WHAT WAS 'THE GREAT FLOOD' AND WHAT DID IT DESTROY ? TO ANSWER THAT, WE NEED TO DIVE DEEP INTO OUR HISTORY AND OUR PLANET.

From the Genesis Flood narrative in the Bible to the story of Manu and Matsya in Hinduism to the Mesopotamian Writings, all of them have talked about a flood that changed the fate of humanity, typically seen as a "cleansing" of humanity performed by Gods and Deities. Most of them also have a hero who is the representation of the righteous nature of humans.

In Hinduism, 'the legend of Manu and Matsya' tells the story of how Matsya, the marine form of Lord Vishnu warns Manu, the archetypal man about a catastrophic flood that is about to devour everything. Matsya advises Manu to build a boat and fill it with all the grains and creatures of the world. Manu's boat survives the flood as Matsya pulls it to safety. The Legend appears in 'Matsya Purana' which is one of the major Puranas of Sanskrit literature in Hinduism.

Eridu Genesis, the Mesopotamian Epic also talks about a catastrophic flood where Enki, the Mesopotamian God of water warns Ziusudra (the mesopotamian counterpart of Biblical Noah) about the plan hatched by Gods to destroy mankind with a flood. Ziusudra on the orders of Enki builds a huge boat using which he successfully escaped the flood. A similar story is found in the Babylonian Epic, Gilgamesh where Utnapishtim and his wife survive the great flood by building a boat.

References of such a flood can also be found in Islam, Mayan mythology, Aztec mythology, Greek mythology and South American Mythologies.

It is clear that the people of different civilizations from different parts of the world had one mutual experience. An experience of surviving a catastrophic flood in a huge boat.

An experience that has been documented and talked about in almost every culture and religion in the world. That would mean the flood was big enough to impact multiple continents.

So, is the story of 'The Great Flood' a myth? Or is it a written and documented historic event? What is the Great Flood anyway? Why is it so frequent in our recorded history? Why do these floods happen? and where did it come from? A flood of such massive magnitude cannot be blamed on melted ice. It would take an earthshaking event. Well, that is not unheard of as we all know the fate of the Dinosaurs. To find the answer we need to look towards the cosmos.

TAURID METEOR SHOWER

The Taurid Meteor shower is a group of disintegrated meteoroids roaming around in a part of Earth's orbit. These are the remains of commet Ackne which itself is a remain of a much larger comet which has been disintegrating for the past 25,000 years. Earth goes through the Taurid meteor shower twice a year. Earth takes just a few weeks to evade this cloud of rogue meteoroids. The pieces of this particular comet is made of hard rock which makes them even more dangerous as they hover around in their orbits. If Earth happened to run into a few of these, the devastation would be immense and in a short period of time which stays congruent with the many records of "The Great Flood". Recently, discoveries have been made that suggest that such an event did happen precisely 12,800 years ago.

THE BLACK MAT LAYER - THE LAYER OF EXTINCTION

The Black Mat layer is a black layer of soil embedded under several layers of normal soil. This layer dates back to 12,800 years ago. This layer has a huge significance. Below this layer you will find mammoth bones, bones of Saber-tooth Tigers, Dire Wolves and many other Megafauna (Large Animals) that used to roam the Earth. Above this layer however, you will find none. Not even one. This Layer also saw the disappearance of human artifacts and a drastic alteration in vegetation. Traces of glass has been found in this layer which hints towards a high temperature incident. Metals like Platinum and Iridium are also found in the layer which are very rarely found on Earth. This alludes to an event involving cosmic impact. The Black mat layer can be found in different parts of the world including Northern America, Northern Europe and Middle East. This layer has been under observation and study ever since it has been discovered. The many impact craters found around the world only strengthen this theory.

THE IMPACT AND THE END OF ICE AGE

The Earth was shredded by continuous shower of rogue meteoroids. The impacts on sea water would create floods beyond the capacity of imagination. Impacts on land would leave massive craters and the fires would turn everything into soot. The temperature would keep on rising which in turn would melt more ice resulting in more flood. After the flood and destruction is over the global temperature would plummet for one last time before the end of this hellish era. There is a good reason comets are called "Species Killer". Very small contingent of the animal population would have survived this catastrophe. Once the storm is over, the surviving humans would walk out to an unbearable sight of global cataclysm which marks the end of the last ice age as the world enters Holocene Epoch.

THE RETURN OF CIVILIZATION

According to the globally accepted data civilizations started appearing about 6000 years ago. That would mean 6800 years after the destruction that left a mark in our soil. During those 6800 years humans were mostly hunter gatherers. Indus valley civilizations appeared 4500 years ago and in China about 3500 years ago. Slowly, civilizations appeared all over the world.

But startling discoveries have been made that could change everything we know.

A GLIMPSE OF A FORGOTTEN CHAPTER IN HUMAN HISTORY

GUNUNG PADANG

Located in the island of Java, Gunung Padang is an archaeological discovery situated on top of a hill which is covered with beam-shaped rocks of brown color. Thousands of them. Around 50,000 !!! These rocks are formed naturally when Basalt(Volcanic Rock) cools and cracks into such shapes. That's not the catch. These rocks were not formed on this hill. They were imported from a different region and placed in a precise way which resembles walls, rooms, structures. Archaeologist Ali Akbar and his team started excavating this site in 2012. They found a cultural layer (define cultural layer) which dates back to 500 BCE . But after digging for about 4 metres, they found another cultural layer which dates back to 5200BCE, in other words, 7200 years ago. But humans were supposed to build civilizations only 6000 years ago. At the 7200 year mark, they were supposed to be hunter gatherers, right? Why and How would they create such a massive structure on a hill? Doesn't add up? I know, there's more.

CAPPADOCIA

In the region of Cappadocia, Turkey there are hundreds of cities underground carved out with axes. Some of them are more than 250 feet deep and have 18 levels. The most famous one is Derinkuyu, which was used by many civilizations like the Phrygians, Romans, Persians, the Ottoman Empire. Although the cities themselves do not have carbon dating but the tools that were used to build them were found nearby and they date back to 11,000 years ago. This huge network of underground cities is capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people. Clearly built for refuge in times of crisis. Turkey is filled with such astonishing ancient architecture and the next one questions everything we know.

GOBEKLI TEPE

The oldest acknowledged monumental structure on Earth. Located on a hill in South-Eastern Turkey this ancient structure is quite intriguing and shrouded with mystery. According to carbon dating, this site was built between 11,600 years - 10,500 years ago !! Thousands of years before the first civilizations sprang. This site contains 4 enclosures within which there are huge t-shaped pillars standing on polished stone floor. The big pillars are surrounded by many smaller t-shaped pillars which are intricately decorated. In 2003, a geophysical survey was made on the hill which revealed that there are 20 other enclosures and hundreds of pillars inside the hill. Turns out, the entire thing was buried under a man-made hill around 10,000 years ago. Who built this gigantic site filled with carved stone pillars and enclosures when humans were only hunter gatherers? And why did they bury it? The amount of organized labor that might have taken is staggering. The dates of when civilization allegedly began just doesn't fit the facts. We cannot change the facts so maybe it is time to change the dates.

It seems unlikely that simple hunter gatherers would build such sophisticated structures on an astonishing scale. It has to be someone with a deep knowledge of Architecture as well as Astronomy as the structures are perfectly aligned to the stars, sun and moon. It can only be an advanced civilization that coexisted with the hunter gatherer humans. A civilization that was lost due to the global cataclysm that happened 12,800 years ago and ended 11,600 years ago the exact time when the construction of Gobekli Tepe began. Perhaps, the survivors of the lost civilization shared their knowledge with the hunter gatherers that led to the rise of civilizations. We don't know what exactly happened and that is why we need to look out for the clues history has left for us. It is important to let go of preconceived notions and hold on to an open mind.