Underwatertimes.com News Service - January 16, 2006 00:00 EST

China researchers are reporting the discovery of Mayan pyramid-like buildings under Fuxian Lake in China's Yunnan province.

"Gengwei, a professional diver, told reporters on December 19th, 2005, that images from sonar scans showed that a large relic covering at least 2.4 square kilometers sits underwater in Fuxian Lake.

"He said eight main buildings were found all under the water, including a round building and two large high buildings with floors that liken to the Mayan pyramids of Latin America."

The round one has been described as similar to a colosseum in architecture, with a 37-meter wide base and a gap to the northeast.

One of the large, high buildings has three floors, a 60-meter wide base and lots of small steps linking the floors. Another is even larger, with a 63-meter wide base standing five floors and a total 21 meters high.

A 300-meter long and 5 to 7 meter wide rock road connects the two buildings.

The complex, located in present-day southern Yunnan province, is believed to be from an ancient civilization dating back to the Qin and Han dynasties, approximately 2,000 years ago.

Fidel Castro's Cuba meanwhile is laying claim to being the home site of the lost city of Atlantis.

Soviet-born ocean engineer Paulina Zelitsky, the president of the Canadian-based company Advanced Digital Communications (ADC), had detected what could be Atlantis in deep waters off Cuba.

On May 28 2002, National Geographic News reported on the recent discovery of megalithic ruins some 2,200 ft. below sea level off the coast of Cuba. Interviewed for the story was geologist, Manuel Iturralde, Director of Research at Cuba's Natural History Museum and consulting geologist for Canadian exploration company ADC, based in Havana, Cuba.

According to a 2001 Special Report by Gateway to Atlantis author Andrew Collins, "The discoveries were made last summer during deep-sea surveys made by Paulina and a trained scientific research team aboard the Cuban research vessel, Ulysses.

"Sonar images revealed `an extensive series of structures' over a several-mile area in darker and lighter shades. The site is close to the edge of the underwater geological feature known as the Cuban shelf, which falls off sharply in a series of shelves which drop down to several thousand metres, and it is one of these shelves, in around 600-700 metres of water, that the structures are to be found."