Nan Madol is an archaeological site near the eastern shore 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 series of small man-made islands connected by a network of canals. The main area of the site, which includes stone walls, covers an area about 1.5 kilometers long and 0.5 kilometers wide. It contains 92 artificial islets made of stone and coral, surrounded by tidal canals.

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

History

Nan Madol was the ceremonial and political center of the Saudeleur dynasty, which ruled over Pohnpei’s estimated population of about 25,000 people until around 1628. Located between Pohnpei’s main island and Temwen Island, Nan Madol had people living there as early as the first or second century AD. Construction of the area began in the 8th or 9th century, and the unique megalithic buildings were built between 1180 and 1200 AD.

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

Little is known for certain about how the megalithic structures were built. Pohnpeian tradition says that the builders of the Leluh site on Kosrae, which also has 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, suggesting that Nan Madol may have influenced the construction of Leluh.

According to Pohnpeian legend, the twin sorcerers Olisihpa and Olosohpa from the mythical Western Katau, or Kanamwayso, built Nan Madol. The brothers arrived in a large canoe to find a place to build an altar where they could worship Nahnisohn Sahpw, the god of agriculture. After several failed attempts, they successfully built an altar near Temwen Island and performed their rituals there. 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 Saudeleur dynasty governed kindly, but later rulers placed greater demands on their people. Their rule ended when Isokelekel invaded. Although Isokelekel also lived at Nan Madol, his successors later left the site.

Purpose and features

The elite center was a special place where nobility lived and where priests performed ceremonies related to death. The population there was likely no more than 1,000 people, and maybe fewer than 500. While some residents were chiefs, most were common people. Nan Madol was partly used by the ruling Saudeleur chiefs to manage potential rivals by requiring them to live in the city instead of their home areas, where their actions were harder to watch.

Madol Powe, the area for burial ceremonies, includes 58 small islands in the northeastern part of Nan Madol. Many of these islands once had homes for priests. Some islands had special uses, 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. The most famous is the royal burial island of Nandauwas, where walls 5.5 to 7.5 meters (18 to 25 feet) tall surround a central tomb in the main courtyard. This was built for the first Saudeleur chief.

Nan Madol has 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 situation likely caused them to eventually leave Nan Madol and return to their home areas. Other reasons for the abandonment of the complex 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 near the shore of Temwen Island, several artificial islands, and the coastline of the larger island of Pohnpei. The central part of the site, surrounded by stone walls, covers an area about 1.5 kilometers by 0.5 kilometers (0.93 miles by 0.31 miles) and includes 92 artificial islands made of stone and coral, connected by tidal canals.

Carbon dating shows that large stone construction at Nan Madol began around AD 1180. These stones were brought from a volcanic rock formation on the opposite side of Pohnpei. Earlier human activity on Pohnpei dates back to around AD 80–200, though the first permanent settlement likely started around AD 1.

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

In 1978 and 1979, archaeologist Arthur Saxe studied underwater areas near Nan Madol to search for submerged basalt columns and two lost cities called Kahnihmw Namkhet and Kahnihmweiso. He found large stone pillars covered in coral at depths over 25 meters (82 feet), but the cities were not discovered. It was suggested that Kahnihmweiso might have been built over a cave that later collapsed, forming a blue hole.

In 1988 and 1989, archaeologists from the University of Oregon explored underwater near Nan Madol. They found basalt columns on the seafloor and concluded these were leftover building materials. They also examined pillars reported by Saxe and found that some were made of coral, not intentionally placed stones.

In 2013, researchers used sonar, underwater vehicles, and diving to study submerged objects and the blue hole. They found no evidence of human-made basalt pillars or structures. They also concluded that the blue hole is a sinkhole formed in reef limestone during periods of lower sea levels.

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 the 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, claimed in his 1926 book The Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man that Nan Madol was part of the lost continent of Mu. However, there is no scientific evidence to support Churchward’s claims, and his writings about Mu are considered pseudoscience.

Nan Madol was shown in episode two of a television series called Ancient Apocalypse, hosted by Graham Hancock, which aired on Netflix. The show made incorrect claims 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 islanders who built the structures. These claims are also connected to harmful 19th-century ideas about race and white supremacy.