Civilizations desk
Nan Madol: the stone city built on a Pacific lagoon
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Pohnpeian tradition says sorcerers flew the stones in. A 1920s author said a lost continent left them behind. Archaeologists date a chief's tomb. Nobody has shown how the heaviest columns were set in the lagoon.
Nan Madol is a city of basalt and coral built on more than 100 artificial islets off Pohnpei, in Micronesia, and the ceremonial center of the Saudeleur dynasty. Coral dating puts its first monumental tomb at AD 1180 to 1200. How the heaviest stones were moved and set in the lagoon is still unexplained.
Key takeaways
- UNESCO calls Nan Madol the ceremonial center of the Saudeleur dynasty and places that era between 1200 and 1500 CE.
- Pohnpeian oral tradition credits two sorcerer brothers, Olisihpa and Olosohpa, with building it by magic; one official retelling adds a flying dragon.
- In 1926 James Churchward argued the ruins were a capital city of Mu, a lost Pacific continent.
- Uranium-thorium dates on coral from the first chief's tomb put the start of monument building at AD 1180 to 1200.
- The US National Park Service says the method used to sink the heaviest stones into the lagoon is unknown.
Nan Madol has been called a sorcerers' city, a lost continent's capital and an engineering puzzle, and each of those labels comes with a published case. The basalt islets off Pohnpei hold an open question that no one has closed: how people with no cement and no diving gear set basalt pillars weighing up to 100,000 pounds into a lagoon [2]. Here are the readings side by side, from our ancient civilizations desk.
Who built Nan Madol, according to Pohnpeian tradition?
Pohnpei's own answer comes first. The US National Park Service (NPS) retells the oral history: the first Saudeleur to arrive were two brothers, Olisihpa and Olosohpa, "canoe-faring sorcerers who received their powers from the gods and used their magic to build Nan Madol" [2].
The Federated States of Micronesia's Office of National Archives, Culture and Historic Preservation gives a fuller version. It says the twins came from the mythical Western Katau, or Kanamwayso, in a large canoe, looking for a place to build an altar to Nahnisohn Sahpw, the god of agriculture [3]. After several false starts they built it off Temwen Island [3].
In Legend, these brothers levitated the huge stones with the aid of a flying dragon.
In that account, when one brother died of old age, Olosohpa became the first Saudeleur, married a local woman, and founded a line of rulers of the Dipwilap, or "Great," clan [3]. The tradition does not treat the stones as a puzzle. It names who moved them and how.
Was Nan Madol a city of a lost continent?
The boldest outside reading came from James Churchward, whose 1926 book The Lost Continent of Mu argued that a vanished Pacific landmass had seeded civilizations around the world [4]. He called the ruins on Pohnpei, which he spelled Panape, "the most important ruin in the South Sea Islands" [4].
To my mind the various ruins on Panape are the ruins of one of the Motherland’s capital cities, one of the Seven Sacred Cities.
His evidence was descriptive. He wrote of a temple 300 feet long and 60 feet wide, with walls still 30 feet high in 1874, carvings of "the sacred symbols of the Motherland" on its walls, and a central chamber he called "unquestionably the holy of holies" [4]. He judged the population "must have been very large—a hundred thousand at least" [4]. He tied the Caroline Islands to Mu through what he called the Naacal Tablets and the poet Valmiki [4].
Those are his claims, not ours, and no excavation report backs a lost continent. They still frame the question many readers bring: whether Nan Madol was older and grander than the record allows.
What do archaeologists say?
The consensus is a local, medieval one. UNESCO describes the megalithic basalt structures as the remains of palaces, temples, mortuaries and residential domains that represent the ceremonial center of the Saudeleur dynasty, in an era of change it dates to 1200-1500 CE [1]. The NPS says the Saudeleur first appeared around 1100, built Nan Madol around 1200, and at their height united an estimated 25,000 people [2].
The firmest date comes from coral. A team led by archaeologist Mark D. McCoy used uranium-thorium dates on coral from the tomb of the island's first chief, together with geochemical sourcing of the basalt, to place the beginning of monument building at AD 1180-1200 [6]. Southern Methodist University, where McCoy worked, says that moved the site's founding more than a century earlier than the previous date of AD 1300 [5].
The archaeologists do not claim to have solved the stones. The SMU release says plainly: "How Nan Madol was built remains an engineering mystery, much like Egypt's Pyramids" [5]. More from the desk is on the blog.
When was Nan Madol built and used?
The official sources measure different things, and we keep each with its source.
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Nan Madol in the record
1st or 2nd century AD
The FSM historic preservation office says Nan Madol was a scene of human activity this early.
c. 1100
The NPS says the Saudeleur first appeared on Pohnpei around 1100.
AD 1180-1200
Coral dates from the first chief's tomb mark the start of monument building.
1200-1500 CE
UNESCO dates the era of settlement and social change to this window.
1628
Isokelekel defeats the Saudeleur
The NPS dates the invasion led by the warrior Isokelekel to 1628.
18th century
The NPS says Nan Madol was eventually abandoned in the 18th century.
By the 1820s
UNESCO says residential use ceased by the 1820s, while the site kept religious and traditional significance.
2016
The site was inscribed on the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger.
How was Nan Madol built?
UNESCO says the walls use massive columnar basalt, transported from quarries elsewhere on the island and laid in a distinctive "header-stretcher technique" [1]. The NPS says carved basalt placed in a crisscross pattern formed the walls of each of the 130 buildings, on a foundation of natural coral just below the surface [2]. Some stones are light enough for one person to carry; the heaviest pillars weigh 100,000 pounds each [2]. The royal temple Nandauwas is enclosed by 25-foot walls [2].
The McCoy team's paper says the city covers 83 hectares of lagoon, and that the basalt for the first chief's tomb was sourced geochemically [6]. SMU says that by 1180 massive stones were being moved from a volcanic plug on the opposite side of the island [5].
The Pohnpeians, who had neither binding agents like concrete nor modern diving equipment, sank the heavy stones into the lagoon using an unknown method.
That gap is where the readings meet. Tradition fills it with sorcery and a dragon [3]. Churchward filled it with a lost motherland [4]. The archaeological record names a quarry, a date and a dynasty, and stops at the method [2] [5].
Why was Nan Madol abandoned?
Oral history, as the NPS reports it, says later Saudeleur rulers grew oppressive, often forcing Pohnpeians into starvation [2]. In 1628 the warrior Isokelekel, whom tradition calls a demigod and historians link to settlers from Kosrae, led an invasion and defeated them with help from the island's people [2]. The site's significance then "slowly eroded," and it was abandoned in the 18th century [2]. UNESCO dates the end of residential use to the 1820s [1]. No source on the record blames a flood or a sinking.
Is Nan Madol underwater, and is it at risk?
The city stands on a coral reef in a lagoon beside Temwen Island, and the NPS calls it "the only extant ancient city built on top of a coral reef" [2]. The water is the threat. UNESCO inscribed Nan Madol on the World Heritage List in 2016 and, at once, on the List of World Heritage in Danger, citing siltation that feeds mangrove growth and undermines the structures [1]. It adds overgrowth, storm surge and some stonework collapse, and calls the state of the stone "of extreme concern" [1].
A World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS mission visited in January 2018 [1]. UNESCO asked that silt be cleared "without jeopardizing possible cultural layers on the sea floor" [1], and urged progress on legislation LB 392 to set up a Nan Madol Historic Preservation Trust [1]. How we handle sources is set out on our about page.
Frequently asked questions
Who were Olisihpa and Olosohpa?
In Pohnpeian oral tradition they are twin sorcerers who arrived by canoe and built Nan Madol by magic. The NPS retells the story, and the FSM historic preservation office adds that they levitated the stones with a flying dragon's help [2] [3].
What was Mu, and why is Nan Madol linked to it?
Mu was a lost Pacific continent proposed by James Churchward in 1926. He argued that the ruins on Pohnpei were one of its capital cities. Archaeologists have not found evidence for the continent [4].
Who was Isokelekel?
Pohnpeian tradition calls him a demigod. The NPS says historians believe he led settlers from Kosrae and that he defeated the Saudeleur in 1628 [2].
Can you visit Nan Madol?
Yes. The NPS says the site is on private property but open to the public, with boat tours run by Nahnmwarki representatives [2].
Sources
- World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission to Nan Madol: Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesia — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (23 February 2018)
- Nan Madol — US National Park Service (last updated 6 January 2020)
- Nan Madol, East Site of Temwen Island, Temwen Island — FSM Office of National Archives, Culture and Historic Preservation
- The Lost Continent of Mu — James Churchward (1926), Internet Archive scan
- Evidence of first chief indicates Pacific islanders invented a new society on city they built of coral and basalt — Southern Methodist University Research (18 October 2016)
- Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol — McCoy, Alderson, Hemi, Cheng and Edwards, Quaternary Research (20 January 2017)