The Bimini Road, Tatzelworms, Ica Stones and all the rest.
This week I’m going to cover a whole host of unexplained and mysterious phenomena. Well, some of them are more explained than others, and some of them the only mystery is how anyone ever took the topic in question seriously. Still, lots of fun to be had, I’ve loved stuff like this since I was a kid. And no matter what, things like this shows us that some peoples are still capable of imagination and wonder, if there’s anything that separates us from the animals it’s that. These topics are presented in no particular order. I will however classify them in one of four ways. Things can either be real or unreal, explained or unexplained. By real I mean there is actual empirical evidence to examine. When I say explained I mean there is a perfectly rational explanation and there’s really nothing mysterious going on here. My classifications are based on my evidence at hand, and am perfectly happy if someone argues otherwise. I may even change my mind, it’s been known to happen.
First off, the Bimini Road. Real/explained. This is a half mile long “road” made of interconnected stone blocks located underwater near Bimini island in the Bahamas. They blocks are “beach rock,” a type of stone that is created in beach environments. There’s a lot that can be said about the idea that this is a road, pro and con. However, we can cut to the chase. Beach rock is such that one can examine a piece of it and it has very distinct layers and orientation on a fine scale. And if one drills cores of a bunch of these rocks, as geologists have done, it turns out that their layers and orientation are all in complete match with each other. This is what we would expect to find if they were created in situ by geologic processes, but not what we would expect to find if they were cut and placed by human hands. Sadly there’s a lot of “mysteries” like this, just because something looks like it may have been made by humans doesn’t mean it was.
And here we have the Tatzelwurm. Possibly real/unexplained. The Tatzelwurm (means clawed worm) has been reported from the European Alps for centuries. It’s a big lizard-like thing with two clawed feet and a cat-like head by some descriptions. No one has caught one that has ever been examined by modern science. I’d say it was firmly in the folklore category, but there’s at least a small chance that there is some sort of unknown lizard or salamander that is the basis for the legend. Who knows, other weird things have been found in the Alps.
Lastly, the Ica Stones. Real/Explained. There’s a lovely one pictured above. A fellow riding on a dinosaur it appears. The Ica Stones, there are thousands of them, depict all sorts of wonderful things. Brain surgery, telescopes, and lots and lots of dinosaurs. Where did they come from? Peru. Who made them? Who knows, but you can go there today and the locals will gladly make new ones for you. The problem with the Ica Stones is simple, we don’t know where they came from. A doctor in the sixties claims he got them from a farmer, who claims he found them in a cave. The doctor has made a pile of money off the stones and writing a book about them, in fact there’s a big Ica Stone Museum one can go visit on the way to Machu Pichu. (OK, I made that last part up, I have no idea if the Museum is anywhere near Machu Pichu.) The claim is that the stones were made by some ancient civilization that not only had high technology, they co-existed with dinosaurs. (The the Christian fundamentalist creationists love the Ica stones.) The stones are real, but until we can find them in an archaeological context, they can’t be taken seriously. There’s a number of other reasons not to take them seriously, but “I found them in a cave,” yeah, that’s right on up there with “My dog ate my homework.” Well, just below that, dogs probably do occasionally eat homework.
Three down, hundreds to go. Most of them are similar to the ones above. That is to say, the only real mystery is that some people think these are mysterious. Part of the problem is that the people promulgating stuff like this usually exaggerate aspects of the case that make it more mysterious and/or omit inconvenient details. Or they simply make up details that make their case more convincing. Yeah, that’s scholarly. In any event, these are three relatively obscure earth mysteries. There’s not a whole lot more to be said about them. If someone can make a case that one of them deserves more investigation, I’d be curious to hear their reasoning.
Tuesday, mysterious disappearances. Cue Twilight Zone music.
(The above images are all claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. They’re not being used for profit, they are central to illustrating the post, and their use here in no way interferes with the copyright holder’s commercial use of the image. And if any gentle reader wants me to write about a mysterious thing of their choice, this would definitely be the week to make a request. No UFOs though, I’m aliened out as it were.)
Doug's Darkworld 
The Ica stones museum is in Ica, Peru.
The museum is closed normally but there is a notice on the door that tells you to make an appointment if you want to see the stones, you get a free tour with it.
We chose not to.
Rik
July 6, 2010 at 3:46 am
Hmmm…I read a lot about those, thing that for me gives them some credit, is the fact that they depict the same creatures as the nazca lines, and the fact that for that guy to have made all those in his garage or whatever would have taken longer than humanly possible without a big CNC mill or something. I think, he is playing them off as fakes so he can sell the damn things without getting in trouble for selling artifacts of Peru to tourists. Now they mix fake ones with real ones so theres no good proof, but good business. Wish somebody would actually find out whats the real deal with those things, everybody just says “we don’t really know” and throws it in the trash. Could travel down there and find out for myself, but nobody would believe me if I found anything (lol, yeah right, like I’d know where to look) with out a degree from Harvard anyways…ehh, then again, the guy might have a legion of peruvian slaves churning those stones out in that “cave” he found them in or something. So, I’ll just put it on the shelf, instead of the trash…
Peace
Pyrodin
July 6, 2010 at 7:14 am
excellent comment.
robbie
June 26, 2011 at 8:10 am
Hmmm…there is always a dumb shit on such things. Since we have found dino fossils and created a k-extinction theory just based on disguising/confusing radioactive dating, so it’s not possible that they co exist with human since here is theory of evolution which depicts that human just evolved 5million years ago and civilization just 10,000years ago. It is as provocative as searching for penguine in african grasslands. For example, If one have found fossils of tigers, it doesn’t mean tigers do not exist today. What you need is just to search them in Indian jungles not in antarctica.
bruceleeeowe
July 7, 2010 at 12:43 am
Tell me, is evolution a fact or a theorie? You stated in your comment that it is the latter. In other words, you can’t talk about the time periods as facts, but mearly for what it is. A theorie. And one theorie techically can’t be discredited by another.
Understated37
August 26, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Sorry commented on wrong post :S
Understated37
August 26, 2010 at 9:04 pm
excellent comment !!!
robbie
June 26, 2011 at 8:12 am
I think ica stones are real artifacts. Just go to here
http://weirdsciences.net/2009/08/10/the-mystery-of-artifactsica-stones/
and also visit talkorigins faq page about ica stones. There are 11000 well polished and etched stones and are as hard as quartz. Now former says that he had made and carved stones himself. See, how an illiterate former could carve such design. Imagination? Never !! Exact real depiction of stegosaurus and trex and sauropods can’t be done by him. Another noteworthy thing is that he can’t made such amount of carved stones in one year or so. It would take decades to etch quartz like stones with such accuracy and beauty. Any questions, just mail me.
bruceleeeowe
July 7, 2010 at 12:55 am
Well, I’ll look into the Ica Stones in more depth and write a dedicated post on them. I have to admit, the dinosaurs on the stones look like how dinosaurs have been depicted in the popular media for decades … and not anything like modern reconstructions of how dinosaurs looked. That alone seems like a pretty strong argument that they are a contemporary hoax. — Doug
unitedcats
July 7, 2010 at 6:25 am
Cool, I look forward to your opinion.
By the way-
The African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), also known as the Black-footed Penguin, is found on the south-western coast of Africa, living in colonies on 24 islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with the largest colony on Dyer Island, near Kleinbaai. Because of their donkey-like braying call they were previously named Jackass Penguins. Since several species of South American penguins produce the same sound, the African species has been renamed African Penguin, as it is the only penguin species that breeds in Africa. The presence of the penguin gave name to the Penguin Islands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Penguin
Peace
Pyrodin
July 7, 2010 at 8:33 am
[…] demand, here is a more comprehensive post on the Ica Stones, the one I mentioned briefly in a prior post. And I can say right off the bat, I can’t prove that all of the Ica stones are a hoax. And […]
Ica Stones Revisited « Doug’s Darkworld
July 7, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Saludos, genial que demos ECO Mundial de las PIEDRAS DE ICA o STONE ICA, ya que aún está vivo éste tema y esperemos que no sea un cuento, una historia olvidada o mito. Saludos desde Tarragona, España. Att., Abraham Veciana Gutiérrez. MI BLOG SOBRE LAS PIEDRAS Y VIVENCIAS: http://www.piedradeica.blogspot.com/ UN SALUDO MUY FUERTE!
Abraham Veciana
December 18, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I saw one of those Ica stones depicting a Kangaroo with a joey in its pouch (a joey is a young kangaroo).
How does anyone explain that?
Also a lot of the carvings are done in an Australian Aborigine style.
I smell an extremely large rat!!
Roger
December 23, 2010 at 5:05 am
[…] (the Bimini road taken by https://unitedcats.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/the-bimini-road-tatzelworms-ica-stones-and-all-the-rest/) […]
The Bermuda Triangle Mystery | NVHS Controversy and The Cutting Edge
January 14, 2011 at 12:49 am
I heard somewhere that geologists estimated the oldest stones in the collection to date approximately 99 thousand years ago…
Bob
March 6, 2011 at 1:03 am
That’s the stones not necessarily the carvings…
Bob
April 15, 2013 at 4:23 pm