YONAGUNI OVERVIEWS

Since underwater pictures have a limited range of visibility, it is difficult to get an overview of the entire monument. The ones that could be found have been collected below, together with maps of the island and its location. Note that there are substantial differences between the different overviews of the monument. The relation between the large scale structure and the detailed pictures is given on the link map page.

A schematic overview of the main monument.

A schematic topview with some of its surroundings.

This corresponds to the lower left quarter of the monument as depicted above. Most of the pictures are of this part, because it has the most detail, and even here the features are measured in meters. The even larger dimensions elsewhere are difficult to photograph due to the limited range under water. (sketch by Kihachiro Aratake, the discoverer of the monument)

This is a slightly larger overview of the area, with the monument itself outlined in red. Features denoted as Gosintai, Nakagusuku, Minami sinden (South Shrine), and Stadium are not part of the main monument, and are featured on the Other submarine finds page. Iseki Point is the location of the site at Yonaguni, see below.

"Stadium" is part of the underwater ruins area, so one can see the area is quite large. Tachigami-Iwa (some kilometers away) and San'ninu-dai are features above water that are possibly related to the underwater finds, and they are also discussed on this website.

Yonaguni, one of the Yaeyama Islands indicated by the box, is an invisible speck at the left of the box. In fact, it is the most western point of official Japan. The big island to its left is Taiwan, which is visible from it some days of the year. This picture clearly shows that Yonaguni is geologically more directly related to Taiwan than Japan. The islands half way to Japan are the Okinawa group of which the Yaeyama Islands are a formal part.

For underwater pictures, go to the next gallery.