"Nine meters (30 feet) beneath the waves, they found it: a vast, man-made stone wall, averaging 20 meters (66 feet) wide and two meters (6.6 feet) tall. The structure consists of some 60 massive granite monoliths, set directly onto the bedrock in pairs at regular intervals. Smaller slabs and packing stones fill in the gaps, locking the whole into a single, deliberate construction. With an estimated total mass of around 3,300 tons, this is the largest underwater structure ever discovered in France."
"TAF1 is not just massive; it's ancient as well. By reconstructing ancient shorelines, researchers dated the wall to between 5,800 and 5,300 B.C. That's centuries older than Stonehenge, and millennia older than the pyramids of Giza. At the time, sea levels were lower than today's, but rising rapidly as the last Ice Age loosened its grip. That environmental pressure may explain why the wall was built."
LIDAR mapping off Finistère revealed a ruler-straight, 120-meter submerged line crossing an underwater valley. Divers found a man-made granite wall nine meters below sea level, averaging 20 meters wide and two meters tall, composed of about 60 paired monoliths with smaller slabs and packing stones and totaling roughly 3,300 tons. Reconstruction of ancient shorelines dates the structure to 5,800–5,300 B.C., substantially predating many known monuments. Sea levels were lower then but rising rapidly after the last Ice Age, so the wall, named TAF1 for Toul ar Fot, may have functioned as a defensive dyke to shield shoreline settlements.
Read at Big Think
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