The Hollow Earth Theory was originated by John Symmes in the early 1800s. He believed that there is a lush land miles beneath our feet, Its entrance, located at the North Pole, and some 1400 miles across, was naturally called Symmes Hole.   "Aircraft," he explained, "never fly over the actual pole, because their compasses follow the hole's smooth magnetic rim." He liked to quote Admiral Byrd: "I'd like to see that land beyond the pole. That area is... the Great Unknown." Symmes also believed that animals of the northern latitudes wintered within the earth, emerging in the spring to give birth. If a group of explorers were to follow these animals, they would find that they'd entered into an extraordinary land at the center of the earth.     "The image shown is the Anasazi/ Hopi symbol of Mother Earth and represents what is called the Hopi Emergence Myth. The center of the maze symbolizes the place where the Kachinas emerged from the under- ground to this world. That opening is called the Sipupu, and is also the small hole in the floor of the kiva, the enclosure in which Hopi's conduct some ceremonies."(1) Symmes Hole and the Sipupu:  two manifestations of the World Navel, "the mystery of the maintenance of the world through that continuous miracle of vivification which wells within all things."(2) (1) www.dne.bnl.gov/ciss/homepage.html (2) Campbell, J., The Hero With a Thousand Faces. New York, 1949. p.41   >>>>>>>>