Atlantis the Lost Continent: Off the Map
Everyone knows, in one form or another, the story of the ancient Lost Continent of Atlantis — the story of the island nation which, in one terrible day, sank beneath the sea to disappear into the breathy mists of legend. Did the lost continent of Atlantis really exist? Is there really, somewhere beneath the two thirds of this planet covered by water, an actual long lost island holding ancient secrets of a civilization long gone?
The Legend of Atlantis
The source of our story comes from the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias around 360BC. In these writings, Plato relates the story of Solon, a Greek philosopher and statesman from about 150 years earlier, who journeyed to Egypt, and there he apparently received the story of an ancient conflict that the Athenians had with an ancient forgotten race from a forgotten island some 9,000 years before, but had apparently been lost to their history at that time.
The Atlanteans were a race of people, who lived on a large island and from there set out to conquor the neighboring civilizations, including Eqypt and Greece. When Atlantis attacked Greece, the Athenians led a unified confederation from all over Greece to meet and fight the warriors from Atlantis. However, their allies deserted them and the men of Athens fought alone and managed to defeat the Atlanteans freeing not only Athens and Greece, but Egypt as well.
While the Athenians were still on the island of Atlantis, massive earthquakes struck the island and floods rushed in to cover Atlantis. Within a single night and day, the entire island was gone without a trace beneath the waves, and with it the Athenian warriors.
The Egyptian sources that Solon apparently saw have long been lost, if they existed. As a result, all modern legends and stories of the lost continent, use Plato’s account as their source.
The Legend of Atlantis Revisited
In the 19th Century, interest in the story of the lost continent of Atlantis became popular with the New Age Movement, and came to symbolize an ancient, highly advanced race, possibly the cradle of modern civilizations. It even came to be thought of as the source of the ‘Aryan Race’, and would later be sought by the Nazis under Hitler. In the late 1800s, Ignatius L. Donnelly, a United States Congressman and writer, authored the book Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, which sparked much renewed interest with his theories and attempts to find evidence of the ancient civilization. Donnelly proposed that all civilizations were descended from Atlantean culture. Helena Blavatsky, proposed the idea of Atlantis being the source of the Aryan ‘root race’ in her publication, The Secret Doctrine.
The popular psychic Edgar Cayce gave numerous readings on Atlantis, in which he described it as an advanced civilization with science beyond their time, and gave the location of Atlantis as being in the Carribean, saying that pieces of Atlantis would ‘rise’ in 1968 or 69. A marine expedition in 1968 found unusually regular geological formations underwater, which have come to be called the Bimini Road, and many people view this as proof of Cayce’s predictions.
Location of Atlantis
The description that Plato gives of the location of Atlantis, states that it is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the ‘Pillars of Heracles’, which is thought today to be the Strait of Gibraltar, though it may also have referred to the Strait of Sicily. Today, there are about as many theorized locations for the ancient lost continent as there are stories.
Malta
There have been some archaeological discoveries in Malta which look promising. Remains in Malta of ancient temples, give some archaeological evidence to this. Some of the ancient ruins are over 9,000 years old, and many archaeologists consider the ruins to be among the oldest known man-made stone structures–even older than the pyramids! Adding to this, there is also a theory that the name Atlantis is actually Malta translated.
Atlantis in Minoan Society?
Many of the theories focus on the Mediterranean. One theory in particular for the origin of the Atlantis legend points to the Island of Crete, and the ancient Minoan civilization. Approximately 10 or 15 centuries before Plato, the civilization may have ended when it was devastated by a tsunami or volcanic eruption, thus giving this island civilization a very abrupt and tragic end, like Atlantis, and which may have given inspiration to Plato for his story of the Atlantis legend.
Supporters of this theory also point out some similarities in described geography and architecture of Atlantis, as well as a mention in Plato’s account of bull-worship, which the Minoans apparently engaged in.
The Caribbean Connection
Edgar Cayce’s predictions and readings on Atlantis, as well as the discovery of the Bimini Road in 1968, lead some to point to the Caribbean as the location for the fabled lost continent. Supporters of this theory suggest that the reported phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle can be explained by still active remnants of Cayce’s described advanced crystal technology used by Atlanteans now submerged under the sea and having some kind of effect on ships and planes.
In Donnelly’s book, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, he draws a connection between Atlantis and the Aztec legend of Aztlan, the legendary ancient ancestral home of the Aztecs. According to Donnelly, the Aztecs pointed eastward toward the Caribbean as the location of Aztlan.
Antarctic Atlantis
One of the theories of the lost continent Atlantis looks to the other obvious continent, Antarctica. Yes, everyone’s favorite ice cube to the south has land under it, and according to crustal displacement theory, also used to be much less frozen. Plato described Atlantis as being in ‘the world ocean’, and you can’t get any more in the middle of it than Antarctica. Many people theorize that the land under the miles of ice and cold holds the secrets and ruins of Atlantis.
Azores
One of the possible locations suggested by Donnelly in his book, the Azores Islands are speculated to be the tops of the mountains of Atlantis when it sank beneath the sea. The location would definitely put it in around the right place, just outside the Mediterranean area in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Other Locations
Other locations for the lost continent of Atlantis which have been proposed encompass the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and several other island chains such as the Canary Islands. With so much of the planet covered by water, people will have plenty of territory to explore.
The Legend of Atlantis Continues…
It is difficult to say for certain whether the lost continent of Atlantis truly existed. Given that the only source of information we have for our legend is the writings of a man from almost 2,500 years ago, who himself was recounting an apparently lost tale from 9,000 years before. Plato never finished the Critias, and may have been planning to continue the story in a third work called Hermocrates. It is not even certain whether Plato himself believed the tale he was recounting, or if he made up the story to illustrate a philosophical point. Perhaps he simply was inspired by stories or accounts of similar disasters in his time. Did a made up story by Plato become a Legend? Or perhaps Atlantis really does exist, and simply wait, hidden and sleeping through the centuries, waiting for someone to find it and prove the legend true.
