli Dei (e ha avuto il coraggio di lamentarsi che negli anni '90 hanno sparlato di lui in tv) dice che la carta di Piri Reis rappresenta l'antartide priva di ghiacci senza rendersi conto o non voler vedere che: a) si vede la penisola iberica chiaramente e dunque l'Europa; b) se è stato al Topkapi di Istanbul (cosa di cui dubito, visto che Hancock è un finto studioso) qualche guida gli avrà spiegato che Piri Reis scrive in turco che la carta è presa dai portoghesi che hanno disegnato il sudamerica. In questo libro ha l'ardire di porre la stessa carta, e disporla nemmeno secondo un orientamento verso nord, ma alla rinfusa, con la penisola iberica in alto (e non a destra, visto che è una carta rettangolare) e ancora dire che quella che è Cuba chiaramente cartografata approssimativamente, nient'altro che un'isola "fantasma". Quindi non ha alcuna validità il blaterare di Hancock sulle mappe. Dopodiché parla delle isole del Giappone, delle strutture sommerse, della società Jomon. Io non so cosa pensa di dimostrare mostrando un ornamento a forma di "pesce" della cultura Jomon giapponese e uno simile (molto simile tuttavia) a quello della cultura maltese. Non ci sono prove e non c'è nulla che colleghi due parti agli antipodi del globo. Per altro abbandonando il buon senso che culture differenti possano aver creato monili da forme basilari elementari (una forma di "gamberetto", che si vede nel Mediterraneo come nel Pacifico). E concludendo, c'è sempre il solito discorso in ballo. Secondo me Hancock non capisce le distanze. Se è vero che un singolo uomo può percorrere chilometri in un giorno solo per compiere un'azione frivola (come salutare stranieri in visita), è pur vero che siamo tutti animali legati alla nostra società e ai nostri limiti. Casualmente viaggiatori possono portare in giro idee. Monili magari. Viaggiatori del Mediterraneo giungono in Asia e portano oggetti strani, che subito l'arte locale copia. O portano idee, che diventano arte. Questa è la natura umana. E soprattutto non è una prova incontrovertibile la costruzione ciclopica del paleolitico. Anzi, è la cosa prima a cui l'uomo in grado di costruire la capanna riesce a pensare. La costruzione di opere ciclopiche può non essere legata ad una cultura unitaria (gli Indoeuropei ... har har har ... la civiltà teorizzata di cui non si hanno prove ... har har har), quanto all'elementare osservazione di semplici regole statiche e di semplice utilizzo della pietra. In seconda conclusione: non ho più parole per descrivere la ciarlataneria di Hancock. E il colmo è che vende in tutto il mondo le sue fantasie.

[Elan Garfias]

Definitely some food for thought regardless of how far one chooses to take this theory.While a whole globe-spanning lost civilization is quite a claim, the rationale employed does make quite a bit of sense: in the past, the contours of the world map looked rather different, with glaciers waxing and waning and sea levels alternately exposing and then covering land bridges now lost to us. If there were indeed civilizations now hidden beneath the waves, they wouldn't make it into our nominal account of history, and the fact that there are very real known ruins now submerged definitely makes the point more believable. I'm inclined to think of a "sinking" country such as the Maldives or a "sinking" island such as Manhattan. Even Doggerland bears clear evidence of human habitation, though civilization may be too generous a word for the people who lived there. I came away with this book less convinced of a specific theory than excited for the rich archaeological finds that await us. After all, we've encountered lost civilizations where they were thought impossible to exist, from Sumer to Cahokia to the Amazon, each one adding a new and tantalizing chapter to our history. I find the idea that we may yet discover more to be eminently plausible, especially when factoring in the variable rates of sea levels across thousands of years. Hancock points to a common heritage of flood and other myth cycles as evidence for a globe-spanning epoch of advanced cartographical and maritime prowess. Though this seems a bit much, it's well documented how many a historical person or event comes to be mythologized after the fact, and perhaps the universal profusion of floods and sunken cities in the collective human imagination does speak to something close to real.

[Hank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the theories and collected evidence that Hancock presents in this book, however it does seem unnecessarily thick. I don't mind a thick book, but each subtopic is explored with so much detail and length, that I felt the content would have been better presented, had the author "trimmed the fat" so to speak, before publication. I read this book 16 years after publication, so from my late-comer perspective, the book could have been much more groundbreaking and influential, if the author had spent a couple of more years investigating more sites and crafting a book of similar length, but with more examples of evidence, and less detail and discussion about the individual points. For example, there is one part of the book where Hancock tells a very lengthy and detailed account of several attemps to locate some particular sunken ruins, but has his efforts to do so thwarted repeatedly by everything from stormy weather to confused and forgetful guides. The search ultimately proves fruitless, and so it feels like a waste of the reader's time. Nobody bought the book to read the tale of how Graham Hancock didn't find a particular sunken temple. If he wants to include unnecessary stories like that, they could be summarized as a brief anecdote in less than a page.