Ancient Mysteries in the South Pacific

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of travelling to a small group of islands in the South Pacific called Tonga.  I was living in Sydney at the time, and trips from the east coast of Australia to the southern Pacific were not too expensive.  Western Samoa, Cook Islands and even Tahiti had also been in my travel plans back then, but Tonga was special.

That’s because I had been reading Thor Heyerdahl’s books about his adventures across the world’s oceans in search of megalithic ruins and other evidence of a technologically advanced civilization that explored the entire world in ancient times.  This subject had fascinated me since childhood, and I began to read up on it more seriously when I was in my twenties. 

Among Heyerdahl’s explorations of the Pacific, including the famous Easter Island, he also discovered similar giant stone statues in the Marquesas Islands, then continued on to Tahiti.  In passing, he mentioned the remains of pyramids on the main island of Tonga, and that’s why this small island was on my radar.

So off I went on a short vacation, making sure I had maps and arrangements to see the stone ruins on Tonga.   In my mind’s eye, I saw the pictures I had seen in many books on the subject of megalithic ruins, such as this one of a wall on Easter Island:

It is often compared to the walls found in Cusco, as well as many other places across Central and South America.  This is just one example Heyerdahl - and now many others - used to support the theory that ancient megalith builders crossed the Pacific and other oceans and established colonies or new settlements using the same building techniques.

So imagine the thrill when I first saw a complex of several different-sized pyramid bases, or truncated pyramids, on the main island of Tonga!  The stone blocks fit closely together like the Easter Island wall, albeit showing some signs of erosion – perhaps due to the tropical climate and occasional flooding.

Megalithic buildings in Tonga

Not only that, but in another area on this small island of Tonga is a “mini Stonehenge” complete with a “Hele Stone” (a single stone strategically placed to use as a sighting stone in astronomical measurements).   Tonga has a single arch, as if taken out of the famous Stonehenge complex, but the straight lines of the massive stone blocks are identical.

The "Hele Stone" on Tonga

These historic sites in Tonga have a local version given to tourists, such as the story of a Polynesian king who authorized the 'gate' to be built, but other historians and scientists believe the origins of the megaliths are much older and were made by other people.  

Personally, I think it's too much of a coincidence that ancient stone structures are identical or very similar all across the world.  And if a civilization had the technology to make evenly cut and sized stone blocks for building purposes, then one can assume they also had the knowledge and ability to make ocean-crossing vessels.

Apart from Heyerdahl's books, David Hatcher Childress has also written extensively about his explorations of ancient megalithic structures around the world, and one book is just about Tonga:

https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Tonga-Lost-City-MuA/dp/0932813364

I have used some of this information, along with my own personal travel experiences around the Pacific, in my Fantasy-Fiction series, RHUNA.   The heroine named Rhuna spent her childhood on Easter Island until she learned about the Atlantis-like civilization beyond the horizon.  She then spends her adolescence on Tonga (called Mediz in my story) before making another long sea voyage to the land of Atlan...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008YN2QMK

Part Two in Rhuna, Keeper of Wisdom is set in "Mediz" (Tonga), while the short story, The Summer Sojourn is set entirely there, and details Rhuna's adolescent years.  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BJX53KG