The deepest parts of the oceans are still almost completely untouched by human exploration, but it is not so easy for most of us to do that sort of exploring. You either have to have a whole lot of money or the ability to hold your breath for a really long time to do any serious undersea exploration.

Part of the hollow Earth mystique is that many ancient civilizations have similar creation legends that involve mankind birthing from the subterranean realm. Some of these myths even seem to suggest that people first came to the surface world via a great opening located somewhere in the northern polar regions.

The Inuit people have legends that tell of a beautiful land far to the north, a land of perpetual light, where there is no darkness or a bright sun. This wonderful land has a mild climate where large lakes never freeze, where tropical animals roam in herds, and where birds of many colors cloud the sky, a land of perpetual youth, where people live for thousands of years in peace and happiness. They believe that after death the soul descends beneath the earth, first to an abode rather like purgatory, but good souls then descend further to a place of perfect bliss where the sun never sets.

A Welshman, Walter Mapes, in the latter part of the twelfth century, in his collection of anecdotes, tells of a prehistoric king of Briton called Herla, who met with the Skraelings or Inuits, who took him beneath the Earth. Many early legends tell of people going under the Earth into a strange realm, staying there for a long period of time and later returning. The ancient Irish had a legend of a land far to the North where the sun always shone and it was always summer weather. They even thought that some of their heroes had gone there and returned, after which they were never satisfied with their own country.

The Japanese paradise was situated "on the top of the globe" and at the same time "at the center of the Earth." It was called the "island of the congealed drop." Its first roof-pillar was the Earth's axis, and over it was the pivot of the vault of heaven.

As well, the Chinese terrestrial paradise, round in form, is described not only as at the center of the Earth, but also as directly under Shang-te's heavenly palace, which is declared to be in the polestar, and is sometimes called the "palace of the center."

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