By: Robert Schrader | Published on March 11, 2022
Dive Into The Mysteries Of The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle mystery is even more confounding than Atlantis. This is partially because its impacts on the real world are more recent — many people associate the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart with the Bermuda Triangle. This begs the question: What precisely is the Bermuda Triangle? And, legend notwithstanding, has any evidence ever come up to suggest it actually exists?
Over decades and centuries, researchers, business people and other concerned parties began to notice a disproportionately high number of shipwrecks within the "triangle" of sea between modern-day Florida, Puerto Rico and, of course, Bermuda. Initially, and particularly in the days before modern technology, it was tempting to ascribe some sort of supernatural cause to these incidents, which led to the belief that the boats and people just vanished into thin air.
However, while some Bermuda Triangle enthusiasts still insist today there's a demonic force entrapping ships and planes in its abyss (which possibly leads to another dimension), modern science has suggested more realistic explanations. Namely, that currents related to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream may impair navigation, not to mention other factors such as a large concentration of coral reefs in this area or the frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms in the summer.
Although modern navigational equipment can counteract most of these impacts (and today's sailors generally avoid heading out to sea when a hurricane has churned the waters), some scientists believe climate change could make the "Bermuda Triangle effect" even more pernicious. Thankfully, as of present day, no modern jetliner has succumbed to the same fate as Amelia Earhart's plane, although some conspiracy theorists have suggested the TWA Flight 800 Tragedy in 1996 had something to do with it.
Discover Atlantis, In Legend And Real Life
First appearing in the writings of Plato nearly 2,500 years ago, the Lost City of Atlantis is one of the most talked-about (but least understood) legends of the sea. For one, it was less a city and more a continent, or as Plato described it "larger than Libya and Asia Minor (now Turkey) together." Some believers in the "lost city" myth have rationalized this by hypothesizing that the great capital city (also named Atlantis) sat roughly in the middle of the massive, now-sunken landmass.
Beyond disagreements over its size and scope, there's also debate about why and how it got "lost." While more science-minded Atlantis enthusiasts chalk up the apparent disappearance of an entire continent to tectonic plate slippage and sinking, Plato's writings seem to imply that the wickedness of the Atlantians resulted in divine punishment and destruction by the Gods. More recently, some have suggested ancient climate change and sea-level reside could've doomed the people of Atlantis to their watery fate.
These days, the legend of Atlantis has spawned countless TV specials and book series over the years. Explorers have claimed to find evidence of Atlantis along the coasts of countries as far east as Greece and Lebanon and as far west as the Bahamas and even the continental United States.
In spite of modern interest in the legend of Atlantis, and the proliferation of pop culture paraphernalia around it, no definitive evidence of civilization has ever been found under the sea, at least not deep in the Atlantic where Atlantis apparently once existed. Contrary to online conjecture, all of the ruins that have sunken beneath the shores of Mediterranean countries can be traced back to well-documented ancient empires.
If you're a frequent Caribbean cruiser, the word "Atlantis" may be less synonymous with legend and more evocative of the famous luxury resort in the Bahamas. Although Atlantis Resort's Ruins Lagoon is man-made, diving here certainly evokes the feeling of having discovered a sunken metropolis. On the other side of Atlantis, you can visit the Lost Atlantis Museum in Santorini, Greece, for an in-depth look into the myth and mystery.
Learn About Other Maritime Mysteries And Folklores
Sometimes known as the "Formosa Triangle" (referring to a former name for Taiwan), the Devil's Sea is what you might think of as the Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific. Stretching out just south of Tokyo, past Taiwan to the Philippines, and then over into the Northern Mariana Islands, this mysterious stretch of sea is less discussed than the Bermuda Triangle but has just as macabre a history. When Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disappeared in 2014, some people believed it had dropped into the Devil's Sea.
Another Eastern legend of the sea is Lemuria, which you might characterize as the Atlantis of the Indian Ocean. Sitting roughly where modern-day Sri Lanka now occupies, Lemuria has sparked folklore in a similar way to Atlantis since a zoologist hypothesized its existence in the mid-19th century, while some fringe conspiracy theorists go so far as to say humanity originated there. Like Atlantis, there is so far no evidence Lemuria ever existed.
Mysteries Of The Sea Legends Remain
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Discover the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle and other legends of the sea on your Bermuda cruise.
