Has a Pyramid Been Discovered Beneath the Bermuda Triangle?

A few days ago I stumbled upon a very brief but highly intriguing documentary posted on MSN concerning the discovery of a "crystal" pyramid found some 2000 meters beneath the sea within the legendary Bermuda Triangle. So far I've been unable to find any mention of this discovery in other mainstream publications, thus I must conclude that this documentary is highly speculative at best. It doesn't help that various New Age-leaning blogs have posted even more incredible accounts of a second pyramid and a Sphinx, among other things, also being found down there, all of which appears to be totally bogus. What little evidence of this discovery that exists only claims one pyramid.

Still, it makes for some intriguing possibilities. A fine article published on Collective Evolution has a compelling breakdown of this alleged find:

"There appears to be a speculative discovery that has been made by French explorers that is being considered a monumental discovery. It is believed they discovered a partially translucent, crystal-like pyramid rising from the Caribbean seabed— its origin, age and purpose are completely unknown at this point. The picture below is fascinating.

These potential amazing underwater pyramid structures were first identified using sonar technology according to oceanographer Dr. Verlag Meyer. In terms of the size of this re-discovered pyramid, it is larger in scale than the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Interestingly, on the top of the pyramid are two very large holes. Water moves at high speeds through one of the holes causing waves to roll by forming a giant vortex. This causes a massive surge of waves and mist on the surface of the sea. Scientists are now pondering a new idea, is this vortex effect explaining what has been happening with disappearing passing boats and planes in the mysterious Bermuda Triangle?"

the alleged structure

The Bermuda Triangle has of course been an area of much speculation in New Age and UFO circles for well over half a century now. It first gained national attention sometime around 1950 when reports of the mysterious disappearance of Flight 19 in 1945 began to appear in the press but strange happenings within the Bermuda Triangle have apparently been occurring for some time.

"People in Florida were also watching aircraft in the fall of 1945, the common assumption being that the objects were some kind of new secret weapon. Then on December 5, 1945, one of the most famous disappearances in history occurred. Five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on a routine training mission. Fourteen men were aboard. Although the weather was perfect, the flight soon ran into some kind of trouble. Radio contact with the base ended abruptly. A Martin Mariner flying boat carrying a crew of thirteen was sent up to find the missing Flight 19. Twenty minutes after it took off radio communications with it also ended abruptly.

"Altogether, twenty-seven men and six planes completely disappeared a few miles off the Florida coast that afternoon. An extensive search by land, sea, and air was conducted for weeks afterwards. It was one of the biggest searches in history, and it failed to turn up a single piece of debris... Not even an oil slick.

"The disappearance of Flight 19 and the rescue plane sparked the official beginning of the Bermuda Triangle mystery. In the more than fifty years since, in excess of thirty planes have vanished in the lozenge-shaped area southwest of Bermuda, carrying with them a total of some 300 people. A number of ships, together with their entire crews, have also melted away there forever. Such incidents can be traced back as far as 1846. Ivan Sanderson, who made a study of this phenomenon, believed there are at least six of these vile vortices, as he calls them, spaced evenly around the world. The Devil's Sea off the coast of Japan, for example, has swallowed up so many ships that fishermen carefully sail around it.

"The Navy took the disappearance of Flight 19 very seriously. In January 1946, a group of Naval Intelligence officers were ordered by President Truman to form an investigative body called the Central Intelligence Group. This was the forerunner to the CIA. In the spring of 1946 the CIG participated in a series of secret hearings in Washington. The wives and relatives of the missing men were flown to Washington to attend the meetings. Since then most of these people have refused to discuss the subject at all. But one mother of a missing man did confide to researcher Art Ford, the famous disc jockey who made a hobby of investigating the Flight 19 case, that she believed her son was still alive 'somewhere... maybe in space.'

"During 1965-66, the National Bureau of Standards mounted special microphones and instruments along the coastline facing the Bermuda Triangle to try to pick up sounds that might lie above the range of human hearing. They succeeded in recording odd whispering sounds of unknown origin. The Navy quietly conducted the new search of the Triangle in 1967, spending over five million dollars to search the ocean floors with special research submarines and devices. As usual, they failed to find any trace of the missing planes and ships and were unable to come up with any new explanation for the mystery...

"Everyone has heard of the Marie Celeste, the ship found floating crewless in the Atlantic in 1872. There have been scores of similar finds. Usually such ships are completely intact, often with food cooking on the stoves and the galley tables set for dinner. The crews and passengers simply abandon ship, leaving all their personal effects behind. Five such ships were found adrift in the Bermuda Triangle area during June-July 1969."

(Our Haunted Planet, John Keel, pgs. 192-193) 

It should be noted, however, that the Bermuda Triangle itself is very much a piece of modern mythology and thus many of the above-mentioned claims are highly controversial. More skeptical takes on the Triangle can be found here and here. Now, with this disclaimer out of the way, let us move on to the pyramid.

The notion of mysterious pyramids beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle is not a new one. As the Collective Evolution article makes clear, an individual known as Dr. Ray Brown was making claims of the pyramid's existence as early as the 1960s. CE notes:

"If the pyramid does in fact exist it is technically not a new discovery as it was initially identified by a Dr. Ray Brown in the 1960s and since has been independently verified by diving teams from France and the U.S. Nonetheless, this re-discovery has rocked scientists around the world. 

"More on Dr. Ray Brown’s experience, he came upon the structure while scuba diving in the Bahamas. He investigated the structure and was amazed that the sides of the pyramid were completely smooth and the joints between the individual blocks to be nearly imperceptible. Upon entering the pyramid, Ray was further astounded by the clean, smooth sides of the interior: no algae or coral grew on the walls. Inside the pyramid Ray was fascinated by the various structures and items he saw inside. At one point he attempted to remove a multi-faceted red gemstone attached to a metallic rod that descended from the center of the ceiling but was unable to dislodge it. As he continue on, about four feet below the point of the gemstone, he saw a bronze sculpture of two open hands. Resting in the open hands is a now famous crystal sphere that he was able to take from its resting place. Four inches in diameter, Ray was surprised that he could lift the crystal sphere easily."

Brown was apparently not the only individual back in that era seeking pyramids under the seas of the Bermuda Triangle. The great Robert Anton Wilson made reference to such endeavors, and claims that he was even asked to participate in one, in his classic The Cosmic Trigger Volume 1: The Final Secrets of the Illuminati:

"As for the prediction that I would dive into the ruins of Atlantis: after I got back from England, an occultists named Alve Stuart contacted me and invited me to join an expedition to the Bermuda Triangle to investigate various legends, including the idea that part of Atlantis was down there, and reports from natives of the area that UFOs are often seen rising from the waters. I declined, partly because of competing projects that seemed even more bizarre and amusing, and partly because I wanted to see what would happen if I refused 'Their' evident desire to get me to Atlantis.

"A month later, Charles Berlitz claimed to have found a sunken pyramid in the Bermuda Triangle. He said it was twice the size of the pyramid of Cheops, and that was really amusing, because Shea and I had put a pyramid 'twice the size of the pyramid of Cheops' right there, in Illuminatus, but we thought we were writing fiction at the time.

"As we go to press, I hear from Carl Weschcke, an occult publisher who has printed many of my articles in his magazine, Gnostica, that Berlitz has joined forces with Alve Stuart, the man who wanted to take me to Atlantis. The two of them are down there now, hoping to bring back photos of that damned pyramid Shea and I thought we invented, and of the UFOs rising into the stars."

(pg. 225) 

Robert Anton Wilson (top) and Charles Berlitz (bottom)

While the Berlitz/Stuart expedition apparently failed in its purpose (if it was in fact actually carried out) the description Wilson presents that was given to him by Berlitz is remarkably consistent with preliminary accounts of the crystal pyramid found beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle. Supposedly the Bermuda Triangle pyramid is 300 meters wide and 200 meters high. The Great Pyramid of Giza, by contrast, is presently about 139 meters off the ground (though it originally stood at 147 meters in height). While the Bermuda Triangle underwater pyramid is not quite double the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza the above-mentioned figures are at least within the ballpark.

the Great Pyramid of Giza

But moving along. As Wilson indicates above, the revelation of a pyramid buried beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle immediately brings to mind the legendary island of Atlantis. Most of what we know of these legends comes down to us from the Greek philosopher Plato.

"Easily the most famous, and the most-written about, lost world also has its origins in Greek culture: Atlantis. Described in the fourth century B.C. by Plato, the account of Atlantis in the Timaeus and Critias dialogues contains fewer words than a typical short story, yet it has spawned an immense industry of books, television programs, videos, and speaker's tours -- each speaker or writer claiming to have found the 'real' Atlantis. Today, dozens of locations in Europe and North Africa have been proposed as the site of the lost civilization, as well as most distant places such as Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, eastern North America, Bermuda, the Azores, the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Yucatán Peninsula, the Caribbean Sea, Zimbabwe, Mesopotamia, and an impossibly ice-free Antarctica.

"The Atlantis question isn't simply one of facts and figures, though. It also involves human aspirations and a longing for something better than the world we know. Followers of the psychic Edgar Cayce hold that the records of Atlantis were buried near the Sphinx and that if only we can recover them, their ancient wisdom will change our lives forever and for the better. Some popular, and fanciful, writing about the Atlanteans ascribed to them powers of levitation, the ability to move immense stones with sound waves, and the use of flying machine some 12 millennia before the Wright brothers."

(Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, Robert M. Schoch & Robert Aquinas McNally, pg. 238)

Ah, but it hasn't always been New Age flakes that have had an interest in the prophecies of  Edgar Cayce. In the 1960s the CIA also investigated some of the sleeping prophet's claims.

"Born in 1877, Edgar's Cayce was, without doubt, one of the United States's most famous of all psychics. He still retains a massive and faithful following, long after his death in 1945 at the age of 67. H. P. Albarelli, Jr., who worked in the White House of President Jimmy Carter, and for the U.S. Department of Treasury, has stated that at some point during the early 1960s researchers of the CIA's Technical Services Staff who were at the forefront of mind-altering research were particularly interested in the work of Cayce. Albarelli has revealed that certain consultants acted undercover at the Association for Research and Enlightenment, which was contained within Cayce's Virginia Beach-based headquarters. Clearly then, someone in the CIA was following the stories of Cayce, which seems to have been born out of research closely paralleling that of Andrija Puharich.

"Certainly, one of Cayce's favored pet subjects was that of the legendary land of Atlantis, and it's equally legendary people -- first referred to in the writings of Plato around 360 BC. According to Cayce's beliefs, in the very distant past, a series of catastrophic events, including one akin to land-engulfing biblical flood, irreversibly decimated the Atlantean society, wherever it may have been situated. And, lord knows, numerous parts of the world have been suggested as viable candidates, including the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, the Azores, and many more. But, regardless of the location of Atlantis, Cayce was sure of the outcome of the disaster: the survivors were forced to start over anew, in parts foreign and exotic. One of those locations, maintained Cayce, was Egypt. Thus, in Cayce's mind, it was the Atlanteans who brought the astonishing technology to early Egypt that eventually allowed for the creation of the Sphinx and the pyramids.

"How did Cayce know this? He claimed, admittedly very controversially, to have been the reincarnation of an Egyptian priest named Ra Ta, supposedly the creator of a healing center in Egypt known as the Temple of Sacrifice. Cayce also stated that his past-life knowledge of Egypt included his awareness of a fantastic hall of records located underneath the right-paw of the Sphinx. Those priceless records, Cayce maintained, told the true and unexpurgated history of Atlantis, its people, and its ultimate destruction thousands of years in the dim and distant past."

(The Pyramids and the Pentagon, Nick Redfern, pgs. 151-153)

Edgar Cayce

The CIA were not, however, the only powerful bureaucracy that would show an interest in the myth of Atlantis. The Nazis, or specifically the notorious Ahnenerbe, had already pondered the Atlantean question years earlier.

"Widely acknowledged by many World War II historians as being the ultimate driving force behind the Nazi's research into religious items of alleged awesome power, Heinrich Himmler was, perhaps, the one high-ranking official in the Third Reich most obsessed with the domain of the occult. In July 1935, Himmler, along with Richard Walther Darre and Dr. Herman Wirth, became a key player in the establishment of the Ahnenerbe, which was the ancestral heritage division of the SS. Interestingly, Himmler had a curious obsession: He believed the Aryans had their origins in the legendary land of Atlantis that so obsessed Edgar Cayce, whose Virginia Beach-based foundation was infiltrated by the CIA and the early 1960s.

"One of the primary goals of the Ahnenerbe was to prove that many early civilizations were seeded, and their fantastic architecture was constructed by ancient Nordics, the very same ones that Himmler believed were the Atlanteans. Or, as the Ahnenerbe interpreted things: The original rulers of the planet from whom the elite of the Nazis could claimed their personal lineage and heritage.

"Of some note, in 1939, the Ahnenerbe planned to investigate and excavate in the mountains of Bolivia, as part of their quest to prove the existence of a very old Aryan super-race... The project was largely prompted by the work of a German archaeologist named Edmund kiss, who was the author of a book titled The Last Queen of Atlantis. Like so many within the SS, which he duly joined after war broke out, Kiss was obsessed with the idea that the Aryans had seeded a worldwide civilization in an ancient era."

(ibid, pgs. 215-216)

the seal of the Ahnenerbe

Ultimately the Bolivian expedition was brought to a premature conclusion in September 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland and Britain declared war on Germany, thus forcing Hitler to divert much-needed manpower and resources elsewhere. Regardless, the interest the Nazi regime and possibly the CIA head in the myths of Atlantis is most curious, to say the least. Part of this interest may have been driven by the reputation of the Atlanteans as pyramid builders.

Pyramids have appeared not just in ancient Egypt but the world over, from Indonesia, China, India, and especially Central and South America in their ancient cultures. Beyond that, many pyramid-like structures have been found in numerous other parts of the world such as the megalithic mounds of Europe and North America and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, all of which date from deep within antiquity. This has led some researchers to speculate that all of the world's pyramids and like structures have a common original source. Given that the mythological Atlanteans had long been credited with instructing the ancient Egyptians in pyramid building, they are not a bad choice for the source if they did in fact exist.

And all of this of course makes the discovery of a massive pyramid beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle especially significant if it is in fact legit. The fact that claims of such a pyramid beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle have been making the rounds since the 1960s and that there has been an almost total media blackout of this alleged discovery (either pro or con) now that researchers are finally investigating these claims after decades makes this whole affair all the more strange (and suspect). If this is in fact a hoax, it at least has a bit of cleverness to it for it is just bizarre enough to have the makings of truth. But until more definitive evidence emerges it is best to remain skeptical of the reality of this find all the same.