Dedicated to John for being so sweet and amazing!

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Hollow Earth Theory:

Could the earth, moon, planets and stars all be hollow bodies?

And very likely inhabited within?

If yes, what is Our Hollow Earth like?

The Hollow Earth Theory is one of the more outrageous contemporary conspiracy proposals. A massive intergovernmental cover-up would be required to substantiate its validity. Of course, the same has been said for alien abduction, UFOs, and government-sponsored psychic activity.

Essentially, Hollow Earth theorists postulate that our planet is in fact hollow, as the name implies, with a crust thickness of 800 to 2,000 miles.

As ludicrous the notion of a hollow Earth may seem, remember that after several lunar missions, NASA asserted that our Moon may be hollow as it “rang like a bell” when impacted by rockets.

Most recently, this was affirmed when NASA scientists fired a rocket at the lunar surface in order to locate subterranean water supplies. Moreover, no one has ever drilled to a depth anywhere near the accepted limit of the Earth’s crust. In fact, the concept of a solid iron core was largely conceived because it was the only cogent explanation for calculating Earth’s gravity. Contrarily, theorists propose that within the hollow void is an entire civilization, illuminated by a small star at the center. Therein, advocates claim that the inner star or the crust itself provides sufficient gravity. It is believed that entrances to this subterranean world can be found at the North and South poles, as well as within major cave systems such as the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, USA which has never been fully surveyed. This presumption would sound ridiculous if only there was no evidence.

Edmund Halley:

In a 1692 scientific paper, Edmund Halley – yes, he of comet fame – put forth the idea that Earth consists of a shell about 800 km thick, and of two inner concentric shells and an innermost core with about the same diameter as the planet Mars.

Halley did have scientific grounds for his rather bizarre thought-construct. It tried to explain why compass readings could be so anomalous: each of the inner spheres had their own magnetic poles and rotated at differing speeds. To compound his error, Halley proposed that the inner spheres might be inhabited and that the inner atmosphere was made up of luminous gases that, when escaping outward, cause the Aurora borealis.

Leonhard Euler:

In the seventeenth century, Leonhard Euler proposed a single-shell hollow Earth with a small sun (1.000 km across) at the centre, providing light and warmth for an inner-Earth civilisation. Others proposed two inner suns, and even named them: Pluto and Proserpine.

John Cleves Symmes Jr:

In the early eighteenth century, American John Cleves Symmes Jrsupplemented the theory with the suggestion of ‘blowholes’: openings about 2.300 km across at both poles. Symes apparently was utterly convinced by his own theories: he campaigned for an expedition to the North Pole.  The intervention of President Andrew Jackson was needed – to stop it, that is.

Quite unbelievably, the hollow Earth idea persisted into the twentieth century, when the study of plate tectonics and the like made it obvious that the Earth couldn’t be hollow. Yet hollow Earth books and theories multiplied, many based on Symmes’ work.

Marshall Gardner:

In 1913, Marshall Gardner wrote A Journey to the Earth’s Interior, even built a working model of his hollow Earth – and patented it.

UFO’s:

More recent theories suggest a hollow Earth inhabited by the creatures that flyUFOs across our skies, or by dwarves, dragons, other ‘lost races’ or ‘ascended masters’ of esoteric wisdom.

Some proposed new ‘blowholes’ are located in Mount Shasta (California), Mammoth Cave (Kentucky), the Mato Grosso (Brazil), Mount Epomeo (Italy) and the pyramid of Giza (Egypt).

The Shaver Mystery:

The pulp science fiction magazine Amazing Stories ran with a fantastic tale called the Shaver Mystery from 1945 to 1949. It entailed a series of supposedly factual stories by Richard Sharpe Shaver, claiming a superior prehistoric race had built subterranean caves, now inhabited by the ‘Dero’, their degenerate descendants. These ‘Dero’ use the advanced machinery inherited from their superior forefathers to torment us on the surface of the planet.

Adolf Hitler:

The hollow Earth theory was quite popular in twentieth-century Germany; it’s even claimed that Adolf Hitler gave the Hohlweltlehre credence in so far as that he ordered an expedition to spy on the British fleet by aiming cameras at the sky – a claim without historical proof, however. An even crazier theory holds that Hitler and other top Nazis escaped the Allies by fleeing to the inner Earth via an entrance in Antarctica.

The hollow Earth theory has a particularly strong hold on the imagination of writers (such as E.A. Poe, Jules Verne, E.R. Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft and Umberto Eco, who have all used the idea in their fiction). A sub-genre postulating a hollow Moon seems to have died out after the 1969 moon landing.

Is it Agartha?

In some hollow Earth theories, there is a city or civilisation at the core of the Earth called Agartha (sometimes spelled Agartta, Agharti or Agarttha). This seems to derive from Aryavartha, which to the Hindus is the place of origin of the Vedas. An alternative name for this city is Shamballa (or Shambalah), which is Sanskrit for ‘place of peace’. Chinese, Russian and Kirgiz folklore all have their own names for a similar place. Sometimes, both names are used simultaneously (as in this map), with Agartha designating the whole interior and Shamballa the main city.

Despite its age, the name of Agartha pops up in relatively recent popular culture, indicating that is was popularised probably only in the twentieth century. ‘Agartha’ is the name of a Miles Davis album, a song by Afrika Bambaataa, and is mentioned in Umberto Eco’s book ‘Foucault’s Pendulum’.

No fly Zone over the North Pole:

Initially there was a no fly zone over the North Pole but in Dec 2011, a decision was taken to allow the flights over the North Pole, dubbed Santa’s short cut, is likely to cut flight prices, open up new destinations and reduce emissions.

How plate tectonics diffuse the hollow earth theory?

If the earth were hollow there would not be any reason for earthquakes. Earthquakes occur because the tectonic plates of crust float on a molten core and do one of three things in relation to the other plates...one is move away from each other (occurs in deep open ocean that forms ridges and troughs and makes the crust larger) second is one layer of crust dives under another and the molten crust then forms mountains eventually via volcanic action making the crust smaller) and the third is moving against another plate (forms mountains without volcanoes --Himalayas are an example and also decreases size of crust).