I’m not sure what to make of this one.

On December 9th, 2009 the Herald de Paris announced that anonymous researchers using “advanced satellite imagery” had found an ancient city beneath the waters of the Caribbean. I’ve included one of the photos that allegedly shows the city to the right. Despite having done no onsite inspection, the researchers had some surprisingly specific ideas about the find.

Asked if this city is the legendary city of Atlantis, the researchers immediately said no.  “The romanticized ideal of Atlantis probably never existed, nor will anyone ever strap on a SCUBA tank, jump in the water, and find a city gateway that says, ‘Welcome to Atlantis.’  However, we do believe that this city may have been one of many cities of an advanced, seafaring, trade-based civilization, which may have been visited by their Eurocentric counterparts.”

The article ended with the following.

The project team asks that for more information, or to find out how to help fund their research, please contact the Herald de Paris’ publisher, Jes Alexander, at a specially set-up telephone number:  415-738-7811.

Today the Herald de Paris ran a second article, this one featuring many more images. This time the images are supposed to be “unfiltered,” and the article ends with the same phone number and entreaty for funding.

It seems blindingly obvious that these are images from Google Earth or some similar service, and the “structures” reported are digital compression artifacts caused by zooming in too far. The Herald de Paris appears to be a serious newspaper, not a tabloid. I’m not sure why any newspaper would run a story like this but allow the researchers to be anonymous. The paper even seems to be actively involved with these anonymous researchers, because the paper’s publisher established the phone line for them. Anyone over in France want to give that number a call and see what happens? Is this a practical joke, or has publisher Jes Alexander fallen in with scam artists?