The secret of Bonaire’s giant underwater boulders has finally been broken by long time Bonaire dive instructor/guide and very short time archaeologist Bruce Bowker. For centuries these rocks have perplexed modern divers as to their origin and placement underwater.
The Mystery Rocks
One day while diving the area known as the Rocks and more currently called Mushrooms, Bruce noticed that the three main boulders all seemed to have a definite orientation as if to mark something. With this in mind, he began a long series of exact measurements and precise calculations as to depths, distances apart from each other and compass readings. Some very interesting results came from all this tedious work.
First it was discovered that when the depth to the top of each rock was taken at mean low tide and the three figures added up, then averaged and about 4.5 feet deducted, the number was exactly 13 feet. The same exact number is arrived at by taking the distance between the rocks which totals about 41 feet. If you average 41 feet it too is 13, almost. Bruce started to see a pattern here with the number 13.
As if that is not enough, when the circumference of each rock is taken, 13 can be arrived at again by dividing the circumference by a number that has 13 as the answer! This applies to all three rocks. It even works when all three circumferences are added together. It soon became obvious that since there are three boulders and if one adds the metric base number of 10, you arrive at 13 once again. In a strong current it takes 13 kicks to swim past the three rocks. In a lesser current you simply have to wait a bit longer, but it still can take 13 kicks.
Conspiracy Theory
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the rocks is the compass readings. This applies to all three rocks in exactly the same manner. By using a very sophisticated electronic digital underwater compass, Bruce discovered that each corner of each rock pointed to somewhere on the compass. Bruce was quoted as saying,“I really feel that was the most important discovery of all. That was the one thing that really got me thinking.” By returning to land and using these compass readings, or ones almost the same, Bruce was able to nearly pinpoint exactly where each rock was pointing. Once again, even on land, all three pointed to some place.
Critics have said that the rocks simply fell from the cliff sides right next to the area. Bruce does admit that this is true all up and down the coast but how can one explain the other aspects of these particular rocks. Others have suggested the boulders were carefully strewn in the water by space travelers. Bruce does not think this the case but also does not simply put that theory aside. “Anything is possible when it comes to these rocks. The information that I gathered has proven to me and at least a couple other people that these rocks simply did not fall from the cliffs like all the other rocks.”
Bruce has also done some sampling of the composition of the rocks, but no conclusive evidence was obtained other than they are made of exactly the same thing all the other rocks and cliff sides are made from. Bruce did not feel that this was a very important part in the origins though.
Then why were these rocks placed where they are? Bruce thinks that it is possible that an ancient society did this knowing, in the future, people would spend a lot of time pondering this question. After all proof of this exists all over the world with such things as the pyramids, the Mayan ruins, the World Trade Center etc. If one considers how much time people waste trying to answer Trivial Pursuit questions, then the rocks were probably part of an old joke.
Bruce Bowker