Nan Madol -- Micronesia

An interesting--if short--piece on the abandoned city of Nan Madol here. Not much in the way of tikis, but one wouldn't expect wood carvings to survive several hundred years in Micronesia. Piques my curiosity to find out more about it.

New Aerial Images Show Mysterious Lost City In The Middle Of The Pacific Ocean

I saw and read reports of this a week or so ago and was amused by the question "Why would anybody build a civilization or city HERE..." etc. Well, the easy answer (really, my uninformed / speculative answer) is because these were human beings who felt this place offered safety and fortification, yet was still within easy reach of farmland and fresh water. A remote place like this seems in many ways decent (or ideal?) for hunkering down and fending off "traveling" enemies who had to bring their own stuff if they were going to mount an attack. And, maybe the "elites" lived here and others in the population lived inland and supported these structures and the people who lived here. Makes sense in a way, but I'm not at all sure how much water this holds. I'm sure future explorations will shed more light on these people and what was going on there and what caused the abandonment of the site.

I hope they find some really good artifacts and art work. Someday there could be a very cool tiki mug made based on what they find here.