Atlantis City: one of the most mysterious place

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Introduction

Atlantis, also spelled Atalantis or Atlantica, a legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean, lying west of the Strait of Gibraltar. The principal sources for the legend are two of Plato’s dialogues, Timaeusand Critias. In the former, Plato describes how Egyptian priests, in conversation with the Athenian lawgiver Solon, described Atlantis as an island larger than Asia Minor and Libya combined, and situated just beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar). About 9,000 years before the birth of Solon, the priests said, Atlantis was a rich island whose powerful princes conquered many of the lands of the Mediterranean until they were finally defeated by the Athenians and the latter’s allies. The Atlantians eventually became wicked and impious, and their island was swallowed up by the sea as a result of earthquakes. In the Critias, Plato supplied a history of the ideal commonwealth of the Atlantians.

Atlantis is probably a mere legend, but medieval European writers who received the tale from Arab geographers believed it to be true, and later writers tried to identify it with an actual country. After the Renaissance, for example, attempts were made to identify Atlantis with America, Scandinavia, and the Canary Islands. The story of Atlantis, if Plato did not invent it, may in fact reflect ancient Egyptian records of a volcanic eruption on the island of Thera about 1500 BCE. This eruption, one of the most stupendous of historical times, was accompanied by a series of earthquakes and tsunamis that shattered civilization on Crete, thereby perhaps giving rise to the legend of Atlantis.

The myth of Atlantis by Platon

The only primary sources for Atlantis are Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias; all other mentions of the island are based on them. The dialogues claim to quote Solon, who visited Egypt between 590 and 580 BC; they state that he translated Egyptian records of Atlantis. Written in 360 BC, Plato introduced Atlantis in Timaeus:

For it is related in our records how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent.

The four people appearing in those two dialogues are the politicians Critias and Hermocrates as well as the philosophers Socrates and Timaeus of Locri, although only Critias speaks of Atlantis. In his works Plato makes extensive use of the Socratic method in order to discuss contrary positions within the context of a supposition.

The Timaeus begins with an introduction, followed by an account of the creations and structure of the universe and ancient civilizations. In the introduction, Socrates muses about the perfect society, described in Plato's Republic (c. 380 BC), and wonders if he and his guests might recollect a story which exemplifies such a society. Critias mentions a tale he considered to be historical, that would make the perfect example, and he then follows by describing Atlantis as is recorded in the Critias. In his account, ancient Athens seems to represent the "perfect society" and Atlantis its opponent, representing the very antithesis of the "perfect" traits described in the Republic.

Critias

According to Critias, the Hellenic deities of old divided the land so that each deity might have their own lot; Poseidon was appropriately, and to his liking, bequeathed the island of Atlantis. The island was larger than Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined, but it was later sunk by an earthquake and became an impassable mud shoal, inhibiting travel to any part of the ocean. Plato asserted that the Egyptians described Atlantis as an island consisting mostly of mountains in the northern portions and along the shore and encompassing a great plain in an oblong shape in the south "extending in one direction three thousand stadia [about 555 km; 345 mi], but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia [about 370 km; 230 mi]." Fifty stadia [9 km; 6 mi] from the coast was a mountain that was low on all sides ... broke it off all round about ... the central island itself was five stades in diameter [about 0.92 km; 0.57 mi].

In Plato's metaphorical tale, Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, the daughter of Evenor and Leucippe, who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean (called the Atlantic Ocean in his honor), and was given the mountain of his birth and the surrounding area as his fiefdom. Atlas's twin Gadeirus, or Eumelus in Greek, was given the extremity of the island toward the pillars of Hercules. The other four pairs of twins—Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, and Azaes and Diaprepes—were also given "rule over many men, and a large territory."

Poseidon carved the mountain where his love dwelt into a palace and enclosed it with three circular moats of increasing width, varying from one to three stadia and separated by rings of land proportional in size. The Atlanteans then built bridges northward from the mountain, making a route to the rest of the island. They dug a great canal to the sea, and alongside the bridges carved tunnels into the rings of rock so that ships could pass into the city around the mountain; they carved docks from the rock walls of the moats. Every passage to the city was guarded by gates and towers, and a wall surrounded each ring of the city. The walls were constructed of red, white, and black rock, quarried from the moats, and were covered with brass, tin, and the precious metal orichalcum, respectively.

According to Critias, 9,000 years before his lifetime a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and those who dwelt within them. The Atlanteans had conquered the parts of Libya within the Pillars of Hercules, as far as Egypt, and the European continent as far as Tyrrhenia, and had subjected its people to slavery. The Athenians led an alliance of resistors against the Atlantean empire, and as the alliance disintegrated, prevailed alone against the empire, liberating the occupied lands.

But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.

The logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos wrote an earlier work entitled Atlantis, of which only a few fragments survive. Hellanicus' work appears to have been a genealogical one concerning the daughters of Atlas (Ἀτλαντὶς in Greek means "of Atlas"), but some authors have suggested a possible connection with Plato's island. John V. Lucenotes that when Plato writes about the genealogy of Atlantis's kings, he writes in the same style as Hellanicus, suggesting a similarity between a fragment of Hellanicus's work and an account in the Critias. Rodney Castleden suggests that Plato may have borrowed his title from Hellanicus, who may have based his work on an earlier work about Atlantis.

Castleden has pointed out that Plato wrote of Atlantis in 359 BC, when he returned to Athens from Sicily. He notes a number of parallels between the physical organisation and fortifications of Syracuse and Plato's description of Atlantis. Gunnar Rudberg was the first who elaborated upon the idea that Plato's attempt to realize his political ideas in the city of Syracuse could have heavily inspired the Atlantis account.

Hypotheses of existence

Atlantis.

The most common opinion among historians and especially philologists: the narrative of Atlantis is a typical philosophical myth, examples of which lead the dialogue of Plato. In fact, Plato, in contrast to historians and those who never set as their goal the message to the reader about real facts, but only about ideas illustrated by philosophical myths. This is confirmed by all available archaeological data. Indeed, there are no traces of any developed civilization in Greece or in the west of Europe and Africa, at the end of the glacial and postglacial periods, or in subsequent millennia. In Atlantis, the verifiable part (including playing the most important role in Athenian civilization) is often ignored in the dialogue and their research is focused on the unverifiable - Atlantis. Further, there is evidence that Egyptian priests are declared (reputed in Greece as guardians of mysterious ancient wisdom); however, among the many ancient Egyptian texts, nothing was found, even remotely resembling the story of Plato. All the names in the text “Plato are Greek”, which also indicates that they can use their Plato. Solon de translated "barbaric" names into Greek; I have never practiced.

As for the death of Atlantis, that is, it is obvious that it should have destroyed this country, it should have been destroyed simply for external likelihood (to explain the absence of traces of such a civilization in the modern era). That is, the picture of Atlantis flexibility dictates entirely the internal tasks of the text.

The most plausible hypothesis about the source tells of two events that occurred during the life of Plato: the defeat and flexibility of the Athenian army and navy during the conquest of Sicily in 413 BC. e., and the death of the town of Gelika in the region of Achaea in the north of the Peloponnese in 373 BC. e. (Helika was flooded one night as a result of an earthquake, accompanied by a flood).

Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean

Hercules Pillars (tracing the Phoenician "Melkart Pillars") in ancient times was always called the Strait of Gibraltar (and directly - the rocks of Gibraltar and Ceuta). Thus, Plato places Atlantis directly behind the Strait of Gibraltar, off the coast of Spain and present-day Morocco. Morocco among the Greeks, as a country in the far West, is the seat of the titan Atlanta (Atlas), whose name goes back to the name of the ocean and the Atlas ridge; undoubtedly, the name of Atlantis also dates back to it - “the countries of Atlanta” (in a later dialogue “Critias” Plato calls Atlant the first king of the country and derives a name from him; but initially, apparently, the name simply meant “a country lying in the far West” )

The most consistent of the supporters of the real existence of Atlantis appealed to these considerations, indicating that according to Plato it could only be in the Atlantic Ocean and nowhere else. In particular, they noted that only in the Atlantic Ocean can land fit the size described by Plato - the central island of 3000x2000 stadiums (530x350 km), and several large accompanying islands. An ardent apologist for this version was N.F. Zhirov. From his point of view, Atlantis was located in the Azores and was once a surface part of the Mid-Atlantic Range. The large area of ​​the island in those days is explained either by a lower sea level, or by the effects of an earthquake, or by a combination of factors. A similar version is followed by Michael Bagent.

Examining the myths about Atlantis, Robert Graves notes that there are hardly any candidates for the role of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean, such as stretching from Iceland to the Azores, and then curving to the southeast, the underwater Atlantic ridge, and the flooded land of Dogger (Doggerland) banks could get into any legends that reached Plato, since the Atlantic Ridge, according to oceanographic research, has been under water for at least sixty million years, and Dogger’s banks were flooded in the Neolithic era and didn’t catastrophic in nature. The gradual rise in sea level as a result of the melting of the glacier (the end of the last glaciation) led to the flooding of Doggerland by the North Sea.

Many researchers have searched for Atlantis in the Balearic and Canary Islands. The mysterious Guanche people who inhabited the Canary Islands in the past were interpreted as descendants of the Atlanteans [source not specified 68 days]. Vyacheslav Kudryavtsev in the magazine "Around the World" suggested, based on the texts of Plato and the data on the last glacial maximum (ending 10 thousand years ago, which corresponds to the time indicated in "Critia"), that Atlantis was located on the site of the current British Isles, Ireland, north -western France and the Celtic shelf south of the British Isles with the capital on the current underwater hill Little Sol with a peak from the surface of 57 meters and surrounding depths of 150-180 meters, and drowned as a result of melting glaciers.

The German Jürgen Spanuth (1907-1998), a pastor and amateur historian, believed that Atlantis was in the North Sea, was the center of a highly developed Bronze Age northern European civilization and died as a result of the disaster. The remnant of the Atlantean island, in his opinion, is the current Helgoland island. The German writer Britta Verhagen (pseudonym Alberta Rommel, 1912-2001) supported and supported his hypothesis in his books, both historical journalistic and artistic. Spanut and Verhagen also argued that since the Middle Eastern peoples did not count years, but months, then 9000 years from Solon should actually be understood as 9000 months and divide this number by 12. This, in their opinion, confirms that Atlantis in the description of Plato is a developed state of the Bronze Age, and not a society of the Stone Age.

Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea

Plato’s story of Atlantis can be regarded as a myth, the basis for which was real historical events, during which a previously successful civilization perished or fell into decay as a result of a natural disaster (earthquake, flood, or some other cataclysm). Such a historical event may be the eruption of a volcano on the island of Santorini and the subsequent decline of the highly developed (by the standards of the time) Minoan civilization in the Mediterranean Sea.

In this case, the area of ​​Atlantis brought by Plato and the 9,000-year-old event are considered exaggeration, and the prototype of Atlantis is the island of Crete and the island of Santorini partially destroyed by the volcanic explosion and collapse of the caldera (another name is Fira, in ancient times - Strongila). The ancient Minoan civilization that existed in Crete and neighboring islands really fell into decay after the eruption of the volcano and its explosion on the island of Strongila in the 17th century BC. e., that is, not for 9000, but for 900 years before Plato. The catastrophic eruption of the volcano “in one day and a disastrous night” led to the destruction of the island, the formation of a huge tsunami that hit the northern coast of Crete (the largest part of the island metropolis) and other islands in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, and was accompanied by earthquakes. Volcanic ash covered the fields on the islands and the coast of the mainland within a radius of hundreds of kilometers, which with a layer thickness of more than 10 cm makes them unsuitable for cultivation for a year or more, thereby causing hunger. Given the local wind rose, most of the ash was supposed to fall east-southeast without affecting Greece and Egypt. At the same time, the Minoans, like the Atlanteans described by Plato, really had military clashes with the Achaeans who inhabited mainland Greece (since they were actively engaged in piracy). And the Minoans were really defeated by the Achaeans, though not before a natural cataclysm, but only after it.

According to the well-known description of Plato, the island of Atlantis inside had a concentric channel through which ships could sail, with access to the open sea. This corresponds in shape to an island volcanic caldera with an annular shaft and a central island. Geological studies of the Santorini islands and bottom sediments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea show that earlier on the site of the present caldera there was an older caldera, formed as a result of a similar eruption about 20,000 years ago. However, the size of all known calderas is much smaller, according to Plato, "Libya (the ancient Greek name for Africa) and Asia combined." This discrepancy can be explained, firstly, by the exaggeration and distortions that have accumulated over hundreds of years of oral transmission of legends about real events (especially since the real sizes of Asia and Africa were unknown to the Greeks then), and secondly, the indicated sizes can be comparable with the actual sizes of the sea Minoan power, extending not only to the Cyclades, Crete and Cyprus, but also to the coastal regions of Greece, Asia Minor and North Africa (as in subsequent Phoenician and Greek colonies).

A sufficiently detailed presentation of this version, with a comparative analysis of Plato's texts and factual materials obtained by the end of the 20th century with history, archeology, geology and related sciences, is available in the book of the doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, an employee of the Institute of the History of Natural History and Technology. S. I. Vavilova RAS I. A. Rezanova “Atlantis: fantasy or reality?” (M., “Science”, 1975).

The documentary "Atlantis The Evidence", BBC, ("Atlantis was here", the channel "Culture"), clearly explains the likelihood of the concept of "Atlantis" with the eruption of a volcano on the island of Santorin. The global volcanic eruption on Tire gives rise to assumptions about the flooding of the Black Sea at about the same time when the tsunami reached tens of meters, and the most direct connection with the biblical tales of the “global flood”, when waves of tens of meters sweep away everything on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and, perhaps they only help with the highest pressure on tectonic plates - to discover the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

Circumpontian region (Black Sea)

A prototype for the events of the legend of Atlantis could serve as a catastrophic rise in the Black Sea, which may have occurred in the sixth millennium BC. It is assumed that during this Black Sea flood, the level of the sea increased by 60 meters in less than a year (other estimates are from 10 to 80 meters) in connection with the breakthrough of the Bosphorus by the Mediterranean waters.

The flooding of large areas of the northern Black Sea coast could give impetus to the spread of various cultural and technological innovations from this region to Europe and Asia.

Antarctic hypothesis

One hypothesis claims that Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. It is based on cartographic artifacts (a map of Piri-reis and others), which were allegedly created on the basis of dozens of ancient maps attributed to civilizations with developed shipping, which existed 6-15 thousand years ago. This hypothesis is described in detail in Graham Hancock's book Traces of the Gods. According to the author, Antarctica was shifted to the region of the south pole as a result of the lithosphere shift. And before that, it was closer to the equator and was not covered with ice. However, this assumption is contrary to modern scientific ideas about the geological movement of continents. There is a version associated not with the movement of the continents, but with the displacement of the Earth’s axis as a result of a planetary cataclysm 10-15 thousand years ago (for example, “the collision of the Earth with a huge mass body”), to which Antarctica was not at the south pole, had the warm climate, rich flora and fauna, was inhabited by people and built up by cities, some of which are supposedly visible in satellite photographs. This version also contradicts scientific ideas about the consequences of the fall of various celestial bodies on Earth, the impossibility of a rapid catastrophic shift of the Earth's axis, the dating of Antarctic glaciation, etc.

The first part of the book "Chronicle of Peru", for the first time describing the story of the "white people" of South America (1553).

Atlantis in the Andes

In 1553, for the first time in literature - in the book "The Chronicle of Peru" by Pedro Siesa de Leon - an Indian story is given that "white people" penetrated the territory of the province of Guamanga (Peru) long before the Spaniards, and even ruled there before the Incas:

“The largest river here is called the Vinaque, there are large, very ancient structures that have decayed from time to time and turned into ruins, they must have survived for many centuries. When asking local Indians who built this antiquity, they respond that other white and bearded people, like us, who ruled long before the Incas; they say that they came to these parts and made a home for themselves here. These and other ancient buildings in this kingdom seem to me to be different from the ones that the Incas built or ordered to build. Because this structure was square, and the Inca structures were long and narrow. There is also a rumor that there were certain letters on one stone slab of this building. I do not affirm and do not believe that in the past, some people came here, so intelligent and smart that they built these and other things that we do not see. "

Later this story became known to many other historians and chroniclers of Peru, as well as missionaries from the Catholic orders, who spread their own story about the European origin of the supreme god Viracochi, which was reflected in numerous myths of the Indians. In particular, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in the book “History of the Incas” (Historia de los Incas) dealt with the most detailed hypothesis about the location of Atlantis in the Andes.

In 1555, directly correlates Atlantis of Plato with the kingdoms of Peru - the lands of the Inca Empire - Secretary of the Royal Council of Castile, chronicler Agustin de Sarate in his book "The History of the Discoveries and Conquests of the Province of Peru" (published in Antwerp), citing various opinions of historians on where they came from people in america. Zarate cites the justification of his position that the Platonic 9000 years from the flood is the account of the Egyptians years, not by the sun, but by the moons, that is, months, which means that they should be considered as 750 years. And the customs of the Peruvian Indians, their cult and imperial architecture, sheathed with plates of gold, just, according to Zarate, correspond to the description of Plato.

In Atlantis: The Andes Solution, Jim Allen presented a theory that identifies Atlantis with the Altiplano Plateau in South America. The theory is based on several reasons:

• high accuracy of the match between satellite photographs of the area and ancient descriptions, under the assumption that the dimensions indicated by Plato are given not in the Greek stages, but in the "Atlantean" ones, which are different due to the wide location of the area.
• the presence of geological formations on the plateau, which may be traces of human activity and correspond to the descriptions of the capital of Atlantis.
• developed culture, scientific and technological achievements of the peoples of South America are explained through the existence of the preceding more developed civilization.
• the presence of artificial, according to some scholars [who?], based on the threefold logic of the Aymara language.

Sources

• https://www.ancient.eu/atlantis/
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Atlantis-legendary-island
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis