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5 Mysterious ruins that predate known civilization?

Artifacts and ruins discovered all over the world have made many scientists question whether the currently accepted understanding of prehistoric culture is correct.

Here's a look at some disputed sites, thought by some to hold evidence of prehistoric civilizations far more advanced than scientists thought possible. Some of these structures have been submerged as sea levels have risen over the course of thousands of years.

1. Bosnian Pyramid oldest in world: 25,000 years old:

Two Italian archaeologists, Dr. Ricarrdo Brett and Niccolo Bisconti, found a piece of organic material on the pyramid last year. They were able to carbondate the material, and with it, the pyramid itself. This carbon dating places the pyramid 20,000 years before the Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations, believed to be some of the earliest in the world.

When the Bosnian Pyramid was first discovered in 2005, researchers could only measure the age of the topsoil covering the pyramid, which is about 12,000 years old.

Dr. Semir Osmanagich, a researcher woorking on the Bosnian Pyramid told NTD Television last year: "The organic materials found on the Sun Pyramid and biological analysis are telling us that the pyramids are older than 12,500 years - the oldest on the planet."

Since the pyramid was covered with soil and vegetation, people thought it was just a hill until the stone structure within was discovered. It was known as Visoko hill.

While many local scientists back Osmanagich, there are skeptics. Boston University geologists Robert Scoch, who spent 10 days on site, told Smithsonian magazine in 2009 that the pyramid is a natural formation. Paul Heinrich, an archaeological geologists at Louisiana State University agreed. Heinrich told Smithsonian: "The landforn [Osmanagich] is calling a pyramid is actually quite common.......They're called 'flatirons' in the United States and you see a lot of them out West."

Enver Buza, a surveyor from Sarajevo's Geodetic Institute has stated in paper that the pyramid is "oriented to the north with perfect precision," reported Smithsonian. Some say the case of Bosnia's pyramids has been for political gains.

2. Gobekli Tepe, Turkey: 11,000 years old

Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is made up of massive stone megaliths that predate Stonehenge by about 6,000 years. It's believed by archaeologist Klaus Schmidt that this is the oldest human place of worship - at least 11,000 years old - built at a time when scientists say people hadn't even developed agriculture.

Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder told Smithsonian magazine the prehistoric structures in Gobekli Tepe could change how science views prehistoric culture.

"The dating is clear, there is n question about it," Schmidt said in a Red Ice Creations radio interview. With a combination of carbon dating and using the age of surrounding structures, Schmidt is confident Gobekli Tepe is at least 11,000 years old.

"The astonishing fact is that we did not expect for a hunter gatherer society to be able to manage such an operation, to transport a megalith," he said.

With ground-penetrating radar scans, Schmidt and his team have determined that at least 16 other rings of megaliths are still underground across 22 acres, according to the 2008 Smithsonian article. Even in 50 years, he said, much digging will be left.

Engraved on the megaliths are images of vultures, waterfowl, spiders, and many other creatures.

3. Yonaguni Monument, Japan's Atlantis: 8,000 years old

Believed by some to be built more than 8,000 years ago, before the last Ice Age, a large structure off the coast of Japan's Yonaguni island has been cited as evidence an advanced culture thrived thousands of years earlier than current text books say.

British journalist Graham Hancock and Professor Masaaki Kimura of the Ryukyus in Okinawa studied the structure after it was discovered by a diver in 1987.

Kimura agrees with Hancock that humans either formed the structure or modified a natural formation.

"It looks like a monument," Hancock told the BBC. "It has very curious features. It has a series of steps and terraces cut into its side. It's oriented to the  cardinal directions. It faces due south, it has a deep east-west feature running along in front of it. It bears all the  hallmark of a designed, ceremonial, ritual or religious monument."

Schoch, the same skeptic in the Bosnian pyramid case, disagrees. He told the BBC that "portions of it look like they're man-made," but the way the rock splits naturally could make the formation.

"I think it should be considered a primarily natural structure until more evidence is found to the contrary. However, by no means do I feel that this is an absolutely closed case," he wrote in a 1999 paper.

4. Gulf of Khambhat, Israel: 9,500 years old 

At the bottom of Israel's lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee, is a massive, enigmatic structure that could be more than 9,500 years old.

It was discovered by the National Institute of Ocean Technology in 2000 in the Gulf of Khambhat. The circular structure made of boulders and rocks spans about 9 kilometers (5 miles). It has only been explored via sonar scanning and dredging. At least one artifact brought up by dredging has been dated to 7,500 BC, according to Princeton University.

The Princeton website explains why some archaeologists refuse to accept the date in relation to the structure itself: "One major complaint is that artifacts at the site were recovered by dredging, instead of being recovered during a controlled archaeological excavation. This leads archaeologist to claim that these artifacts cannot be definitively tied to the site."

Dani Nadel, an archaeologist at the University of Hafia who is working with a team to study the discovery, told Fox News in May: "It's very enigmatic, it's very interesting, but the bottom line is we don't know when it's from, we don't its function," he said. "We only know it is there, it is huge, and it is unusual."

5. Bimini Road: 12,000 years old

Two camps of scientists have faced off on the issue of the underwater structure known as Bimini Road off thee coast of the Bahamas since it was first discovered in 1968.

One camp says it is a 12,000-19,000 years old man made structure - flouting the conventional understanding that advanced civilizations only emerged some 5,000 years ago.

The other camp says it is a natural formation.

Explorer Dr. Greg Little has performed multiple documented dives at the site with archaeologist William Donato.

Donato explained in an email to the Epoch Times that the line of stones form a wall, known as a breakwater, built to protect a prehistoric settlement from waves. During their dives and Little found the structure to be multi-tiered and to include prop stones they say must have been placed there by humans.

Little wrote in a 2005 paper that a neutron activation analysis compared nearby shore stones to the Bimini Wall stones and showed the Bimini stones had fewer trace elements, suggesting they were formed elsewhere and transported to that location.

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Introduction to Nazca Lines

Nazca Lines are the most outstanding group of geoglyphs in the world. Etched in the surface of the desert Pampa sand about 300 hundred figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes and pictures of animals and birds - and their patterns are only clearly visible from the air. Don't believe???? See it for yourself. I am granted with some of the usage rights from National Geographic photographer who was ready to share his work with me - Lucky!

About 1500-2000 years ago the Nazca people inhabited this area. They might not be quite so well known today if it weren’t for the particular geological and climatic features of their homeland. Most people learn about the Nazca because of the famous Nazca lines etched in the desert between the Ingenio and Nazca river valleys. The desert formed an enormous drawing board for the Nazca upon which they etched huge lines, trapazoids, and animal figures by removing the dark colored surface stones and top soil to expose the lighter colored sand underneath. Spread out across several hundred sq kilometers (about 3-4x the size of Manhattan island) of the arid Peruvian desert, these drawings have been remarkably preserved. In any other climate, these drawings would have been obliterated in months, but the Nazca is one of the driest and most windless regions on earth. 

Since their discovery in the 1920s, the lines have been variously interpreted, but their significance remains largely shrouded in mystery. The American historian Paul Kosok observed the lines from an airplane in 1941 and hypothesized that they were drawn for astronomical purposes. María Reiche, a German translator who spent years studying the site and lobbying for its preservation, also concluded that it was a huge astronomical calendar and that some of its animal sketches were modeled after groupings of stars in the night sky. In 1967, however, the American astrophysicist Gerald Hawkins found no correlation between changes in the celestial bodies and the design of the Nazca Lines.

Facts about the Nazca Line

• They cover an area of some 50 miles, and were supposedly created between 200 BC and 700 AD by the Nazca Indians.

• The area of the Peruvian desert in which the Nazca Lines were drawn is called the Pampa Colorada. It is 15 miles wide and runs some 37 miles parallel to the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.

• They designed them by scraping away the copper colored rocks of the desert floor to expose the lighter-colored earth beneath.

• The lines have managed to remain intact for hundreds of years thanks to the region’s arid climate, which sees it receive little rain or wind throughout the year.

• Some of the lines span distances of 600 feet, and they depict everything from simple designs and shapes to characterizations of plants, insects, and animals.

• Scientists know who made the Nazca Lines and how they did it, but they still don’t know why?
• The most popular and reasonable hypothesis is that the lines must have fugured in the Nazca people's religious beliefs, and that they made the designs as offerings to the gods, who would've been able to see them from the heavens.
• Other scientists argue that the lines are evidence of massive looms that the Nazcas used to make textiles.

Myth and Mysteries of Nazca Lines
1. First of all, these things are large in size and it's enormity is such that The Nazca Lines were meant to be         made for an  aerial view only. The Nazcas passed on the story or folklore that these labyrinths were               created for gods to see - the "Gods" who descended form the sky; the gods who taught them socializing,       farming, building structures, and taught them the language of passing on the information.

2. So let's see what various archaeologists, geographers, archaeometrists, and other cult based pseudo             enthusiasts have to say about our lines.

3. Prof. Clive Ruggles of Leicester University said: "Unlike some of the famous zoomorphic (animal) figures,       its irregular form provides no reason to speculate that it might have been intended to be viewed from the       air".

4. Since their discovery in the 1920s, the lines have been variously interpreted, but their significance remains       largely shrouded in mystery. The American historian Paul Kosok observed the lines from an airplane in        1941 and hypothesized that they were drawn for astronomical purposes.

5. The Nazca Lines are featured in the book "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich Von Daniken that discusses his     belief that the Nazca Lines were created by aliens and used as landing strips.

He felt that the designs were to complex and covered such a large distance that they could not have been created by humans due to the size of the lines, lack of tools plus they had no ability to view the lines from the air.

6. There are people who believe they are remains of ancient airfields, used by a technologically advanced           civilization. The biomorph of a human figure, which some believe is actually a drawing of an ancient               astronaut is often sited as evidence for this theory.

Also, there are researchers like Johan Reinhard who has his own theory to explain the mystery behind the construction of the giant lines.

7. Johan Reinhard detailed various ancient traditions, according to which the mountain-gods took to the skies     in the form of eagles or condors.

Here's a small video for you lovers, the video is small and provides the introduction to the Nazcas:

How were the Lines created?
Scientists believe that:

1. The rocks which cover the desert have oxidized and weathered to a deep rust color, and when the top 12-15 inches of rock is removed, a light colored, high contrasting sand is exposed.
2. Because there's so little rain, wind and erosion, the exposed designs have stayed largely intact for 500 to 2000 years.

However, according to Dr. Persis Clarkson, an archaeologist and geoglyph expert at the University of Winnipeg, "It was not a difficult technology, all you need is the will". To prove this, a group of 10 Earthwatch volunteers helped an astronomer and anthropologist, Anthony Aveni, in a study of the Nazca Lines. In just hour and a half, without a printed plan, they created a straight line winding into a spiral 35 meters long and one meter wide. It is fairly conclusive that it was not necessary for the Nazca to have possessed great mathematical or engineeirng skills to create the figures in the desert.

Its been proposed that a rock been put at a certain place in Pampa will remain intact upon your next visit without moving an inch.

The lines according to the latest research were said to be the walkways for Nasca people, the lines were meant to be followed during certain rituals. Also, some theory suggests that they were runway for Nazca people

"No single evaluation proves a theory about the lines, but the combination of archeology, ethnohistory, and anthropology builds a solid case", says Reinhard. Add new technological research to the mix, and there's no doubt that the world's understanding of the Nazca Lines will continue to evolve.