TL;DR: Investigation: Hollow Earth — Sources, Maps, Books, and Atlantis: This investigation catalogues sources of Hollow Earth theory, origins of maps, books (especially pre-1940 non-fiction for deep study), controlled opposition (e.g.
Date: 2026-03-16
Status: Ongoing
This investigation catalogues sources of Hollow Earth theory, origins of maps, books (especially pre-1940 non-fiction for deep study), controlled opposition (e.g. reframing as science fiction/fantasy), scientific and literary references to concentric circles/shells, inner sun, north/south entrances, and Atlantis (including the open question: Atlantis on Earth at the North Pole vs. Mars, and whether ruins lie inside Earth or Mars).
Related in-repo: A.md (Halley, Lamprecht seismology), history/chronology, cosmos/mars (Mars = Atlantis, hollow planets), governance/war/investigations/vril-society (Nazi hollow earth, Agartha, maps).
Many serious works argued for a hollow Earth with detailed physical, magnetic, and polar geography. They were non-fiction or theoretical; the reframing of hollow earth as primarily science fiction or fantasy intensified in the 20th century (see Part Five: Controlled Opposition).
Proponent works (theory, not novels):
| Author | Title | Date | Notes / Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edmund Halley | Papers to Royal Society (hollow earth) | 1681/1692 | Primary source; Royal Society. |
| Thomas J. Matthews | A Lecture on Symmes' Theory of Concentric Spheres | 1824 | Cincinnati. LOC Rare. |
| James McBride | Symmes's Theory of Concentric Spheres; demonstrating that the earth is hollow, habitable within, and widely open about the poles | 1826 | 168 pp. Cincinnati. HathiTrust mdp.39015078575746. |
| Alexander Mitchell | A treatise on natural philosophy, in vindication of Symmes's theory of the earth being a hollow sphere | 1826 | Eaton, Ohio. LOC Rare. |
| Jeremiah N. Reynolds | Remarks on a review of Symmes' theory… | 1827 | Internet Archive archive.org. |
| Americus Symmes (comp.) | The Symmes theory of concentric spheres… (from Capt. John Cleves Symmes) | 1878/1885 | HathiTrust mdp.39015078575480. |
| M. L. Sherman / Wm. F. Lyon | The hollow globe; or, The world's agitator and reconciler | 1871 | 447 pp. HathiTrust (1871, 1875 eds.). |
| Frederick Culmer | The inner world. A new theory… the earth is a hollow sphere containing an internal habitable and inhabited region | 1886 | 18 p. Salt Lake City. HathiTrust hvd.32044018812198. |
| Cyrus Teed (Koresh) / U. G. Morrow | The cellular cosmogony; or, The earth a concave sphere | 1898 | Inverted earth. HathiTrust (1905 ed. hvd.hxuw1j). |
| William Reed | The phantom of the poles | 1906 | “The earth is hollow. The poles so long sought are but phantoms.” HathiTrust . |
Fiction that may reframe or absorb the theory (see Controlled Opposition):
Library of Congress guide: Hollow Earth Theories: A List of References — books, theory-books, secondary sources. HathiTrust and Internet Archive links above are from LOC guide or standard repositories; create free accounts where required.
Anna's Archive: For downloading Hollow Earth books from Anna's Archive (search, download, unzip, scan, create MD index), see docs/ANNAS_ARCHIVE_HOLLOW_EARTH. Script: cosmos/cosmology/hollow_earth/scripts/index-downloaded-books.sh.
A systematic search of hollow-earth primary texts (Culmer 1886, McBride/Symmes 1826/1878, Bernard 1964, Reed 1906, Lang 1938) for references to life inside the earth yields the following. Full line-level references and per-author tables are in the wget investigation: paradigm-threat-timeline repo → wget/hollow_earth/investigation-hollow-earth-life.md.
Attributes of life (as stated in the texts):
| Kind | Sources | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Human | Culmer, McBride/Symmes, Bernard, Lang | Culmer: "internal habitable and inhabited region"; "ancient race of humans" with habitations and shipping; "man and beast." McBride/Symmes: "inhabitants," "animate beings," "human beings" further north, "population" (denser in parts). Bernard (Byrd narrative): "vast population of millions of inhabitants," "advanced civilization"; "home of … human life." Lang: we live on the inner (concave) surface. |
| Animal | Culmer, McBride/Symmes, Bernard | Culmer: "animal and vegetable creation," "herds of animals," beasts. McBride/Symmes: "organic life," "animals" migrating north. Bernard: "animal life," "vegetation, forests," "mammoth"-like or "monstrous animal" in interior. |
| Vegetable | Culmer, Bernard | Culmer: "vegetation luxuriantly abound," "fruits and flowers"; "requirements of the animal and vegetable creation." Bernard: "green vegetation," forests, "plant, animal and human life," "tropical climate." |
| Environment | Culmer, Bernard, McBride/Symmes | Culmer: "rivers run and oceans roll," atmosphere, light/heat via polar orifices (~1000 miles), basin warmed by refracted sun; "within and without the globe." Bernard: hollow interior with lakes, mountains, trees, rivers; 1,700 mi beyond North Pole, 2,300 mi beyond South Pole. McBride/Symmes: "habitable … upon" concave as well as convex surface; polar openings. |
Locations given for life: inner world; internal habitable/inhabited region; interior of the earth; hollow interior; concave surface (inner surface of shell); polar orifices/openings; inside polar openings; beyond the pole (Byrd: 1,700 mi N, 2,300 mi S); basin inside orifice; rivers and oceans within the globe; "those regions" / northern approach. Note: Pre-1940 authors do not mention Nazis, Agartha-by-name, or "breakaway civilization"; "advanced civilization" appears in Bernard (1964), drawing on Byrd narrative.
| Source | Number of shells / spheres | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Halley (1692) | 2 concentric shells + innermost core (3 layers total); some secondary sources say “4 concentric spheres” | A.md: two shells, innermost core, inner sun. Atmospheres between; each shell own magnetic poles, rotation. |
| Euler | 1 shell, central sun | Single hollow shell, small central sun. |
| Symmes (1818) | 5 concentric spheres | Nested like onion; habitable between; polar openings. |
| Lamprecht (A.md) | Solid-earth model: Inner Core, Outer Core, Mantle (3); his hollow model: cavity, no Outer/Inner core | Seismology; density decrease around cavity; waves curve around. |
| Jan Lamprecht | “Concentric orbits” analogy — many circles used until orbits found elliptical; compares to hollow vs. solid earth model | A.md: “many concentric orbits… until it was discovered that orbits were really elliptical.” |
Correlation: Halley and Symmes both use concentric structure; Halley 2 shells + core (or 4 spheres in some readings), Symmes 5 spheres. So “how many circles” varies by author (1, 3, 4, 5). No single canonical number; tracking by source is essential. Open: Systematic survey of every pre-1940 text for exact counts and diagrams.
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Halley (1692) | Innermost core with an inner sun; luminous gases from inner atmosphere possibly causing Aurora Borealis. |
| Euler | Small central sun ~1,000 km across; light and warmth for inner civilisation. |
| Gardner / later proponents | Central incandescent sun at Earth’s centre (from molten formation); supports plant growth; sometimes named Pluto or Proserpine. |
| A.md | Halley: “two concentric shells and an innermost core with an inner sun.” |
| cosmos/mars | “Hollow Earth Theory… hollow shell with a central sun and openings at both poles”; “all planets and Suns are hollow.” |
| Raymond Bernard | Byrd narrative: inner world with light/warmth (inner sun implied). |
Conclusion: Inner sun is a recurring feature across scientific (Halley, Euler) and popular hollow-earth literature; names and sizes vary. Correlation with “concentric circles” is that the innermost region is often the luminous core (inner sun).
| Source | North / South |
|---|---|
| Symmes (1818) | Large circular openings at North and South Poles (~2,300–4,000 km or miles across); “widely open about the poles.” |
| William Reed | The Phantom of the Poles — poles as “phantoms”; entrances at poles. |
| Marshall Gardner | Polar entrances; argued poles “not really discovered.” |
| Byrd narrative (Bernard) | Admiral Byrd: North Pole 1947 flight; alleged diary: entered interior, 1700 miles over mountains/lakes/vegetation, advanced civilisation; North and South Poles among many openings. |
| General hollow-earth model | “Polar holes” model: openings ~3,000 km at both poles; primary entry points to interior. |
| Berann map | Antarctic (South) topography reinterpreted as entrance; North less often drawn. |
| Vril / Agartha | Entrances in Himalayas, under pyramids, etc.; poles also cited. |
Conclusion: North and south entrances are standard in Symmes-derived and Gardner/Reed/Byrd-era literature. Both poles are consistently mentioned; some add other entrances (Himalayas, pyramids).
The following are open theories — not asserted as fact, but proposed as lenses for interpreting the hollow-earth literature and the motives for its suppression.
Breakaway civilisation. The so-called "advanced" civilisation in Hollow Earth is not a separate species or lost root race, but another breakaway civilisation from a once unified earth. The same human (or human-related) culture that was suppressed, reset, or overwritten on the surface survived and continued inside.
Tartarian / Atlantian technology. The technology described or implied (advanced civilisation, habitations, shipping, tropical habitability) is advanced Tartarian/Atlantian technology that used to exist everywhere on Earth. It was simply never suppressed there (in the interior). The hollow interior thus preserves a technological and architectural baseline that was deliberately removed or hidden on the surface.
Ungovernable space. The hollow earth is very difficult to manage from the perspective of any central authority. There are an infinite (or effectively unbounded) number of hiding locations. Control and surveillance of the interior cannot be totalised in the way the surface has been; this makes the interior both a refuge and a threat to any regime that depends on controlling narrative and technology.
Why pre-WW2 authors say nothing about Nazis. No pre-1940 hollow-earth authors mention Nazis or Nazi expeditions (e.g. to Antarctica, Agartha) because they hadn't arrived yet — the literature predates or is contemporary with the build-up to WW2. Later narratives (Nazi hollow earth, U-209, Berann reinterpretation) add the Nazi layer; the core hollow-earth thesis (polar openings, inner life, concentric shells) does not depend on it.
Containment and suppression: population and knowledge. The need to contain and suppress the hollow earth has less to do with the interior per se and more to do with controlling the surface population and all technological knowledge. If the public knew that (a) the interior is habitable and inhabited, and (b) advanced technology persisted there, the legitimacy of surface institutions (scientific, historical, political) would be undermined. Suppression is therefore about maintaining the surface narrative and monopolising or destroying evidence of the prior unified/Tartarian/Atlantian world.
Deep State and polar access. Contact between planes (surface and interior) is deliberately suppressed by the Deep State (or equivalent power structure). Venture to the poles is off limits — not only because of "ice" or "weather," but because discovery of entrances and contact with inner-world populations would break the control of information and technology. Polar expeditions (Byrd and others) are either censored, reframed, or classified so that no authorised narrative confirms hollow earth or inner-world civilisation.
Use: These open theories can guide further investigation — e.g. searching for evidence of suppression of polar exploration, correlation between "Tartarian" or "Atlantis" claims and hollow-earth life descriptions, and the timing of when "Nazi hollow earth" enters the literature versus the older Symmes/Gardner/Reed/Culmer tradition.
| Marshall B. Gardner | A journey to the earth's interior; or, Have the poles really been discovered? | 1913 | 69 p. Aurora, Ill. HathiTrust nyp.33433057727954. |
| Marshall B. Gardner | A journey to the earth's interior… (rev. and enl.) | 1920 | 456 pp. HathiTrust hvd.hw2jvr. |
| Karl Neupert | Welt-wendung! Inversion of the universe | 1924 | German. WorldCat. |
| Karl Neupert | Die neue aera: das kosmozentrische welt-system | 1933 | Zürich. LOC. |
| Johannes Lang | Die welt eine hohlkugel! | 1936 | German. WorldCat. |
| Johannes Lang | Die Hohlwelttheorie (2. Aufl.) | 1938 | 281 p. Internet Archive archive.org/details/LangJohannesDieHohlwelttheorie1938293S.ScanText. |
| Johannes Lang | Einführung in die Hohlwelttheorie | 1939 | 38 p. WorldCat. |
| Raymond W. Bernard | The hollow earth… made by Admiral Richard E. Byrd… | 1964 | Byrd narrative, flying saucers. LOC; later eds. 1969, 1979. |
| Raymond W. Bernard | Flying saucers from the Earth's interior | 1960s | Health Research. LOC. |
First contact is far more common than we imagine. If the earth is hollow and inhabited, then “first contact” scenarios (surface humans stumbling into the interior, or encountering inner-world life in caves, polar approaches, or other thresholds) cannot be rare — they are likely far more common than official history or media suggest. Most would be suppressed, discredited, or reframed (accident, rescue, ritual, psychosis). High-profile “rescues” or disappearances in deep caves or polar regions may often be contact-and-containment events rather than simple emergencies.
Control by punishing returnees; HE seals the openings. One of the most obvious systems of control on the surface would be to punish anyone who ventures into the hollow earth and returns (or can be brought back) — whether by discrediting them, silencing them, hospitalising them, or worse. That would (a) deter others from trying, and (b) over time convince the hollow-earth inhabitants themselves to secure the openings and restrict access from the surface. From the inner-world perspective: wandering surface humans who get back would be harmed by their own side; the surface would appear to be in a 500–600 year state of constant warfare; the rational response would be to close the doors and avoid drawing the curious into a zone where they are punished or disappeared. So both sides have an incentive to minimise contact — surface powers to protect the narrative and monopoly on knowledge, inner-world inhabitants to protect the curious and to isolate from what they could only imagine as endless surface violence.