Diver shares incredible reality of hollow island completely blacked out on Google Maps
Those who suffer from a fear of deep water may want to avert their eyes now...
That's because Google Maps users have discovered a mysterious island, which looks to be completely hollow. Take a look at what's really going on there:
The outside of the island seems to show the lighter sea, and even some waves crashing against what are presumably lovely beaches around the outside.
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However, the centre of the island looks like it has been manually blacked out, and we know for a fact that Google Maps do sometimes black places out that they don't have access to, or people don't want them to know what's going on there, or just don't like being on Google Maps.
Those who discovered the eerie island were initially unaware of it's exact location - with the land appearing to technically be an atoll.
This led many viewers to joke that they've finally found the remote spot from the former E4 drama series, Lost.
But in November 2021, after months of speculation, it was announced by social media users that the mystery hot spot is actually an uninhabited island called Vostok Island, belonging to the Republic of Kiribati, a country located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
A YouTube video, published by nature journalists at National Geographic over 14 years ago, was later unearthed by eager spectators to the mysterious island.
In the clip, first posted on the video-sharing social media site back in April 2009, diver Enric Sala claims he has just enjoyed one of the best dives of his life, exploring the wildlife of Vostok's rich coral reefs.
"Well, we just came back from a dive on Vostok Island," the diver told viewers on the popular video. "I just did the very best dive of my life."
Eric went on: "There were [indistinct] sharks around us, schools of jags, barracuda and surgeon fish, everything!
"Incredible! Really unbelievable. This is the most pristine place we have dived so far. We have found it, this is it. Vostok Island.
"I cannot wait for tomorrow to get back in the water."
The island remains to appear blacked out on Google Maps however, despite its identity having been confirmed.
This led to several initial conspiracy theories, including that it’s a 'censored' destination.
“My first thought was that it’s censored," one Reddit user wrote last year. "It wouldn’t make sense for a natural formation to be black like that in such a shallow, small atoll/island."
Another social media user suggested: "What you see as black is actually very dark green, it’s a very dense forest made up of Pisonia trees".
A third - as we teased earlier - said: "Ladies and gentlemen, they have found the Island in Lost."
Topics: World News, Travel, Weird
Rhianna Benson