By A retired architect says decades of underwater exploration have led him to what he believes is evidence of a vast, ancient city submerged off the coast of Louisiana, though the claims remain unverified by mainstream archaeologists.
George Gelé, who has studied the waters near the Chandeleur Islands for nearly 50 years, says sonar scans reveal hundreds of structures buried beneath sediment roughly 50 miles east of New Orleans. He has named the alleged site “Crescentis” and believes it dates back approximately 12,000 years, when rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age inundated coastal regions, writes The New York Post.
In a 2022 interview with a local television station, Gelé described what he believes is a complex of structures, including a large pyramid rising from the seafloor. He said the formation sits under about 30 feet of water and is covered by an additional 100 feet of sand and silt.
Gelé also claims the structure produces unusual electromagnetic effects that can disrupt navigation equipment. Local fisherman Ricky Robin, who has accompanied Gelé to the site, said his boat experienced repeated malfunctions when passing over the area.
“Everything will go out on your boat,” Robin said, comparing the phenomenon to accounts associated with the Bermuda Triangle.
According to Gelé, the site contains large quantities of granite blocks, a material not naturally found in the region. He argues the stone was transported, possibly via the Mississippi River, and used in deliberate construction. He has also drawn comparisons between the site’s location and that of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
“All I know is that someone built the city 12,000 years ago,” Gelé said in the resurfaced interview.
Gelé says he has funded more than 40 expeditions to the site since the 1970s and has collected samples he believes show signs of human modification. One granite piece, he said, includes a carved groove consistent with architectural design.
“This is a piece of architecture, this is not ballast,” he said.
Skeptics, however, have offered alternative explanations for the materials found in the area. Some researchers point to a 1980s study suggesting the granite may have been dumped as ballast from Spanish or French ships navigating shallow Gulf waters. Others have proposed the rocks could be remnants of a mid-20th-century artificial reef project.
Gelé disputes those interpretations, maintaining the evidence supports the existence of an advanced, previously unknown civilization in North America.
Despite the scope of his claims, Gelé has not published his findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and archaeologists have not confirmed the presence of any ancient city at the site.
The theory has nonetheless attracted renewed attention online in recent weeks, prompting fresh speculation about what may lie beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
