One of the world's famous ruins of a mysterious ancient civilization lies in the ocean off the

shore of Japan. It's called the Yonaguni Monument, and some believe the intricate ruins are

those of an advanced civilization similar to Atlantis. But is Yonaguni considered real

by archaeologists? Or is it just a fringe notion held by a handful of outsiders to the field?

We're going to find out right now on Skeptoid.

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You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. The Yonaguni Monument,

the Japanese Atlantis. About 25 meters beneath the water's off Japan lies a stepped pyramid.

We don't know who built it or when, but there it is plain as day available for anyone to go down

and inspect. Even now at this very minute the current washes past sharply squared stone blocks

standing dark and forbidding, rising nearly high enough to break the surface. It is called the

Yonaguni Monument. The Japanese archipelago stretches for nearly 4,000 kilometers from Russia's

Kamchatka Peninsula to the island of Taiwan off the coast of mainland China. At its extreme

southwestern tip is the small island of Yonaguni. Japan's most western point, just a scant

100 kilometers from Taiwan. It's quite small, less than 30 square kilometers, with only

1700 residents, but it's famous for something found in its waters. Hammerhead sharks.

Lots of hammerhead sharks. They're so ubiquitous that divers come from all over the world to swim

...