The Mystery of the Longyou Caves

In the summer of 1992, in Quzhou, China, a man set out to dispel a myth.  A local legend of the small village of Shiyanbei told that the ponds in the rural area were no ordinary ponds.  They were thought to be bottomless, inexhaustible water sources and were called by the villagers "The Unfathomable Swags."  Many in the village had attempted to measure the depth of the ponds without success.  The man, Wu Anai, had long had been curious about the ponds.  Were they indeed bottomless or were they, as Wu suspected, the surface of naturally eroded cave entrances?

With the help of three other villagers and several water pumps, Wu began to drain the water from the pond.  After three days of pumping, there appeared to be no end in sight.  It took a full 17 days to pump all the water out of one of the ponds.  While successfully proving that the pond did indeed have a bottom, the draining of the pond revealed an even more staggering mystery.  These were not simple, natural caves.  The bottom of the pond had man-made steles and a carved-stone staircase leading downward.  

What was eventually discovered was a massive complex of 24 underground grottoes carved into solid sandstone.  Each cave descends nearly 100 feet into the earth and many contain intricately carved columns, bridges, pool-like depressions and detailed murals.  The 24 separate caves do not seem to connect to each other, although all have identically matching parallel chiseling marks carved at precise angles.

The mysteries of the caves are vast.  It is estimated that over 1 million cubic meters of rocks had to have been removed for their construction.  This would have taken 1,000 people working 24 hours a day an approximated six years to complete - and this doesn't even take into account the engineering and artistic planning that would have been necessary.  The method of excavation is also perplexing. The uniform, parallel markings indicate a unique and laborious method of quarrying.

There is also the question of who may have built these unusual caves.  There are no records of the caves in any ancient Chinese manuscripts.  This is especially curious since the empires of China are known for meticulous record keeping.  Could these caves be the remains of an ancient, unknown Chinese civilization or is it possible the records of the caves have been destroyed by an Emperor who wouldn't have wanted his own accomplishments overshadowed?

Experts are still unsure what the purpose of the caves may have been.  Some have suggested that the caves were giant tombs for an Emperor, yet no funerary artifacts have been found.  Others have suggested that they were ancient palaces, but the open arrangement of the interior of the caves seems to contradict this idea.  Still others have postulated that the caves were military stations, but the length of time and detailed construction makes it unlikely that they were carved in preparation for war.   

Adding to the mystery, the caves seems to show no signs of corrosion despite being submerged in water for such a long time.  There are no signs of water damage, no dislodged rock piles and no evidence of damage from seismic movement or natural disasters.  How is it that these caves have the seemingly miraculous ability to defy the ravages of time?

The Longyou Caves remain a timeless mystery.  Were they built by ancient aliens?  Were they the product of an unknown, advanced civilization now long forgotten?  Whatever the origins, their legacy lives on in the minds of those who revel in the mysteries of our strange universe. 

Our Solar System's Alien Visitor

In October of 2017 our solar system had an alien visitor.  What was first called a comet, and then an asteroid was finally determined to be the first interstellar body of it's kind that human beings have witnessed.  This was an object, floating through space, from another solar system.

The object was named "Oumuamua," a Hawaiian word which means "a messenger from the past."  The object was discovered by the PAN-STARRS1 survey which is the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System.  PAN-STARRS1 is a system for wide-field astronomical imaging which was developed by the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii.

Oumuamua is estimated to be 755ft - 3,281ft x 115ft - 548ft x 115ft - 548ft.  It is dark-red in color and is literally alien, having not originated in our solar system.  The oddest thing about the interstellar object is it's unusual acceleration and a Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics research paper has recently suggested that it may not only be alien, but could be an artificially designed, extraterrestrial probe.

The researchers speculate that, due to the unusual acceleration of Oumuamua, it may be a lightsail - a type of spacecraft propulsion system that uses radiation pressure from sunlight on large mirrors to create a "wind sail" type effect.  Although many in the scientific community are skeptical that the object known as the "messenger from the past" could be an alien spacecraft, the open-mindedness and acceptance of the alien intelligence hypothesis of the researchers is refreshing.  As I, myself, am a researcher who always tries to balance my extranormal thinking with logic and reason - and my reason and logic with extranormal thinking - I see this as a great milestone for science and paranormal researchers alike.