The Enigma of Nan Madol    A remote Pacific island still treasures the remains of a man-made floating city built by a lost civilisation

Many are the mysteries of Pohnpei, a reef-ringed Micronesian island of rain-drenched forests, dense mangroves and flowering hibiscus. Monumental ruins remain from five very different periods of history. Roughly equidistant between Brisbane, Honolulu and Manila, just beyond the equator, Pohnpei is the hub of the Federated States of Micronesia.

The Germans left behind a cemetery and a ruined mission; Spaniards are remembered by a crumbling city wall. Japanese colonists set up their anti-aircraft guns on the ridge above the harbour; Americans, who still pull the strings in the newly-independent FSM, introduced nickels and dimes and yellow school buses.

More enigmatic than any of these is Nan Madol, the Places in Between, a floating city occupied more than two thousand years ago by the lost civilisation of the Saudeleurs, Masters of Deleur, who reigned for five hundred years. These are Micronesia’s most celebrated archaeological ruins, although others exist.

In a tidal lagoon off the eastern coast, 92 man-made islets were built above and below ground and separated by a maze of stone-walled canals. Such architecture was rarely found on the main island, suggesting an enclave for the chosen few.

Several local tour operators offer day-long launch trips from Kolonia, the island’s only town. Most incorporate a picnic on one of the reef islands or a shore excursion to one of the many waterfalls inland.

Wendolin and his mate race their outboards across the sheltered waters, skirting a rain storm. Out to sea the reef is marked by a continuous line of breakers. An adolescent passenger hooks and lands a blue-and-yellow parrot fish then munches happily on the raw flesh.

With its back to the land, Nan Madol (pronounced m’dol) was clearly intended to be approached by sea. On three sides the rectangular site is flanked by a seawall, broken by channels. Columns of basalt - extruded, eons ago, from the ocean floor -are stacked like sawn logs to form imposing ramparts.

We arrive at the monumental plaza on the islet of Nan Douwas, a fortress-like place of worship and burial, which the most imposing structures, including the main burial vault and two lesser crypts where the saudeleurs were laid to rest. The main structures have been compared to the ceremonial squares constructed by the Mayans and Aztecs of Central America.

The city’s grandeur must have awed visitors arriving to trade or bring tribute. Today, Pohnpeians, says Wendolin, are often reluctant to come to this haunted place where stark white dead trunks, waving palms and papaya rise between the black stones. At high tide we can comfortably cruise the channels between these unnaturally rectangular islands. Many are just low walls; others overgrown. Carbon dating reveals construction took place between 1285 and 1485 AD.

The history of the ruins remains a mix of legend and legwork. Wendolin recounts how the Saudeleurs decreed that Nan Madol should rise up out of the seas from Sounahleng, the Reef of Heaven. No-one can say with confidence how the twenty-tonne basalt slabs were eased into place. The ‘logs’ may have been lashed to bamboo rafts - or were they caused to fly into place by the magic of two wise and holy men?

As nothing grew in the coral rubble that formed the floor of the islets, food, as tribute, was ferried out daily for the priests and nobles. The Saudeleurs would sometimes order that dew be collected from taro leaves for their bath. One, Raipwinloko, demanded a steady supply of his favourite delicacy: human flesh.

The warrior Isohkelekel and his war fleet arrived in 1628 AD to challenge the increasingly cruel and greedy reign of the Saudeleurs.

The invaders at first posed as visitors and were welcomed but relations soon became strained. The visitors attacked, killing the fleeing Saudeleur and his men. Isohkelekel founded a new dynasty, becoming the first Nahmwarki and his descendants still dominate traditional Pohnpeian society, ruling each district in pairs. Sakau, the numbing narcotic drink derived by pounding the roots of a pepper shrub, (known in Polynesia as kava) was consumed only in the presence of the nahmwarki.

When the first Europeans stepped ashore on Pohnpei in the 1820s, the city had not long been abandoned; within living memory it had been heavily populated.

F.W. Christian in 1899 collected ‘a rich cache’ of burial goods from the main vault on Nan Douwas, but the next explorer was less fortunate. In 1907 a German colonial governor named Berg ignored local warnings when he set out to excavate the burial vaults. The fearless governor recovered some bones from the main vault but, that night, was haunted by the sound of sea shell trumpets. The next day Berg died a mysterious death. Subsequent parties from the Smithsonian and a trio of American universities seem to have evaded the curse of Nan Madol - but why did the Smithsonian’s archaeologists never publish their formal report...?

We were warned that driving right around Pohnpei is an all-day undertaking. It certainly was the longest hundred kilometres I’ve ever driven, pot-holed gravel and boulders, rarely out of second gear. Southwest out of Kolonia, one of the first landmarks is Pwisehn Malik, a peculiar pillar of basalt rock named for the droppings of a mythical chicken; it is an obvious indication of the materials available to the builders of Nan Madol.

Madolenihmw (mado LEN ee um) district in the island’s west announces itself with the worst stretch of road, a steep incline of packed boulders. A side road winds off over a causeway towards Nan Madol. The Nahmwarki of Madolenihmw has his home at the landing on Temwen Island, from whence visitors can, at low tide, trudge through mud and mangrove, groping underwater for coral stepping stones, to reach the ruins.

Late afternoon sun plays over the magnificent natural harbour of Madolenihmw, through the gathering rain clouds. There are whispers of another sunken city out there beneath the waves...