Ancient and mysterious
The highlight of Pohnpei is the ancient archeological site of Nan Madol. It is a mysterious place – the aura surrounds the site is almost palpable.
Nan Madol is a man-made complex of small islands off the eastern Pohnpei coast. It was built hundreds of years ago from basalt “logs”, and although these are found on volcanically created islands such as Pohnpei, there remains quite some mystery around the specifics of how they came to be brought there, and how it was all put together. They were inhabited by an ancient society, including the Pohnpeian kings, who ruled from the now sole remaining intact island in the complex, the grand Nan Douwas.
I was taken to Nan Madol in a dinghy with an outboard motor, racing across the waters of the lagoon. We approached from the sea, then up the canals between the islands in the complex, becoming overgrown with mangroves. Indiana Jones came to mind.
It is amazing that such a significant and awesome place can exist and not be frequented more often. Its remoteness gave it a special quality that doesn’t exist at other similar sites – there were no queues, no ticket gates, no commercialisation. On my visit, there were almost no people there at all.