Before modern science, reasoning and logic were the best tools to explain or hypothesize about the Earth.
Humanity sometimes views the world through different lenses based on the knowledge we possess. If a child is born without any knowledge of the Earth and is taught that our planet is flat, they would have no reason to doubt that notion. However, our curiosity drives humanity towards education from an early age, not only about the origins of humankind but also about the planet we inhabit.
Based on historical records from early researchers and explorers of the Earth, humanity has accumulated knowledge that allows us to understand the size, shape, and resources available on our planet.
In the past two centuries — the era of modern exploration — not many have dared to directly explore the still-hidden corners of our blue planet. This is because exploration is not only time-consuming and resource-intensive but also a rather risky endeavor.
We are currently exploring Mars while there are still many locations on Earth yet to be discovered or that have been lost over time. We do not know what lies beneath the ocean floor, and the deepest hole we have dug into the Earth’s crust is only 12.2 km deep. Thus, there are still many mysteries that humanity has yet to unravel.
The Earth still holds many mysteries that humanity has yet to explore.
For many years, people did not really question much about what lies inside the Earth, largely due to facing more significant issues like wars, famine, or pandemics. The wonders proposed by early geologists never captured the public’s attention.
It wasn’t until the late 19th century that this marvel garnered public interest, receiving support not only from the public but also from scientists, politicians, and world leaders.
The Earth is indeed hollow inside and surrounded by more land and water on the surface.
The idea behind this theory is that the Earth is actually hollow inside and is enveloped by more land and water on the surface, with a distinct ecosystem maintained by the Sun, referred to as the core of the Earth. The Earth’s crust, measuring 2,400 km thick, separates what has been described as a distinct civilization from us living outside the crust.
Author of the famous novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” Jules Verne.
The origin of this theory was driven by the famous novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne, published in 1864. Originally published in French, the novel was quickly translated into various languages and distributed worldwide. The book attracted so much attention that by 1867, Jules Verne published another version expanding on the details of the Earth’s core.
The story of the novel represents an expedition team descending into a volcano in Antarctica, aiming for the Earth’s center. After two months, the explorers finally reached the Earth’s core, where they discovered a completely new civilization powered by a miniature Sun — the Earth’s core. This civilization was as advanced as our world in the 19th century, with a significant focus on infrastructure.
This is where the problems began; as the book gained popularity, some people regarded it not merely as a novel but as if it actually proposed new discoveries. This also attracted the attention of various scientists inspired by the novel to genuinely believe this theory could be true.
Many writers began an intermediary campaign to disseminate this “new discovery” to the rest of the world, similar to how social media today spreads misinformation, albeit at a much slower pace.
The first evidence supporting this was published in the late 19th century by a researcher in the field of geography. The book titled “Physical Geography” was written by Arnoldo de Azevedo, who wrote about a mysterious world beneath our feet, arguing that scientists of the time knew nothing about what lay beneath them five miles down.
The author went on to say that scientists merely proposed theories and hypotheses without any solid evidence to establish their reliability.
Due to the lower centrifugal force at the Earth’s poles, holes in the hollow center have formed.
Azevedo also proposed his scientific hypothesis behind this theory. When the Earth was still forming as a planet, much of it was just soft lava, and due to the centrifugal force from the planet rotating on itself, the lava from the center or core of the Earth settled down, thus making the Earth hollow. Due to the lower centrifugal force at the Earth’s poles, holes in the hollow center have formed.
Whether you believe it or not, there is indeed a calculation that supports this theory. The total surface area of our planet is 431.5 million square kilometers, which would create a weight over six times that of the Earth’s actual weight of 5.972 × 10²⁴ kg. This means that the Earth could be hollow (though it could also be a reasonable explanation).
Interestingly, the 19th century was not the first time this theory was mentioned as a feasible scientific theory. This theory was first proposed in 1692 by Edmond Halley, a researcher in astrology and mathematics from Oxford University, who suggested that the Earth is indeed a hollow planet.
If we go even further back in history, we will find mentions of similar theories about a hollow Earth by ancient Greek scholars.
Returning to the 19th century, after Azevedo’s work was published, a large number of scholars supported this theory or very similar variants of it.
In the early 20th century, this theory truly gained the interest of scholars from different fields. A group of Russian scientists discovered that the Magnetic North Pole is not represented by a single point but rather a long line nearly 1,500 km that runs through the polar river all the way to the Taimyr Peninsula from Siberia.
Even German scientists before World War II studied this theory, but unfortunately, all research documents were lost or destroyed in the war.
Since the mid-20th century, there have been smaller authors publishing about this theory, but around the 1970s, as the scientific revolution took place, interest in this theory waned.
