Atlantis - where is it? It's Hidden!

In the Critias and Timaeus dialogues of Plato (428-348 BCE) are where you'll find the first written references to Atlantis where he referred to a lost land that was engulfed by the ocean as the result of an earthquake 9000 years prior (during the last Ice Age). He claimed that it lay outside the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Strait of Gibraltar). "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 from 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 travellers 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 mos 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 marvellous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent." [1] Plato's Uncle believed the Atlanteans to have conquered the Mediterranean from Egypt to Tyrrhenia (now known as Central Italy) and enslaved its people, followed by the Athenians leading an alliance of resistors and prevailing against the Atlanteans, 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." [1]  According to Plato, Atlantas was discovered by Solon at Sais in Egypt, the Athenian Lawgiver where a priest had deciphered an old papyrus that spoke of how there had once been a large continent "beyond the Pillars of Hercules" that had been punished for its impiety with destruction. That there had been a royal island where there was a castle of the Atlantean Kings, and a temple dedicated to the Sea God. It spoke of an unknown mineral called orichalc being mined here and as such, from the very first the idea of Atlantis has been associated with the legendary and the occult. Despite scientific arguments to the contrary, Atlantis is associated with man's hidden search for wisdom as Solons' search in Egypt represents the perennial search of the Greek world and its successors for the supposed lost knowledge that the world possessed in the Golden Age before the Flood.   Interest in Atlantis has been present in every age since the Renaissance age but in particular in the 18th century when Ignatius Donnelly published "Atlantis, or the Antediluvian World" (1882), influencing Madame Blavatsky and her disciple, Walter Scot-Elliot, who incorporated it into her own work (The Secret Doctrine (1888)) as supporting evidence to her theory that several races existed before humanity as we know it, and that Atlanteans were one of the lost races.   There are many places believed to have been Atlantis but no-one knows for sure where it was. A survey ship called "Kurchatov" had been surveying an underwater plateau in the 1970s, in a part of the Atlantic Ocean called "The Ampere Seamount" when Professor Aksyenov came across what appeared to be the remains of a sunken city. Little has been heard of this claim and reporters were tempted to make mockery of this claim, however they gave the Professor the benefit of the doubt and conveyed his discovery to readers worldwide.   Whilst there is no indisputable proof of the existence of Atlantis, there are many places that are thought to have been the lost Island.

• Santorini (Greek Island)

• According to archeologists, a volcano eruped around 1450BC and destroyed it and its people. This corresponds with the apparent ending of Atlantis according to Plato, many other details do not fit, such as it being a long way from the Atlantic Ocean.

• Crete

• This is another version of the Santorini story where it was engulfed in a tidal wave created by a volcanic eruption and supporters of this theory have drawn similarities between the Advanced society of Atlantis, and the advanced society of the Minoan civilisation.

• North America

• A revival of the Atlantean interest happened with the discovery of the New World and many assumed that Atlantis and America were one and the same.

• John Swan in 1644 wrote "this I may think may be supposed that America was sometimes part of that great land which Plato calleth the Atlantick Island, and that the Kings of that island had some intercourse between the people of Europe and Africa". Although strangely, he believed that America/Atlantis had been swamped only temporarily but by the time of its resurface as the New World, it had been forgotten about.

• The Atlantic

• Many theorists believe Atlantis to be in the Atlantic Ocean but they differ on the exact location of it from the South-west near Puerto Rica (Otto Muck) to it being opposite the Meditteranean Sea.

• "there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant of an Atlantic continent, and known to the ancient world as Atlantis." Ignatius Donnelly

• Athansius Kircher, in the 1600s, decided that the Azores were the tips of submerged Atlantean mountains and even drew a map of where he though Atlantis had once been.

• Taressus in Spain.

• There can be a strong case made for this city (the biblical Tarshish) which once stood near Cadiz due to its similarities. Like Atlantis, it disappeared suddenly after years of prosperity, its citizens having played an active role in wars and politics of the ancient world. The city was in sight of mountains and the surrounding plain was rich in minerals, animal life and crops moreover, it was near the Pillars of Hercules, as mentioned by Plato.

• Near Bimini in the Bahamas

• This theory comes from a curious prophecy by Edgar Cayce in 1968, who was an American who claimed to have clairvoyant powers and seemed to be on the verge of coming true. Underwater exploration and expeditions in the 70s turned up a strange "road" 1000 feet long and made of carefully worked stones. Immediately speculation focused on this prediction, despite the protestations of geologists who recognised and insisted it to be a common phenomenon known as "beach rock".

• Africa

• There are many theories that place Atlantis in many different parts of Africa. Felix Berlious said it was in Moroccos in 1874, Count Byron Kuhn de Prorok went to locate it in the Sahara Desert, and Paul Borchardt said he was confident it was in a Tunisian swamp in 1926.

• Various places of the Far North

• in the 17th century, Olof Rudbeck "proved" that Atlantis was Sweden, and in the 1950s, Jurgen Spanuth decided that it was of Heliogland but J.S. Bailly concluded that Atlantis was actually Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean.

• Great Britain

• In the 1940s, an eccentric British write called William Comyns Beaumont suggested that it was a chunk of northern Britain that had disappeared in the sea after being hit by a huge comet. This was one of his more credibly theories...he also believed that Jesus Christ was born in Wales.

• In Platos' mind.

• Many people believe Atlantis to be a completely made up island that resided in Platos' mind as a myth or parable in order to further a philosophical argument.

      So what do you think? Where do you think Atlantis is? Or is it completely made up?   References [1] Breverton, T (2011), Brevertons Phantasmagoria: A Compendium of Monsters, Myths and Legends, Quercus Publishing, London [2] Rhine, J B (1974) Encyclopedia of The Unexplained, Rainbird Reference Books Ltd, London) [3] Clarke, A, C. et al (1993) Arthur C. Clarkes A-Z of Mysteries: From Atlantis to Zombie, Harper Collins, Suffolk   Bibliography [1] Breverton, T (2011), Brevertons Phantasmagoria: A Compendium of Monsters, Myths and Legends, Quercus Publishing, London [2] Rhine, J B (1974) Encyclopedia of The Unexplained, Rainbird Reference Books Ltd, London) [3] Clarke, A, C. et al (1993) Arthur C. Clarkes A-Z of Mysteries: From Atlantis to Zombie, Harper Collins, Suffolk