Bimini Road/Wall

Bimini Road/Wall

The Bimini Road/Wall is an underwater rock formation that lays in varying rows of blocks, located off the coast of islands in the Bahamas. The rock consist mostly of limestone. The structure is around half a mile in length and 290 feet wide; it has a “j-shape” to it. The blocks are of varying shapes (oblong, polygonal or rectangular) and sizes, some being 12 feet in width. The Bimini Road lays around 18 feet under the water and lays almost parallel to the shore of the beach. This formation was once thought to be a wall buried in the sand, but upon further discovery it only consist of a single layer; hence the name Bimini Road. The longest consecutive row is around 1,600 feet long.

Location of the Bimini Road/Wall

The Bimini Road/Wall is located nearly half a mile off of the west coast of the North Bimini Islands and about half a mile north of Paradise Point in the Bahamas. Coming from the other direction the Bimini Road is around 45 miles east of Miami, Florida's coast. The Bimini Road/Wall also lays within the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle.

Formation of the Bimini Road/Wall

The Bimini Road is made of a material that forms of the shore as a result of shoreline drying and fracturing; called beachrock. The formation of beachrock occurs fairly rapidly and it is suggested that it forms during times of lower sea levels. As tidal fluctuation constantly force calcium carbonate-rich water through the sands where evaporation and off-gassing of CO2 help stimulate precipitation of calcium carbonate. After a couple of years crystals of aragonite (common marine form of calcium carbonate) fall between the grains. This creates a welding like effect which holds the grains together tightly and forms a very hard limestone (beachrock). During the last 18,000 years sea levels have risen and completely submerged the beachrock underwater due this it has created the effect that some of the beachrock in the Bimini Road appear to look man-made while other parts still remain looking like natural beachrock deposits.

Discovery of the Bimini Road/Wall

The Bimini Road/Wall was first discovered by a man named Joseph Manson Valentine and two other men named Jacques Mayol and Robert Angove in 1968 while he was diving off the coast of the Bahamas. After discovering the Bimini Road/Wall in 1968 Joseph Valentine had concluded that is structure must be man-made due to two main reasons. The first reason being the rock formation does not lay exactly parallel to the shore consistent to most beachrock formations. The second reasons being that the blocks of limestone are unusually geological and must be of human design. As J. Valentine attempted to analyze the new rock formation he ran into a problem with lack of funding. Due to this lack in funding J. Valentine joined up with a group of men named Dimitri Rebikoff (engineer), Robert Brush (aircraft pilot), and Trigg Adams (aircraft pilot) who had all also been inspired by Edgar Cayce and his visions/predictions of Atlantis. During this time the group of men discovered more “roads” and a collection of marble columns believed to be made by the Atlanteans. Edgar Cayce's claims and predictions heavily influenced how J. Valentine, D.Rebikoff, R. Brush, and T. Adams analyzed the underwater rock structure. Edgar Cayce had predicted that in the late 1960's Atlantis would become visible for humans to discover. Based on Edgar Cayce's predictions regarding Atlantis' discovery the group of men analyzed the structure as something that was not of natural formation but of intelligent species design.

Significance of the Bimini Road/Wall

Before the Bimini Road/Wall was formally discovered by J. Valentine it was known to many as a place that was a large habitat for marine-life containing species mostly of bonefish and lemon shark. Specifically the area was known as a nursery for bonefish and lemon shark. In return this flourishing marine-life site was deemed very well known fishing spot. It was documented that the area was used by Ernest Hemingway while he was writing, (FIND BOOK).

After the Bimini Road was discovered in 1968 it became known as a very popular site for tourist to go snorkeling, due to the number of large stone structures and exoctic marine life. The area is still used today for many tourist activities such as fishing, snorkeling, diving, and boating.

Pseudoarchaeological Narrative of the Bimini Road/Wall

The pseudoarchaeological narrative of the Bimini Road/Wall is that this beachrock structure must be the “road to Atlantis.” The first claim of this was made in 1938 (before the actual discovery) by a man named Edgar Cayce. Edgar Cayce had a “prophecy” and had predicted that Atlantis would be discovered in the Bahamas off the coast of the Islands of Bimini during the late 1960’s.

After these discoveries by Valentine and his crew a man named David Zink began his own exploration of the Bimini Road/Wall. David Zink’s exploration of the Bimini Road/Wall was funded by the Cayce Foundation. He later went on to write a book called The Stones of Atlantis, which states that the road to Atlantis was built by extraterrestrials. He also included a narrative about a force field that was built around Atlantis causing the strange disappearances in that occurred in the Bermuda Triangle in which the Bimini Road/Wall is located. Another idea that fueled this narrative was the discovery of human occupation found in a sinkhole in Florida. The artifacts found in the sinkhole dated to be around 12,000 years old. In return that meant to some people that Atlantis is a civilization that had sunken as well.

Deconstructing this Pseudoarchaeological Narrative

The main way to deconstruct the idea of this pseudoarchaeological narrative of the Bimini Road/Wall being the secret pathway to Atlantis is to understand that Edgar Cayce was a hyper-diffusionist, which means that he had the idea that all civilizations came from one super-race of humans based on his ignorant views of biology and archaeology.

To actually deconstruct the claims made by Joseph Valentine, his crew and David Zink is to look at actual archaeologist conclusions which were based on evidence and the context behind the evidence they discovered. After David Zink published his book "The Stones of Atlantis", which turned out to be unsupported by the archaeological community, a group went out to prove that the stone path was simply beachrock and not a man-mad/extraterrestrial-made “road.” The group was led by Wyman Harrison, a geologist from Virginia Beach, and John Gifford, a graduate student in marine geology at the University of Miami. Wyman Harrison was able to debunk the claims from Valentine, Rebikoff, Brush, and Adams which stated that the marble columns were made and placed in that location by the Atlanteans. Harrison concluded that the columns were simply cargo from a shipwreck. The marble columns found near the Bimini Road/Wall presented characteristics that were similar to other marble columns discovered from shipwrecks in the area. John Gifford, who was supported by the National Geographic Society, was able to do testing on the actual beachrock. He measured and mapped the blocks, while performing a detailed analysis of the composition of the block. After testing the rocks Gifford was able to conclude that the beachstone was the same material all the way through, similar to other beachrock. It was also concluded that the Bimini Road/Wall is parallel to the shore, unlike Valentine had stated previously.

Another geologist named Eugene Shinn was able to do drilling to get to the core of the beachrock at Bimini Road/Wall and beachrock that is forming off of the main swimming beach at Bimini. After testing and analyzing the different cores, Shinn was able to conclude that the older beachrock cores are identical to the newer ones at the main swimming beach. Shinn also noticed that the blocks at the main swimming beach were embedded with trash left by the tourist (bottle, and plastic bags) while the beachrock on the Bimini Road had no material embedded showing no proof of any ancient civilization. Shinn then x-radiographed the Bimini Road blocks to reveal internal stratification that was consistent with beachrock in the area. As well as the fact that the internal stratification is a natural process that would be almost impossible to replicate in man-made production. Shinn was also able to perform carbon-14 dating on the Bimini Road blocks to show that the stone was actually only 2,000-4,000 years old. According to Plato Atlantis would be around 7,000 years old making the Bimini Road/Wall much too young to be the road leading to Atlantis.