Is a prison for fallen angels hidden beneath Antarctica? Why the Book of Enoch theory is going viral

A centuries old religious text, left out of the Bible used by most Christians, has found a fresh audience online after social media users began claiming it describes a prison for fallen angels buried beneath Antarctica.

The book at the centre of the theory is the Book of Enoch, an ancient work traditionally linked to Enoch, the great grandfather of Noah. It describes fallen angels, giants and the origins of demons, but never made it into the biblical canon followed by most Christian traditions.

Now, parts of the text are being pulled into a modern conspiracy theory. Supporters say its references to sealed chambers, frozen storehouses, imprisoned heavenly beings and the “end of heaven and earth” are not symbolic at all, but a coded description of East Antarctica.

Why are people linking the Book of Enoch to Antarctica?

The theory leans heavily on passages that describe the Watchers, 200 angels who are said to have abandoned their duties, taken human wives and fathered the Nephilim, giant beings blamed in the text for violence and corruption. God is then said to have ordered the Watchers chained and locked away in a fiery abyss until judgment day.

That is where the Antarctica theory begins. Online believers argue that the text’s references to the “ends of the earth” point to the southernmost edge of the planet. They also point to the continent’s vast ice sheet, subglacial lakes such as Lake Vostok and the buried Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, which lie hidden under miles of ice.

Mysterious radio signals from Antarctica lend weight to theory

Another reason the theory has spread online is its attempt to connect the Book of Enoch with unexplained signals detected by NASA's Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment.

ANITA recorded unusual radio events in 2006 and 2014 that appeared to originate from beneath the Antarctic ice. While the signals remain the subject of scientific investigation, researchers have proposed explanations ranging from unusual cosmic ray interactions to unknown physical processes.

What do biblical scholars say?

Most biblical scholars reject the Antarctica interpretation.

They argue that the Book of Enoch uses symbolic language to describe a supernatural realm rather than a physical place on Earth. References to the "ends of the earth", fiery prisons and cosmic mountains are widely understood as apocalyptic imagery common in ancient Jewish literature, not geographical directions.

Likewise, the book never mentions Antarctica by name, nor does it provide any identifiable location that can be matched to the continent.