National Geographic Documentaries

Lost Continent of the Pacific (2011x84)

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Legends of lost continents and civilizations have captivated people throughout time. Philosophers and astronomers like Aristotle and Ptolemy believed that an unknown continent existed in the Southern hemisphere. In the Age of Discovery, renowned explorers like Magellan and Cook searched the Pacific Ocean in vain for a mysterious land they called "Terra Incognita." To this day, ancestral legends throughout Polynesia speak of a lost homeland and a great civilization that disappeared into the sea. Modern science disputes the existence of unknown continents and often dismisses creation myths. But on Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, elders fiercely believe they originate from a continent that sank following a catastrophic upheaval. They call this lost land "Hiva". Now, new scientific evidence points to a remote island chain in Polynesia as the center of an ancient, thriving civilization. For over 400 years these islands have been known to the world as the Marquesas Archipelago, but to the native Polynesians they were once called "The Isles of Hiva". Could the legend of the lost continent of Hiva be true? Using new archaeological, geological and genetic evidence and by unveiling voyaging techniques passed down over centuries, "Lost Continent Of The Pacific" reveals a mesmerizing world of sweeping beauty and human sacrifice, of vast stone cities covered by jungle, water and exploration, cannibals and masterful seafaring navigators who had colonized the largest ocean on Earth centuries before Columbus reached America.