Atlantis

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This article is about a mythical island. For other uses, see Atlantis (disambiguation).

Atlantis was a legendary ancient island, whose existence and location have never been confirmed. The first mentions we have are from the classical Greek philosopher Plato, who said that it was destroyed by possibly an earthquake or tsunami about 9,000 years before his own time. Plato did mention it was somewhere outside the Pillars of Hercules (i.e. the Straits of Gibraltar), though some think its location would have been more suitable in one of the cradles of civilization, the Mediterranean Sea.

Contents [hide] 1 Atlantis Time Line 2 Accounts 2.1 Plato 2.2 Aristotle 2.3 Other Greek accounts 2.4 Byzantine accounts 3 Modern interest 4 Location hypotheses 4.1 Eastern hemisphere 4.1.1 Mediterranean 4.1.1.1 Sardinia 4.1.1.2 Crete and Santorini 4.1.1.3 Off the east coast of Cyprus 4.1.1.4 Malta 4.1.1.5 Near Cape Spartel 4.1.1.6 Troy 4.1.1.7 Tantalis 4.1.1.8 Andalucia 4.1.1.9 Ponza 4.1.2 Black Sea 4.1.3 Antarctica 4.1.4 Finland 4.1.5 Ireland 4.1.6 Indonesia 4.1.7 India and Sri Lanka 4.2 Western hemisphere 4.2.1 Mid-Atlantic 4.2.2 Azores Islands 4.2.3 Bahama Bank and Caribbean 4.2.4 Isla de la Juventud near Cuba 4.3 Other locations 4.3.1 Cyprus 4.3.1.1 Updated 5 In fiction 6 In music 7 See also 8 Further reading 9 External links and other references 9.1 Accounts 9.2 Location theories

Atlantis Time Line

• 560 BC: according to Plato, a famous Greek statesman, Solon, visits Egypt and hears from the priests at Sais, then the capital of Egypt, the story of an ancient civilization that was destroyed 9000 years earlier.
• 360 BC: Plato first writes Solon’s story and calls the civilization “Atlantis.”
• 300 BC-100 AD: various classical Mediterranean authors such as Crantor, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny the Elder and Plutarch mention Atlantis. Belief in the lost continent is divided.
• 1513: Admiral Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed, a Turkish admiral, makes the world's oldest map of the Americas. It becomes known as the Piri Reis Map (reis is Turkish for Admiral.) In it he draws out the Americas, Greenland, and a southern landmass where we know Antarctica to be. Piri, who knew many foreign langauges, including Greek, credited much of the map to earlier sources. The Piri Reis Map has been the center of much speculation as to the possibilities of Antarctica and the lost continent of Atlantis being one and the same, especially when one considers that the continents are not in the same positions they were in ten thousand years ago. See Plate Tectonics.
• 1553: A Spaniard, Francesco Lopez de Gomara, makes the suggestion that Atlantis was in America. However, in many ways America does not match the description given by Plato.
• 1860: Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, a French scholar, travels through Middle America for many years. He feels that Mayan glyphs document the volcanic destruction of Atlantis. These Mayan glyphs do in fact document great destruction caused by volcanoes and earthquakes, but we cannot be sure that this represents the destruction of Atlantis.
• 1879: A famous Mayan archeologist, Edward Herbert Thompson, defends the idea that the Maya were descendants of an Atlantean race.
• 1880s-1890s: Augustus Le Plongeon publishes Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayans and Quiches (1886) and Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx (1896) after ten years of study in the Yucatan with his wife. He claims that Egyptian civilization, as well as all other civilizations, came from the Mayan. He states that Queen Moo was originally from Atlantis (which Le Plongeon calls Mu and situates in the Atlantic Ocean), but when Queen Moo seeks refuge there, she finds it gone, and goes on to Egypt were she was known as Isis and founded the Egyptian civilization. Le Plongeon’s work is interesting, in that there are a great many similarities between the Maya and the Egyptians.
• 1883: Ignatius Donnelly, a former member of the US Congress writes Atlantis: the Antediluvian World, a popular book that went through fifty editions and is still in print after 100 years. He states that Atlantis was the source of all cultures of the world, an idea which could now be supported by modern research into the source language known as Proto-Indo-European.
• 1880s: Madame Blavatsky describes Atlantis in her occult history of the world. She states that the Atlanteans were physiologically different than modern man, and that other races of men preceded them.
• 1908: Rudolf Steiner writes his own version of Atlantis.
• 1909: In an anonymous letter to the London Times, classical scholar K. T. Frost points out similarities between the Mediterranean culture of Crete (also known as Minoan after King Minos who lived on Crete) and Plato’s “Atlantis.” Although there are similarities, Plato’s description of Atlantis does not match well that of ancient Crete.
• 1930s: Edgar Cayce becomes famous in the US for going into a trance and then prescribing remedies for ill people. During these trance states he sometimes describes patients' past lives in Atlantis. He predicts that records of Atlantis will someday be found, in several locations. He also predicts that portions of Atlantis will rise again from the ocean.
• 1931: author James Churchward writes, The Lost Continent of Mu. He claims to have seen sacred tablets in India, which describe the creation of the world and a lost continent, which he calls Mu. He places Mu in the Pacific.
• 1939: A Greek archeologist, Spyridon Marinatos, suggests that the destruction of the island of Thera in 1500 BC, and the resulting tsunami, was what caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization. In 1950, he suggests the Atlantis myth derives from this event. His paper is not published in English until 1969. Many modern scientists accept Thera as a possible Atlantis; however, Plato’s description is not a good match with Thera.
• 1954: L. Sprague de Camp first publishes Lost Continents, a Dover classic. However, de Camp is probably better known for his science fiction writing about “Conan: the Barbarian.” De Camp is a firm skeptic when it comes to Atlantis. He flatly states that Plato made up the story. Interestingly, he also says that Wagner’s Continental Drift Theory is “very doubtful.” (A 1970 edition, however, corrected this statement.)
• 1973: Geologist Dorothy Vitaliano writes Legends of the Earth and includes a chapter on Atlantis. She believes that there is nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean that Atlantis could have existed.
• 1974: James Bramwell writes Lost Atlantis, perhaps one of the most rational and balanced accounts of the controversy ever published. Though parts of it are dated, his book often amazes one with its insight and depth.
• 1975: Indiana University hosts a panel discussion “Atlantis: Fact or Fiction,” including several notable scholars. While most of them dismiss the Atlantis story as pure fiction, John V. Luce (Associate Professor of Classics, Dublin University) presents the view that Plato’s Atlantis story is part fiction, part fact, and based on ancient legends.
• 1960s-1970s: seismologist A. G. Galanopoulos, another Greek, also tries to link “Atlantis” to the volcano on the island of Thera. He claims that an error in translation of Plato’s text multiplied all numbers by 10, and that is why Thera is ten times smaller than Plato described. Scholars (Vitaliano, Luce) have very effectively refuted this “ten error.” Also, there are many other mismatches between Thera and Atlantis (see Vitaliano).
• 1995: Bill Lauritzen states on a newsgroup his hypothesis that South East Asia was probably the location that generated the Atlantis story.
• 1997: Bill Lauritzen travels to the Sunda Plain of South East Asia to investigate firsthand his theory.
• 1998: Independently of Lauritzen, Arysio Nunes dos Santos of Brazil, posts an article on his web site stating that the Sunda Plain was Atlantis.
• 1998: Steven Oppenheimer finishes "Eden in the East", a massive work that presents evidence from oceanography, archeology, linguistics, genetics and folklore that civilization did not begin in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, but on the (now mostly sunken) Sunda Plain, which is sometimes called Sundaland.
• 1999: Independently of Oppenheimer or dos Santos, Bill Lauritzen posts his article on Atlantis on wwww.earth360.com. He states that Atlantis may have been on the Sunda Plain, and that the story may have been inspired by the Austronesian expansion.
• 2002: Shirley Andrews publishes "Atlantis: Insights From a Lost Civilization", a book that compiles all theories and ideas known about Atlantis to date. Her research is impressive, as she seeks to verify the theories of others before her. She examines languages, blood types, and ruined architecture. She also points out that Plato is far from the only ancient source of information on Atlantis, describing legends from the Hopi, the Apache, the Cherokee, the Algonquin, the Sioux, the Basques, the Gaunches, the Welsh & Irish, cultures of Western Africa, and others. For example, the Aztecs describe their original homeland of Atl as a great island that sank into the ocean.

Accounts

According to historical accounts, the story of Atlantis was about the conflict between the ancient Athenians and the Atlanteans around 9,000 years before Plato's existence.

The origins of the story of Atlantis date back to Egyptian priests who transfered it to Solon. Soon Solon passed the tale to Dropides, who was the great-grandfather of Critias. And Critias learned of it from his grandfather also named Critias, son of Dropides.

Plato

Main article: Critias (Plato)

Plato's Timaeus (21e - 25d) and his Critias are the only written accounts of Atlantis; in these Plato gives some information on the size and location of the island of Atlantis. Atlantis might be a work of fiction, yet an extended parable intended to illustrate Plato's philosophy of the ideal government. Plato's account purports to be based on a visit to Egypt by the Athenian lawgiver Solon, itself quite possibly a legendary event. Sonchis, priest of Thebes, is purported to have translated it into Greek for Solon.

According to Plato's story, over nine thousand years ago a war between those outside the pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them took place . Those on the outside were supposed to inhabit an island greater in extent than Libya and the then known Asia. This supposedly was sunk by an earthquake. The land became an impassable barrier to voyagers sailing to any part of the ocean. There was a plain which is said to have been very fertile. Near the plain, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high on any side. There at the inner hill the land was enclosed all round by alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water. The whole island and the ocean were called "Atlantic". The island was facing the country called the region of Gades (Greek, Eumelus; Atlantean, Gadeirus).

Aristotle

Aristotle wrote of a large island in the Atlantic Ocean that the Carthaginians knew as Antilia. Proclus, the commentator of "Timaeus" mentions that Marcellus, relying on ancient historians, stated in his Aethiopiaka that in the Outer Ocean (which meant all oceans, not just the Atlantic) there were seven small islands dedicated to Persephone, and three large ones; one of these, comprising 1,000 stadia in length, was dedicated to Poseidon. Proclus tells us that Crantor reported that he, too, had seen the columns on which the story of Atlantis was preserved as reported by Plato: the Saite priest showed him its history in hieroglyphic characters. Some other writers called it Poseidonis after Poseidon. Plutarch mentions Saturnia or Ogygia about five days' sail to the west of what is called nowadays Britain. He added that westwards from that island, there were the three islands of Cronus, to where proud and warlike men used to come from the continent beyond the islands, in order to offer sacrifice to the gods of the ocean.

Other Greek accounts

An important Greek festival of Pallas Athene, the Panathenaea was dated from the days of king Theseus. It consisted of a solemn procession to the Acropolis in which a peplos was carried to the goddess, for she had once saved the city, gaining victory over the nation of Poseidon, that is, the Atlanteans. As Lewis Spence comments, this cult was in existence already 125 years before Plato, which means that the story could not be invented by him. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that the intelligentsia of Alexandria considered the destruction of Atlantis a historical fact and described a class of earthquakes that suddenly, by a violent motion, opened up huge mouths and so swallowed up portions of the earth, as once in the Atlantic Ocean a large island was swallowed up. Diodorus Siculus recorded that the Atlanteans did not know the fruits of Ceres. In fact, Old World cereals were unknown to American Indians. Pausanias called this island "Satyrides," referring to the Atlantes and those who profess to know the measurements of the earth. He states that far west of the Ocean there lies a group of islands whose inhabitants are red-skinned and whose hair is like that of the horse. (Christopher Columbus described the Indians similarly.) A fragmentary work of Theophrastus of Lesbos tells about the colonies of Atlantis in the sea. Hesiod wrote that the garden of the Hesperides was on an island in the sea where the sun sets. Pliny the Elder recorded that this land was 12,000 km distant from Cádiz, and Uba, a Numidian talks of an enormous island outside the Pillars of Hercules. He describes it as having a climate that is very mild; fruits and vegetables grow ripe throughout the year. There are huge mountains covered with large forests, and wide, irrigable plains with navigable rivers. Scylax of Caryanda gives similar account.

Marcellus claims that the survivors of the sinking Atlantis migrated to Western Europe. Timagenes tells almost the same, citing the Druids of Gaul as his sources. He tries to classify the Gallic tribes according to their origins and tells of one of these claiming that they were colonists who came there from a remote island. Theopompus of Chios, a Greek historian called this land beyond the ocean as "Meropis". The dialogue between King Midas and the wise Silenus mentions the Meropids, the first men with huge cities of gold and silver. Silenus knows that besides the well-known portions of the world there is another, unknown, of incredible immensity, where immeasurably vast blooming meadows and pastures feed herds of various, huge and mighty beasts. Claudius Aelianus cites Theopompus, knowing of the existence of the huge island out in the Atlantic as a continuing tradition among the Phoenicians or Carthaginians of Cádiz. Perhaps the Byzantine friar Cosmas Indicopleustes understood Plato better than the ancient and modern "Aristotelians", says Merezhkovsky. In his Topographia Christiana he included a chart of the (flat) world: it showed an inner continent, a compact mainland surrounded by sea, and this was surrounded by an outer ring-shaped continent, with the inscription, "The earth beyond the Ocean, where men lived before the Flood." The Garden of Eden is placed in the eastern end of this continent.

Byzantine accounts

In the mid-6th century, the Byzantine writer Jordanes, who was no navigator himself, simply repeated common folklore of the eastern end of the Mediterranean when he said

"This same Ocean has in its western region certain islands known to almost everyone by reason of the great number of those that journey to and from. And there are two not far from the neighborhood of the Strait of Gades, one the Blessed Isle and another called the Fortunate. Although some reckon as islands of Ocean the twin promontories of Galicia and Lusitania, where are still to be seen the Temple of Hercules on one and Scipio's Monument on the other, yet since they are joined to the extremity of the Galician country, they belong rather to the great land of Europe than to the islands of Ocean." —Jordanes, Getica, chapter 1:4.

Modern interest

With rare exceptions, such as Francis Bacon's book The New Atlantis, interest in Atlantis then languished, until, some 2,200 years after Plato, the 1882 publication of Atlantis: the Antediluvian World by Minnesota politician and sometime crankish writer Ignatius Donnelly. Donnelly took Plato's account of Atlantis seriously and attempted to establish that all known ancient civilizations were descended from its high-neolithic culture.

Since Donnelly's day, there have been dozens — perhaps hundreds — of locations proposed for Atlantis. Some are more-or-less serious attempts at legitimate scholarly or archaeological works; others have been made by psychic or other pseudoscientific means.

In the 19th century, the Atlantis myth became conflated with Mu and Lemuria. Occultist Helena Blavatsky (The Secret Doctrine, 1888) introduced the idea of the Atlanteans as cultural heroes (an aspect that is absent in Plato, who describes them mainly as a military threat to the Greeks), and described its inhabitants as the fourth "Root Race", succeeded by the "Aryan race". Rudolf Steiner based much of his writings on occult revelations of Mu or Atlantis. Edgar Cayce likewise proposed that Atlantis was an ancient, now-submerged, highly-evolved civilization. The metaphysical significance being that it was a land from which many of us continue to reincarnate, with Cayce adding that the Atlanteans also had ships and aircraft powered by a mysterious form of energy crystal. The work Toward the Light (1920) claims to describe Atlantis, including its exact geographical location. Through Theosophy and Anthroposophy, the concept of Atlantis also entered Nazi Mysticism. Heinrich Himmler was inspired by Ferdinand Ossendowski to the belief that a remnant of the white Atlanteans were to be found in Tibet, the search for which was part of the mission of the Nazi expedition to Tibet in 1938/9 led by Ernst Schäfer. According to Julius Evola (Revolt Against the Modern World, 1934), the Atlanteans were Hyperboreans were Nordic supermen who originated on the North pole. Similarly, Alfred Rosenberg (The Myth of the Twentieth Century, 1930) spoke of a "nordic-atlantean" or "aryan-nordic" master race. Aleister Crowley has also written an esoteric history of Atlantis, although this may be intended more as metaphor than as fact.

In the mid-1940s, J. R. R. Tolkien reshaped his legendarium to contain elements of an Atlantis myth (see Atalantë). The Lord of the Rings (1954/5) contains only obscure references to this, and the myth was published only posthumously, in the Silmarillion (1977). Jane Roberts' work also contains references to Atlantis. The 1990 anime series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which is very broadly based on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne, has elements of modern Atlantean myth woven in, with a particularly Caycean flavor. The series was produced by Gainax, the studio famous for Evangelion. Walt Disney Pictures also produced an animated feature film based on the Atlantis legend, Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001).

Location hypotheses

Eastern hemisphere

Some investigators believe that Atlantis is in the the Eastern Hemisphere, which would have the location in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Mediterranean

Because some basic and nomadic civilizations began around the the Mediterranean area and is part of the Cradle of Humanity (Between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, modern day Iraq), some believe that Atlantis is located here. Some factors that weigh toward this location was the Minoan civilization, which flourished on the island of Crete, and the river valley civilizations which had large populations. An other more recent thesis, that seems to be receiving credit from the offical scientific world, suggests that the lost island could be the island of Sardinia where the astonishing amount of traces left by the so called Nuragic civilisation has never been seriously investigated.

Sardinia

In 2002 the Italian journalist Sergio Frau in his book Le colonne d'Ercole hypothesized that the Pillars of Hercules could be identified not with Gibraltar but with the Sicily Strait between Africa and Sicily, so Atlantis was really Sardinia. A catastrophic event (with a big wave) eradicated from Sardinia the ancient and still enigmatic Nuragic civilization. The few survivors migrated to the near Italian peninsula, founding the Etruscan civilization, the base for the later Roman civilization. In April 2005 the theories of the Italian journalist were debated in high level conference organised by UNESCO in Paris. Together with the conference, also an exposition with the major findings of the theory (ATLANTIKA') and it's evidence was also exposed in the UNESCO building to confirm that the organization's experts are taking quite seriously the hypothesis, and that this seems not to be "just another atlantis theory".

Crete and Santorini

Among those who believe in an historical Atlantis, a common hypothesis holds that Plato's story of the destruction of Atlantis was inspired by massive volcanic eruptions on the Mediterranean island of Santorini during Minoan times. Skeptics of an Atlantic Ocean location usually promote this theory. Some consider this to be the likeliest hypothesis, though investigators (such as Frank Joseph) discount this theory as misleading. A main criticism of this hypothesis is that the ancient Greeks were well aware of volcanoes, and if there was a volcanic eruption, it would seem likely that it would be mentioned. Additionally, Pharaoh Amenhotep III commanded an emissary to visit the cities surrounding Crete and found the towns occupied shortly after the time Santorini was speculated to have completely destroyed the area.

Part of this hypothesis proposes, because Solon received his information from Egypt, that we assume that the Ancient Egyptian symbol for "hundred" was mistakenly read as "thousand". If this was possible, the translation would reduce the age and size of Atlantis by a factor of ten. This alteration would make Atlantis fit Minoan Crete well in size and age. Though, a translation error is unlikely because there would be little confusion in the visual appearance of hieroglyphic symbols of Egyptian numeric values.

Off the east coast of Cyprus

Robert Sarmast, an American architect, claims to have definitely found the lost city of Atlantis on November 14, 2004, saying that by using sonar scans he was able to find manmade walls that matched the description of the structures described by Plato, CNN reports. The site lies 1,500m deep in the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Syria._[1] Several geologists were quick to dispute the claim, as the place was deep under water during the period in question.

Malta

Dr Anton Mifsud who, with co-authors Simon Mifsud, Chris Agius Sultana and Charles Savona Ventura, published Malta Echoes of Plato's Island also added another recent hypothesis.Their book is the product of thoughtful and profound research about the archeological sites and ancient remains related to Atlantis. Frances Galea in his book Malta Fdal Atlantis also wrote about the results of his lifelong research on several ancient studies and known hypotheses on Atlantis, particularly that of Giorgio Grongnet, the renowned Maltese architect, who in 1854 claimed that the Maltese Islands are the remnants of Atlantis.

Near Cape Spartel

Another recent hypothesis is based on a recreation of the geography of the Mediterranean at the time of Atlantis' supposed existence. Plato states that Atlantis was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the name given to the Strait of Gibraltar linking the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. 11,000 years ago the sea level in the area was some 130 metres lower, exposing a number of islands in the strait. One of these, Spartel, could have been Atlantis, though there are a number of inconsistencies with Plato's account.

Troy

The geoarchaeologist Eberhard Zangger has proposed the hypothesis that Atlantis was in fact the city state of Troy. He both agrees and disagrees with Rainer W. Kühne: He too believes that the Trojans-Atlanteans were the sea peoples, but only a minor part of them. He proposes that all Greek speaking city states of the Aegean civilization or Mycenae constituted the sea peoples and that they destroyed each other's economies in a series of semi-fratricidal wars lasting several decades.

Tantalis

British archaeologist Peter James took a clue from Plato's mention of king Tantalus, and investigated the city of Tantalis (also Tantalos) in the province of Manisa, Turkey. In addition to having very similar sounding anagram names, numerous inscriptions and ancient writings from the region matched the Atlantis story. Tantalis, formerly a wealthy city state, was destroyed when a powerful earthquake struck and caused a lake to flood the city.

Andalucia

An hypothesis by Juan Fernández Amador de los Ríos (1919), Jürgen Spanuth (1953), Georgeos Díaz-Montexano (2000) "Atlantis Discovery", Rainer W. Kühne (2003) suggests that the Atlanteans were the Sea Peoples who attacked the Eastern Mediterranean countries around 1200 BC. The city and state of Atlantis were located in Andalucia, 50 kilometers southwest of Seville. Werner Wickboldt (2002) and Rainer W. Kühne (2003) claim that recent satellite photos show two rectangular structures, which they hypothesized to be the "temple of Poseidon" and "the temple of Cleito and Poseidon".

Ponza

Ponza has many similarities to the Atlantis legend. Legend say that Ponza was the lost island of Tyrhenia which was large and had a city at its edge. It was connected by land to the Italian mainland near Naples (Napoli). A volcano exploded and the island sunk leaving only the mountain top which is now called Ponza. Near Naples is Pozzuoli where Roman Temples in the harbor rose above water in the late 1960's due to volcanic processes.

Black Sea

German researchers Siegfried and Christian Schoppe locate Atlantis in the Black Sea: Before 5500 BC there was a great plain in the northwest at a former freshwater-lake. In 5510 BC, the barrier at today's Bosporus broke due to the rising sea level. The Pillars of Hercules are identical with the Strait of Bosporus. Oreichalcos means the obsidian stone that used to be a cash-equivalent at that time and was replaced by the spondylus shell around 5500 BC. The geocatastrophic event led to the neolithic diaspora in Europe, also beginning 5500 BC.

In 2000 AD, the Guardian reported that Robert Ballard, in a small submarine, found remains of human habitation around 300 feet underwater in the Black Sea off the north coast of Turkey. The area flooded around 5000 BC. This flood may have inspired the Biblical story of Noah's Ark; but the area need not to be Atlantis.

Another candidate bordering the Black Sea, suggested by Hasan Umur in the 1940s, would be Ancomah , a legendary place near Trabzon.

Antarctica

Rand & Rose Flem-Ath propose in their book, "When the Sky Fell" that Antarctica was Atlantis. A geological theory known as earth crust displacement and one of the few serious examinations of the size of Plato's lost continent form the basis of their work. The Flem-Aths' detailed study of fascinating world myths opens up the possibility that ancient peoples left their own record of the catastrophe.

Finland

Finnish pseudohistorian Ior Bock locates Atlantis to the southern part of Finland where he claims a small community of people lived during the Ice Age. This is a small part of a large saga that he claims to have been told in his family through the ages, dating back to the development of language itself. Ior also believes that he is a descendant of an ancient Finnish god Lemminkäinen.

Ireland

In 2004, this theory was presented and tested scientifically in the book Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land by Swedish geographer Dr. Ulf Erlingsson from University of Uppsala. It hypothesizes that the empire Atlantis refers to the Neolithic Megalithic tomb culture, based on their similar geographic extent. The island Atlantis is deduced to be Ireland. The similarities of both size and landscape are found to be statistically significant to the 2% level, while the null hypothesis (that Plato invented Atlantis as fiction) is rejected.

The capital Atlantis is tentatively connected with Newgrange, Knowth, and Tara, Ireland. Ireland has not sunk beneath the sea, but the Dogger Bank shoal was an island that sank in the North Sea about 6100 B.C. While the world sea level rose gradually as the Ice Age ice sheets melted, there was a sudden rise at this time due to the final drainage of Lake Agassiz. At about the same time a tsunami from the Storegga Slide is believed to have devastated the island in the manner described by Plato.

Some related hypotheses place the location of Atlantis between Britain and France on the Celtic Shelf. _[2] This hypothesis was first developed seriously by Lewis Spence and has been recently revived by some oceanographers.

Indonesia

Prof. Arysio Nunes dos Santos, Ph. D. in Nuclear Physics; Free-Docent, and Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, has been researching on Atlantis for almost 30 years now, pointing out that "Atlantis was never found because we have all been looking in the wrong places". The reason for this, according to Prof. Santos, is that when Plato spoke of the Ocean of Atlantis, he was not speaking of the ocean that we today call Atlantic Ocean, but of the whole ocean that encircles Eurasia and Africa, formerly known as the atlantic ocean.

In the U.S., researcher Bill Lauritzen independently came to the same conclusion regarding the Atlantic Ocean. He traveled to the Sunda Plain in 1997 to further investigate and many photos of this area are in his book, "The Atom and the Soul." Lauritzen points out that the "Destruction of Mankind" story of the Pyramid Texts of Egypt is very similar to the Atlantis story and may have been the basis for it. He also mentions that most of the other locations suggested for Atlantis had no elephants, while Atlantis and Indonesia did have elephants.

Says Lauritzen in "The Atom and the Soul":

"These are several possible conclusions we might draw:

• 9000 BC: Ancient humans, driven from Sundaland by rising ocean waters or volcanic explosions, came into Mediterranean and fought with ancient Egyptians. (Plato’s story is completely correct.)
• 1200 BC: Ancient humans, from China-Taiwan, traveled to Indonesia, perhaps established a settlement near Krakatau, then went on to Africa (Madagascar), and then around Africa to the Mediterranean (Egypt). They fought with the Egyptians. This became documented on Nile river monuments where the Austronesians are dubbed the “Sea People.” (Plato wrongly ascribed an ancient date of 9000 BC, rather than circa 1200 BC.)
• 1200 BC: The Sea People came from inside the Mediterranean (perhaps Crete?). Plato ascribed a wrong date to the event (9000 BC) and a wrong geographical source (outside the Mediterranean) to the people. Plato confuses or blends together various stories of destruction (Thera, Krakatau), various civilizations, various times and creates a fascinating tale of an ideal society that gets destroyed.

Of course various combinations of these three could be correct."

Prof. Santos also concludes that Atlantis is really located in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, which was considered to be the eastward extension of the modern Atlantic Ocean, even though it is unlikely that knowledge of such a place could reach a place as far away as Egypt. The modern Atlantic Ocean was once deemed to extend all the way to the East Indies, a conception which lasted down to the times of Christopher Columbus and other Renaissance explorers and geographers. Despite the prevalent opinion of experts of all sorts that "continents cannot possibly sink" (see Isostasy theory), Prof. Santos managed to discover a whole sunken continent in the region of Indonesia, which he identifies with the Lost Continent of Atlantis, as can be seen in the detailed map published in Santos' Atlantis site.

Prof. Santos identifies his Atlantis to Eden, the Judeo-Christian Paradise sunken in the Universal Flood. This event he dates at 11,600 BP [Before Present], the exact date of the catastrophic end of the last Pleistocene Ice Age, which also corresponds exactly to the date of Atlantis' demise as given by Plato and to the final sinking of Kumari Kandam, the sunken homeland of the Hindu Dravidas. Prof. Santos is presently planning an oceanographic expedition to the site in order to investigate several curious artefactual features he has already identified in the region he identifies with Atlantis-Eden.

In February 2005, Canberra-based independent researcher Raimy Che-Ross, announced to the world that he had found a lost city in the unsunken Malaysian portion of the lost continent. A well funded expedition is now underway involving a large ground team of experts and Malaysia Centre For Remote Sensing (Macres) satellites. The Malaysian Department of Museums and Antiquities has been instructed to report their findings by August 2005. _[3]

India and Sri Lanka

In South India and Sri Lanka there is a reputed "Kumari Kandam" (kandam means "continent" in Tamil), believed to be submerged under the sea. This continent is surrounded by legendary stories similar to those of Atlantis. It has been called the "cradle of Dravidians". Also, there have been some people linking the "Kumari continent" to Lemuria.

In the Gulf of Cambay, there is an archaeological submarine site of a former island named Dwaraka, which is mainly associated with locations in Indian mythology (especially in the Mahabharata), which has also appeared in discussions about Atlantis. But its date (about 1,500 BC) is too recent to correspond to the real site of Atlantis, according to Plato's date of 9,600 BC.

Western hemisphere

Some investigators believe that Atlantis is in the Western hemisphere, which would have the location in the Atlantic Ocean, near The Americas, or at some of the surrounding islands.

Mid-Atlantic

When Plato spoke of the Ocean of Atlantis, he may have been speaking of the ocean that we call Atlantic Ocean. The ocean's name, derived from Greek mythology, means the "Sea of Atlas". Plato remarked that, in describing the origins of Atlantis, this area was allotted to Poseidon. Poseidon's first-born son was Atlas, who inheritted the kingdom, and passed it onto his firstborn for many generations.

There is a prevalent opinion in scientific circles that "continents cannot possibly sink", delineated by the Isostasy theory. Geological studies of the mid-Atlantic fail to demonstrate that a large continent of Atlantis existed there. However, Atlantic Ocean geology does not exclude the possibility of a sunken island. If an island existed, it would have been much smaller than the island continent of Australia. Plato never claimed that a whole continent disappeared. He referenced a sunken island in front of another continent.

Azores Islands

One of the suggested places is that Atlantis is around the Azores Islands which are a group of islands belonging to Portugal located about 900 miles (1500 km) west of the Portuguese coast. Some people believe the islands could be the mountain tops of Atlantis.

Bahama Bank and Caribbean

Not all geologists deny the possibility of a sunken island in Central America. After the Charles Berlitz book The Mystery of Atlantis, a Canadian Hungarian geologist-topographer's book was published, entitled Atlantis: The Seven Seals. The author, Z.A. Simon, called the attention to these controversies. He included some supporting conclusions of Dr. J. Manson Valentine, M. Dmitri Ribikoff, E. Umland and C. Umland, Robert B. Stacy-Judd, Dr. David Zink, John P. Cohane, Peter Tompkins, Pino Turolla, Captain Alexander, Francis Hitching, James Bailey, Dr. C.J. Cazeau, Dr. S.D. Scott, Brad Steiger and William R. Fix.

The June 1981 edition of Marine Geology shows some radiocarbon dates on mangrove peat, based on the estimate of Broecker and Kulp, listing dates between 5590 and 3680 BC, with connection of the gradual sinking of the Florida–Bimini region. Most recently the rate of the sea level's rise has slowed to 4.5 in (114 mm) per century. Prior to that time it was one foot per century. Near Andros Island, underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau found a huge submerged cave 165 ft (50 m) beneath the surface. There are stalactites and stalagmites in it, that can be formed in the open air only. Marine sediments on the walls of the grotto enabled scientists to estimate its submersion around or after 10,000 BC. The submarine topography of the Bahamian region shown in the huge Russian Atlas Mira by detailed isobaths, catches the attention of a topographer. The sea floor on the northern side of Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico indicates a definite system of submerged valleys of ancient rivers, combined with sunken mountain ranges. The "Tongue of the Ocean" at Andros Island is undoubtedly an underwater ravine caused by terrible tectonic forces, surrounded by almost vertical walls, as a "memento" of the catastrophe. The main problem with this theory is that Atlantis was supposed to have submerged rapidly, following an earthquake.

Z.A. Simon offers an "accurate" map of Plato's rectangular island with its given dimensions as 2,000 by 3,000 stadia, overlaying its outline on the suspected ancient irregular shoreline of that traditional island in the Bahamas region. (An Attic stadium corresponds to 177.6 m)

Isla de la Juventud near Cuba

Recent underwater discoveries off the west coast of Cuba have led some to speculate on an Atlantean connection. However, even before these discoveries were announced, author Andrew Collins had explored the Cuba connection in a book titled "Gateway to Atlantis." Collins supports his hypothesis with a great deal of indirect but compelling historical and geographical evidence. He finally suggests present-day Isle of Youth and the shallow sea bottom that surrounds it as a possible location for Atlantis.

Other locations

Cyprus

Updated

Recent research (4th of August 2005) has been done by Robert Sarmast in the Eastern Mediterranean sea between Cyprus and Syria. The sonar scans showed evidence of man-made structures one mile below sea level which is possibly a canal wall. It is a 3 km-long straight wall intersected at right angles by another wall.[[4]]

In fiction

• Jacint Verdaguer wrote a long poem in Catalan, L' Atlàntida, on the subject linking it with the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus.

• Atlantis is the subject of the 1961 film Atlantis, the Lost Continent.
• Atlantis is the central premise of Disney's 2001 animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
• Gainax's Anime series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is about Atlantis.
• The French film Atlantis by Luc Besson (1991) is in fact an underwater wildlife documentary.
• The book Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler.
• The book Decipher by Stel Pavlou.
• Jules Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea includes a visit to sunken Atlantis aboard Captain Nemo's submarine Nautilus.
• One film set in times before Classical Greece arose shows shipwrecked Greek sailors in the Atlantic being rescued by a modern-looking submarine which was based on Atlantis.
• Robert E. Howard's stories about Kull the Conqueror are set in pre historic Atlantis.
• In the DC universe, both Aquaman and Lori Lemaris - among others - were said to have come from a sunken Atlantis. In Lori Lemaris's case, her people survived by becoming mermaids and mermen. In the Marvel Universe, the people live in a similar manner, as blue-skinned water breathers with Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner as their ruler. In a cross-over title produced jointly by Marvel and DC, the question obviously arose: Who is the rightful ruler of undersea Atlantis - Arthur the Aquaman or Namor the Sub-Mariner? The two superheroes battled for the title of undisputed King under the Sea... Aquaman won, by dropping an orca on Namor.
• In the book Celestial Matters, the Hellenistic civilization calls Amerindians "Atlanteans".
• In the role-playing game Rifts, Atlantis is a continent in the Atlantic west of the Caribbean that rises back out of the sea in the far future. Besides the human-like, but physically and mentally superior Atlanteans, Rifts' Atlantis is peopled by alien colonists called the Splugorth, who enslave humans for sale on interdimensional markets.
• Atlantis was also the subject of the PC-based Adventure game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, published by LucasArts. In the game, Indiana races the Nazis to find Atlantis and to stop them from discovering the secrets of orichalcum.
• In the videogame Tomb Raider, adventurer and treasure hunter Lara Croft's quest ultimately leads her to the buried ruins of Atlantis. Her employer turns out to be an Atlantean herself, having been imprisoned for the past 10,000 years in suspended animation and now seeking to reclaim the powers of her people for her own benefit.
• In the Pendragon Cycle series of books, the survivors of Atlantis ("fairies") journey to Britain where, among other places, they settle in Lyonesse and Avalon. Morgan le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and the Fisher King are all Atlanteans, and Merlin is the son of an Atlantean princess and a Celtic Druid.
• The computer game Age of Mythology follows the adventure of a (fictional) Atlantian hero named Arkantos. The game begins with Arkantos having to defend the city and ends with him having to rescue its people from enemy forces before the island sinks.
• In the Nintendo 64 video game Banjo-Tooie, an area called Atlantis is located in the game's fourth level, Jolly Roger's Lagoon. This area's architecture is very on par with ancient Rome.
• In Stargate Atlantis, which begins at the end of season 7 of Stargate SG-1 (The Lost City), the SGC finds out that the city known as Atlantis was a city of technology and science inhabited by the Ancients several million years ago. A galaxy-wide plague caused the Ancients to take the entire city to another galaxy, Pegasus. Under the command of Doctor Elizabeth Weir, an expedition team set out to find and explore this city and to find if there are any Ancients still living there. They discover the city on the sea floor of a largely oceanic planet, abandoned for ten thousand years. They later discover that the Ancients were defeated in a war with another race known as the Wraith, eventually retreating to Atlantis, hiding the city beneath the sea and, finally, returning to Earth through the city's Stargate. The Ancients who returned to Earth eventually mingled and interbred with the human population of the planet, giving rise to the legends of the city which sank beneath the sea.
• In the fourth season of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the legend of Atlantis plays a major part in the plot. Granted, the version used isn't very accurate when compared to the real legend, but Atlantis is still used. In this season, called "The Doma Saga" by fans, an evil organization led by the previous King of Atlantis surfaces and tries to wipe out life on earth in order to create a new race of humans less evil and corrupt than the humans of today.
• Atlanteans are one threat that Aegis must deal with in the RPG Conspiracy X.
• The setting of The Vision of Escaflowne was created by the Atlanteans.
• In Tolkien's Akallabeth, the island of Númenor is sunk because of the evil deeds of their inhabitants. The Quenya name of Númenor was Atalantë.
• In the Doctor Who story The Dæmons, the Dæmon Azal claims to have destroyed Atlantis. However in the story The Underwater Menace the city is shown as existing on the seabed near the Azores and is destroyed. Yet another version is given in The Time Monster which locates the city off Crete and also shows it destroyed.
• According to Master Fung in the Xiaolin Showdown episode "Enter the dragon", the last time Dojo turned into a 2-headed monster and went on a Shen-gon-wu induced rampage was "the last time anyone saw Atlantis"
• The fallen Angel Islington in Neverwhere was originally guardian angel of Atlantis, but destroyed it, claiming they deserved it.
• In the Fairly Odd Parents episode "This is Your Wish", Cosmo, during his training, came up with the idea of how to make Altantis cleaner - by sinking it.
• In The Simpsons episode "Tales from the Public Domain", Dionysus (played by Barney Gumble) destroys Atlantis after drunkenly trying to throw a lighting bolt at Odysseus (played by Homer).
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! a great battle of the King of Atlantis, Dartz, vs. the three legendary dragons caused the destruction that sank Atlantis.

In music

Atlantis has inspired an instrumental by The Shadows, a song by Donovan and concept albums by jazz artist Sun Ra, Dutch band Earth and Fire, British band Prefab Sprout, English battle metal band Bal-Sagoth and German death metal band Atrocity. Chaos Metal Band SchwarzReich's [5] lead vocalist goes by the pseudonym Atlantis.

See also

• Phantom island
• Lost city
• Lemuria (continent)
• Mu (lost continent)
• Thule (myth)
• Brazil (mythical island)
• Terra Australis
• Númenor
• Kull the Conqueror

Further reading

• Joseph, Frank, "The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization". Bear & Company, 2002. ISBN 187918185-1
• Zangger, Eberhard, "''The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis legend". Sidgwick & Jackson, 1992, ISBN 0688113508.
• Mifsud, Anton, Simon Mifsud, Chris Agius Sultana, and Charles Savona Ventura, "Echoes of Plato's Island". (2nd edition) Malta, 2001. ISBN 99932-15-01-5
• Ashe, Geoffrey, "Atlantis : lost lands, ancient wisdom / Geoffrey Ashe". New York, N.Y., Thames and Hudson; 1992. ISBN 0500810397
• Zeilinga de Boer, Jelle, et. al., "Volcanoes in human history : the far-reaching effects of major eruptions". The Bronze Age eruption of Thera : destroyer of Atlantis and Minoan Crete?. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press; 2002.
• Ley, Willy, "Another look at Atlantis, and fifteen other essays". Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday; 1969. LCCN 69011988
• Galanopoulos, Angelos Geōrgiou, and Edward Bacon, "Atlantis; the truth behind the legend". Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill; 1969. LCCN 71080738 //r892
• Donnelly, Ignatius, "Atlantis : the antediluvian world". New York, Harper, 1882. LCCN 06001749
• Erlingsson, Ulf, "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land". Lindorm Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0975594605
• Flem-Ath, Rand & Wilson, Colin, "The Atlantis Blueprint". 2000.
• Shirley Andrews, "Atlantis". Llewellyn Publications, 2002. ISBN 156718023X

External links and other references

Accounts

• "Timaeus" translated by Benjamin Jowett; alternative version with commentary.
• "Critias" translated by Benjamin Jowett; alternative version with commentary.
• Project Gutenberg Presents: "Atlantis: the Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donnelly

Location theories

Directories

• Open Directory Project: Atlantis

Information

• Robert Sarmast,Discovery of Atlantis at www.discoveryofatlantis.com[6]
• Bill Lauritzen's theory of Atlantis at www.earth360.com [7]
• "Atlantis in front Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco; Atlantis = Tartessos, Atlanteans and Sea Peoples". Beyond Science. Apr 2000.
• "Atlantis = Tartessos, Atlanteans and Sea Peoples". Antiquity (quarterly journal of archaeology)
• Prof. Arysio N. Santos' "Atlantis in Indonesia"
• Jim Allen's Atlantis: The Andes Solution -- Historic Atlantis in Bolivia.
• Riven,The Seer and RoyalBloodline to Atlantis; [http://www.mts.net/~perasa Tribes of Atlantis, Dragon Claw Orb High Prow ship(Tarxien,Malta 3500.bC), appears also on Stonehenge Pillar and Atlantean Machine Discovered. The most Factual and Conclusive research on Atlantis according to the Critias and Timaeus. Atlanteans still very much alive and well. Josephine,Torre,Ormonde Seamounts,Atlantic Ocean 300km ahead of Pillars of Hercules.
• ATLANTIS - The Cradle of Mankind
• Atlantis in the Black Sea
• Atlantis in the Torah
• Atlantis (Blavatsky.net)
• Atlantis (www.lost-civilizations.net)
• Antarctic Atlantis (About.com)
• Feasibility of the Antarctic Atlantis hypothesis -- detailed explanation.
• "Atlantis Discovery". AtlantisDiscovery.com. Madrid, Spain.
• Dr. Ulf Erlingsson site (University of Uppsala)
• gsajournals.org geological analysis of the Spartel Bank hypothesis

Forums

• Graham Hancock Forum -- Posts:Satellite images 'show Atlantis' in Spain Oct 31, 2003.
• Atlantis in Ireland -- website and debate forum

Non-english sites

• 150 links+ to Atlantis pages (German/English)
• Bock, Ior, "Bock Saga". (German/English)
• Classification of Atlantis hypotheses (German only)
• Atlantis in Andalusia, Antlanteans and Sea Peoples (German language)
• Atlantis in front of Gibraltar, between Andalusia and Morocco. Scientific proofs and archaeological discoveries. (Spanish/English)

News

• BBC News, "Satellite images 'show Atlantis' in Spain". June 6, 2004.
• BBC News, "Have scientists really found the lost city of Atlantis?". November 15, 2004.
• BBC News, "Atlantis 'obviously near Gibraltar'", 20 September, 2001.
• Radford, Tim, "Evidence found of Noah's ark flood victims : Ship probes land below Black Sea submerged 7,000 years ago and linked to biblical disaster". Guardian, September 14, 2000.
• primidi.com overview on recent findings

Skeptics

• Christopher, Kevin, "Atlantis: No way, No how, No where" -- Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal