Nan Madol
The mysterious Nan Madol is known as the Machu Pichu or the Venice of the
Pacfic. 12th to 17th Century island city of Nan Mado. It consists
of 92 man-made islets covering an area of approximately 200 acres, located
in Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia. It was a political
and religious center for the Saudeleur dynasty of chiefs from approximately
1100 to 1600 AD. The most spectacular of the islets have remains of sea
walls, tombs and other structures built of large columnar basalt stones,
brought to Nan Madol from other parts of Pohnpei. 11,000 tourists visit
Nan Madol each year. Full information is available from the Pohnpei State
Government.
Nan Madol reportedly was the ceremonial and political seat of the Sau Deleur
dynasty which united Pohnpei's estimated 25,000 people in late prehistoric
times. Oral history as well as archaeological evidence substantiate
Nan Madol's position as the island's preeminent political and religious
center up until the A.D. 1500s when the centralized system collapsed.
Today Nan Madol forms an archaeological district covering more than 18
sq. km and includes the stone architecture built up on a coral reef flat
along the shore of Temwen Island (Nan Madol Central), several other artificial
islets, and the adjacent Pohnpei main island coastline. The site
core with its stone walls encloses an area approximately 1.5 km long by
0.5 km wide and it contains nearly 100 artificial islets--stone and coral
fill platforms--bordered by tidal canals. It is estimated that between
500,000 and 750,000 metric tons of building material were transported from
varying distances into the site
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Last update on 12/2001.