Scientists believe they have finally discovered where an advanced civilisation once lived, and say its true location can now be known after a series of tests. The mysterious 'lost continent', known as Lemuria, has been unveiled, with believers claiming aliens have lived there.
Lemuria was proposed in the 19th century as a hypothetical continent, now lost to today, to explain why similar lemur fossils have been discovered in India and Madagascar, despite the countries now being separated by the Indian Ocean. Believers say Lemuria may now lie beneath the ocean and are working to establish the boundaries of a genuine sunken landmass.
Mauritia as proof of the legend
The lost continent has become associated with bizarre theories involving 'starseeds' who supposedly carry alien DNA, egg-laying humanoids and even a prehistoric nuclear war. They say they are looking into the ancient subcontinent of Mauritia, which now lies beneath the Indian Ocean, as proof that the Lemuria legend is true.
But Mauritia was a geological landmass left behind when an ancient supercontinent broke apart. There has been no evidence of an advanced or pre-human society ever surviving there, and no remains have ever been uncovered that show an intelligent civilisation ever living there.
Origins of the Lemuria theory
Lemuria was first proposed in 1864 by British zoologist and biogeographer Philip Sclater, who was working to find out why fossils of lemurs had been discovered in Madagascar and India but not in Africa, despite the continent lying much closer to Madagascar. Doubting that the animals could have crossed the Indian Ocean, Sclater proposed that a land bridge had once connected the two regions before sinking beneath the waves, and named this hypothetical continent Lemuria after the animals.
Sclater wrote: "In Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of this great continent, for which... I should propose the name Lemuria."
Spiritual and alien associations
Nigel Watson, author of Portraits of Alien Encounters Revisited, explained that the lost continent gradually became associated with extraordinary stories about humanity's origins. Much of that transformation was linked to 19th-century spiritualist Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a former circus horse rider who founded the occult movement Theosophy. Her 1888 book The Secret Doctrine proposed seven 'root races' of humanity, including invisible astral beings, bodiless Hyperboreans and Lemurians portrayed as egg-laying creatures.
The story grew stranger after Lemuria became mixed with the writings of British author James Churchward. Churchward claimed another lost continent, Mu, held a technologically advanced civilization that flourished 50,000 years ago. He said ancient tablets revealed that Mu gave rise to the Egyptian, Mayan and Babylonian civilizations, but no evidence cited in the article substantiated those claims.
Modern research on Mauritia
Nevertheless, the stories of Mu and Lemuria gradually blended, inspiring spiritual movements that claimed some modern humans descended from the lost civilization. That belief eventually became connected to 'starseeds,' people who believe they possess DNA or souls originating with aliens. Other versions alleged that Lemuria sheltered refugees from a planet called Maldek, which supposedly once orbited between Mars and Jupiter. The Aetherius Society claimed Maldek's inhabitants destroyed their planet with a hydrogen bomb, leaving behind the asteroid belt.
In that telling, the survivors established a peaceful civilization on Lemuria, only for it to fracture and suffer its own nuclear war. Fragments of melted glass in the deserts of Libya are also thought to be evidence of nuclear warfare or accidents 28 million years ago.
Researchers believe remnants of Mauritia are scattered beneath the Indian Ocean and have been studying zircon, a durable mineral that can reveal the age of surrounding material. Zircon found on Mauritius was dated to approximately three billion years ago, despite the volcanic island's exposed rocks being no older than nine million years. Scientists are now using gravity inversion to calculate the thickness of the oceanic crust and identify portions of the ancient continent that may remain intact.
