Researchers come across mysterious shapes on the sea bottom just
west of Cuba. Patterns suggest an ancient civilization. By DAVID
BALLINGRUD, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times, published
November 17, 2002 Paulina Zelitsky remembers the hot July day
two summers ago and the sudden, unpleasant feeling that she had
stumbled into a place she was not supposed to be. The research
vessel Ulises sailed in the Yucatan Channel just off the west
coast of Cuba that day, hired by the Castro government to look
for undersea oil and gas -- old treasure ships, too, if they
could be found. More than 2,000 feet beneath the surface, in
total blackness, the vessel towed a boombox-sized sonar on an
electronic tether. Pulsing sound waves, the sonar sketched a
picture of the sea bottom on a computer screen aboard Ulises far
above. As Zelitsky and her husband, Paul Weinzweig, watched the
screen, the empty plain of sea bed suddenly gave way to images
of massive geometric shapes, apparently cut from stone. As more
shapes came in