{"id":633616,"date":"2026-10-17T17:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T17:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633616\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T17:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T17:18:10","slug":"its-thousands-of-years-old-as-long-as-a-football-field-taller-than-the-great-sphinx-of-giza-and-no-one-knows-how-it-ended-up-on-the-seabed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633616\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s thousands of years old, as long as a football field, taller than the Great Sphinx of Giza and no-one knows how it ended up on the seabed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off the coast of a Japanese<\/a> island so far west that it\u2019s actually closer to Taiwan, it\u2019s possible to see hundreds of hammerhead sharks battling ripping currents around 35 metres deep. That is, if you\u2019re a very experienced diver visiting between November and early May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But not everyone comes for the scalloped\u00a0hammerheads<\/a>. Some divers visit this remote destination to swim through the inky blue waters past mysterious blocks of towering rock that look like they could have been plonked there by a giant playing with Lego.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This underwater spectacle is known as the Yonaguni Monument.\u00a0At around 25 metres tall, it\u2019s higher than Antony Gormley\u2019s Angel of the North sculpture. It doesn\u2019t just stretch up. This strange rock formation<\/a> extends over an area of around 100 metres by 60 metres \u2013 around the same size as a field hockey pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although fishes and sea\u00a0turtles<\/a>\u00a0sometimes pass by to add a little extra excitement, the curious monument is the main draw for visitors. It looks like an underwater megalith<\/a> or ruin, with chunks of rock<\/a> that seem to form paths and even stairs around the monument.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mysterious 100-metre-long stretch of topography appears to be a series of steps and stone pillars, but debate still rages as to whether these are a man-made relic of a lost civilisation or a natural occurrence,\u201d says\u00a0Visit Okinawa Japan<\/a>on its website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People still can\u2019t fully agree on what this eerie phenomenon is and how it came to be. \u201cWith other angular structures around it, the monument certainly looks man-made, but there is a problem,\u201d writes the\u00a0Japan National Tourism Organisation<\/a>\u00a0on its website. \u201cScientists estimate that the formation is many thousands of years old, created before human beings would have had the means of making such a structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Diver swimming towards the steps of the Yonaguni Monument. Credit: Vincent Lou from Shanghai, China, CC BY 2.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

Marine geologist\u00a0Masaaki Kimura<\/a>\u00a0thinks this was once a part of a 5,000-year-old city that sank after an earthquake around 2,000 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other geologists\u00a0argue<\/a>\u00a0that the surprising shapes created within the formation<\/a> are just a result of currents wearing away the rock and that it\u2019s an ancient natural wonder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there are certainly intense currents in this area. Although the baffling structure<\/a> is relatively shallow \u2013 around\u00a025 metres deep<\/a>\u00a0at its lower sections \u2013 the conditions can be challenging.<\/p>\n

The site is known for its powerful currents so this is only recommended for experienced divers. According to\u00a0Dive Planit<\/a>, \u201cthere can sometimes be very strong currents ripping past (so strong you just get to wave as you pass by) and even in perfect conditions it will be surge-y.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily, non-divers can also get a glimpse of the peculiar sight as semi-submersible tourist boats also visit during good weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However you get there, it\u2019s a good idea to be prepared for seasickness. Lots of travellers warn that there\u2019s often large swell during the boat journey, making the travel to the site pretty nauseating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pan right over rock outcrops of Yonaguni monument. Credit: BBC Natural History\/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Yonaguni Island<\/a> is around 69 miles from Taiwan<\/a> and 316 miles from the main island of Okinawa<\/a>. Although it\u2019s much closer to Taiwan, it\u2019s Japan\u2019s westernmost inhabited island. The tourism even issues\u00a0certificates<\/a>\u00a0to prove you made it this far west for 500 yen (around \u00a32).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Travelling here requires a four-hour ferry from Ishigaki Port (they go twice a week) or a short flight (30 or 90 minutes depending if you\u2019re departing from Ishigaki or Naha airports, respectively). Both can be either cancelled or rescheduled if there\u2019s bad weather.<\/p>\n

top image: A part of Yonaguni Monument that is called the Main Terrace, underwater near Yonaguni Island, Japan. Credit: Melkov, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

Discover more incredible environmental stories:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off the coast of a Japanese island so far west that it\u2019s actually closer to Taiwan, it\u2019s possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-633616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}