The Stones of Atlantis Max Depth: 20ft. Less than 1 mile off the shore of North Bimini lies a unique underwater phenomenon. A series of rectangular stones, laid out in 2 straight parallel rows, lies in less than 20 feet of water. The stones and the two rows are actually part of a much larger formation that, due to it's size, is only visible from the air. The stones and the formation were first discovered in late 1968 by a private pilot by the name of Mason Valentine who was flying over the island on his way back to the US mainland. This in itself would not have been much more than a curious discovery if it weren't for a man named Edgar Cayce. Edgar Cayce was a well known psychic and clairvoyant (aka "The Seeping Prophet")who died in the mid - 1940's. Although over the course of his life he made thousands of predictions in many different areas, he had a particular interest in the "Lost Continent of Atlantis". In 1936, Edgar Cayce made a very specific prediction in regards to civilization known to the Greek philosopher Plato as "Poseidia". Cayce predicted that "The first signs of Atlantis rising would occur in the Bahamas, near the island of Bimini". He also predicted the time frame. He narrowed it down to either 1967 or 1968. Thirty one years after Cayce's original predictions and more than twenty years after Cayce's death, this formation was discovered! It was this incredible coincidence that peaked everyone's interest in Valentine's find.
The second research group, after analyzing basically the same raw data announced that their findings show that, though interesting, the stone formation was nothing but a natural formation of "beach rock" left behind from a previous shoreline mark. It was during that first study led by Dr. David Zinc that the media also became fascinated with the site. National Geographic magazine did numerous magazine articles and television specials about the discovery and the subsequent archeological studies.
A lesser known prediction by Cayce in regards to the Bimini "Atlantis" site was proven out in 1994. The prediction was, that "both granite and marble" would be found on the road site. Neither of which was indigenous to Bimini, or, the Bahamas. Marble had in fact been discovered on the site dating back to the studies conducted in the early 70's. The researchers at that time had not uncovered any Granite. It wasn't until June of 1994, when a rectangular block was uncovered from beneath the sand by Bill Keefe of Bimini Undersea. When the block was first discovered, no one was quite sure of what it was? For safe keeping, it was removed from the Bimini Road site and brought to the Bimini Undersea headquarters on North Bimini. There was a concern that the stones small size (compared to the other large blocks on the site) would make it an easy target for souvenir collectors. At the time, a film crew from WMAR television in Baltimore Maryland was on the island filming the syndicated documentary Mysteries of Bimini. The producer of the program (George Stover) who had contacts at the US Geological Survey office in Washington DC asked if he could take a small piece of the stone back with him to have it analyzed. That is where it was determined that the stone was in fact granite! As it was, neither the Keefe's, nor, anyone involved in the film production were aware of the Cayce prediction involving the discovery of marble and granite. It wasn't until almost a year later, after the filming of Mysteries of Atlantis had already been completed, that everyone learned that the discovery of the granite block now fulfilled yet another prediction by the man known as "The Sleeping Prophet". Bimini Undersea runs both Snorkeling, and SCUBA Diving trips to The Atlantis Road site numerous times each week. |
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Two major studies of "The Road" site were undertaken during the late 60's and early 70's. Each coming to different conclusions based on basically the same raw data. The conclusion of the first group was that the stone did in fact appear to have "design" to their layout and structure. Thus implying that "man" was responsible for the orderly layout of the stones. 
The "Zinc study" was also the subject of one of the early episodes of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. The episode became famous due to the fact that Philippe Cousteau (son of Jacques) landed the Cousteau PBY Seaplane on the Atlantis site and shot the entire episode from the floating aircraft. Since that time, not a year goes by that one or more film/television group does not come to Bimini to produce another "Atlantis" based documentary. 
