Interest in a mysterious 'lost continent' where believers claim an advanced civilization once existed has been rekindled after claims that its true location has been discovered. Known as Lemuria, the hypothetical continent was proposed in the 19th century to explain why similar lemur fossils had been found in India and Madagascar despite the countries being separated by the Indian Ocean.
Believers now claim that Lemuria, and perhaps the ruins of an ancient pre-human civilization, may lie beneath the ocean. Scientists are working to establish the boundaries of a genuine sunken landmass in the region, although no evidence links it to Lemuria or an advanced civilization.
The lost continent has become associated with bizarre theories involving 'starseeds' who supposedly carry alien DNA, egg-laying humanoids and even a prehistoric nuclear war. Some believers have seized on research into the ancient subcontinent of Mauritia, remnants of which lie beneath the Indian Ocean, as proof that the Lemuria legend was true. Mauritia, however, was a geological landmass left behind when an ancient supercontinent broke apart, not evidence of an advanced or pre-human society. No ruins, artifacts or remains have been uncovered showing that an intelligent civilization ever lived there.
Origins of the Lemuria theory
Lemuria was first proposed in 1864 by Philip Sclater, a British zoologist and biogeographer. He was trying to explain why fossils of lemurs had turned up in Madagascar and India but not in Africa, despite Africa lying much closer to Madagascar.
Doubting that the animals could have crossed the Indian Ocean, Sclater proposed that a land bridge had once connected the two regions before sinking beneath the waves. He named the hypothetical continent Lemuria after the animals whose distribution had inspired the idea. "In Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of this great continent, for which... I should propose the name Lemuria!" Sclater wrote.
The idea became popular but eventually fell out of scientific favor once continental drift explained that India and Madagascar had once formed part of the same landmass. Lemuria was no longer needed to solve the fossil mystery, but it survived outside mainstream science, becoming increasingly entangled with occult beliefs and conspiracy theories. Nigel Watson, author of Portraits of Alien Encounters Revisited, said the lost continent gradually became associated with extraordinary stories about humanity's origins.
From science to spiritualism
Much of that transformation was linked to Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a 19th-century spiritualist and former circus horse rider who founded the occult movement Theosophy. Her 1888 book The Secret Doctrine proposed seven 'root races' of humanity, including invisible astral beings, bodiless Hyperboreans and Lemurians portrayed as egg-laying creatures.
Blavatsky claimed the discovery of sex led to Lemuria's destruction and that the continent sank beneath the ocean, leaving only Australia and Easter Island behind. Her account was spiritual speculation, not a conclusion supported by archaeology or geology, but it helped turn Lemuria from a discarded scientific hypothesis into the supposed home of a forgotten people.
Mount Shasta and the city of Telos
The legend later became attached to Mount Shasta in Northern California, where believers claimed Lemurian survivors had established an underground city called Telos. According to the local mythology, the continent was destroyed by catastrophic earthquakes, but some of its inhabitants escaped and continued living beneath the mountain.
Visitors have claimed to see seven-foot-tall Lemurians dressed in flowing robes near the peak, although no physical evidence has established that the underground city or its alleged residents exist.
Churchward's Mu and the starseed myth
The story grew stranger after Lemuria became mixed with the writings of James Churchward, a British author who claimed that another lost continent, called Mu, held a technologically advanced civilization that flourished 50,000 years ago.
Churchward said ancient tablets revealed that Mu gave rise to the Egyptian, Mayan and Babylonian civilizations, though no evidence has substantiated those claims. Nevertheless, the stories of Mu and Lemuria gradually blended, inspiring spiritual movements that claimed some modern humans descended from the lost civilization. That belief eventually became connected to 'starseeds,' people who believe they possess DNA or souls originating with extraterrestrial beings.
Maldek and theories of nuclear war
Other versions of the legend alleged that Lemuria sheltered refugees from a planet called Maldek, which supposedly once orbited between Mars and Jupiter. The Aetherius Society claimed Maldek's inhabitants became consumed by greed and power before destroying their planet with a hydrogen bomb, an event believers say created the asteroid belt. In that telling, the survivors established a peaceful civilization on Lemuria, only for it to fracture and suffer its own nuclear war.
"Writers who have promoted the idea that ancient astronauts visited and lived on the Earth thousands of years ago, claim that sacred texts like the Bible recount stories of nuclear explosions," Watson said. "They point to accounts like this in Genesis, 'the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven'."
Believers also point to fragments of melted glass found in the deserts of Libya, which some claim are evidence of nuclear warfare or accidents 28 million years ago, and argue that the legendary civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria were destroyed by atomic warfare. Watson explained that variations of the theory portrayed the solar system as the scene of multiple nuclear conflicts involving alien settlers, noting that the claims largely came from automatic writing, alleged psychic messages and speculative interpretations of ancient texts rather than physical evidence. He said the stories were also intended as a warning about advanced civilizations.
The real search beneath the Indian Ocean
While the alien visitors and nuclear conflicts belong to legend, the scientific search for an ancient landmass beneath the Indian Ocean is real. Mauritia was described in a scientific paper in 2013, and researchers reported further evidence in 2017 of its lava-covered remains.
The landmass was a fragment left behind during the breakup of Gondwanaland, a supercontinent that existed about 200 million years ago. Researchers believe remnants of Mauritia are scattered beneath the Indian Ocean and have been studying zircon, a durable mineral that can reveal the age of surrounding material. Zircon found on Mauritius was dated to approximately three billion years old, despite the volcanic island's exposed rocks being no older than nine million years.
Scientists are now using gravity inversion to calculate the thickness of the oceanic crust and identify portions of the ancient continent that may remain intact. The research could clarify the size and shape of Mauritia, but it has not uncovered evidence of Lemuria, alien descendants or a civilization destroyed by nuclear war.
