"Pompei Ruins" Brought to LightAn old mystery and riddle about ancient "Yunnan Kingdom" that had sank into the Fuxian Lake two to three thousand years ago, "Pompei Ruins" has lately been brought to light in Yunnan. There does exist the "Pompei Ruins" as a grand ancient architectural complex under the Fuxian Lake and in the lights of the ruins the complex had been found to operate at a level with some urban functions known to today's as "Pompei Ruins" early back in Chinese history.Fuxian Lake lies in the suburbs of Yuxi City in central Yunnan, 60 kilometers away from Kunming, with a water surface of 211 square meters. As known to history, earthquakes had been recurrent and jolted the area. Many old sayings about antique "Yunnan Kingdom" had passed around since olden times, having failed Chinese archaeologists as no historical materials were availabe from history. On March 13 and 15, a probe team headed by Yu Xixian, famous archaeologist, professor of Peking University, and two journalists from Yunnan Daily took "Blue Whale" submarine and went down under the lake water for several times to inspect the ancient ruins. Through a comprehensive study on the data of hydrological survey and on underwater photography done they preliminarily figured out the location, scale and formation of the ruins under water. Yu believed that inspections on the ancient architectural complex further proved that an important civilized period did occur in ancient Yunnan. Exploring and sifting and publicizing the civilization of ancient "Yunnan Kingdom" will exert a tremendous influence on China's underwater archaeological study. By PD Online staff member Du Minghua |
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