This Small Mystical Stone Saved Japanese Villagers From Tsunami's Lethal Effects

A relatively small stone--just four feet high--is being credited with saving the lives of those living in a small Japanese town when the tsunami hit. Carved into the stone is a warning: "Do not build your homes below this point!" That's because beyond that point, the homes would be at risk to be hit by a tsunami.

The Daily Mail reports:

The villagers obeyed the ancient warning and the tiny community of just 11 houses and 34 residents were rewarded with survival at a key geographical point.

Aneyoshi, in the mountains of stricken Iwate Prefecture, bears a significant mark of the national natural disaster.

Just 300ft down the hil from where the stone sits is a blue line painted on the road. It marks the point in Japan where the tsunami water reached its hightest point - 127.6 feet.

The previous record height reached by flood waters in Japan was 125.3ft, which was also reached in Iwate Prefecture during a tsunami in 1896.

It is Japan's history of tsunami's that led to these warning stones becoming a familiar sight along the coast of Japan as ancestors tried to warn future generations of the dangers. Some of the stones are 600 years old.

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