Nan Madol is an ancient site located next to the east side of the island of Pohnpei, which is now part of the Madolenihmw district in Pohnpei state of the Federated States of Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. Nan Madol was the capital of the Saudeleur dynasty until about 1628. The city was built in a lagoon and includes a group of small man-made islands connected by a system of canals. The main area of the site, surrounded by stone walls, covers about 1.5 by 0.5 kilometers (0.93 mi × 0.31 mi) and includes 92 artificial islands made of stone and coral, which are bordered by canals that fill with water from the tides.

The name Nan Madol means "within the intervals" and refers to the canals that cross the ruins. The original name of the site was Soun Nan-leng, meaning "Reef of Heaven," according to Gene Ashby in his book Pohnpei, An Island Argosy. Nan Madol is often called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" or the "Venice of the Pacific."

History

Nan Madol was the center for ceremonies and government of the Saudeleur dynasty, which ruled Pohnpei’s population of about 25,000 people until around 1628. Located between the main island of Pohnpei and Temwen Island, Nan Madol has evidence of human activity as early as the first or second century AD. Construction of small islands began in the 8th or 9th century, and the unique large stone buildings were built between 1180 and 1200 AD.

In 1874, John Stanislaw Kubary, a Polish ethnographer and oceanographer, provided the first detailed description of Nan Madol.

Little is known for certain about how the large stone structures were built. Pohnpeian tradition suggests that people who built the Leluh site on Kosrae (also made of large stone buildings) moved to Pohnpei and used their skills to create Nan Madol. However, radiocarbon dating shows that Nan Madol was built before Leluh, meaning Nan Madol likely influenced Leluh’s construction.

According to Pohnpeian legend, Nan Madol was built by twin sorcerers named Olisihpa and Olosohpa from the mythical place called Western Katau, or Kanamwayso. The brothers traveled in a large canoe to find a place to build an altar for worshiping Nahnisohn Sahpw, the god of agriculture. After several failed attempts, they successfully built an altar near Temwen Island, where they performed their rituals. In the legend, the brothers used a flying dragon to lift the large stones. When Olisihpa died, Olosohpa became the first Saudeleur ruler. He married a local woman and had twelve generations of descendants, creating sixteen other Saudeleur rulers from the Dipwilap (“Great”) clan.

The early rulers of the dynasty were kind, but later rulers placed greater demands on their people. Their rule ended when Isokelekel invaded, though he also lived at Nan Madol. His successors later left the site.

Purpose and features

The elite center was a special place where important people lived and where ceremonies for the dead were held by priests. The number of people living there was probably no more than 1,000 and may have been less than half that. While some residents were leaders, most were regular people. Nan Madol was partly used by the ruling Saudeleur leaders to manage and control possible rivals by making them live in the city instead of their home areas, where their actions were harder to watch.

Madol Powe, the area for ceremonies, includes 58 small islands in the northeastern part of Nan Madol. Most of these islands once had homes for priests. Some islands had special purposes, such as preparing food, building canoes on Dapahu, and making coconut oil on Peinering. High walls around tombs are found on Peinkitel, Karian, and Lemenkou, but the most important is the royal burial island of Nandauwas. This island has walls 5.5–7.5 metres (18–25 ft) tall that surround a central tomb area in the main courtyard. This was built for the first Saudeleur leader.

On Nan Madol, there is no fresh water or food. Water had to be collected, and food had to be grown inland. During the time of the Saudeleur rulers, Pohnpeians brought necessary food and water by boat. The Saudeleur received supplies at a specific island: first at Peiniot, and later at the closer Usennamw.

Around 1628, when Isokelekel overthrew the Saudeleurs and started the Nahnmwarki Era, the Nahnmwarkis lived at Nan Madol but had to collect their own water and grow their own food. This likely caused them to eventually leave Nan Madol and return to their home areas. Other reasons for the abandonment of the site include a sudden drop in population.

Archaeology

Nan Madol is an archaeological area covering more than 18 square kilometers (6.9 square miles). It includes stone buildings built on a coral reef flat near Temwen Island, several artificial islands, and parts of the Pohnpei main island coastline. The central area of the site, surrounded by stone walls, covers about 1.5 by 0.5 kilometers (0.93 by 0.31 miles) and contains 92 artificial islands made of stone and coral platforms, separated by tidal canals.

Carbon dating shows that large basalt stones used in Nan Madol’s construction were brought from a volcanic area on the opposite side of Pohnpei around AD 1180. Early human activity on Pohnpei likely began around AD 1, but radiocarbon dating suggests people lived there as early as AD 80–200.

In 1985, Nan Madol was named a National Historical Landmark. Until 2012, items from the site were displayed at the Lidorkini Museum.

In 1978 and 1979, Arthur Saxe studied underwater areas near Nan Madol to search for submerged basalt columns and two legendary underwater cities, Kahnihmw Namkhet and Kahnihmweiso. His team found large stone pillars covered in coral, up to 6 meters (20 feet) tall, at depths over 25 meters (82 feet). Neither city was found, but some people thought Kahnihmweiso might have been built over a collapsed cave that formed a blue hole.

In 1988 and 1989, archaeologists from the University of Oregon explored underwater areas near Nan Madol. They discovered basalt columns on the seafloor and concluded they were building materials that had been lost or discarded. They also examined pillars reported by Saxe and found that some were made entirely of coral, not man-made structures.

In 2013, Ishimura and others used sonar, underwater robots, and diving to study submerged features near Nan Madol. They found no evidence of man-made basalt pillars or structures. They also concluded that the blue hole is a sinkhole formed in reef limestone during periods when sea levels were lower.

In popular culture and lost continent theories

The ruins of Nan Madol were used as the setting for a story about a lost race in a book written by A. Merritt called The Moon Pool (1918). In this book, the islands are named Nan-Tauach, and the ruins are called Nan-Matal.

Some people have thought that Nan Madol might be the remains of a lost continent called Lemuria or Mu. James Churchward, a writer, included Nan Madol in his 1926 book The Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man as part of the Mu continent. However, there is no scientific evidence to support Churchward's claims, and his writings about Mu are not considered real science.

Nan Madol was shown in episode two of the television series Ancient Apocalypse by Graham Hancock, which aired on Netflix. In this episode, incorrect information was shared about how old the site is. Experts who study Pacific geography and archaeology have said that Hancock's claims about Nan Madol are very disrespectful to the ancestors of the Pohnpeian people who built these structures. These claims are connected to 19th-century ideas that were racist and promoted white supremacy.