India Atlantis 2002

The team had to operate a considerable distance from any logistical and safety support, using local fishing boats to access possible sites where surveying took place. Joining the team from the UK were experts from the National Institute of Oceanography, who expertise in surveying the sea bed proved invaluable over the duration of the expedition. The team battled stormy seas, poor visibility and racing currents to initially survey a U shaped reef in Poompahur, before moving north to Mahabalipuram where they made the dramatic discovery of a vast ruin field just behind the surfline.

Mahabalipuram is known in legend as the "Seven Pagodas" - thought to be a reference to seven temples that stood on the shore. Now there is only one, and the team found to their astonishment that they were swimming over the ruins of the rest on the sea floor. Accessing the site demanded an exhilerating boat trip through large surf, and then a dive in big swell and low vis. The reward was a find that galvanised the media and the scientific community throughout the world, a mysterious set of ruins that had lain silent on the sea floor for at least a thousand years. A monument to the efforts of Graham Hancock, the NIO, and one of the finest teams of volunteer divers Monty has ever had the privelage to lead. Are the ruins evidence of an ancient civilisation? The jury is still out as investigations and surveys continue, the answer is out there........

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