Does melting snow reveal ancient human settlement in Antarctica?

As the ice sheets of Antarctica continue to melt, experts believe that the lessening snow is revealing a mysterious truth about the South Pole. Satellite images from NASA show a possible human settlement some 2.3 kilometres beneath the icy surface. The images seem to show strange markings in the snow which look manufactured, and as though structures used to stand there. Archeologist, Ashoka Tripathi, of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calcutta believes the images are evidence of an ancient human settlement.

The melting snow allegedly revealed these structures

He said: “These are clearly features of some sort of human-made structure, resembling some sort of pyramidal structure. “The patterns clearly show nothing we should expect from natural geomorphological formations found in nature. We clearly have here evidence of human engineering. “The only problem is that these photographs were taken in Antarctica under 2 kilometres of ice. That is clearly the puzzling part, we do not have any explanation for this at the moment. “These pictures just reflect a small portion of Antarctica’s total land mass. There are possibly many other additional sites that are covered over with ice.

“It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements.” One theory is that Antarctica was not always as cold and covered in snow. An ancient map dating back to the 1500s seems to show Antarctica’s coastline in unprecedented detail. The map was credited to Turkish admiral Piri Reis and is aptly dubbed the Piri Reis Map.

The famous Piri Reis map

Perhaps the most significant item on the map is the depiction of Antarctica – despite Antarctica not officially being discovered until until 1773 by Captain James Cook. But even more perplexing is that the map shows the frozen continent much more eastern than it is today, and with less snow and ice coverage. Despite numerous studies concluding the last time Antarctica could have been ice free was 4,000 BC, even the United States Air Force Reconnaissance Technical Squadron (SAC) believed that the mysterious map “indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap”. Historian and cartographer at the University of Cambridge, Christopher Adam, said: “One of histories most puzzling maps is that of the Turkish admiral Piri Reis in 1513 AD which successfully mapped the coastline of Antarctica over 500 years ago.

Antarctica: Ice age the frozen world Wed, November 4, 2015 Antarctica, the southernmost continent and site of the South Pole. Most cruises to the continent visit the Antarctic Peninsula, which stretches toward South America where you will find Port Lockroy, a former British research station turned museum. Play slideshow Getty Images/Flickr RF 1 of 22 Icebergs in Antarctica