Searching For The Great Stone Circle of Andros

The years 1968 and 1969 produced a series of reports from the Bimini area of the Bahamas of underwater structures: stone temples, columns, walls, roads, staircases, hexagons, pyramids, and a host of other forms were “discovered.” The stimulus for these reports can be attributed to a prediction made by Edgar Cayce in 1940. In a reading conducted on the location of Atlantis and one of the Hall of Records that was placed near Bimini sometime before 10,000 B.C., Cayce stated that “Poseidia will be among the first portions of Atlantis to rise again. Expect it in sixty-eight and sixty-nine, not so far away.”

The most cited 1968 discovery was the Bimini Road, a J-shaped series of stones found about a mile off North Bimini in about 15 feet of water. The road was immediately declared an Atlantean wall, road, or temple remains by a few explorers, but professional investigations have proven otherwise. The road is made up of natural beachrock with an erosion and cracking pattern which takes on a manmade appearance. This does not mean that the feature wasn't altered by man or that it wasn't used in ancient times. But research on the road has ground to a standstill.

In 1969 two commercial pilots were flying over Andros Island, which lies south of Bimini. Andros is the largest of the Bahama Islands, extending about 100 by 40 miles. It is almost entirely swamp, is largely uninhabited, and is considered to be unexplored. On the east coast of the island a few residents live with dive shops, fishing resorts, and little else. The pilots spotted a portion of a huge series of concentric stone circles in shallow water, and the pilot, Robert Brush, snapped a photo of it. The photo is reproduced with this article.

Brush and his copilot Trigg Adams, played important roles in the 1960s-70s frenzy of Atlantis stories. While some of the visual anomalies spotted by them have turned out to be natural or recent features, the Andros stone circles have remained enigmatic. Charles Berlitz reproduced the photo and told the tale in one of his books, and, more recently, Andrew Collins showed the photo in his excellent Gateway to Atlantis.

The Andros circle appears to consist of three concentric stone rings. A little over half of the formation was covered by sand in 1969 and the entire ring was then under about 3 feet of water. Virtually all of the individuals who have seen it believe that it is now completely covered by sand.

Collins termed the Andros circles as “arguably one of the most enigmatic structures” in the region. Collins gave the size of the stone circle reported by the pilots as about 1000 feet in diameter with the stones forming the rings about three feet thick. Berlitz, according to archaeologist William Donato, gave the size at 1200 feet in diameter. This would, of course, make it far larger than virtually every stone circle known in the world. Richard Wingate's (see below) 1980 book, Lost Outpost of Atlantis, gives the diameter of the circle, described as a "colossal stadium" in his book, as an astonishing 1000 yards — or well over half a mile. In addition, Wingate related that the pilots first spotted the structure in 1979. Both of those figures (1000 yards and 1979) may have been typographical errors. But they do point out the immense problem all this contradictory evidence would pose to serious archaeologists who wanted to find and investigate the structure.

A brief computer analysis of the original photo by Dr. Greg Little (author of this article) led to several conclusions about the structure. If the circle is 1200 feet in diameter, some of the smallest stones in its rings are at least 18 feet in diameter—far too large for such a structure and certainly not consistent with the pilots’ estimations that the rings were between three to six feet apart. If the circle is actually only 600 feet in diameter, the smallest stones would be 6 feet in diameter—still too large. The most reasonable estimate is that the diameter of the rings is 100-120 feet. Most of the stones would then be about one foot in diameter. By way of comparison, the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming is 82 feet in diameter.

Donato’s Project Alta (now called APEX), conducted in 1997 and 1998, attempted to locate the stone circle by air. The first unsuccessful attempt took place in North Andros. Donato later found out that the circle was in South Andros. The second unsuccessful aerial attempt looked along the coast of Andros. In his report to the Cayce organization, Donato revealed that Author Richard Wingate had related to him that the circles were not on the coast, but were actually on the interior of the island within its many mangrove swamps. I contacted Wingate in January 2003 and was told that Wingate had actually filmed the circles in 1971, but he couldn’t remember the exact location. He sent me a copy of the tape, but when I played it, it had been recorded over. UPDATE: On Saturday January 18 we received a new tape from Wingate. But the aerial "video" taken of the Andros Circle was a simple shot of the picture taken back in 1969 by Robert Brush. It is interesting that Andrew Collins also reported that the circles were videotaped in 1971 by a television documentary crew. But that film was never shown according to Collins. The names of the producers and others on the Wingate film were identical to the names listed by Collins as the producers, directors, and others who supposedly videotaped the circle in 1971. Thus, it seems that Wingate's film (of the photo) is what Collins referred to. Like Collins, I too thought that someone else had actually found the circles—but that certainly does not seem to be the case.

The importance of this feature cannot be overestimated. Archaeologists believe that the islands in the Gulf and Carribean were inhabited no earlier than 4000-6000 B.C. Confirmation of a pre-Ice Age culture in the region would stimulate underwater archaeologists to investigate further. In that regard, it is wise to recall that Cayce stated the island empire of Atlantis extended from the Gulf of Mexico to Gibraltar.

UPDATES: Below is a list of links to the results of the Andros investigations. The most recent reports are at the top.