The Capital of Atlantis as Described by Plato

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

The story of the lost continent of Atlantis starts in 355 B.C. with the Greek philosopher Plato. Plato had planned to write a trilogy of
books discussing the nature of man, the creation of the world, and the
story of Atlantis, as well as other subjects. Only the first book was
ever completed. The second book was abandoned part way through, and the
final book was never even started.

Plato used a series of dialogues to express his ideas. In this type of writing, the author's thoughts are explored in a series of arguments
and debates between various characters in the story. Plato often used
real people in his dialogues, such as his teacher, Socrates, but the
words he gave them were his own. A character named Kritias tells an
account of Atlantis that has been in his family for generations.
According the character the story was originally told to his ancestor
Solon, by a priest during Solon's visit to Egypt.

According to the dialogues, there had been a powerful empire located to the west of the "Pillars of Hercules" (what we now call the Straight
of Gibraltar) on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. The nation there had
been established by Poseidon, the God of the Sea. Poseidon fathered
five sets of twins on the island. The firstborn, Atlas, had the
continent and the surrounding ocean named for him. Poseidon divided the
land into ten sections, each to be ruled by a son, or his heirs.

The capital city of Atlantis named Poseidonia was a marvel of architecture and engineering. The city was composed of a series of
concentric walls and canals. At the very center was a hill, and on top
of the hill a temple to Poseidon. Inside was a gold statue of the God
of the Sea showing him driving six winged horses. About 9000 years
before the time of Plato, after the people of Atlantis became corrupt
and greedy, the Gods decided to destroy them. A violent earthquake
shook the land, giant waves rolled over the shores, and the island sank
into the sea never to be seen again.

So is the story of Atlantis just a fable used by Plato to make a point? Or is there some reason to think he was referring to a real
place? Well, at numerous points in the dialogues Plato's characters
refer to the story of Atlantis as "genuine history" and it being within
"the realm of fact." Plato also seems to put into the story a lot of
detail about Atlantis that would be unnecessary if he had intended to
use it only as a literary device.

If we make the assumption that Atlantis was a real place it seems logical we should find it west of the Straight of Gibraltar near the
Azores Islands (some have suggested that the Azores are what are left
of Atlantis's highest mountain peaks). A scientific survey of the
bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, though, shows it is covered with a
blanket of sediment that must have taken millions of years to
accumulate. There is no sign of a sunken island continent.

Are there any other candidates for the location of Atlantis? People have made cases for places as diverse as Switzerland and New Zealand.
One of the most convincing arguments, though, came from K.T. Frost, a
professor of history at the Queen's University in Belfast. Later,
Spyridon Marinatos, an archaeologist and A.G. Galanopoulos, a
seismologist, added evidence to Frost's ideas.

Frost suggested that instead of being west of the Pillars of Hercules Atlantis was east. He also thought that the catastrophic end
of the island had come not 9000 years before Plato's time, but only
900. If this was true the land of Atlantis might already be a
well-known place even in Plato's time: The Island of Crete.

Crete is now a part of modern Greece and lies just south of the Athens across part of the Mediterranean Sea. Before 1500 B.C. it was
the seat of the Minoan Empire. The Minoans dominated the eastern
Mediterranean with a powerful navy and probably extracted tribute from
other surrounding nations. Archaeological excavations have shown the
Minoan Crete was probably one of the most sophisticated cultures of its
time. It had splendid architecture, and art. A code of laws gave women
equal legal status as men. Agriculture was highly developed and an
extensive irrigation system was existed.

Then, seemingly in a blink of an eye, the Minoan Civilization disappeared. Geological studies have shown that on an island we now
know as Santorinas, located just ten miles to the north of Crete, a
disaster occurred that was very capable of toppling the Minoan state.
Santorini today is a lush Mediterranean paradise consisting of several
islands in a ring shape. Twenty-five hundred years ago, though, it was
a single large island with a volcano in the center. The volcano blew
itself apart in a massive explosion around 1500 B.C.

To understand the effect of such an explosion, scientists have compared it with the most powerful volcanic explosion in historic
times. This occurred on the Island of Krakatoa in 1883. There a giant
wave, or tsunami, 120 feet high raced across the sea and hit
neighboring islands killing 36,000 people. Ash thrown up into the air
blackened the skies for three days. The sound of the explosion was
heard as far away as 3,000 miles. The explosion at Santorini was four
times as powerful as Krakatoa.

The tsunami that hit Crete must have traveled inland for over half a mile destroying any coastal towns or cities. The great Minoan fleet of
ships were all sunk in a few seconds. Overnight the powerful Minoan
Empire was crushed and Crete changed to a political backwater. One can
hardly imagine a catastrophe more like Plato's description of Atlantis'
fate than the destruction of Crete.

Many of the details of the Atlantis story fit with what is now known about Crete. Women had a relatively high political status, both
cultures were peaceful, and both enjoyed the unusual sport of
ritualistic bullfighting (where an unarmed man wrestled and jumped over
an uninjured bull).

If the fall of the Minoans is the story of Atlantis, how did Plato get the location and time wrong? Galanopoulos suggested there was a
mistake during translation of some of the figures from Egyptian to
Greek and an extra zero added. This would mean 900 years ago became
9000, and the distance from Egypt to "Atlantis" went from 250 miles to
2,500. If this is true, Plato, knowing the layout of the Mediterranean
Sea, would have been forced to assume the location of island continent
was squarely in the Atlantic Ocean.

Not everyone accepts the Minoan Crete theory of the story of Atlantis, but until a convincing case can be made for some other place,
it remains science's best guess.>

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

The legend of Atlantis has to be one of the oldest and most spellbinding of all the world's mysteries. It has puzzled both skeptics
and believers alike. Where exactly was Atlantis and where is it now?
What caused its destruction? Exactly how advanced were the Atlanteans?
I hope someday everyone will know the answers to those questions.

Plato, a Greek philosopher, gave us the first known account of Atlantis. Plato was said to have lived from about 428 to 348 B.C. He
was a student of Socrates. After studying with Socrates, Plato opened
up his own philosophy school. There he began to write his philosophies
in a play-type form. These dialogues always featured Socrates as the
main character. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he wrote about an
amazing place called Atlantis. In Critias, Plato wrote of Atlantis'
architecture, engineering, and ceremonies in great detail. Many people,
even Plato's own students, thought this place was Plato's own creation,
but he argued that Atlantis was real, and filled with more splendors
than anyone could imagine.

All races share the story of a great flood that destroyed an entire civilization. The name Atlantis appears in various forms throughout the
world. The Canary Islands have a legend involving Atalaya. The Basques
of Northern Spain have Atlaintica. The Vikings told the tale of Atli.
Northern Africa called it Attala. The Aztecs have Aztlán, and the North
American Indians called theirs Azatlán.

Plato said Atlantis was a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (the Rock of Gibraltar). This
description has lead to many people believing that Atlantis could have
been the Aegean Island of Thera (Santorini) which suddenly blew up.
Atlantis was also identified as part of an ancient series of land
bridges that stretched across the Atlantic and even out into the
Pacific as far as New Zealand. Others say that the Canary Islands are
the tops of Atlantis' tallest mountains. Some say that the Bermuda
Triangle is the result of Atlantis sinking. The discovery of blue eyes
and blondness among some of Africa's Berbers soon led some people to
place Atlantis in the Atlas Mountians of modern Morocco and Tunisia.
Still others claim that Atlantis was not even on this planet.

According to the continental drift theory, all the continents fit together, like a jigsaw puzzle. If you look at a map, you will see that
the continents really do fit together- with the exception of the USA in
North America and Western Europe. Could Atlantis be the missing piece?

According to Plato, one of the best splendors of Atlantis was the palace compound located in the heart of its capital. It was ringed by
three canals. Plato remarked, "As each king received it [the palace]
from his predecessor, he added to its adornment and did all he could to
surpass the king before him, until finally they made of it an abode
amazing to behold for the magnitude and beauty of its workmanship. The
visitors passed through a wall of brass, a wall of tin, and a wall of
copper. White and black and red stone quarried from the native rock."
He also wrote that the wealth they possessed was so immense that the
like had never been seen before in any royal house, nor will ever
easily be seen again. This, of course, lead to Atlantis' destruction.

He stated that the Atlanteans appeared to be superlatively fair and blessed, yet they were filled with lawless ambition and power. The
Atlanteans started valuing material wealth above goodness-that's where
they went wrong. Plato said, "The portion of divinity within them was
now becoming faint and weak through being oftentimes blended with a
large measure of mortality." The Atlanteans were unable to bear the
burden of their possessions. So, "There occurred portentous earthquakes
and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when...the
island of Atlantis...was swallowed up by the sea and vanished." Plato
doubted that any sign of the lost land would ever be found. "The ocean
at that spot, has now become impassable and unsearchable." This
contributes to the Bermuda Triangle theory above.

Even though it seems that no one could survive such a tragedy, it is believed that many Atlanteans escaped. One example of this is Edgar
Cayce. In April of 1939, he fell into a trance and spoke about
Atlantis. "In Atlantis, when there was the breaking up of the land came
to what was called the Mayan Land or the what is now Yucatan-entity was
the first to cross the water in the plane or air machine of that
period." In support of the escape, Atlantis has been hailed for
spawning civilizations such as Hellenic Greece, the Mayas & Incas
of the New World, and ancient Egypt.
Atlantis, The Lost Continent

The most important thought that is on everyone's mind is not where, what, or Atlantis, the Lost City everyone is talking about. Where is
it, is it real? Why are there rumors if it's not true? Here we will
explore the myths and realities of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Sit
back, relax and take a wonderful ride!

The city of Atlantis, if you hear about it, one would think that it would be located in the Atlantic Ocean, hence the name. But researchers
have been looking for this continent for years. The continent was
mentioned in many religions and folklores, that it became a possibility
that it truly does exist. But if it does, where is it and has it been
found by scientists yet, or have they think they have found the Lost
City or Continent of Atlantis?

The great philosopher, Plato, wrote in his Critias, that he believed that a great continent was extremely technologically advanced, and that
this continent had been destroyed and lost by a rush of ocean covering
the evidence to us to this day. Plato had believed that Atlantis was
located in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere. In fact, the reason why the
Atlantic Ocean is called such today, is because of the Atlantean
theory. Plato believed that Atlantis was a sunken continent
approximately the size of Libya and Asia put together. That would be
about 5 to 10 million square kilometers hidden below a large oceanic
surface!

Monoliths, similar to the monoliths in Easter Island, supposedly are a "signature" of the Atlantean culture. Some believe this culture
survived on to Islands and lands such as Easter Island and other
various areas still leaving scientists and archeologists befuddled.
Pyramids, such like those found in Egypt and other ancient sites, are
also a supposed "signature" of the Atlanteans.

Plato believed that Atlantis had a great army, probably of around 1.2 million armed men. He also believed that the army had a vast number
of chariots. Horses were definitely used. This was the theory that had
caused many to believe that the horse that evolved from Asia became
domesticated in Atlantis. This remains a striking detail, because
scientists and archeologists cannot determine precisely when the
domestication of the horse occurred.

Elephants are supposedly also a very big part of the Atlantean culture. Plato even writes himself:
"There were a great number of elephants in the island, for there was ample
provision of food for all sorts of animals...including for the animal
which is the largest and the most voracious of all."

The strange part about the elephants, is that the epoch in when the continent of Atlantis was supposedly alive and flourishing, mastodons
and mammoths were abundant, and the elephant did not come about until
approximately the supposed time when the continent of Atlantis was
believed to have "fallen" into the ocean, the same time when mastodons
and mammoths became extinct.

It must be remembered, that Plato had written Critias in 360 BCE. This was where it all started, with Plato's words:

"Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have
taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Hercules and
all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the
combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have
been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the
other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was
saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when
afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud
to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress
of the history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and
families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on
the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of that day, and
their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and
governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the precedence to Athens."

Where did Plato's revelation of the continent of Atlantis come from? Plato's revelation was told to him by a man named Solon, who in turn
received the information about Atlantis from the ancient Egyptians. If
it's just a story, it is one heck of an intriguing one! A thrilling
reality to this wonderful piece of writing, is that the end of the
transcript has been lost. What was at the end of the transcript...we
will never know. He talked of Gods and spirits that made the islanders
what they were. An ancient influence that could have come from
anywhere. Could it have come from the stars? And is it just plain
mythology, or is there a glimpse of truth in the evidence?.