As metaphor the old myths are great stuff for sure. If you put yourself in the times its not hard to see how they came about. You're a goat herder in charge of a group of goat herders. You're old and wise, and probably pretty smart since dumb didn't get you very far in those days. Now the young people are admiring your wisdom and asking you some really impossible questions about some really extraordinary things. Well, all you really know is goats, a flood you saw once, and that time you wandered into Ur with the really strange carvings. So what do you do? You get creative! ...and just like the birth of the Blues something totally original is born! All those archetypes and symbolisms kick in and we have stories to tell around the campfire for hundreds of years. They're important stories because they tell us about ourselves, our cultures and how we came along. Even about how our minds and imaginations work....wonderful stuff really if you want to peek below the surface.

I don't think Matsu Petchu (sp?) was a sea port though. I kinda keep up with that sort of crap and I feel I would have heard something. Any time you're reading about the pyramids and inca ruins it's important to keep your New Age/UFO bullshit filter on. They love that stuff and have no problem inventing myths of their own