Lost Island Societies and Structures

Can something as epic as the great wall on Palau Batu Tengkorak remain obscure?

Architect and author William N. Morgan relates an experience he had in 1954, from his book, Prehistoric Architecture in Micronesia:

Late one night in Guam I entered a bar for a nightcap. Sitting next to me was a naval aviator whom I did not know. He said he routinely flew aerial reconnaissance missions over the islands of Micronesia, primarily looking for ships fishing illegally in the islands’ territorial waters. An unusual incident had occurred earlier that day during a flight over an island that began with the letter ‘P.’ Unfortunately, I did not recall whether he said Palau or Pohnpei—the two islands are separated by a distance of some sixteen hundred miles. From a high altitude the aviator saw what appeared to be a Venice-like city built on a shallow reef along the island’s shore. His aircraft descended for closer inspection.

Stone walls surrounded innumerable rectangular islets bigger than football fields, and a network of canals and seawalls extended from the open Pacific to dense mangrove swamps along the shore. Since the mysterious city obviously was not a Second World War structure or more recent installation, the aviator did not photograph it although his mission involved aerial photography. At this point I wrongly assumed that the stranger was testing my credibility with an outlandish tale. I asked him how long he had been in the bar and suggested that the next time he should photograph any mysterious cities or pink elephants he might see.

Not until more than thirty years later did I realize that the aviator, whom I have not seen again, had accurately described some of the extraordinary remains of Nan Madol on Pohnpei… To the best of my knowledge no mention of this remarkable work has existed heretofore in the literature of architectural history.