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The Lost city of Atlantis - a Myth or a Fact?
Around 11 centuries ago, there believed to be existed a beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean known as Atlantis. This entire island was subjected to cataclysmic destruction by continuous Earthquakes and floods, vanishing completely in a one day and one night. This magical island was first described by the Greek philosopher, Plato around 350 B.C. in his dialogues between Timaeus and Critias. Though the story described by Plato is thought to be a fairy tale by majority of people, yet it does not stop the believers from the quest of looking down for the Lost city, Atlantis. It still captures the imaginations of millions. Is Atlantis really a true story or it's just a fairy tale?
The Atlantis:
The island of Atlantis was described almost as a sublime land situated in the West to the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar). The island was even larger than Libya and Asia combined. Plato described Atlantians as the major naval power in the Atlantic ocean and also as proficient engineers and architects possessing great technical knowledge. They even built many temples, magnificent monuments and palaces with hot and cold springs. At the top of the Central hill, there was a golden statue of the God Poseidon with a chariot pulled by winged horses which acted as a center for judicial agreements. Farmers grew the crops in the fertile plains on the outskirts of the capital city and there was an intricate irrigation system to supply water for the fields. The lush islands, even consisted of great medicinal herbs, exotic wildlife and rich metals.
The island slowly grew as a center for the great trade and commerce. The Atlantians began to live with peace and prosperity. This was the case for many centuries, and later on, the divine lineage became diluted with the rise the greediness and corruptness among the people. This led them to wage wars on the neighboring nations for wealth and slowly began to occupy most parts of Europe and North Africa. When tried to occupy Athens and Egypt, the Athenians intrepidly resisted Atlantians and defeated them. The happiness was just a sojourn for Athenians. The Athenians suffered frenzied attacks of earthquakes and volcanic outbursts which destroyed their army. The catastrophe even struck the island of Atlantis, which plunged it deep into the Atlantic ocean in one day and one night.
The story and it's origin:
Plato described Atlantis as a domain of the Sea God, Poseidon. Poseidon built a large home for his mortal wife, Cleito and protected her by five rings of water and land connected only by tunnels for the passage of large ships. She gave birth to five sets of twin boys and each of them ruled the islands of the continent. Atlas, the eldest of them was given the capital city to rule. The founders were half-god and half-human and there flourished the great Utopian civilization which stood as a center for great art, peace and wisdom. But that was just a sojourn as the Atlantians slowly became unscrupulous. Zeus, the God of Gods wanted to teach them a lesson and gathered all Gods. The story was ended here by Plato and there was no description ahead.
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| A 15th century Latin translation of Plato's Timaeus |
This story was actually described as dialogues between four real characters : Socrates- a Greek philosopher and Plato's teacher, Timaeus- an Italian astronomer and scholar, Critias- a poet and historian and Hemocrates- statesman from Syracuse. In response to the Socrates prior talk on ideal societies, Timaeus and Critias tell this story to Socrates. Timaeus serves only as a preface to Atlantis whereas Critias provides a detailed description of the island of Atlantis, its glory and eventually its downfall. Actually, there were two Critias mentioned in the records, of them, one Critias (elder) being the grandfather of other Critias (younger). The grandfather Critias narrated the story to his grandson Critias. Critias (elder) learns the story from his father Dropides who heard it from his friend Salon (300 years before Plato). Salon was a great statesman and poet who allegedly heard the story from the Egyptian priests (who heard the story 9000 years before) during his stay in Sais, Egypt. Salon, hence passed this story to his descendants.
Re-emerging of the magical island:
The legend of Atlantis was just a mere metaphor for a longer time in the history and it was for four centuries, this magical island is grabbing the fascination of the researchers. Though Plato was perspicuous in the location of Atlantis near the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) in the Atlantic ocean, there was never found a requisite evidence for the existence of such island.
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| Different proposed possible locations for the Lost City, Atlantis |
Here are a few proposed theories on Atlantis.
- In 1679, a Swedish scientist Olaus Rudbeck proposed Atlantis' original site was Sweden with his four-volume book Atland. But the majority of the people weren't convinced by that.
- The real fascination was started when Ignatius Donelly published his book Atlantis- The Antediluvian World which became the world's bestseller. He theorized the most likely existence of Atlantis was near the Azores islands situated west to the Portuguese coast. Researchers have nonetheless found any evidence near the Azores islands and found his theory erroneous.
- The renowned American psychic Edward Cayce believed intimations regarding Atlantis would be near Bimini islands in the Bahamas. Recent investigations found a mystical half mile long road was found near the North Bimini island strengthening this theory.
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| Bimini Island's view from space |
- J.M. Allen, a Scotsman who worked with British Royal Air Force wrote a book Atlantis : The Andes Solution in which he propounded Atlantis was a place is in the Altiplano of Bolivia.
- A Greek archaeologist, Angelos Galanopoulos postulated -a devastating volcanic eruption struck the island of Santorini (ancient Thera) near Crete in 1500 B.C. which wiped out hastily the entire civilization of Minoans. This was the most believable theory as the Minoans were sophisticated with strong naval power matching with the description of Atlantians as per Plato. The major flaw in this theory was the time of eruption of this massive volcano and Atlantis' destruction described by Plato do not match at all.
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| Picture depicting Minoan Art |
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| Satellite image of Santorini Island |
- In 1920's Adolf Schulten, a German historian and archaeologist believes that Plato has used the island of Tartessos for Atlantis.
- In the Atlantic Ocean itself, researchers found Spartel island which was found submerged in the ocean in an exact location of Atlantis as described by Plato.
- Some believe that Atlantis wasn't sunk into the ocean but was actually in the swampy lands along the coast of Spain
- There are many other proposed locations of Atlantis- Antarctica, Cyprus, Central America or even in China Sea.
Is Atlantis a fact or just a myth?
The Lost City of Atlantis has been a debate for more than 2000 years. Many think Plato just framed this fable just to impose his philosophical ideas on the corrupt Athenians who would similarly face the divine punishment if they head towards the same path as Atlantians. Crantor, the follower of Plato is said to have believed it while Strabo, a historian records Atlantis as Aristotle's (Plato's student) joke. In support of this statement, till now, no requisite evidence was found. Some believe that Plato has just exaggerated Atlantis and took his story from the Trojan War or the invasion of Sicily by Athens that happened in 413 B.C. or even from the Minonian civilization. The theory was proposed by Greek archaeologist Galanopoulos was justified by proposing that- While translation, the Egyptian symbol for 100 (coiled rope) was mistaken for 1000 (Lotus). This would imply that the story of Atlantis took place not 9000 years, but 900 years before Plato's writing. This theory explains the sophisticated technology of Atlantians but do not match with the location of Atlantis as Plato described. Some historians believe that the Atlantians were the original builders of the Pyramids and Sphinx which explains their sophisticated constructions. But, I feel, this is just a bizarre theory.
But the recent investigations located evidence- in the marshlands of Spain; an evidence on Spartel island which was found to be matching with the location of Atlantis; a half-mile bridge of limestone rocks found near Bahamas are giving a new hope to the believers. Atlantis, may be a real story or even fiction, but has led to unveil many lost civilizations of the world.
Was it real or a fairytale? Really getting confused. I wish one day I will get my answer.
ReplyDeleteConfusion going on.....................................
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