Atlantis: legend, history and interesting facts. Atlantis: a beautiful legend or reality? Where is the sunken Atlantis located?

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Just a few years ago, it probably would never have occurred to me to connect the Theta Disc with the myth that Atlantis seemed to be at that time. However, everything has changed: she is no longer a myth! The myth has become a hypothesis, in support of which dozens of researchers have joined forces, finding more and more indisputable data. Today there are already so many of them that without Plato’s testimony we ourselves would now recreate the picture of the Ancient Atlantic with an archipelago of islands connecting its shores and starting at the Pillars of Hercules.

I think it’s worth familiarizing yourself with these data to make sure how real the former existence of this country is and whether it is directly related to our hypothesis. And I’ll start with a general statement: as science has shown, there is nothing immutable in our knowledge about the world. The progress of science is in the constant rejection of previous knowledge. There are no longer any immutable truths and no indisputable facts. The view on problems and objects of study sometimes undergoes a radical change. Actually, the only principle worthy of a man of science is now the readiness to accept the most unexpected explanations of phenomena that once seemed to be completely explained.

As an example, let us turn to the past of man to tell ourselves directly, without beating around the bush: the entire genealogy of the human race, which was so diligently drummed into us by self-confident or unscrupulous scientists, turned out to be just a speculative construction on paper! Textbooks also say that a million years ago we supposedly descended from the trees. Meanwhile, recent discoveries in Africa have shown the existence of meaningfully made flint tools already 3.5 million years before us.

All the imaginary “intermediate links” between the monkey and Homo sapiens, so adored by paleontologists, often, alas, to their greater glory, return to their places in the animal world. And this began after more ancient or equal in age human remains and impressions of feet, no different from ours, were discovered in Tanzania. And then several real scientists dared to publicly express their conviction that the “bone material of evidence” collected over decades was far from complete, poorly dated, insufficient, doubtful, and even falsified. And finally, this “something” presented as a human ancestor may well simply be a parallel branch. In short, science in its present state has little to say about man's past. Thus, the ancient cultures “received” over thousands of millions more years for their historical development. If our immediate ancestor managed to move from a stone pestle to an electron microscope in 10 thousand years, then the question arises: what, his African predecessor, with equally dexterous hands and the same brain volume, should have spent 3.5 million years, so nothing and not achieving?..
And in our past, an incredibly long, boundless period opened up, during which cultures that we had never even dreamed of could successfully flourish and perish! Most likely, they were exactly like that, since they did not leave us rusting landfills and plastic dumps.

In this incomprehensible past there is ample room for Atlantis.
As Plato says, along the islands of Atlantis “it was easy to move to other islands, and from the islands to the entire opposite continent, which covered the sea that really deserves such a name (after all, the sea on this side of the mentioned strait is just a bay with some narrow passage into it, while the sea on the other side of the strait is the sea in the proper sense of the word, as well as the land surrounding it can truly and quite rightly be called the mainland).”

Strikingly, this is an early reference to America; and it doesn't look like fiction at all. But no less remarkable is the mention of a chain of islands. Plato at one time could not have known about the Atlantic what we know today: during the last glaciation, the water level was 120–200 meters lower, and this alone meant that the surface of the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde Islands, Bermuda and the Bahamas - many times higher than the current one. These were large islands, and their shallow continental shelf, which greatly facilitated navigation, occupied vast spaces.

The testimony of Heinrich Schliemann, the famous discoverer of Troy (by the way, it was already discovered a second time, in another place), is little known. He claims that during his stay in St. Petersburg he found and read an Egyptian papyrus kept in the Hermitage, which says the following:
“The pharaoh sent an expedition to the west to search for traces of the continent of Atlantis, from which the ancestors of the Egyptians arrived 3,350 years ago, bringing with them all the knowledge of their native country.”

Interestingly, Aristotle, who rejected Plato's account, argued that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians knew of a large island in the western Atlantic, which they called Antilla.

This name is very close to the Greco-Roman “Atlantis” (the so-called lost island or continent).

So if we prove the existence of this “chain of islands”, then not only Atlantis will become reliable, but also the ambiguities in the problem of settling America will disappear. The “Siberian route” through the Bering Isthmus does not explain everything completely, either in terms of time or in the ethnic composition of the South American peoples. Some of them, for example, the Mexican Olmecs with Negroid features, the creators of the oldest culture in this country, arrived (according to Professor Andrzej Wierczyński) from the Ibero-African region. Such a relocation would be highly questionable if the transatlantic island chain did not exist. The cradle of a number of other American tribes with clearly Indo-European ethnic features could, not without reason, be seen precisely on Atlantis.

Ancient sources are full of numerous references to the invasion of Europe and Africa by "sea peoples" from the west. The inhabitants of this region have preserved legends, records and even some ruins - traces of these invasions from the sea. Egyptian chronicles mention mysterious attacks by the “people of the sea.” Irish legends tell of froborgs who arrived from the Atlantic. The ruins of ancient stone fortresses testify to the attacks committed thousands of years ago. And what’s interesting: these stones bear traces of exposure to high temperatures. The Atlantic coast of Spain and France is also full of ancient ruins, covered with legends of attacks from the west in time immemorial.

The ancient Gauls, Irish, Welsh and other Celtic tribes were convinced that their ancestors came from a continent that had sunk in the "Western Sea". The Welsh called it Avalon.

The Basques, a completely mysterious racial and linguistic “island” in Southwestern France and Northern Spain, to this day believe that they are the descendants of Atlantis, which is called Atlantica. In Portugal there is also a widespread belief that Atlantis was near this country, and the Azores are its remnants.

The indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands still call them by their old name - Atalaya, and to the first newcomers from the continent they were presented as distant descendants of the few ancestors who survived the great catastrophe.
The Vikings claimed that Atli was a wonderful land in the west. For the ancient Arabs, the first civilization existed on the “continent of Hell in the Western Ocean.” Why, even the ancient Indian texts “Purana” and “Mahabharata” mention “Atallu, the White Island in the Western Ocean”, “half a world away” from India.

And so on and so forth. There are many such traces of the past in America. For example, in Venezuela, the conquistadors came across a village of “white people” called Atlan. However, other tribes they conquered also talked about their coming from across the sea, from places whose names repeated the sound combination atl.
The cultural similarities between the two continents are significant. Already the first Spaniards heard about things well known to them from the traditions of the Middle East, from the Bible and other texts: about the great flood that a few chosen ones and their animals survived on boats; about the construction of a high tower in order to avoid the next flood; about repentance and deliverance from sins; about communion in the form of bread, perceived as the body of God, and also about the cross, which turned out to be the oldest image of the Tree of Life.

The Indians, in turn, had long awaited the arrival of the Spaniards and, with an accuracy of up to a year, foresaw the return of the "white gods", who many centuries ago brought them civilization, and then sailed east.

What else struck the Spaniards, and still strikes us, is the use by the Indians of words from the ancient languages ​​of the Old World. So, for example, in the Aztec language Nahuatl there is the word theoakilli (TeosaSh), meaning "house of the gods", and in Greek - theou potassium (theou calia) - "God's house". Another Nahuatl word tepek (tepee), that is, "hill", sounds almost like tepe (tehe) - "hill" in the Turkic languages. The Indian "Potomac" (river in the USA) and numerous names of other rivers beginning with "pot" are reminiscent of the distant Greek patomas (potomos) - "river". There are too many such transatlantic linguistic similarities to be considered accidental. Here are a few more examples among hundreds of others:

The list of such similarities can be continued. It certainly rules out any chance. These words were carried overseas by people. We don't know how long ago or in what way. It is generally believed that this was done by Asian hunters and gatherers who migrated from Siberia, perhaps 50,000 years ago. The oldest human bones in the United States date back to the 40th millennium BC. The advance of the tribes through the Bering Strait to Alaska, and then through the lands of what is now Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America to Peru, Chile, Argentina and Tierra del Fuego, lasted millennia, and during this time, deserts, mountains, jungles and prairies were overcome, Hundreds of generations have passed. Well, let’s say that the average life expectancy of people of those times was 25 years - this means that in 1 thousand years - 40 generations, and in 40 thousand years - about 1600 generations. This is so much that that ancient living speech has completely changed, forming the current mosaic of almost radically different Indian languages.

It is difficult to agree that some Siberian tribe 40 thousand years ago used the word meo (leo), “holy”, and it was brought to the Aztecs, and then to the Greeks, and at the same time did not change for 1600 generations... But the word bal (bal) “axe”, in Sumer and among the Araucanians three-quarters of the way around the Earth? Oh, and unlikely.

The ethnic composition of the peoples of America suggests another solution. Although in general the inhabitants of the New World undoubtedly have Asian features, there are, however, islands of races with Negroid and Indo-European ethnic properties, and their presence cannot in any way be explained by Siberian migration. They and their languages ​​reached America from the Old World by a different route.

The mysteries don't end there. A prominent Sanskrit scholar, at my request, analyzed some Nahuatl words with which I associate biochemical meanings. And what happened? They have Sanskrit roots and have the same meaning as in Mexico!

For example, the name of the sign ollin ("movement") in its usual, everyday meaning symbolizes a double chromosome. In Vedic Sanskrit, the root “il” (I) actually means “to move”, “to move”, but also “to speak”! Hence, illin is “endowed with movement and speech,” that is, “information”! And those two sticks that are drawn in the sign of a cell actually carry genetic information and “move from cell to cell.”

There is too little space here to consider this problem in more detail, so I will only remind you that the Americas abound in names that undoubtedly come from Vedic Sanskrit - "the speech of the gods." But how is this possible if Sanskrit appeared in records 3.5 thousand years ago, and Asian languages ​​“penetrated” into America 10, 20, 30 centuries earlier? Only one answer suggests itself: someone taught the peoples in America, and in India, and in the Middle East, and in the area of ​​​​the Pillars of Hercules. And he carried out his mission by the closest route - the Atlantic. This “someone” disappeared from the face of the Earth along with his country.

Now let's move on to direct evidence of the existence of Atlantis. They were deep-sea discoveries made recently thanks to the development of diving technology and underwater research. On the sea shelf of the Azores, Canary Islands, Bahamas and Bermuda, scuba divers have discovered and photographed numerous stone walls, platforms and stairs laid by human hands thousands of years ago.

About 300 miles west of Gibraltar lies an underwater ridge of sunken mountains, rising 5 kilometers above the surrounding depths and not reaching about 200 meters from the surface of the water. Located in a semicircle, they were called “Horseshoe”.

This Horseshoe attracts a lot of attention from numerous sea researchers. Expeditions under different flags took geological samples of the bottom, benthic flora and fauna there, which brought interesting results.

Researchers were amazed to discover specific “wrinkles” in the bottom at a depth of several hundred meters. These are sand banks, the surface of which is covered with small wavy wrinkles, which form exclusively in coastal areas, where sea waves run onto the shore and roll down from it in powerful currents, carrying sand particles. Cliffs were also discovered - coastal cliffs washed away by the surf. Thus, irrefutable evidence was obtained that entire areas of the Horseshoe were once dry land.

But the real sensation was the photographs of the sunken Ampere plateau, lying about 70 meters below the surface of the water. They were made by a Soviet oceanographic expedition on the research vessel Akademik Petrovsky in January 1974. Its participant, V.I. Marakuev, a specialist in underwater photography, among thousands of photographs of the bottom “caught” those that turned out to be so sensational that the word “Atlantis” immediately hit the front pages of newspapers around the world.

One of the photographs shows a fragment of a wall about one and a half meters high and about two meters long, made of stone blocks connected by a bunch. On the other there is the same wall from above. The photograph allows you to determine the wall thickness of approximately 0.75 meters, as well as see the seams connecting the treated blocks. The third photograph shows five steps, partly filled with lava, and the fourth shows a stone platform made of flat slabs.

In the light of these and many other finds, today it is no longer possible to deny that the Atlantic hides the remains of some kind of human civilization. The most ancient legends about the “people of the sea” and their buildings received serious confirmation in reality.

Geologists who took bottom samples in various parts of the Atlantic in subsequent years collected a whole collection of volcanic rocks, which, without any doubt, solidified and crystallized in the atmosphere, outside the waters. Their age does not exceed 15 thousand years. So it can be considered proven that at that time large areas of the Atlantic Ocean floor were the earth's surface.

Wegener's theory of continental drift gives us further evidence. The coasts of the Old and New Worlds, which once formed a single whole, are visually linked on the map. The eastern shores of Brazil and Argentina correspond to the western shores of Africa. Greenland stretches towards Norway, Florida - towards Liberia. There is also geological correspondence on both sides of the ocean. Everything is in place here. With one exception: a piece of this mosaic that is supposed to be in the southern part of the North Atlantic has disappeared. But that's where he is. Only underwater! And in the very place where most legends would stop Atlantis.

Nature also remembers her. Birds remember. Sailors and fishermen report a striking phenomenon observed south of the Azores. It turns out that migratory birds, during winter migrations from Europe to South America, begin to circle here so low above the sea, as if they were looking for places to land. Not finding land, they fly further, but many weakened birds land on the water. This is repeated here in the spring, during the return flight. It seems that the birds are instinctively looking for the land on which flocks rested thousands of years ago.

It's a similar story with butterflies. A species of carpida, which lives on the northern coast of South America, seems to “remember” some land that once protruded from the waters northwest of Guyana. Every year, the males of this butterfly undertake a massive flight into the ocean and there they settle on the water in whole clouds.

With regard to the possibility of sinking vast areas of land to a considerable depth, much has been clarified in recent years. Acquaintance with the features of the seabed, the movement of continental plates, as well as the "programming" of probable collisions in the ancient times of the globe with giant cosmic bodies today makes it possible to scientifically substantiate several reliable hypotheses of Atlantis sinking into the ocean. One of them, which takes into account an extremely large amount of data from various fields and is based on a solid chronology and calculations, was developed by Dr. Emilio Spendicato, physicist, professor at the University of Bergamo in Italy - materials on it were kindly provided to me by Dr. Jan Golubets from the Polish Academy of Sciences.

This hypothesis considers the catastrophic disappearance of Atlantis as reported by Plato. In particular, it is largely confirmed by satellite photography of craters that appeared as a result of collisions of the earth with large meteorites; some craters (for example, in Brazil, which are 220 million years old) have a diameter of several tens of kilometers. The crater in Canada (Labrador Peninsula) became the Manicouagan Reservoir; its size is comparable to the Copernicus crater on the Moon. There are, of course, many more similar craters at the bottom of the oceans.

Such collisions should have led to innumerable long-term consequences on Earth: colossal geological, gravitational and magnetic disturbances, climate changes catastrophic for the planet.

According to Plato, the death of Atlantis occurred 9 thousand years before him, that is, about 11.5 thousand years ago, counting from our time. Professor Spendicato became interested in what happened during that period throughout the planet. And what? It was then that the last glaciation on Earth ended. The scientist calculated that a meteorite with a diameter of about 1.4 kilometers and a density of 3.3 grams per cubic centimeter crashed into the Earth in the Atlantic region, near the great island, at a speed of 25 kilometers per second. The energy released was equivalent to the explosion of a million megaton hydrogen bombs. Even at a distance of 10 thousand kilometers from the impact site, the temperature rose by 30 degrees, and winds blew at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour for 14 hours.

As a result of this collision, a crater 6 kilometers deep and 15 kilometers in diameter was formed. Since the ocean was not as deep then as it is now, a crater appeared at its bottom and an earthquake occurred, most likely causing the release of liquid magma. Then the instantaneous filling of the colossal crater with water thrown out and falling back formed a gigantic wave of a kilometer height, which even at a distance of 1 thousand kilometers went like a 100-meter wall. The thermal shock led to the explosive evaporation of huge masses of water, saturation of the atmosphere and long-term rainfall throughout the Earth. The result was the biblical flood, about which many peoples of the world still have legends. Due to the greenhouse effect, the temperature on the planet has risen so much that the rapid melting of glaciers has begun and, as a result, the level of the World Ocean has risen by about 120 meters.

G. ALEXANDROVSKY.

In the dialogues of the ancient thinker Plato there is still a grain that speaks of the reality of the legendary island. The legend of Atlantis has lived for more than two thousand years. But only a few decades ago, people, despairing of finding traces of a once prosperous state, classified Plato’s works as utopias. And here's a sensational twist: in our days, some historians and archaeologists have recognized that Plato's dialogues still contain a grain of real fact. We present three newest hypotheses suggesting where and when Atlantis died.

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

The legend of the Egyptian priests

In 421 BC. e. Greek philosopher Plato in two of his writings - Timaeus and Critias - outlined the history and sad end of the island nation of Atlantis. The story in the form of a dialogue is conducted by Plato's great-grandfather, Critias: he conveys the content of the conversation with his grandfather, who heard the story about Atlantis from a contemporary, Solon, an Athenian legislator and poet, who, in turn, learned about Atlantis from an Egyptian priest. And Plato in his texts repeatedly emphasizes that this is not a myth, but a true story of historical events.

Atlantis, according to Plato, is a huge island that lay in the ocean behind the Pillars of Hercules, that is, behind Gibraltar. In the center of the island there was a hill on which stood temples and a royal palace. The Acropolis - the upper city - was protected by two rows of earth embankments and three water ring channels. The outer ring was connected to the sea by a 500-meter canal through which ships entered the inner port. The life of Atlantis appears full of prosperity.

The temple of the main deity of the islanders - Poseidon, the ruler of the seas, was, Plato narrates, lined with gold, silver and orchilac (a recently unraveled word means an alloy of copper and zinc). Another temple dedicated to Poseidon and his wife Kleito, the progenitor of all Atlanteans, is surrounded by a golden wall. There were also a golden statue of Poseidon and golden statues of Nereids - numerous daughters of the sea deity. The Atlanteans had bronze weapons and thousands of war chariots. The mineral resources provided copper and silver.

The people had fun with horse races, thermal baths were at their service: two sources beat on the island - cold and hot water. Ships hurried to the harbor of Atlantis with ceramic dishes, spices, and rare ores. To supply the port with fresh water, the river bed was turned.

The island belonged to a powerful alliance of kings. And then the moment came when he decided to subjugate other countries, including Greece. However, Athens, showing valor and strength in the war, won. But, as Plato says, the Olympian gods, dissatisfied with the warring peoples, decided to punish them for greed and violence. A monstrous earthquake and flood “in one terrible day and one night” destroyed the Athenian army and all of Atlantis. The ocean waters swallowed the island.

47 years after Plato’s death, Krantor, a resident of Athens, went to Egypt to make sure whether the sources of the information used by the philosopher were really there. And he found, according to him, in the temple of Neith hieroglyphs with text about the events described.

Search

The search for Atlantis began at the very beginning of the new era - in the 50th year of Christ. Almost two thousand years since that time, many hypotheses have appeared about the location of Atlantis. Many were attracted by the wealth mentioned by Plato. Just think: take possession of golden walls and statues! Most interpreters of Critias and Timaeus pointed to the existing islands of the Atlantic Ocean. But there were other landmarks. Among the 50 points on Earth identified by enthusiasts for the search for Atlantis, there are some absolutely fantastic ones, for example Brazil or Siberia, the existence of which the ancient philosopher did not even suspect.

A new surge of interest in the search for the legendary island arose after the First World War. Underwater technology improved during wartime prompted adventurous businessmen to organize companies in several countries to search for the mysterious Atlantis. For example, the following note appeared in the French newspaper Le Figaro: “A society for the study and exploitation of Atlantis has been created in Paris.” The companies, of course, collapsed one after another, but the Russian writer Alexander Belyaev found in a newspaper publication the plot for his fantastic story “The Last Man from Atlantis.”

More than 50 thousand publications are devoted to the problem of the sunken island. Cinema and television also contributed to this story. More than 20 expeditions explored places where, according to their organizers, the people of Atlantis once prospered. But they all returned empty-handed.

To the two main questions - where? and when? - already in our century, objections from archaeologists were added, who considered the story of the abundance of gold and silver on the island to be fantasy. They also included a network of canals - circular and leading to the sea, an inland port and other hydraulic structures - among Plato's inventions: it was beyond their capabilities, supposedly, such large-scale projects were possible in those days. Researchers of Plato's philosophical and literary heritage believed that, by telling the story of the prosperous Atlantis, the ancient idealist thinker called on his contemporaries to build an exemplary state without dictatorship and tyranny. And in this sense, Plato is called the creator of the utopia genre. (Plato, in fact, in some of his writings called for the construction of an ideal state based on goodness and justice. He traveled from Athens to Syracuse three times, the last time as a very old man, in vain hoping to instill humane ideas in the tyrants there.) As for the time of the death of the island in ocean depths, then Plato named a date that contradicts all the data of modern science: according to his information, the catastrophe occurred 11,500 years ago to the present day, or 9,000 years, counting until the time of Plato himself. 12-10 thousand years ago, humanity was just emerging from the Paleolithic, the ancient Stone Age, and it is difficult to imagine that somewhere there lived a people whose development was many thousands of years ahead of the human race. The primary source of such an error could be incorrect determinations of the age of the Egyptian state carried out in ancient times. For example, Herodotus counted Egypt to be 11,340 years old.

Is it Atlantis?

"The Russians found Atlantis!" - with such sensational notices, many newspapers in Western Europe accompanied photographs of the seabed in 1979. In the photographs, vertical ridges were clearly visible under the layer of sand, reminiscent of the walls of a destroyed city. The impression of ancient city ruins was enhanced by the fact that other ridges ran along the bottom at right angles to the first.

The underwater images were taken by the Moscow University research vessel Akademik Petrovsky. The actions took place where Plato indicated - “behind the pillars of Hercules.” Once out into the Atlantic Ocean, the ship stopped over a sandbar to test its underwater equipment. Pure chance helped us choose a parking spot just above the underwater volcano Ampere. It was possible to establish that the Amper volcano once protruded from the water and was an island.

In 1982, the Soviet ship Rift lowered the Argus submersible into the ocean here. “We were presented with a panorama of the ruins of the city, since the walls very much imitated the remains of rooms, streets, squares,” the commander of the Argus, V. Bulyga, reported to the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, the next expedition of the Vityaz, which took place in the summer of 1984, did not confirm such encouraging impressions of the aquanaut. Two stones of fairly regular shape were lifted up from one of the walls, but their analysis showed that this was not the work of human hands, but volcanic rock. The commander of the Argus crew, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A. Gorodnitsky, writes: “Most likely, the stone is solidified lava that once poured out through the cracks of the volcano.” Another seamount, Josephine, also an ancient volcano and formerly an island, was also examined.

A. Gorodnitsky proposed his model of a grandiose geological disaster of the distant past. It arose due to a sharp shift in the northern direction of the African tectonic plate. Its collision with the European plate caused the eruption of the Santorini volcano in the east, and in the west - the immersion of the mentioned volcanic islands into the ocean. This hypothesis does not contradict the geological and geophysical data of modern science. However, once again Atlantis turned out to be not a fascinating hypothesis, but just a myth: scientists have not found any traces of the remains of the material culture of the Atlanteans.

There is a theory that the Greek island of Santorini was part of Atlantis. You might be thinking, how can an island in the Mediterranean have anything to do with a continent in the Atlantic Ocean? According to legend, the eastern coast of Atlantis reached the coasts of Spain and Africa, and the western coast extended to the Caribbean islands and the Yucatan Peninsula. The Bermuda Triangle and the Sargasso Sea were also parts of Atlantis. Several islands were adjacent to the continent, one of which was Santorini, in much the same way as Catalina is adjacent to the coast of California (only Santorini was further from Atlantis than Catalina from the coast of California).

Plato's two dialogues Timaeus and Critias are the only written sources of the time that speak of Atlantis . This dialogue is written in the form of a conversation between Socrates, Hermocrates, Timaeus and Critias, in which Timaeus and Critias tell Socrates about the social structures known to them. This conversation may confirm that the Greek island of Santorini was part of Atlantis.

The dialogue tells the story of the conflict between the Atlanteans and the Athenians, which occurred some 9,000 years before Plato's times. It is clear that from those days there are no records left, especially about Atlantis. Some fragments of Aristotle's works have been preserved, but the full text of the works of this great master has not survived to this day.

Many of the works of the time were destroyed in the fire at the Library of Alexandria, but even they provided limited information because much of the information was transmitted through oral tradition. (It is refreshing that we have full confidence in the Bible insofar as it relies on oral preliterate tradition, but when it comes to

Atlantis or Lemuria, skeptic scientists immediately appear...)

The continent of Atlantis appeared about 500,000 years ago, its civilization reached its peak about 15-12 thousand years ago. Unlike Lemuria, whose culture contributed to the development of spirituality, Atlantis was a continent of sciences, arts and technology. And if Lemuria was destroyed as a result of the natural processes of Mother Nature, the intelligent Atlanteans themselves destroyed their home as a result of experiments in the field of atomic energy and nuclear physics.

As a result of such experiments with electromagnetic energy, the continent disappeared under water, and most of the citizens of Atlantis died - only a few managed to escape, landing in Spain, Egypt and Yucatan. The Atlanteans seemed to lack the awareness that they were polluting the atmosphere through their industry; If we, modern people, treat the globe in the same way, we can fall into the same trap. Absolute power truly corrupts absolutely.

Atlantis: facts and evidence

1. A pyramid explored by Dr. Ray Brown on the seabed near the Bahamas in 1970. Brown was accompanied by four divers who also discovered houses, domes, rectangular structures, undetermined metal tools, and a statue holding a crystal with a miniature replica of the pyramid. Metal tools and crystals were brought to the surface and taken to Florida for further analysis. The crystal was found to increase the energy flowing through it.
2. The remains of roads and buildings on Binini Island were discovered and photographed in the 60s by the expedition of Dr. Manson Valentine. Similar underwater ruins were photographed in a coral reef area in the Bahamas. Similar remains of structures were discovered and photographed in Morocco at a depth of 15-18 meters under water.
3. A huge pyramid with 11 chambers and a large crystal at the top was, according to Tony Bank, discovered at a depth of 3000 meters underwater in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
4. In 1977, Ari Marshall's expedition reported that a huge pyramid was found and photographed near Say Reef in the Bahamas at a depth of about 45 meters. This pyramid is approximately 195 meters high. Life-giving, but around the pyramid the water was bright white, it flowed out of the hole in the pyramid, then the water was green, in contrast to the usual dark water at depth.
5. The flooded city, about 640 kilometers off the coast of Portugal, was found by a Soviet expedition led by Boris Asturois, its buildings were made of solid concrete and plastic. He said: "The remains of the streets suggest that monorail trains were used for transportation." A statue was raised from the bottom of the sea.
6. Heinrich Schliemann, the man who discovered and excavated the ruins of the famous Troy (historians considered it a legend), according to his contemporaries, handed over to scientists a vase made of an unknown metal recovered during the excavation of Priam's treasures. A seal in the Phoenician language was found in it, according to which this vase was a gift from the king of Atlantis, Kronos. A similar vase was found in Tiahuanaco, Bolivia.

There are supposed to be more facts, but you already get the idea. Obviously, numerous studies indicate the presence of ancient civilizations about which we know nothing.

The Atlanteans experienced three cataclysms throughout their history: the first about 50,000 years ago, the second about 25,000 years ago, and the third, which destroyed their civilization, about 12,000 years ago. Some Atlanteans considered these misfortunes to be warnings that continuing such a lifestyle would mean destroying their civilization. Unfortunately, these “doomsday heralds” were in the minority, and therefore no one heard them.

“The story of how the various continents were inhabited by this highly developed civilization is amazing, but after many years of its development, it ended its existence approximately 11,500 years ago as a result of a terrible planetary catastrophe that changed the face of the Earth and hid most of the land under water. The key to the history of the world before the rise of our civilization is to be found in the Sumerian texts."

Many believe that what happened to the Atlanteans is much like what I once said on television: a change in the tilt of the axis affected some of the Earth's masses, and this led to the splitting of the continents. Atlantis and Lemuria sank lower, and as a result, a significant part of the land was under water.

The Atlanteans experimented with electromagnetic energy and gravity, which was the main cause of destruction. Usually a change in the poles is accompanied by small earthquakes, volcanic explosions and movements of the earth's masses, but this time it was the largest in the entire history of the Earth (which explains the story of Noah and the Flood). Much of this story of “flooding the whole earth with water” can also be found in Sumerian texts.

Secrets of antiquity. Atlantis: the lost civilization.

There is hardly a person who has never heard the story of the mysterious island-state Atlantis. Did she exist or not?! And if so, where was it located, who inhabited it and what happened to it?! These are all questions to which clear answers have not yet been found...

Once described by Plato, Atlantis has occupied the minds of historians, archaeologists, philosophers and esotericists for many centuries. Moreover, the lack of scientifically confirmed evidence of the existence of this civilization does not stop its seekers and researchers.

Plato's narrative

For the first time, the ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, Plato of Athens (427-347 BC), told humanity about the island-state of Atlantis.

In his works Timaeus and Critias, presented in the form of dialogues between Socrates and the Pythagorean Timaeus, Plato discussed the best state structure. During the dispute, a third participant joined the conversation - the Athenian politician Critias. He spoke about the war between Athens and the state of Atlantis. Critias learned this story from his grandfather Critias the Elder, and he, in turn, heard it in a retelling by the poet and politician Solon, who heard about it from the priests in Egypt.

According to Plato, 9,000 years ago Athens went to war with the island nation of Atlantis. “This island was larger in size than Libya (Africa - author’s note) and Asia combined.” And Atlantis fell with its power on Athens. Frightened, the allies abandoned the Athenians, but the brave men repelled the onslaught of the Atlanteans and defeated them. After which the enslaved peoples were freed, and Atlantis itself was overtaken by a tremendous natural disaster, which not only killed all the Atlanteans, but also the army of the Athenians. It also sank this state to the seabed forever.

The philosopher describes Atlantis as a plain 3000 stadia long (540 kilometers) and 2000 stadia wide (360 kilometers). The capital of Atlantis was located on a hill island located 50 stadia (8-9 kilometers) from the sea. To protect against the elements, Poseidon, the ancestor of the Atlanteans, fenced off the hill with the city with three water and two land rings. And the Atlanteans themselves threw bridges over these rings and dug channels, so that ships could sail directly to the capital.

“The island on which the palace stood ... as well as earthen rings and a bridge wide (30 meters. - Approx. Aut.) The kings circled the circular stone walls and placed towers and gates everywhere on the bridges near the passages to the sea ... "

Plato described in such detail the wealth, beauty and fertility of an island he had never seen before that the reader got the feeling that the author saw it all with his own eyes. At the same time, the philosopher reproached the Atlanteans for the fact that in them the divine nature gave way to human greed, avarice and pride. Outraged by this, Zeus decided to exterminate the Atlanteans and convened a meeting of the gods. At this point Plato's dialogue ends.

Islands in the ocean

Since the Renaissance, when the works of Plato again found their readers, the search for the mysterious Atlantis has occupied the minds of mankind. Since then, dozens of versions of its presence, as well as its death, have been put forward. In the 50s of the XX century, even a doctrine appeared - atlantology.

One of the dominant hypotheses for the location of Atlantis comes down to its search in the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Pillars of Hercules. This is exactly what the Greeks, including Plato, called the rocks Gibraltar and Ceuta, between which the Strait of Gibraltar was located. Plato wrote that Atlantis was located to the west of the Pillars of Hercules, opposite the Atlanta Mountains. Therefore, Atlantis must be located near Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco.

By the way, Morocco among the Greeks was the abode of the titan Atlas, from whose name the names of the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlas Ridge came. From him the very name of Atlantis was formed - “the country of Atlanta”.

A number of researchers claim that the remnants of a once powerful island are the Canary Islands. So, according to the theory of atlantologists, the Canaries are the remains of a bridge “thrown” from Africa to Atlantis. However, the connection with Atlantis via the “Canary Bridge” was severed even earlier than with Africa, which can be seen from the topography of the ocean floor.

In 2009, English seafloor aerial photography specialist Bernie Bamford made a statement that he saw Atlantis in one of the images of the Atlantic Ocean, five hundred kilometers from the Canary Islands.

At a depth of 5 kilometers, Bamford saw a rectangle consisting of a grid of intersecting lines. They seemed to him like the streets of a flooded city.

Moreover, the city, according to Bamford, surpassed modern megacities and was equal in area to approximately half of the Moscow region! However, in the photograph with lines and rectangles, the ring canals described by Plato were not visible. In addition, skeptics believed that these were not genuine lines, but virtual directions of sonars (devices used to detect and study underwater objects). Although there should be no breaks in the sonar lines, but there were some in the picture.

Soviet oceanologists also searched for Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean. In the 70-80s of the last century, five hundred kilometers west of the Strait of Gibraltar, in the Azores region, near the Amper seamount, scientific expeditions on the ships Akademik Petrovsky and Akademik Kurchatov discovered strange vertical structures similar to the walls of an ancient city .

They protruded from a layer of light sand and were also located at right angles; moreover, scientists noticed blocks separated by seams. But most importantly, a study of a piece of basalt from the top of the mountain showed that such rock could only have formed on land about 12 thousand years ago. Which fits perfectly into Plato's narrative.

Destroyed Minoans

It is no secret that scientists view written monuments with a fair amount of skepticism and admit the presence of various hyperboles and allegories among ancient authors.

Therefore, it seems quite reasonable to assume that Atlantis had as its prototype the island of Crete with the highly developed Minoan civilization that existed on it and the island of Santorini, partially destroyed by a volcanic explosion, in the Mediterranean Sea.

But the volcanic eruption on the island of Strongila (Santorini is part of this giant island), which killed the Minoans, occurred in the 17th century BC. That is, not 9000, but a maximum of 1000 years before Plato. The eruption and earthquake first destroyed the foundation of the island, and the resulting gigantic tsunami covered the northern coast of Crete (the largest part of the island metropolis) with a giant wave.

The fields that provided the Minoans with food resources were covered with volcanic ash, making them impossible to cultivate. And hunger completed the tragedy. At the same time, the wind rose with volcanic ash bypassed Greece and Egypt, the rivals of the Minoans.

Taking into account the unexpected advantage, the Achaeans (the population of mainland Greece) landed on Crete and enslaved their opponents, who no longer had the same power.

Describing the capital of Atlantis, Plato mentioned a concentric canal along which ships sailed and went out to sea from there. This description is quite consistent with an island volcanic caldera with a ring shaft and a central island.

Another version comes down to the fact that Atlantis was located in the Black Sea region, and the Black Sea itself was then still an inland lake. Presumably, in the 6th millennium BC the level of the Black Sea rose catastrophically - by 60 meters within a year.

This happened as a result of a volcanic eruption, subsequent tsunami and the breakthrough of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Scientists explain the biblical story of the Flood with the same version. Moreover, the flooding of vast territories expelled the local population to Europe and Asia, where along with them came information about the lost state.

It is interesting that the Romanian researcher Nikolai Densusheanu, without denying Atlantis a Black Sea location, believes that it was on the territory of modern Romania. He believes that the Lower Danube Plain corresponds to the description of the central plain of Atlantis. It has a rectangular shape measuring 534 by 356 kilometers (3000 by 2000 stadia). The Atlas Mountains in this case are the Southern Carpathians, and the problem with the Romanian island is solved by the fact that Plato could easily mix the terms “river” - “sea” - “ocean” and “island” - “country”.

Antarctica, Andes and Tibet

Quite a large number of atlantologists are inclined to believe that Atlantis was located on the territory of Antarctica.

As arguments, supporters of this version cite the map of Piri Reis, created in Turkey in 1513 based on ancient maps. According to it, Antarctica was located near the equator, but as a result of lithospheric shift it was moved to the South Pole. True, this version does not stand up to criticism from a geological point of view.

Other supporters of Atlantis being in the ice refer to the fact that the island, although not located near the equator, had a quite comfortable climate. And the collision of the Earth with a huge meteorite 10-15 thousand years ago caused a shift in the earth’s axis. As a result, Atlantis moved to the South Pole.

But modern science has proven that it is impossible to move the earth’s axis very quickly, and scientific data on the icing of Antarctica suggests that this happened in other periods of time.

As already mentioned, humanity began to search for Atlantis during the Renaissance. In this regard, the book “History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Province of Peru,” created in 1555 by the secretary of the Royal Council of Castile, Agustin da Zarate, is of interest. The author writes that Plato’s 9000 years from the flood are 750 ordinary years, since according to the Egyptian chronology, they took into account the modern month for the year.

The search for Atlantis in the Andes is supported by the fact that the civilization of the South American Indians had high achievements, which they inherited from another, more ancient civilization. However, hypotheses about the transfer of knowledge to the Indians regularly appear in other pseudoscientific theories.

William Scott-Elliot, in The History of Atlantis (1896), writes that Atlantis eventually broke up into two large islands. One of them was called Daitya, the other was Ruta, which was later reduced to the last remnant known as Poseidonis.

The famous Russian ophthalmologist and anomalous researcher Ernst Muldashev, who visited Tibet many times, claims that Atlantis existed in the Himalayas and Tibet region at a time when the entire earth was covered with water. The climate of the island was mild, and the Atlanteans had access to high technology, with the help of which they generated the necessary energy. They died, according to Muldashev, as a result of the impact of comet Typhon on the Earth.

Plato is my friend but the truth is dearer

Despite the abundance of versions and even some artifacts, most serious scientists are inclined to believe that by writing the story of Atlantis, Plato created only a philosophical myth and nothing more. Unlike Aristotle, Plato never burdened his reader with real facts, but instead gave many reasons that could awaken the imagination.

However, today all the facts indicated in Plato’s narrative are refuted by archaeological data. Neither in Greece, nor in western Europe and Africa, nor at the end of the glacial and post-glacial periods, nor in subsequent millennia, archaeologists could find traces of a highly developed civilization.

Necklace of Tartessus: some researchers believe that the disappeared Tartessian people who lived in Spain were descendants of the Atlanteans.

However, Atlantologists are often reluctant to accept testable arguments and focus on the “unverifiable” part of Plato’s narrative. In particular, the emphasis is on the secret knowledge of the Egyptian priests. At the same time, nothing was found in the texts of the ancient Egyptian papyri themselves that even remotely coincided with Plato’s story. Also, the philosopher uses Greek names of characters and titles in his story, while the Greeks, when describing real events, always wrote identical names.

The most plausible version of the origin of the myth of Atlantis is the assumption that Plato used two real cases from history. The first is the defeat and death of the Athenian army and navy during an attempt to conquer Sicily in 413 BC. The second is the destruction by a tsunami of the city of Heliki in the Peloponnese in 373 BC.

For several centuries, the ruins of Helika were visible from under the water. Plato needed the myth of Atlantis to illustrate his political ideas and philosophical views.

And so that no unnecessary questions would arise about where this island was, Plato himself “destroyed” it many thousands of years ago. But the descendants just don’t want to come to terms with the fact that Atlantis existed only in the imagination.

Alexey MARTOV

The search for the remains of previous civilizations on Earth has always been considered one of the most intriguing mysteries of modern humanity. The most extensive research on this issue was carried out in search of the remains of the legendary Atlantis, but in vain. The question arises: did the island state really exist?

Who did Plato write about?

In the modern world, there is no historical mystery to which as many scientific studies, books, documentaries and feature films have been devoted as the search for the mythical Atlantis. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, a student of Socrates himself, was the first to tell humanity about its existence. Considering his influence and popularity in ancient Greece, there is no doubt about the words of the famous philosopher. According to Plato, the island state existed more than 12,000 years ago and sank during a natural disaster. If the remains of Atlantis are discovered, humanity will reliably learn about how the antediluvian civilizations of the planet lived, what knowledge and technologies they possessed. The most interesting thing is that nowadays there is no question whether Atlantis really existed. It is only necessary to determine which of the cities found at the bottom of the world's oceans is the historical Atlantis.

City of Poseidon

The signs by which researchers recognize Atlantis can be understood by reading the legend about its mythical creator Poseidon. According to legend, having fallen in love with an ordinary earthly woman named Kleito, the god of the seas Poseidon decided to build a beautiful city for her on a sea island. After a long search, the god of the seas chose an island called Atlantis, inhabited by beautiful, tall people. It was on their land that Poseidon erected a majestic city, consisting of alternating five rings of water and land, connected by wide canals. The entrance to them from the sea was guarded by two watchtowers and a wall built of red, white and black stones. In the center of the city on the “Hill of Kleito” Poseidon created a magnificent palace in which he indulged in pleasures with his beloved. Subsequently, the children of the god of the seas, born from Kleito, built a temple in honor of their father, decorated with his giant statue made of pure gold. On it, Poseidon drives a chariot drawn by winged horses. It is assumed that it is the megalithic buildings and the statue of Poseidon that researchers will have to determine the location of the legendary Atlantis.

Was Atlantis found in Cuba?

In order to determine for certain where on Earth the famous island state was located, it is necessary to discard all dubious versions that placed Atlantis: on the Black Sea coast, in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Pacific Ocean and even in Antarctica. It is unlikely that ancient Greek scientists were so uneducated as to confuse seas and oceans when describing the place where the island state was located. And it’s absolutely certain that the eminent philosophers of ancient Greece would not have created Atlantis, as some researchers say. The most amazing thing is that five years ago the supposed remains of Atlantis were found, and exactly where Plato located it - in the Atlantic Ocean in the center of the Bermuda Triangle.

Were the Atlanteans built the pyramids?

Humanity owes the discovery of the remains of Atlantis in 2012 to two researchers Paul Weinzweig and Paulina Zalitsky. After serious theoretical calculations, scientists decided to test their conclusions in practice. Using deep-sea vehicles operating autonomously, they explored in detail a section of the Atlantic Ocean near the coast of Cuba. The results of the devices exceeded all their wildest expectations. Underwater photographs appeared in which researchers were surprised to discover giant pyramids, several sphinxes, as well as many other megalithic buildings and structures. The ruins of the ancient city were located at a depth of about 180 meters. The distance is not critical for modern automatic bathyscaphes. The use of special equipment will allow us to examine in sufficient detail the flooded buildings, which are likely to hide many amazing artifacts.

What destroyed the ancient city?

According to scientists, Atlantis was flooded during the end of the Ice Age, when powerful streams of water poured from the poles towards the Equator. Atlantis was not the only one affected. In those years, many large centers of human civilization instantly disappeared under water. Unfortunately, the outstanding scientific technologies of the Atlanteans could not protect their island state from the rampant elements. However, modern human civilization, with the existing level of scientific and technological progress, would also not be able to do this. Numerous storms and hurricanes that periodically hit the United States and Central American countries eloquently prove this. The catastrophe that sent Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean occurred approximately 12,900 years ago. However, the island nation was not completely underwater. Modern atlantologists, based on the discovery of Paul Weinzweig and Paulina Zalitsky, believe that Cuba is a surviving part of Atlantis.

What did Atlanteans look like?

Despite the irrefutability of underwater finds, supporters of the location of Atlantis in other parts of the world rightly demand additional evidence. The desire is quite logical and the necessary facts were provided to them. Firstly, as we know, humanity learned about the existence of an ancient state from Plato’s works Timaeus and Critias. Having compared the description of the island city given in literary monuments and the location of underwater ruins off the coast of Cuba, scientists discovered that they are completely identical. But this cannot be said about any other supposed location of Atlantis. Secondly, the Olmec civilization, which in ancient times inhabited the territory of Central America, according to the legends of this people, originates from an island with the telling name Atlanticu. Comments, as they say, are unnecessary. Thirdly, the US Institute of Anthropology, which studied the Olmec civilization in detail, noted: the writings and patterns of this people completely coincide with what researchers discovered at the bottom of the ocean. Olmec mythological texts also point to their origins from a continent that sank as a result of a natural disaster caused by an earthquake and a sharp rise in water. Today there is no doubt that the underwater city off the coast of Cuba is the legendary Atlantis, which actually existed. Today, exploration of the sunken city continues. Let's hope that humanity will soon receive a lot of additional evidence of the real existence of Atlantis.