Underworld: the Mysterious Origins of Civilization - Hardcover

Graham Hancock

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0718144007 ISBN 13: 9780718144005

Publisher: Michael Joseph, 2002

Synopsis

A physical and intellectual journey, a worldwide exploration diving for the underwater ruins of a lost civilization, this book follows clues in ancient scriptures and mythlogy and in the scientific evidence of the flood that swept the Earth at the end of the last Ice Age. This text explores the question of early humans swept away by the catastrpohe. Who were these populations - pre-civilised hunter-gatherers or more sophisticated peoples altogether? The text is written as a personal adventure involving the reader in the travels, the practicalities and the risks while developing the larger themes along the way, building up to the explosive revelation of a global mystery.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

From Graham Hancock, bestselling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, comes a mesmerizing book that takes us on a captivating underwater voyage to find the ruins of a lost civilization that’s been hidden for thousands of years beneath the world’s oceans.

While Graham Hancock is no stranger to stirring up heated controversy among scientific experts, his books and television documentaries have intrigued millions of people around the world and influenced many to rethink their views about the origins of human civilization. Now he returns with an explosive new work of archaeological detection. In Underworld, Hancock continues his remarkable quest underwater, where, according to almost a thousand ancient myths from every part of the globe, the ruins of a lost civilization, obliterated in a universal flood, are to be found.

Guided by cutting-edge science and the latest archaeological scholarship, Hancock begins his mission to discover the truth about these myths and examines the mystery at the end of the last Ice Age. As the glaciers melted between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago, sea levels rose and more than 15 million square miles of habitable land were submerged underwater, resulting in a radical change to the Earth’s shape and the conditions in which people could live. Using the latest computer techniques to map the world’s changing coastlines, Hancock finds astonishing correspondences with the ancient flood myths.

Filled with thrilling accounts of his own participation in dives off the coast of Japan, as well as in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Arabian Sea, we watch as Hancock discovers underwater ruins exactly where the myths say they should be―sunken kingdoms that archaeologists never thought existed. Fans of Hancock’s previous adventures will find themselves immersed in Underworld, a provocative book that provides both compelling hard evidence for a fascinating, forgotten episode in human history and a completely new explanation for the origins of civilization as we know it.

From the Back Cover:

“Graham Hancock is no stranger to controversy. The former journalist, whose books have sold five million copies in the past 10 years, has repeatedly dared to challenge scientific shibboleth, taking a run at entrenched thinking in archeology, geology and astronomy.” -- The Globe and Mail

“Hancock wonderfully introduces the general reader to Indian and Japanese subcultures . . . an entertaining writer and an interesting cultural journalist.” -- Publishers Weekly
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael Joseph
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0718144007
• ISBN 13: 9780718144005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 752