The Lost City Swallowed by the Ocean | 3 Hours of Ancient Mysteries

Settle in, get comfortable, and let the day fall away. Tonight we drift to a green island in the far Pacific, where a city of dark stone stands in the shallows of a quiet lagoon. Nan Madol: some ninety small islands built by human hands on a reef, threaded by canals, raised stone upon stone more than eight hundred years ago. We will walk its story slowly. The kings who ruled from the water, the story the elders tell of stones that flew, the long quiet years, and the tide that moves through the empty canals still. This is a slow journey through what we know, and what the lagoon keeps to itself. Chapters: 0:00 The City on the Water 0:18:13 An Island of Rain 0:37:36 Stone Upon Stone 0:57:11 The Kings Who Ruled the Reef 1:17:31 The Story the Elders Tell 1:36:48 Palaces, Tombs and Temples 1:57:20 The Quiet Years 2:16:25 Strangers on the Shore 2:36:40 What the Divers and Diggers Found 2:55:47 What the Tide Keeps Narration: AI-generated voice (Kokoro). Music: "Lightless Dawn" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Thumbnail image: Nan Madol megalithic site, Pohnpei — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (visuals/07_nan-madol-megalithic-wide.jpg, cropped and graded). Image credits (all via Wikimedia Commons): Nan Madol wide view from the water — CC0 Nan Madol islets and canals — CT Snow, CC BY 2.0 Nan Madol and its surroundings — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol ruins by the ocean — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol wide view (NOAA) — public domain Nan Madol off Temwen Island — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol megalithic site — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol and canal — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Pohnpei lagoon from the air — Zykasaa, CC BY-SA 4.0 Pohnpei — mrlins, CC BY 2.0 Kepirohi Waterfall — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 River below Kepirohi Waterfall — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Mangrove bay — Zykasaa, CC BY-SA 4.0 Shoreline of Pohnpei Island — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Detail of a wall built of columnar basalt pieces at Nan Madol — Jebrennan, CC BY-SA 4.0 Passage through a basalt wall — Jebrennan, CC BY-SA 4.0 Stone walls of Nan Madol (Pohnpei walls) — Luigi Guarino, CC BY 2.0 Columnar basalt formation — geolman, CC BY-SA 3.0 Giant's Causeway basalt columns close view (formation reference) — Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0 Stacked basalt walls — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Sokehs rock / basalt outcrop — Turnip66, CC BY-SA 3.0 Grand islet walls — NOAA Photo Library, CC BY 2.0 Royal / ceremonial islet — NOAA Photo Library, CC BY 2.0 Nan Madol — CT Snow, CC BY 2.0 Hokulea voyaging canoe (Pacific voyaging canoe reference) — public domain Hokulea under sail — HongKongHuey, CC BY 2.0 Hokulea at Kailua — Eric Guinther, CC BY-SA 3.0 Canal between islets — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol from a book published in 1935 (early printed view) — public domain Nan Madol — CT Snow, CC BY 2.0 Canal view in soft light — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Ruins at Nan Madol — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Inside the lagoon of Ant Atoll — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Great mortuary islet walls (Nan Douwas area) — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Tomb islet exterior — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Inner walls — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Residence islet walls (Pahn Kadira area) — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Canal passage between islets — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Canal and walls — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Walls with mangroves — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Pohnpei flying fox / fruit bat — Rentzb0711, CC BY-SA 4.0 Ruins of Nan Madol surrounded by foliage — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Overgrown / fallen walls — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Empty canal — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol in 1973 — public domain Quiet ruins — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Islets of Pohnpei at the lagoon edge (deserted-city mood) — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nanmatal (Nan Madol) — 1883 printed view (HH1883) — public domain Cyclopean basalt walls of Nan Madol — public domain Map of the Caroline — public domain Spanish nautical chart of the Micronesia islands — public domain Adelbert von Chamisso map of the Caroline Islands — public domain Nan Madol archaeological site — public domain Site plan map of Nan Madol — public domain Nan Madol survey-era view — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Islet studied by archaeologists — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Recorded walls — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Nan Madol — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Causeway to Temwen Island — Patrick Nunn, CC BY-SA 4.0 Milky Way over the sea (night sky) — Oliver Griebl, CC BY 3.0 Moonlight and moonset over the sea — Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 Starry night over the coast — Stanislav Sedov, CC BY-SA 2.0 Sea around Pohnpei — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0 Final wide quiet view of the Nan Madol islets — Uhooep, CC BY-SA 4.0