The Hollow Earth

A long mythological tradition holds that supernatural beings dwell beneath our feet, either in caves and caverns or within the earth. Some beliefs say that the spirits of the unsaved dead live in dark

C. Durand Chapman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The most famous scientific proponent of a hollow earth, Edmond Halley (1656–1743), best remembered for the comet that bears his name, argued that there were three smaller ones within the earth’s sphere, all harboring intelligent beings. Hollow earth theories, although dismissed as physically impossible by scientists, continue to fringe in modern times. John Cleeves Symmes (1779–1829) became a notorious figure in early American history as a vigorous publicist for the notion first proposed by Halley of the earth's interior consisting of concentric spheres. According to Symmes, holes four thousand miles wide at each pole could be used to explore the interior.