WEBVTT 00:00.720 --> 00:06.140 Nowadays, and for the past five centuries, since the introduction of the heliocentric 00:06.140 --> 00:12.420 globe deception, all world maps and explorers have depicted and described the North Pole 00:12.420 --> 00:18.460 and surrounding region as being nothing but an arbitrary point in a semi-frozen tundra. 00:19.000 --> 00:23.680 Previous to this, however, depictions and descriptions of the North Pole and surrounding 00:23.680 --> 00:27.720 regions in world maps and ancient explorers' accounts were very different. 00:27.720 --> 00:34.420 Firstly, before the 16th century, the North Pole was never once shown or thought to be just some 00:34.420 --> 00:42.240 random ambiguous point amidst a low-solidity arctic ocean as it is now. Instead, the North Pole was 00:42.240 --> 00:48.400 universally described and depicted from diverse cultures all across the Earth as being a gigantic, 00:48.620 --> 00:54.740 magnetic mountain situated directly below Polaris. The prevailing belief was that 00:54.740 --> 00:58.900 compass needles the world over were actually pointing to a huge, 00:59.020 --> 01:06.240 lodestone mountain made of magnetite at the pole. In contrast to today's prevailing belief that 01:06.240 --> 01:12.360 compass needles are pointing to some constantly moving magnetic field generated by hypothetical 01:12.360 --> 01:19.380 molten metal existing at the center of a fantastical globe Earth. While neither claim can be 01:19.380 --> 01:25.480 confirmed or denied without independent exploration and experimentation, it should be noted that no 01:25.480 --> 01:31.540 where in nature can we find molten metal which retains any significant magnetic properties once 01:31.540 --> 01:38.100 heated past the curie point, let alone create some convoluted, constantly moving dipolar field 01:38.100 --> 01:44.080 as is claimed by proponents of the fantasy ball Earth. Ancient Buddhists Vedic and Jain 01:44.080 --> 01:50.160 traditional cosmologies all state that at the North Pole magnetic center point of Earth exists 01:50.160 --> 01:57.400 a circular mountain of magnetite called Mount Meru. Pyronic and Sumerian traditions also referred 01:57.400 --> 02:04.540 to this place calling it Mount Sumeru. In ancient Iran they spoke of Mount Harabarazati with a 02:04.540 --> 02:10.360 celestial spring on its highest peak in the realm of the stars. In early Chinese writings 02:10.360 --> 02:16.000 there is Mount Kunlun with a bronze pillar of heaven at the summit where the immortals dwell, 02:16.380 --> 02:22.740 often also called the Pearl Mountain, a paradise home of four great rivers around which the 02:22.740 --> 02:29.280 heavens revolve. The Turkmen tribes of southern Turkistan told of a copper pillar that marks 02:29.280 --> 02:36.100 the navel of the Earth. The Mongols rode of Mount Sumer with the Zambu tree on its summit. 02:36.820 --> 02:42.440 The bariats of Siberia talked of Mount Sumer with the North Pole star fastened to its summit. 02:43.160 --> 02:48.860 The Siberian Dalmix spoke of a mountain lake from which four rivers flow to the points of the 02:48.860 --> 02:55.300 compass. The Egyptians rode of the mound of the first time which was the first land to appear 02:55.300 --> 03:00.960 from the waters and is the dwelling place of the High God, the source of light. The Muslims 03:00.960 --> 03:06.760 rode of Kaaf and the Zoroastrians rode of Guernagar, the world encircling mountains. 03:07.600 --> 03:12.720 The Navajos spoke of encircled mountain which was surrounded by four directional mountains. 03:13.720 --> 03:20.260 The Dogan tribe of Nigeria told of a cosmic pillar spanning 14 worlds which was the 03:20.260 --> 03:26.880 roof post of the house of the High God, Amma. The Warau Indians of the Orinoco Delta in 03:26.880 --> 03:32.220 Venezuela speak of a cosmic axis extending above the center of their earth disc. 03:33.240 --> 03:39.380 Ancient Greek mythology referred to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. The ancient 03:39.380 --> 03:44.500 Germans told of Ermensul, a universal column which sustains everything. 03:45.580 --> 03:51.420 The Norse Eda spoke of Asgard, the Berg of the Gods, rising in the center of Midgard, 03:51.420 --> 03:58.200 the circular earth. Ptolemy recounted a legend involving magnetic islands which exerted such 03:58.200 --> 04:03.640 strong attraction that ships with metal nails were held in place and unable to leave. 04:04.400 --> 04:10.120 In the Arabic legend, one thousand and one nights, a magnetic mountain pulls all the nails right 04:10.120 --> 04:16.220 out of their ship causing it to fall apart and sink. The second tallest mountain in Tanzania 04:16.220 --> 04:23.040 is even named Mount Meru after its primordial partner at the pole. Richard Thompson wrote, 04:23.820 --> 04:28.520 In many traditions, the world mountain is identified symbolically with some local mountain. 04:29.080 --> 04:34.120 This is illustrated by Mount Olympus of the Greeks, Mount Alboros of the Iranians, 04:34.400 --> 04:39.740 and Mount Kunlun of the Chinese. In Near Eastern tradition, the world mountain is the 04:39.740 --> 04:45.400 small hill in Jerusalem known as Mount Zion, thus the circular continent centered on Jerusalem 04:45.400 --> 04:49.520 in medieval maps also possessed a symbolic world mountain. 04:50.340 --> 04:56.540 John Phillips wrote, Jerusalem was Paul's lodestone. The ancient mariners who set sail 04:56.540 --> 05:02.440 in their little cockleshell boats tended to hug the coastline not daring to get too far from land. 05:02.960 --> 05:07.300 Aids to navigation were few and their vessels were at the mercy of wind and wave. 05:07.880 --> 05:11.380 The slightest sign of a storm would send them scurrying for refuge. 05:11.940 --> 05:16.840 Moreover, the dreams of those old-time venturers were haunted by the thoughts of the 05:16.840 --> 05:22.440 fabled lodestone mountain. They believed it had the power to draw their vessels to shipwreck on 05:22.440 --> 05:27.760 its shores against all the pull of tide and wind. Isaiah wrote about a mountain 05:27.760 --> 05:32.960 set above all other mountains in the far recesses of the north where the gods meet 05:32.960 --> 05:40.000 called Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Genesis, Ezekiel, and Enoch all mention a 05:40.000 --> 05:47.820 paradisical Eden, the mountain of God and source of four main rivers. Genesis 2, 10-14 reads, 05:48.640 --> 05:54.520 and a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into 05:54.520 --> 06:01.140 four heads. The name of the first is Paeson, that is which compasseth the whole land of Havela 06:01.140 --> 06:07.640 where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. There is Delium and the Onyx stone, 06:07.640 --> 06:13.880 and the name of the second river is Gihon, the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia, 06:14.760 --> 06:20.580 and the name of the third river is Hiddickel, that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria, 06:21.220 --> 06:27.100 and the fourth river is Euphrates. Muhammad also spoke of four rivers and a divine tree. 06:27.840 --> 06:33.800 In the Srimad Bhagavatam, four branches of the celestial Ganges flow out from Brahmapuri 06:33.800 --> 06:41.220 on top of Mount Sumeru. In ancient Canaan, Gourili, the mountain of El, was the dwelling of El, 06:41.380 --> 06:47.320 the creator, and a place of assembly for the demigods. In one Phoenician ivory carving from 06:47.320 --> 06:53.200 around 1000 BC, a deity is shown dressed to represent a mountain with four streams coming 06:53.200 --> 06:59.380 out from the mountain god-man at right angles. Similarly, in an ancient Akkadian hymn to 06:59.380 --> 07:05.800 the goddess Ishtar, she is addressed as the queen of the mountain of the world, and queen of the land 07:05.800 --> 07:12.040 of the four rivers of Erich, and she says, I am lord of the steep mountains which tremble whilst their 07:12.040 --> 07:18.340 summits reach to the firmament. In the Christian apocryphal book of Enoch, Enoch is taken by angels 07:18.340 --> 07:23.720 on a tour of the seven heavens, and while in the third heaven shown magnificent trees producing 07:23.720 --> 07:30.860 wonderful fruits with adjacent springs pumping honey, milk, oil, and wine to four directional rivers 07:30.860 --> 07:37.560 flowing down into Paradisacal Eden, an abode specially prepared only for the pious and selfless. 07:38.660 --> 07:45.440 Similarly, in the Hindu cosmology, four trees in the Lovarta Varsa stand on great mountains 07:45.440 --> 07:51.320 producing rivers of nectar and honey, like fountains of youth providing health and vitality 07:51.320 --> 07:57.140 to all who drink of them, while the central tallest jambu tree rises to incredible heights 07:57.140 --> 08:03.480 and seems to cover all the heavens. Richard Thompson wrote, In the Bhagavata Purana, 08:03.900 --> 08:09.200 Mount Sumeru is surrounded by four great mountains, surrounded by four gigantic trees. 08:10.020 --> 08:16.420 These include the jambu tree, after which jambudwit is named. Four huge lakes of milk, 08:16.420 --> 08:21.040 honey, sugarcane juice, and pure water are located between the four mountains, 08:21.520 --> 08:25.420 and these lakes confer mystic powers on the celestial beings who bathe in them. 08:26.140 --> 08:31.580 There are also four celestial gardens near these lakes. From the foot of each of the four trees, 08:32.060 --> 08:36.660 there flows a river that either emerges from the tree itself or from the fruits of the tree. 08:37.300 --> 08:41.560 These rivers of honey and different kinds of juice flow throughout the region of 08:41.560 --> 08:46.540 Lovarta Varsa, surrounding Mount Sumeru, and they confer freedom from fatigue, 08:47.040 --> 08:50.660 disease, and old age on the inhabitants of that region. 08:51.720 --> 08:56.980 The Yakku people of northeastern Siberia have their own strikingly similar ancient myth, 08:57.200 --> 09:02.060 where a world tree of immeasurable age exists at the navel of the earth, 09:02.440 --> 09:06.980 just like the Hindu jambu tree is born of the umbilical knot of Brahma. 09:07.620 --> 09:12.820 The Yakku world tree reaches into the high heavens with cones nine fathoms long 09:12.820 --> 09:16.660 and sap which imparts youthfulness on all who consume it. 09:17.460 --> 09:20.900 Near the Yakku tree also lies a lake of sweet milk, 09:21.260 --> 09:25.160 which is where the popular modern Japanese milk company Yakku 09:25.160 --> 09:29.240 doubtless gets its inspiration. Richard Thompson wrote, 09:29.920 --> 09:34.760 In different traditions, the upper and lower worlds may be divided into several levels, 09:34.760 --> 09:41.000 often seven or nine. In the center of the earth disc there is a world mountain or world pillar 09:41.000 --> 09:46.680 that links middle earth to the lower and upper worlds. The world mountain represents the polar 09:46.680 --> 09:52.620 axis and the dwellings of great demigods are located on its summit. The world mountain may 09:52.620 --> 09:55.980 be surrounded by other mountains that define the cardinal directions, 09:56.480 --> 10:02.120 and these directions may be associated with certain colors. Four sacred rivers may also 10:02.120 --> 10:07.860 flow from the world mountain in the four cardinal directions. There is a world tree that is often 10:07.860 --> 10:13.420 situated on the world mountain or four world trees may be located on the neighboring directional 10:13.420 --> 10:19.020 mountains. The world tree extends from the earth to the heavens and it is nearly immortal. 10:19.760 --> 10:25.080 It is the source of rivers of nectar or pure water that give health and longevity to those 10:25.080 --> 10:30.300 who drink them. The tree stands in an earthly paradise where there are celestial gardens 10:30.300 --> 10:37.500 and rivers of various substances such as milk, oil, and honey. The tree or world pillar is often 10:37.500 --> 10:43.460 associated with a great eagle-like bird that is the enemy of great serpents dwelling in the lower 10:43.460 --> 10:52.100 world. In ancient Iranian thought, a mountain called Herra Barazati or Alborj stands at the center 10:52.100 --> 10:57.680 of the earth, a fixed point around which the sun, moon, and stars revolve. At its summit 10:57.680 --> 11:03.620 lies the dwelling place of Ormaz, the Lord of Light, complete with a giant miraculous tree, 11:04.140 --> 11:10.480 an Edenic garden of Ahura Mazda, and the celestial fountain Ardhusur, which is the 11:10.480 --> 11:16.660 mother of all earthly water and flows down towards four cardinal points into four large streams. 11:17.740 --> 11:24.000 The bridge Chinavad reaches from the peak of Alborj to the solid vault of heaven or 11:24.000 --> 11:30.320 Gorodman, the home of the pious and blessed, whilst underneath lies the great gulf of Dozak, 11:30.820 --> 11:37.960 the abysmal abode of the Lord of Darkness, Ariman. The earliest cosmogony recorded by the Japanese 11:37.960 --> 11:43.520 in their most ancient book, the Kojiki, once again mirrors this recurring mythology. 11:44.280 --> 11:49.720 In the beginning, Izanagi and Izanani, the great god and goddess standing in heaven, 11:49.720 --> 11:56.180 drove a celestial spear into the endless sea and twisted it around until an island rose from the water. 11:57.020 --> 12:01.320 They then descended from heaven to earth and built a palace around the huge spear, 12:01.760 --> 12:06.740 using it as the central pillar. This spear became the central axis of the world, 12:07.060 --> 12:12.200 and their palace the birthplace of the human race. In the Kojiki and Shinto religion, 12:12.760 --> 12:16.840 the creator and the North Pole are so purposely and inseparably linked 12:16.840 --> 12:22.520 that one of the often used names of God translates to the Lord of the center of heaven. 12:23.480 --> 12:29.380 The Ainos, supposed first inhabitants of Japan, whose name means offspring of the centered, 12:29.980 --> 12:36.020 are believed to have arrived onto the archipelago from the north and bury their dead facing north 12:36.020 --> 12:40.160 to where their ancestors came and to which their spirits would return. 12:41.120 --> 12:47.480 In Buddhist funeral ceremonies, bodies are cremated in special crematoriums actually called 12:47.480 --> 12:54.360 Meru, which are essentially tall stone pillars with four doors at the peak aligned to the 12:54.360 --> 13:00.520 cardinal directions with the belief that our reincarnated souls will pass Mount Meru before 13:00.520 --> 13:06.220 returning to earthly bodies. Literally every temple and the little spirit house shrines 13:06.220 --> 13:13.060 founded most Buddhist homes are also representations of Meru, the abode of the gods, aligned to the 13:13.060 --> 13:19.040 four cardinal directions, and opulently embellished with gold, jewelry, and metaphysical artwork. 13:20.100 --> 13:21.660 Dr. William Warren wrote, 13:22.520 --> 13:29.280 Copin assures us that every orthodoxy constructed Buddhist temple either is or contains a 13:29.280 --> 13:35.280 symbolical representation of the divine regions of Meru and of the heaven of the gods, saints, 13:35.280 --> 13:42.820 and Buddhas rising above it. Lily says the 13 pyramidal layers at the top of every temple in 13:42.820 --> 13:49.900 Nepal represent the 13 unchangeable heavens of Amitabha. Faber develops the evidence of this 13:49.900 --> 13:55.980 practice among the ancients with gratefulness and with respect to the Hindus and Buddhists says 13:55.980 --> 14:03.160 each pagoda, each pyramid, each month to form high place is invariably esteemed to be a copy 14:03.160 --> 14:10.680 of the Holy Hill Meru. Ancient South American traditions also believed the human race was birthed 14:10.680 --> 14:15.580 in the farthest north upon the highest of mountains surrounded by perpetual clouds, 14:15.980 --> 14:21.920 fountainhead of the world's waters, and home of God Tlalak residing on their sacred paradise 14:21.920 --> 14:29.880 mountains, Tlapalan. The first man, Ketsekadal, was said to have drank the water of immortality 14:29.880 --> 14:36.280 from Tlalak's mountain and ruled as king throughout the golden age in Mexico. The many Incan, 14:36.620 --> 14:42.260 Mayan, Aztec, and other steppe pyramids and temples aligned to cardinal directions and 14:42.260 --> 14:47.420 devoted to the gods are representative of this world mountain. Interestingly enough, 14:47.820 --> 14:53.220 many modern Mexican myths now represent the mountain as crooked or partially turned over. 14:54.220 --> 15:01.600 Similarly, in the ancient Chinese Taoist tradition, a myth over 4,000 years old refers to 15:01.600 --> 15:09.720 Shangtae, the highest of all gods who lives in Suiwei, described as a celestial space above the 15:09.720 --> 15:15.640 North Pole. Shangtae's abode is said to exist directly over the peak of Mount Kunlun, 15:16.060 --> 15:21.480 which again places the highest god at Polaris. As with the other cosmologies, 15:21.480 --> 15:27.280 Mount Kunlun is a primeval paradise, abode of the gods, with a world tree in the middle 15:27.280 --> 15:33.020 and a fountain of immortality from which four rivers flow outwards to the four corners of the 15:33.020 --> 15:39.820 earth. Dr. William Warren wrote, sparkling fountains and pearling streams contain the far-famed 15:39.820 --> 15:45.920 ambrosia. One may there rest on flowery, carpeted swards, listening to the melodious 15:45.920 --> 15:51.200 warmling of birds, or feasting upon the delicious fruits at once fragrant and luscious, 15:51.520 --> 15:56.960 which hang from the branches of the luxuriant groves. Whatever there is beautiful in landscape 15:56.960 --> 16:02.920 or grand in nature may also be found there in the highest state of perfection. All is charming, 16:03.320 --> 16:08.300 all enchanting, and whilst nature smiles, the company of genie delights the ravished visitor. 16:08.920 --> 16:14.380 Where now is the Paradise Mountain located? At the North Pole. Immediately over the 16:14.380 --> 16:20.760 central peak of Kunlun appears the Polar Star, which is Shang-Tae's heavenly abode. In the central 16:20.760 --> 16:27.460 place, the Polar Star of Heaven, the One Bright One, the Great Monad, always dwells. In accordance 16:27.460 --> 16:32.940 with this conception, the Emperor and his assistants, when officiating before the altar of 16:32.940 --> 16:38.560 Heaven, always face the North. The Pole Star itself is a prominent object of worship. 16:39.240 --> 16:44.420 Both the ancient Orientals and Greeks turned to face North before commencing prayer. 16:45.240 --> 16:49.800 Homer states that when addressing the gods of Mount Olympus, they would stretch their arms 16:49.800 --> 16:55.240 toward the northern sky, and Plato also confirms that this holy habitation of Zeus 16:55.240 --> 17:01.160 was placed in the center of the world. Heraclitus said that it touches the ether 17:01.160 --> 17:07.580 and casts a shadow of five thousand stadia in length. Herodotus stated the mountain to be 17:07.580 --> 17:13.960 very tapering and round, so lofty, moreover, that the top cannot be seen, the clouds never 17:13.960 --> 17:19.120 quitting it either summer or winter. The natives call this mountain the Pillar of Heaven, 17:19.580 --> 17:25.180 and they themselves take their name from it, being called Atlantis. They are reported not 17:25.180 --> 17:31.320 to eat any living thing. Strabo claimed it was an earthly paradise, with gigantic olive trees 17:31.320 --> 17:36.880 and grape clusters, a qubit in length. Pliny described a river of milk descending from 17:36.880 --> 17:43.820 great heights, and called the mountain a fabulacisumum. Maximus Therias claimed the ocean waves 17:43.820 --> 17:48.580 stopped short before reaching the mountain, standing up like a wall around its base, 17:49.100 --> 17:54.460 though unrestrained by any earthly barrier. Nothing but the air and the sacred thicket 17:54.460 --> 17:59.520 prevent the water from reaching the mountain. In the Phaedo Socrates is quoted as saying, 18:00.000 --> 18:04.440 all things that grow trees and flowers and fruit are fairer than any here, 18:04.440 --> 18:09.780 and there are hills and stones in them smoother and more transparent and fairer in color 18:09.780 --> 18:15.200 than our highly valued emeralds and sardonyx and jaspers and other gems, which are but 18:15.200 --> 18:21.380 minute fragments of them. For there all the stones are like our precious stones and fairer still. 18:22.200 --> 18:26.000 The temperament of their seasons is such that the inhabitants have no disease 18:26.000 --> 18:30.500 and live much longer than we do, and have sight and hearing and smell 18:30.500 --> 18:35.340 and all the other senses and much greater perfection. And they have temples and sacred 18:35.340 --> 18:40.780 places in which the gods really dwell, and they hear their voices and receive their answers 18:40.780 --> 18:46.300 and are conscious of them and hold converse with them, and they see the sun, the moon, and stars 18:46.300 --> 18:50.120 as they really are. Dr. William Warren wrote, 18:50.900 --> 18:55.360 The evidence that an ancient Hellenic thought also the heaven of the gods was in the northern 18:55.360 --> 19:02.060 sky is incidental, but cumulative and satisfactory. For example, heaven is upheld by Atlas, 19:02.520 --> 19:07.060 but the terrestrial station of Atlas, as we have elsewhere shown, is at the North Pole. 19:07.760 --> 19:13.720 Again, Olympus was the abode of the gods, but if the now generally current etymology of this term 19:13.720 --> 19:19.480 is correct, Olympus was simply the Atlantean pillar, pictured as a lofty mountain and 19:19.480 --> 19:24.380 supporting the sky at its northern pole. In fact, many writers now affirm that the 19:24.380 --> 19:29.640 Olympus of Greek mythology was originally simply the North Polar World Mountain of the 19:29.640 --> 19:35.880 Asiatic nations. The ancient Germanic and Finnish people also, when praying or sacrificing to the 19:35.880 --> 19:42.760 gods, always faced North, and in the Scandinavian Eddas, both Asgard and Idavalar are represented 19:42.760 --> 19:49.520 as the naval or center of the world. For them, atop the Yggdazil Tree at Earth's center 19:49.520 --> 19:55.680 was the heavenly Asgard, home of the gods. Today we still pay respect to this primitive 19:55.680 --> 20:00.660 tradition at Christmas when we top our symbolic world trees with a bright yellow pole star. 20:01.880 --> 20:03.200 Dr. William Warren wrote, 20:04.000 --> 20:08.840 We have already seen that the term naval was anciently used in many languages for center, 20:09.380 --> 20:14.480 and that the pole or central point of the revolving constellations was the naval of heaven, 20:15.040 --> 20:20.880 but as to the celestial pole, there corresponds a terrestrial one. So it is only natural that 20:20.880 --> 20:25.960 to the term, the naval of heaven, there should be the corresponding expression, the naval of the 20:25.960 --> 20:30.980 earth. Beginning with Christian traditions, let us make a pilgrimage to the church of the Holy 20:30.980 --> 20:36.720 Sepulcher at Jerusalem. There, in the portion belonging to the Greek Christians, we shall 20:36.720 --> 20:41.500 discover a round pillar, some two feet high, projecting from the marble pavement, 20:41.500 --> 20:47.060 but supporting nothing. If we inquire as to its purpose, we shall be informed that it is 20:47.060 --> 20:53.340 designed to mark the exact center or naval of the earth. Early pilgrims and chroniclers 20:53.340 --> 21:00.960 refer to this curious monument, but its antiquity no one knows. In the Indian piranhas, both the 21:00.960 --> 21:06.700 terms naval of the earth and naval of heaven are used repeatedly and always referring to a 21:06.700 --> 21:13.680 place not in or near India, but rather at the north pole. Hymns from the Rig Veda speak of the 21:13.680 --> 21:20.140 supporting column of heaven, otherwise known as the Atlas pillar of Vedic cosmology, and describe it 21:20.140 --> 21:27.600 as standing upon the naval of earth. In the fifth verse of the 185th hymn, day and night are 21:27.600 --> 21:32.980 represented as twin sisters in the bosom of their parents, heaven and earth, where they lock arms 21:32.980 --> 21:39.440 and spin circles around a common center point, namely the naval. This is also echoed in a mysterious 21:39.440 --> 21:45.840 passage by Quintus Curtis, which has baffled modern commentators stating how the object which 21:45.840 --> 21:52.120 represented the divine being resembled a naval set in gems. Dr. William Warren wrote, 21:52.880 --> 21:57.740 If anything is needed to disprove the common notion that geographical ignorance and national 21:57.740 --> 22:02.440 self-esteem first governed the ancient peoples and locating in their own countries, 22:02.720 --> 22:08.300 navals of the earth, it is furnished by what is in all probability the oldest epic in the world, 22:09.000 --> 22:14.300 that of Izubar, fragments of which have survived in the oldest literature of Babylonia. 22:15.040 --> 22:19.300 These fragments show that the earliest inhabitants of the Tigro-Euphrates Basin 22:19.300 --> 22:24.500 located the center of the earth, not in their own midst, but in a far off land 22:24.500 --> 22:30.920 of sacred associations where the holy house of the gods is situated, a land into the heart where 22:30.920 --> 22:37.480 of man hath not penetrated, a place underneath the overshadowing world tree and beside the 22:37.480 --> 22:43.420 full waters. No description could more perfectly identify the spot with the arctic pole of 22:43.420 --> 22:49.340 ancient Asiatic mythology. Yet this testimony stands not alone, for in the fragment of another 22:49.340 --> 22:56.240 ancient text translated by Seis in the records of the past, we are told of a dwelling which the gods 22:56.240 --> 23:02.620 created for the first human beings, a dwelling in which they became great and increased in numbers, 23:03.080 --> 23:09.120 and the location of which is described in words exactly corresponding to those of Iranian, Indian, 23:09.740 --> 23:15.180 Chinese, Edaic, and Aztec literature, namely in the center of the earth. 23:15.820 --> 23:21.780 Among the ancient Inca subjects of Peru was found the same idea of a navel of the earth, 23:22.240 --> 23:28.180 and even among the Chickasaws of Mississippi. Thus is all ancient thought full of this legendary 23:28.180 --> 23:35.140 idea of a mysterious primeval holy paradisiac earth center, a spot connected as is no other 23:35.140 --> 23:40.920 with the center of heaven, the paradise of God. Why it should be so no one has ever told us, 23:40.920 --> 23:46.440 but the hypothesis which places the biblical Eden at the pole, and makes all latter earth 23:46.440 --> 23:52.260 navals commemorative of that primal one, affords a perfect explanation. In the light of it, 23:52.620 --> 23:57.540 there is no difficulty in understanding that earth center in Jerusalem with which we began. 23:58.120 --> 24:03.840 The inconspicuous pillar in the church of the holy sepulcher symbolizes and commemorates far 24:03.840 --> 24:09.580 more than the geographical ignorance of medieval ages. It stands for the Japanese pillar by 24:09.580 --> 24:15.260 which the first soul born upon earth mounted to the sky. It stands for the world column 24:15.260 --> 24:21.120 of the East Arians in the Chinvat bridge of Iran. It stands for the law-proclaiming pillar of 24:21.120 --> 24:26.800 Oracalcum in Atlantis, placed in the center of the most central land. It stands for that 24:26.800 --> 24:32.400 Talmudic pillar by means of which the tenants of the terrestrial paradise mount to the celestial, 24:33.000 --> 24:37.740 and having spent the Sabbath returned to pass the week below. It symbolizes 24:37.740 --> 24:45.340 Cardo, Atlas, Meru, Heriberizate, Karsakura, every fabulous mountain on whose top the sky 24:45.340 --> 24:51.260 pivots itself, and around which all the heavenly bodies ceaselessly revolve. Perpetuates a 24:51.260 --> 24:56.120 religious symbolism which existed in its region before ever Jerusalem had been made the Hebrew 24:56.120 --> 25:02.560 capital, recalling to our modern world the Tabur Haaretz of a period anterior to the days 25:02.560 --> 25:08.860 of Samuel. In tradition it is said to mark the precise spot once the clay was taken out of which 25:08.860 --> 25:14.660 the body of Adam was modeled. It does so, but it does it in a language and method which were common 25:14.660 --> 25:19.680 to all the most ancient nations of the earth. It points not to the soil in which it stands, 25:20.000 --> 25:26.800 but to the holier soil of a faraway primitive Eden. In Freemasonic temples, on Freemasonic 25:26.800 --> 25:33.200 tracing boards and upon Freemasonic aprons can be found similar symbolism pointing to these concepts, 25:33.880 --> 25:40.520 namely a flat earth framed by pillars covered by an arch-formant, often with the tallest or most 25:40.520 --> 25:46.920 prominent pillar positioned centrally and a single eye representing Polaris situated above it. 25:47.680 --> 25:52.100 The sun and moon are also usually shown on either side representing their paths and 25:52.100 --> 25:57.400 positions over and around the flat earth. This knowledge was clearly widespread among the ancient 25:57.400 --> 26:03.800 world, but in modern times has become occulted by certain such secret societies and vested interests. 26:05.120 --> 26:06.420 Dr. William Warren wrote, 26:07.300 --> 26:11.460 Everywhere, therefore, in the most ancient ethnic thought, in the Egyptian, 26:11.820 --> 26:17.920 Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Indian, Persian, Chinese and Greek, everywhere is 26:17.920 --> 26:23.080 encountered this conception of what looked at with respect to its base and magnitude is called 26:23.080 --> 26:28.880 the mountain of the world, but looked at with respect to its glorious summit and its celestial 26:28.880 --> 26:35.360 inhabitants is styled the mountain of the gods. We need not pursue the investigation further. 26:35.880 --> 26:41.100 Enough has been said to warrant the assertion of Dr. Samuel Beale. It is plain that this 26:41.100 --> 26:46.060 idea of a lofty central primeval mountain belonged to the undivided human race. 26:46.620 --> 26:49.520 Elsewhere, the same learned synologue has said, 26:50.100 --> 26:55.100 I have no doubt that the idea of a central mountain and of the rivers flowing from it 26:55.100 --> 27:00.240 and the abode of the gods upon its summit is a primitive myth derived from the earliest 27:00.240 --> 27:06.280 traditions of our race. In concluding this sketch of ancient cosmology, one further 27:06.280 --> 27:10.820 question naturally and inevitably thrusts itself upon us. It is this, 27:11.580 --> 27:16.740 how are the rise and the so wide diffusion of this singular world view to be explained? 27:17.620 --> 27:22.980 In other words, how came it to pass that the ancestors of the oldest historic races and peoples 27:22.980 --> 27:29.700 agreed to regard the North Pole as the true summit of the earth and the circumpolar sky as the true 27:29.700 --> 27:38.740 heaven? The ancient world's mythologies regarding a magnetic mountain, four directional rivers, 27:38.740 --> 27:44.100 and other more fantastical features at the North Pole are shockingly consistent. 27:44.700 --> 27:50.020 But what did the earliest known explorers, historians, and cartographers have to say about 27:50.020 --> 27:56.920 the subject? Pythias, the earliest recorded explorer of the North Pole in the 4th century BC, 27:57.480 --> 28:03.660 claimed to discover an island he called Tule, or Thule, the farthest northern land, 28:03.660 --> 28:07.300 and gave an account sounding straight out of ancient mythology. 28:08.020 --> 28:12.300 In his lost book entitled On the Ocean, Pythias wrote, 28:12.920 --> 28:18.780 The island was more than 40,000 stadia, and in this region there was no longer either 28:18.780 --> 28:25.200 land properly so called, or sea or air, but a kind of substance concreted from all these 28:25.200 --> 28:31.640 elements resembling a sea lungs, a thing which the earth, the sea, and all the elements are 28:31.640 --> 28:37.640 held in suspension, and this is a sort of bond to hold all together, which you can neither walk 28:37.640 --> 28:44.280 nor sail upon. Pythias claimed upon reaching the northernmost point accessible, that land, 28:44.620 --> 28:50.780 air, and water somehow became like one substance similar to a jellyfish, and was completely 28:50.780 --> 28:57.940 impassable. Little remains of Pythias' original account, but secondhand sources like Strabo 28:57.940 --> 29:02.040 inform us regarding the inhabitants of the surrounding northern islands. 29:02.600 --> 29:07.620 He says that of the animals and domesticated fruits, there is an utter dearth of some 29:07.620 --> 29:13.960 and scarcity of others, and that the people live on millet and other herbs, and on fruits and roots, 29:14.480 --> 29:18.480 and where there are grain and honey, the people get their beverage also from them. 29:19.140 --> 29:24.540 As for the grain, he says, since they have no pure sunshine, they pound it out in large 29:24.540 --> 29:29.940 storehouses, after first gathering in the ears thither for the threshing floors become useless 29:29.940 --> 29:36.060 because of this lack of sunshine and because of the rains. Pliny the Elder also wrote of 29:36.060 --> 29:43.480 Pythias' journey in his naturalis Historia, stating that, on summer days, the sun approached 29:43.480 --> 29:48.840 nearer to the top of the world, owing to a natural circuit of light, the underlying parts 29:48.840 --> 29:55.020 of the earth of continuous days for six months at a time and continuous nights when the sun has 29:55.020 --> 30:01.200 withdrawn in the opposite direction towards winter. Pythias of Morellus writes that this occurs in 30:01.200 --> 30:07.140 the island of Tule, six days voyage north from Britain. Pythias states that north of Britain, 30:07.580 --> 30:14.420 the tides rise 80 cubits. The most remote of all is Tule, in which we have pointed out 30:14.420 --> 30:18.800 there are no nights at mid-summer when the sun is passing through the sign of the crab, 30:19.420 --> 30:25.400 and on the other hand, no days at mid-winter. Indeed, some writers think this is the case for 30:25.400 --> 30:31.280 periods of six months at a time without a break. One day's sail from Tule is the frozen ocean, 30:31.540 --> 30:36.300 called by some, the Cronian Sea. Benjamin Franklin De Costa wrote, 30:37.020 --> 30:41.120 The earliest voyage to the north that is claimed for Pythias, the distinguished 30:41.120 --> 30:48.420 Phoenician astronomer and geographer of Marcells, who flourished 320 BC. His works were extant in 30:48.420 --> 30:55.560 the fifth century, but are no longer found. Pliny and Eritastanese gave full credit to his narrations, 30:56.100 --> 31:00.840 though Strabo shows great hostility to Pythias, whose accounts he refused to receive, 31:01.320 --> 31:06.540 saying that he made use of his acquaintance with astronomy and mathematics to fabricate 31:06.540 --> 31:11.760 his false narrative. Pliny, however, with more reason, thought that he employed his 31:11.760 --> 31:18.080 knowledge in practical exploration. The latest editor of Strabo does not share in his author's 31:18.080 --> 31:23.340 doubt. According to Pliny and others, Pythias sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, 31:23.760 --> 31:28.040 making his way north to the British Isles, whither it was the custom of his countrymen 31:28.040 --> 31:33.160 to resort and, after travelling over England on foot, proceeded northward to a place 31:33.160 --> 31:39.560 called Tule, six days sail from the northern part of Britain. Even before the fourth century BC, 31:40.160 --> 31:45.360 similar claims were made by ancient Greek and Roman poets and historians, like Pindar, 31:45.760 --> 31:53.680 Herodotus, Hesuid, Homer, then later Virgil and Cicero, regarding Hyperborea and the Hyperborians, 31:54.080 --> 31:59.840 meaning place or people beyond the north wind. They said the people of Hyperborea 31:59.840 --> 32:05.340 were giants who lived for over a thousand years and enjoyed lives of perfect happiness. 32:05.840 --> 32:12.440 In another lost book, written in the fourth century BC, Hakedas of Abdera collated all 32:12.440 --> 32:18.640 the known stories written about the Hyperborians. Diodorus Siculus references this lost work, 32:19.040 --> 32:24.640 stating that, in the regions beyond the land of the Celts, there lies in the ocean an island 32:24.640 --> 32:31.540 no smaller than Sicily. This island, the account continues, is situated in the north and is inhabited 32:31.540 --> 32:36.860 by the Hyperborians, who are called by that name because their home is beyond the point 32:36.860 --> 32:43.880 whence the north wind, Boreus, blows, and the island is both fertile and productive of every crop 32:43.880 --> 32:49.200 and has a temperate climate. The classical Greek poet Pindar wrote that, 32:49.200 --> 32:55.660 never the muses absent from their ways, liars clash and flutes cry and everywhere made in 32:55.660 --> 33:00.900 chorus is whirling, neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed in their sacred blood, 33:01.560 --> 33:06.520 far from labour and battle they live, and reminiscent of Pythias' strange account, 33:07.000 --> 33:12.780 Pindar stated that, neither by ship nor on foot would you find the marvellous road to the 33:12.780 --> 33:19.780 assembly of the Hyperborians. Similar to Tule and Hyperborea, the Celts also had their northern 33:19.780 --> 33:27.560 terrestrial paradise known as Avalon. St Brandon's son of Finlogo, a famous saint of the Irish church, 33:28.020 --> 33:34.780 who died in 576 AD, was allegedly the first to reach this land during a sea voyage to the 33:34.780 --> 33:40.460 north. Similar to other ancient accounts, St Brandon mentioned a fountain with four 33:40.460 --> 33:46.300 directional streams and claimed there were magnificent castles and castle halls lighted with 33:46.300 --> 33:52.180 self-luminous stones and adorned with all manner of precious jewels surpassing description. 33:53.140 --> 34:00.700 In 1035 AD, Archbishop Adelbert, the vicar of Scandinavia, sent a team of Frisian nobles 34:00.700 --> 34:07.240 to explore the northern polar region after which Adam of Bremen recorded their experiences in the 34:07.240 --> 34:14.880 book Gesta hemivergensis ecclesii pontificum. Similar to accounts of the Hyperborians, the Frisian 34:14.880 --> 34:21.140 explorers claimed to reach an island where they encountered giant human beings living in caves 34:21.140 --> 34:27.200 and underground hollows. The giant's domiciles were adorned in gold and precious metals which 34:27.200 --> 34:32.620 some of the Frisians stupidly attempted to steal and were swiftly chased back to their boats 34:32.620 --> 34:36.160 minus one of their comrades caught by a giant who, quote, 34:36.640 --> 34:43.060 in a twinkling tore him to pieces before their eyes. They never reached the North Pole or a 34:43.060 --> 34:48.420 magnetic mountain but did encounter an incredible feature long alleged to surround them. 34:49.260 --> 34:55.380 Ancient Norse legend states that a gigantic violent maelstrom or whirlpool known as 34:55.380 --> 35:03.680 Virgilmer or the world's well surrounds the polar mountain and via four six hour daily cycles of 35:03.680 --> 35:09.420 pushing and pulling through subterranean channels cause the rising and falling of tides on earth. 35:09.940 --> 35:17.200 Adam of Bremen recounts the Frisian explorers' deadly encounter with this abysmal chasm as such. 35:18.040 --> 35:22.880 Of a sudden they fell into that numbing ocean's dark mist which could hardly be 35:22.880 --> 35:29.300 penetrated with the eyes and behold the current of the fluctuating ocean whirled back to its 35:29.300 --> 35:36.060 mysterious fountain head and with most furious impetuosity drew the unhappy sailors who in their 35:36.060 --> 35:43.400 despair now thought only of death onto chaos. This, they say, is the abysmal chasm that deep 35:43.400 --> 35:49.220 in which report has it that all the backflow of the sea which appears to decrease is absorbed 35:49.220 --> 35:56.000 and in turn revomited as the mounting fluctuation is usually described. As the partners were imploring 35:56.000 --> 36:01.320 the mercy of God to receive their souls the backward thrust of the sea carried away some of 36:01.320 --> 36:07.320 their ships but its forward ejection threw the rest far behind the others freed thus by the 36:07.320 --> 36:12.380 timely help of God from the instant peril they had had before their eyes they seconded the 36:12.380 --> 36:19.240 flood by rowing with all their might. Besides the Norse legends of Virgulmer historical records 36:19.240 --> 36:26.600 of this world well can be found as early as the 8th century A.D. when Paul Estiaconis or Paul the 36:26.600 --> 36:33.860 Deacon Benedictine monk scribe and historian of the Lombards wrote in his Historia langobardorum 36:33.860 --> 36:41.040 that not far from the shore where the ocean extends without bounds is that very deep abyss 36:41.040 --> 36:47.980 of waters which we commonly call the oceans naval it is said twice a day to suck the waves into itself 36:47.980 --> 36:54.740 and to spew them out again as is proved to happen all along these coasts where the waves rush in and 36:54.740 --> 37:00.840 go back again with fearful rapidity by the whirlpool of which we have spoken it is asserted 37:00.840 --> 37:05.780 that ships are often drawn in with such rapidity that they seem to resemble the flight of 37:05.780 --> 37:11.180 arrows through the air and sometimes they are lost in the gulf with a very frightful destruction 37:11.900 --> 37:17.120 often just as they are about to go under they are brought back again by a sudden shock of the waves 37:17.120 --> 37:21.600 and they are sent out again thence with the same rapidity with which they were drawn in. 37:22.820 --> 37:29.560 Geraldes Cambrensis or Gerald of Wales Archdeacon of Brecken historian and royal clerk to King 37:29.560 --> 37:37.460 Henry II wrote in his 1188 work topographia hibernica that not far from the islands towards 37:37.460 --> 37:43.200 the north there is an astonishing whirlpool in the sea towards which there is a set of current 37:43.200 --> 37:49.600 of the waves from all corners until pouring themselves into nature's secret recesses they 37:49.600 --> 37:55.440 are swallowed up as it were in the abyss should a vessel chance to pass in that direction 37:55.440 --> 38:01.120 it is caught and drawn along by the force of the waves and sucked by the vortex without chance of 38:01.120 --> 38:07.420 escape there are four of these whirlpools in the ocean described by philosophers as existing in the 38:07.420 --> 38:12.580 four different quarters of the world once it has been conjectured that the currents of the sea 38:12.580 --> 38:18.780 as well as the winds are regulated by fixed principles the whirlpool was also mentioned 38:18.780 --> 38:24.740 in another late 12th century work Historia Norweige where the author an anonymous Norwegian 38:24.740 --> 38:31.380 monk gives a particularly detailed description stating the greatest of all whirlpools is to be 38:31.380 --> 38:37.460 found there which engulfs the strongest ships sucking them in that abtide and spewing out 38:37.460 --> 38:43.300 their fragments with a belt jet flood tide there is a very deep abyss in the earth itself and 38:43.300 --> 38:49.100 alongside it are open mouthed caverns containing winds which are said to be brought forth by 38:49.100 --> 38:54.880 the breathing of the water and these are the breath of gales indeed by their breathing these 38:54.880 --> 39:00.680 winds draw to them the waters of the sea through hidden passages in the earth they shut them up 39:00.680 --> 39:06.980 in the vaults of the abyss and then by the same force drive them out again causing sea surges 39:06.980 --> 39:13.580 spates and the whirling of water spouts earthquakes also occur in various discharges 39:13.580 --> 39:19.400 of vapor and conflagration for when the winds breath held in the cheeks of earth presses to 39:19.400 --> 39:25.380 burst out it shakes the foundation of the world with a dreadful roaring and forces it to tremble 39:25.990 --> 39:31.700 so when the winds breath contends with fire in the earth's interior then even in mid ocean 39:31.700 --> 39:37.900 the depths are fissured and smoky exhalations and sulfurous flames are seen to emerge 39:38.800 --> 39:45.400 by the 13th century ad the idea of a magnetic mountain at the north pole was widely known enough 39:45.400 --> 39:51.900 that italian poet guido guinezzelli actually used it as a simile for the power of his woman's love 39:51.900 --> 39:58.880 the section from his poem madonna the fine love i give you translated reads in that land 39:58.880 --> 40:05.580 beneath the north wind are the magnetic mountains which transmit to the air their power to 40:05.580 --> 40:11.980 attract the iron but because it is far away it needs help from a similar stone to make the compass 40:11.980 --> 40:19.600 needle turn towards the pole star in the 14th century two lost books in ventio fortuneata 40:19.600 --> 40:26.560 by nicolas delin and the itinarium of jacobus sonnoyen mentioned the magnetic mountain 40:27.000 --> 40:33.460 four directional rivers and encircling whirlpool said to change every six hours causing the tides 40:33.460 --> 40:40.020 comparing them to the breath of god at the navel of the earth inhaling and exhaling the great seas 40:40.780 --> 40:46.340 many citations from the two books are made by more modern sources but surviving copies have 40:46.340 --> 40:53.500 unfortunately all been lost to antiquity nicolas delin was an english minorite fryer of oxford 40:53.500 --> 41:01.020 a mathematician astronomer and explorer who lived from 1330 to 1390 he was fascinated by 41:01.020 --> 41:06.140 the astrolabe and actually produced several of them for patrons and his own personal use 41:07.100 --> 41:14.080 john of gaunt duke of Lancaster even commissioned nicolas to produce an astrolabe and a calendarium 41:14.080 --> 41:21.980 of complete astronomical tables covering 1387 to 1463 which were later used to create nautical 41:21.980 --> 41:29.180 almanacs for this nicolas became famously known as the man with the astrolabe and was even 41:29.180 --> 41:35.940 complimented and lauded as an astronomical genius by jeffrey chaucer in his treatise on the astrolabe 41:36.450 --> 41:42.140 his esteem as a knowledgeable astronomer and navigator soon reached king edward the third 41:42.140 --> 41:47.600 who in the early 1360s sent nicolas and a team of ships to explore the arctic 41:48.300 --> 41:54.600 benjamin franklin de costa wrote the work by which nicolas of lin will longest be remembered 41:54.600 --> 42:00.560 is not now to be found its disappearance under any circumstances is not a matter of surprise 42:01.060 --> 42:07.400 since of many important works once well known no copy remains today while of others there are only 42:07.400 --> 42:13.760 one or two examples unfortunately we know almost as little about the voyages made from lin by the 42:13.760 --> 42:19.500 fellow townsmen of nicolas as about the book in question many hardy mariners sailed from 42:19.500 --> 42:24.960 the port of lin but of their enterprise at the north only the most scanty memorials remain 42:25.600 --> 42:31.060 it is nevertheless clear that their activity was appreciated by edward the third while their 42:31.060 --> 42:36.720 neighbors of blakeney were several times favored by that king on account of their superior merit 42:37.340 --> 42:43.340 what we know about nicolas de lin his polar explorations and his lost book now come from 42:43.340 --> 42:49.480 existing citations and quotations from his contemporaries and readers one such man was 42:49.480 --> 42:56.580 jacobus snoyan a dutch explorer who composed a book of travel epics in flemish also lost to 42:56.580 --> 43:03.120 antiquity but quoted and reprinted in later works still available snoyan is referenced as 43:03.120 --> 43:08.860 learning from the minor right nicolas de lin that large parts of the polar in drawing sea 43:08.860 --> 43:15.680 did not freeze over in winter speaking of nicolas snoyan wrote the priest who had the astralabe 43:15.680 --> 43:21.600 related to the king of norway then in 1360 ad there had come to these northern islands 43:21.600 --> 43:27.340 an english minor right from oxford who was a good astronomer leaving the rest of the party 43:27.340 --> 43:32.240 who had come to the islands he journeyed further through the whole of the north and put 43:32.240 --> 43:37.280 into writing all the wonders of those islands and gave the king of england this book which 43:37.280 --> 43:44.700 he called in latin in ventio fortunate which book began at latitude 54 degrees continuing to the pole 43:45.800 --> 43:52.380 both nicolas and snoyans books contained a detailed map of the arctic derived from nicolas's journeys 43:52.380 --> 43:57.400 which included a magnetic mountain at the north pole four directional streams 43:57.400 --> 44:03.940 encircling whirlpool and surrounding islands luckily for posterity a version of this 44:03.940 --> 44:10.740 map still survives to this day because it was used for johannes ruish's 1508 map of the world 44:10.740 --> 44:17.860 and later reproduced in detail and published in 1595 by the most well-known cartographer in history 44:17.860 --> 44:25.980 responsible for the most popular maps ever created gerardus mercader on the legend of ruish's map 44:25.980 --> 44:33.300 nicolas delin's in ventio fortunata is referenced as its source stating that it is written in 44:33.300 --> 44:38.640 the book of the fortunate discovery that under the arctic pole there is a high magnetic rock 44:38.640 --> 44:45.260 33 german miles in circumference a surging sea surrounds this rock as if the water were 44:45.260 --> 44:52.300 discharged downward from a vase through an opening to four mouths below around our islands of which 44:52.300 --> 44:59.880 two are inhabited mountains vast and wide surround these islands 24 of which deny habitation to 44:59.880 --> 45:07.020 man another inscription on reish's map describes the incredible magnetic effect of the polar lodestone 45:07.020 --> 45:13.460 mountain stating here the ship's compass loses its property and no vessel with iron on board 45:13.460 --> 45:21.460 is able to get away chet van duzer wrote a world map by johannes ruish the universe sailor 45:21.460 --> 45:30.300 cogniti orbis tabula published in an edition of talami's geographia in rome in 1508 shows four 45:30.300 --> 45:36.560 islands around the north pole two the one north of greenland and its opposite across the pole 45:36.560 --> 45:43.920 are labeled insula deserta the one north of europe is that of the hyperborians and the one north 45:43.920 --> 45:50.240 of america is labeled parent fey he labels the waters within the four islands as the 45:50.240 --> 45:55.980 mayor sugenum and speaks of a violent whirlpool that sucks the incoming waters down into the earth 45:56.460 --> 46:02.040 in addition his map shows a ring of small very mountainous islands around the four islands 46:02.040 --> 46:08.220 which numerous islands rish says are uninhabited this would seem to indicate that the book written 46:08.220 --> 46:14.060 by nicolas of lin was known to the mapmaker while also it may have been known at rome 46:14.680 --> 46:19.360 it is evident that the polar region was drawn more or less in accordance with some 46:19.360 --> 46:25.980 plan by nicolas which was combined with later material around the magnetic rock immediately 46:25.980 --> 46:37.060 under the pole are four islands aron fey insula deserta hyperbore europa and insula deserta outside 46:37.060 --> 46:43.280 of these islands are smaller and mountainous islands arranged in a semicircle while the peninsula 46:43.280 --> 46:49.940 of pila pilanti with its base resting upon europe pushes out into this druidic arrangement of islands 46:50.540 --> 46:57.100 bearing up what is intended to represent a church with the legend sakti adolfi east word of this 46:57.100 --> 47:05.340 peninsula is the provicia obscura and the mayor sugenum westward of berga extrema another peninsula 47:05.340 --> 47:12.440 enters the groups of islands which is pierced by planora de berga at the extreme west the 47:12.440 --> 47:19.960 mayor sugenum also fills the west south of greenland is terra nova or newfoundland from the 47:19.960 --> 47:26.200 mayor sugenum the water flows northward through the four openings into the polar basin the arrangement 47:26.200 --> 47:32.460 is curious yet not wholly without resemblance to what is found in nature for what is called the 47:32.460 --> 47:38.740 polar basin is fed by several vast streams pouring into it from the warm regions at the south 47:38.740 --> 47:45.120 these streams also create counter currents which flow southward bearing enormous quantities of the 47:45.120 --> 47:52.900 heaviest ice swedish historian olis magnus wrote of both the magnetic mountain and surrounding whirlpool 47:52.900 --> 48:00.920 in his 1555 work historia de gentibus septentrian obelis a description of the northern peoples 48:01.540 --> 48:07.580 stating it to be a well-known fact that ships in the north must be built with wooden pegs as 48:07.580 --> 48:13.520 iron nails would be pulled out by the northern lodestone mountain and that quote between roest 48:13.520 --> 48:21.100 and loaferton is so great an abyss or rather cherub dis that it suddenly swamps and swallows up in an 48:21.100 --> 48:27.180 instant those mariners who unconsciously approach pieces of wreckage are very seldom thrown up again 48:27.180 --> 48:33.220 and if they come to light the hard material shows such signs of wear and chafing through being 48:33.220 --> 48:39.080 dashed against the rocks that it looks as if it were covered with rough wool just two years later 48:39.080 --> 48:46.800 in 1557 english explorer anthony jenkinson also wrote of the whirlpool saying note that there is 48:46.800 --> 48:53.060 between the said roest island and lofoot a whirlpool called malastrand which from half 48:53.060 --> 48:58.680 ebb until half flood maketh such a terrible noise that it shakeeth the rings and the doors of 48:58.680 --> 49:04.760 inhabitants houses of the said islands ten miles off also if they're cometh any whale within the 49:04.760 --> 49:10.980 current of the same they make a pitiful cry moreover if great trees be carried into it by 49:10.980 --> 49:16.940 force of streams and after would the ebb be cast out again the ends and bows of them have been so 49:16.940 --> 49:23.740 beaten that they are like the stalks of hemp that is bruised a few decades later in 1591 49:24.300 --> 49:31.280 shonable a man who was sheriff of lofoten and vestor allen for over 20 years wrote a similar 49:31.280 --> 49:37.680 description claiming that quote iron rings on house doors are shaken hither and thither by the 49:37.680 --> 49:43.000 rushing of the current whales who cannot go forward on account of the strong stream give a 49:43.000 --> 49:49.420 great cry and then are gone and great trees spruce or fur which disappear in this current 49:49.420 --> 49:55.420 and when at last they come up again then all the boughs all the roots and all the bark is torn 49:55.420 --> 50:01.820 off and it is shaped as though it had been cut up with a sharp axe the most famous map maker who 50:01.820 --> 50:07.520 ever lived and likely the only person in the history of cartography to become a household name 50:07.520 --> 50:13.240 gerardus mercator known for his meticulous accuracy and responsible for the popular 50:13.240 --> 50:20.300 mercator projection lived from 1512 to 1594 and created hundreds of detailed maps 50:20.770 --> 50:27.900 the year after his death in 1595 his family compiled his life's work into an atlas which 50:27.900 --> 50:33.240 included never before released reproductions of nicolas delin's maps of the polar regions 50:33.240 --> 50:40.080 specifically the septin trianolium terrarium descriptio this incredible map shows the 50:40.080 --> 50:46.820 polar magnetic mountain said to be the highest in the world named rupus nigra encircling whirlpool 50:46.820 --> 50:53.160 four directional rivers and surrounding islands in fine detail along with several revealing 50:53.160 --> 50:59.660 inscriptions chet van duzer wrote the map shows a north pole that is very unfamiliar to modern 50:59.660 --> 51:06.520 eyes at the center of the map and right at the pole stands a huge black mountain this mountain 51:06.520 --> 51:12.140 was made of lodestone and was the source of the earth's magnetic field the central mountain is 51:12.140 --> 51:18.100 surrounded by open water and then further out by four large islands that form a ring around the pole 51:18.870 --> 51:25.520 the largest of these islands perhaps 700 by 1100 miles and they all have high mountains along 51:25.520 --> 51:31.540 their southern rims these islands are separated by four large inward flowing rivers which are 51:31.540 --> 51:37.360 aligned as if to the four points of the compass though of course there is no northeast or west at 51:37.360 --> 51:43.500 the north pole every direction from this center is south mercader's notes inform us that the 51:43.500 --> 51:48.240 waters of the oceans are carried northward to the pole through these rivers with great force 51:48.240 --> 51:54.020 such that no wind could make a ship sail against the current the waters then disappear into 51:54.020 --> 51:59.080 an enormous whirlpool beneath the mountain at the pole and are absorbed into the bowels of 51:59.080 --> 52:05.520 the earth mercader also tells us that four foot tall pygmies inhabit the island closest to europe 52:06.100 --> 52:11.560 in another inscription made on the map mercader informs the reader further regarding the great 52:11.560 --> 52:16.840 whirlpool stating that a monstrous gulf in the sea towards which from all sides the 52:16.840 --> 52:21.740 billows of the sea come from remote parts converge and run together as though brought 52:21.740 --> 52:27.520 there by conduit pouring into these mysterious abysses of nature they are as though devoured 52:27.520 --> 52:33.600 thereby and should it happen that a vessel pass there it is seized and drawn away with such powerful 52:33.600 --> 52:39.360 violence of the waves that this hungry force immediately swallows it up never to appear again 52:40.060 --> 52:46.520 gerardus mercader studied at the university of louvain in 1549 where he met and befriended 52:46.520 --> 52:52.980 another very influential figure of his time john d astronomer astrologer and advisor to queen 52:52.980 --> 52:58.400 elizabeth the first d was convinced that a route to the indies could be found through the northwest 52:58.400 --> 53:04.280 passage and while attempting to interest queen elizabeth to support an expedition he contacted 53:04.280 --> 53:11.600 mercader for more information in mercader's 1577 letter back to d we learn he copied verbatim 53:11.600 --> 53:18.600 from jacobus snowyans itinarium stating that in the midst of the four countries is a whirlpool 53:18.600 --> 53:25.000 into which they're empty these four in drawing seas which divide the north and the water rushes 53:25.000 --> 53:30.720 round and descends into the earth just as if one were pouring it through a filter funnel it is four 53:30.720 --> 53:36.640 degrees wide on every side of the pole that is to say eight degrees altogether except that right 53:36.640 --> 53:42.560 under the pole there lies a bear rock in the midst of the sea its circumference is almost 33 53:42.560 --> 53:48.780 french miles and it is all of magnetic stone and is as high as the clouds so the priest said 53:48.780 --> 53:54.860 who had received the astrolabe from this minorite in exchange for a testament and the minorite 53:54.860 --> 54:00.500 himself had heard that one can see all around it from the sea and that it is black and glistening 54:00.500 --> 54:07.140 and nothing grows there on for there is not so much as a handful of soil on it this is word 54:07.140 --> 54:13.500 for word everything that i copied out of this author years ago as late as the mid 17th century 54:13.500 --> 54:19.620 aspects of these polar phenomena continued appearing in cartography and cosmography the 54:19.620 --> 54:27.780 uripy or four in drawing streams were included or alluded to in list showton's 1595 map the 54:27.780 --> 54:39.620 ortellius of 1599 quads fasciculous geographicus of 1608 hondias's 1619 map purchases map of 1625 54:40.160 --> 54:47.280 and in halen's 1659 cosmography he wrote about the rupus nigra and surrounding whirlpool and 54:47.280 --> 54:53.700 uripy stating that under the arctic pole is said to be a black rock of wondrous height 54:53.700 --> 55:00.400 about 33 leagues and compass the land adjoining being torn by the sea into four great islands 55:00.900 --> 55:07.320 for the ocean violently breaking through it and discorging itself by 19 channels make a four 55:07.320 --> 55:13.500 uripy or fierce whirlpools by which the waters are finally carried towards the north and these 55:13.500 --> 55:18.800 swallowed into the bowels of the earth that uripy's or whirlpool which is made by the 55:18.800 --> 55:25.820 sithic ocean hath five inlets and by reason of his straight passage and violent course is never 55:25.820 --> 55:33.100 frozen the other on the back of greenland being 37 leagues long hath three inlets and remain 55:33.100 --> 55:40.120 if frozen three months yearly between these two lieth an island on the north of lapia and bearmia 55:40.120 --> 55:45.440 inhabited as they say by pygmies the tallest of them not above four foot high 55:46.140 --> 55:52.300 a certain scholar of oxford reported that these four uripy are carried with such furious violence 55:52.300 --> 55:57.940 towards some gulf in which they are finally swallowed up that no ship is able with never 55:57.940 --> 56:04.280 so strong a gale to stem the current and yet there is never so strong a wind as to blow a windmill 56:05.020 --> 56:10.000 there is modern circumstantial evidence that lends strong credence to this idea as well 56:10.490 --> 56:16.320 the largest publicly known maelstrom in the world is called salt stroomen just north of 56:16.320 --> 56:22.420 the arctic circle in norway where 400 million cubic meters of water passed through a three 56:22.420 --> 56:30.120 kilometer long 150 meter wide straight reaching speeds of 10 meters per second similar to legends of 56:30.120 --> 56:36.700 vergover this northern whirlpool actually arises exactly four times per day every six hours 56:36.700 --> 56:42.920 along with the shifting of the tides in fact the majority of naturally occurring whirlpools in the 56:42.920 --> 56:49.700 world including the famous neruto whirlpools in japan form four times per day every six hours 56:49.700 --> 56:57.060 as the tides change if the entire ancient world's mythologies along with early explorers historians 56:57.060 --> 57:03.460 and cartographers all shared similar accounts of a polar magnetic mountain encircling whirlpool 57:03.460 --> 57:11.080 four directional streams and surrounding islands occupied by giants and or pigmes why is it that 57:11.080 --> 57:17.700 no modern accounts of the north pole have a single mention of any such thing how is it possible for 57:17.700 --> 57:23.700 such consistency and polar geography to exist throughout the ancient world why have all these 57:23.700 --> 57:29.440 features suddenly disappeared from modern maps were the ancients all completely mistaken 57:29.440 --> 57:36.340 with regards to the north pole or are we now in modern times the victims of a concerted cover-up 57:36.340 --> 57:39.300 and being deceived about what is really at the pole