Is there evidence of a civilization or atmosphere capable of harboring life deep beneath the Earth’s surface? While a lot of the information we receive from NASA and environmental agencies is probably accurate, there is still much to be discovered about our planet and maybe some things that have been kept secret. And no, this isn’t an article advocating the Flat Earth conspiracy, but what about the Hollow Earth theory? Is it just as crazy or is their evidence that there is a civilization known as Agartha deep inside our planet?


Until the modern era, many were convinced the Earth is a hollow shell with a civilization of earthly ancients residing below the surface. The French novelist Jules Verne, famous for his series of realistic adventure novels the Voyages Extraordinaires, wrote Journey to The Center of the Earthright around the time belief in a subterranean society piqued.

Before Verne, the hollow Earth concept was originally proposed in the 17th century by Edmond Halley, discoverer of the eponymous short-orbit comet that swings through Earth’s orbit every 75 years or so. Halley believed the Earth consisted of several concentric shells separated by individual atmospheres, with the outermost layer having a thickness of about 500 miles. Halley believed natural phenomena like the Aurora Borealis and variance in magnetic fields were products of the different layers, which he posited moved independently of each other.

More than a century later, Halley’s theory was expounded on by John Cleves Symmes, who published a paper detailing his intent to travel to the Earth’s interior. Symmes devoted the rest of his life to garnering support for an expedition, but fell sick during a trip to Quebec to give a lecture on his theory. Though he died before his journey ever came to fruition, it inspired Arctic exploration and the first trip to Antarctica in 1838.


Fast forward another century, between the time of the Great Depression and WWII, as Admiral Richard E. Byrd of the U.S. Navy pioneered further exploration of the poles. Out of his many trips to the arctic territories, one Byrd narrative sticks out more than the rest: his record-setting flight over the North Pole. According to an alleged diary written by Byrd, during his polar flight, he came across a warm, lush climate with Mammoth-like creatures and an ancient human race that had beenresiding within the Earth.

His plane was commandeered mid-air and landed for him by these inner-Earth denizens who intercepted him with saucer-shaped aircraft. Upon landing, he was met by emissaries of a civilization that many assume to be the mythical Agartha. The people of Agartha expressed their concern about humanity’s use of atomic bombs during WWII and employed Byrd as an ambassador to return to the U.S. government to relay their sentiment.




What makes this entry so intriguing is that, if it is real, could it have potentially been misconstrued from a later mission to Antarctica, called Operation Highjump? This particular mission fueled conspiracies regarding government operations in the arctic and the nature of their goals. Highjump was one of the largest operations ever conducted in Antarctica with over 4,000 men sent to study, map, and reside on the continent for up to eight months. The expedition included 13 Navy support ships, including an aircraft carrier, helicopters, flying boats, and an array of more traditional aircraft.

This expedition, as well as the subsequent Operation Deep Freeze eight years later, established an American military presence on Antarctica, which is prohibited today. Why, exactly, was there such a rush to facilitate this occupation?



Other speculation regarding Byrd’s supposed search for Agartha notes a Nazi presence in arctic territory, both north and south. It is well-documented that the Nazis explored arctic regions to set up bases and test novel weaponry, but it is also well-documented that Hitler and the Nazis were obsessed with esotericism and the occult.


Maps believed to be Nazi instructions on how to reach Agartha are supposedly corroborated by a letter from a German U-boat navigator. A letter from Karl Unger claims U-209 made it to Agartha and the Earth is, in fact, hollow. The letter also mentions the notorious German Gens. Karl Haushofer and Rudolf Hess, who he says were right about their hollow-Earth theory.


There is ample evidence the Nazis spent a lot of resources searching for Agartha as a last resort for Hitler to escape to in case of dire emergency, somewhat warranting these conspiracies. In fact, the most common diagram of Agartha was drawn by a German scientist in 1935.

Evidence also exists to indicate the Nazis may have believed we already lived on the inside of the Earth. Some experiments of the Third Reich show a belief the Earth is concave, and we reside on the interior of a sphere. In a bizarre experiment conducted in 1942 by Nazi scientist Heinz Fisher on the island of Rügen, his team attempted to observe a British fleet by pointing the lenses of their infrared equipment up at a 45-degree angle. They believed that, though the Earth was concave, normal rays were refracted off of the ocean, but infrared rays would not. Of course, they saw only the sky, but this shows that they believed and searched for evidence of alternative Earth theories.



Almost every ancient culture has a story or allusion to the inner realms of Earth as well as civilizations or people who resided there. Many of these are places of purgatory where dead spirits reside, rather than a society that currently flourishes. The Greeks spoke of Hades, the Christians refer to it as Hell, and in Judaism it is referred to as Sheol. Most of these underground domains were more allegorical and religious tools used to deter people from sinning rather than realms actively being sought out.

There are, however, closer depictions of Agartha described by some cultures with related cities and passageways to get there. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is the secret, mystical city of Shambhala located somewhere deep in the Himalayas that has been searched for by many, including Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich, though no one is known to have found it. Some believe Shambhala could potentially be connected to or be the capital of Agartha.


In Hindu and Celtic lore, that some believe shared an ancient connection with a lost antediluvian city, there are caves and underground entrances to sub-terrestrial worlds. Some have connected the Hindu land of Āryāvarta, or “abode of the excellent ones,” a land ruled by a supernal race, thousands of years ago before the great war laid out in the Mahabharata. Many believe this ancient race to be of the same lineage as the ancient civilizations from Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu who were wiped out by war and cataclysmic events, driving them underground to start a civilization that may be Agartha.

There is another underworld in the Hindu Mahabharata known as Patala that some point to, as it shares many similarities with other depictions of subterranean worlds, though it is said they are at war with the Agarthans. Patala is the seventh layer of the underworld in Hindu scriptures and is ruled by the nagas, a half-human, half-reptilian species who are depicted with jeweled hoods that light their realm. The Naga are a highly advanced race with cutting-edge technology. Occasionally they are said to abduct, torture and kill humans, though other accounts refer to them as having a positive impact on earthly events.




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