History of Atlantis, a likely mythical island nation mentioned in Plato’s dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias,” has been an object of fascination among western philosophers and historians for nearly 2,400 years. Plato (c.424–328 B.C.) describes it as a powerful and advanced kingdom that sank, in a night and a day, into the ocean around 9,600 B.C. The ancient Greeks were divided as to whether Plato’s story was to be taken as history or mere metaphor. Since the 19th century there has been renewed interest in linking Plato’s Atlantis to historical locations, most commonly the Greek island of Santorini, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption around 1,600 B.C.
History Of Atlantis City
In the first centuries of the Christian era, Aristotle was taken at his word and Atlantis was little discussed. In 1627, the English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon published a utopian novel titled “The New Atlantis,” depicting, like Plato before him, a politically and scientifically advanced society on a previously unknown oceanic island. In 1882, former U.S. Congressman Ignatious L. Donnelly published “History Of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World,” which touched off a frenzy of works attempting to locate and learn from a historical Atlantis. Donnelly hypothesized an advanced civilization whose immigrants had populated much of ancient Europe, Africa and the Americas, and whose heroes had inspired Greek, Hindu and Scandinavian mythology. Donnelley’s theories were popularized and elaborated by turn-of-the-20th-century theosophists and are often incorporated into contemporary New Age beliefs.
From time to time, archaeologists and historians locate evidence—a swampy, prehistoric city in coastal Spain; a suspicious undersea rock formation in the Bahamas—that might be a source of the Atlantis story. Of these, the site with the widest acceptance is the Greek island of Santorini (ancient Thera), a half-submerged caldera created by the massive second-millennium-B.C. volcanic eruption whose tsunami may have hastened the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete.
Plato’s Story Of Atlantis
If the writing of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato had not contained so much truth about the human condition, his name would have been forgotten centuries ago.
But one of his most famous stories—the cataclysmic destruction of the ancient civilization of Atlantis—is almost certainly false. So why is this story still repeated more than 2,300 years after Plato’s death?
“It’s a story that captures the imagination,” says James Romm, a professor of classics at Bard College in Annandale, New York. “It’s a great myth. It has a lot of elements that people love to fantasize about.”
Plato told the story of Atlantis around 360 B.C. The founders of Atlantis, he said, were half god and half human. They created a utopian civilization and became a great naval power. Their home was made up of concentric islands separated by wide moats and linked by a canal that penetrated to the center. The lush islands contained gold, silver, and other precious metals and supported an abundance of rare, exotic wildlife. There was a great capital city on the central island.
There are many theories about where Atl antis was—in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Spain, even under what is now Antarctica. “Pick a spot on the map, and someone has said that Atlantis was there,” says Charles Orser, curator of history at the New York State Museum in Albany. “Every place you can imagine.”
Plato said Atlantis existed about 9,000 years before his own time, and that its story had been passed down by poets, priests, and others. But Plato’s writings about Atlantis are the only known records of its existence.
Atlantis The Lost City History – Top 10 Amazing Facts About the Lost City of Atlantis
1. Where is Atlantis – The Mysterious Location
The biggest question that boggles the minds of all scientists is where Atlantis is. The narrations suggested that the city is believed to have sunk into the sea after an earthquake or tsunami. According to him, the so-called Atlantis was a large island near the Rock of Gibraltar and consisted of a Poseidon statue, concentric walls and canals.
Plato added that the city under the sea should have been somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. However, no technology has revealed any such town on the ocean bed.
While some theories suggested that the Atlantis is located in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Spain, few also argued that it could be even under Antarctica.
For a long time, the Azores was believed to be the site of the city of Atlantis. However, the new research has revealed a new place, and the scientists are sure that Atlantis can be found in Cadiz, somewhere between the Spain and Morocco waters.
The extent of truth in this story is a mystery in itself. Questions like where are Atlantis or do it even exist for real are still unanswered. But until the truth beneath it can be unravelled entirely, the world will continue speculating about the existence of the greatest city of all times.
2. The unknown size of ‘the giant city.’
Plato, talking about the mysterious underwater kingdom, wrote:
“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 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.”
Agreeing with Plato over the size of the island, Tertullian, an early Christian author who believed that Atlantis once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, said it would be bigger than today’s Libya and Asia combined.
Since many others proposed the location of the city of Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea, narrations have come out scaling the size of the city to Crete, Greece’s largest island.
However, in many stories after Plato’s era, Atlantis was described as a giant city, missing anything specific about the size of the city. Edgar Cayce, an American Christian mystic, suggested that Atlantis and Eurasia were equal in size.
3. Tale of God’s love
Legend says that the Atlantis city was built by Poseidon- the God of Sea, of storms and earthquakes- when he fell in love with a mortal woman Cleito. He made this city on top of a hill, on an isolated island in the sea, to protect her and named it Atlantis.
According to the story, Poseidon walked through the world to find the biggest island until he reached the biggest of them all, Atlantis and found it inhabited by people who were more beautiful and intelligent than the rest of the world. There he met and fell in love with a woman called Cleito.
4. The ‘Captivation’ Palace
The new home built by Poseidon for his love in the City of Atlantis was surrounded by rings of water and land. The five rounds of water were connected to the ground with the help of five tunnels, where a vast canal connected the outer rings of water to the ocean.
The tunnels could accommodate ships, and every route to the city was guarded by gates and towers. Moreover, the wall surrounding the rings was built using red, white and black rock and decorated with precious metals.
Meanwhile, there was another hill called the ‘Hill of Cleito’ where, it is believed, Poseidon captivated his wife because he distrusted her loyalty. Huge moats and pillars surrounded this hill.
5. The Golden Statue of Poseidon
The fable tells that Cleito had five pairs of twin sons with Poseidon, the eldest of which was named Atlas. The ten sons inherited the great city and the first child, Atlas, became the first ruler of Atlantis.
However, it is believed they also built a massive temple for their father with a giant statue of Poseidon riding a chariot carried by winged horses.
The statue was utterly built-in gold and placed in a temple with its spiral roof so high that the clouds drifted through the spirals of the temple.
6. The self-sufficient and prosperous city
The fertile and beautiful city of Atlantis, where half-god and half-human lived, is believed to have been an autonomous region where people grew their food and reared animals.
Farmers in the city used to grow crops in the fertile plains on the outskirts with the help of a well-maintained irrigation system.
They also built beautiful buildings and other architecture from black and red stone materials. They also had access to rare metals and even alloys like brass made, used crystals extensively for leisure and experimental purposes, and had a lot of free time to play with volcanoes.
7. Rising of Atlantis
Other than the legend of the lost city of Atlantis and other fables, the fact about the city remains unknown. Among historians and other researchers, the findings of Edgar Cayce had something different to tell.
Edgar Cayce believed in the rising of the lost city once again like ‘the sun rises from the sea. He predicted a new land would appear off the east coast of North America.
He also suggested that the souls of many people who lived in Atlantis had been incarnating to America to usher in a new era of enlightened human consciousness.
8. Atlantis’ extra-terrestrial connection
Stories also claim that the original inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis are believed to be of extra-terrestrial origin and reached there about 50,000 years ago from the Lyrian star system.
Despite being much taller and fairer than today’s average human being, the average life span of these people is believed to have been 800 years, making them robust prototypes of the existent human race then.
9. Exceptional powers of Atlanteans
As some claim that the Lost City of Atlantis was on Mars or just a colony of an alien civilization, History of Atlantis city are believed to possess exceptional powers such as the ability to control the weather and modify volcanic eruptions.
Some accounts also mention possessing a device that allowed them to channel energy from time and space.
Even though the myth says that the inhabitants of Atlantis City were superior beings, there are some opinions that it is just a fictional representation of a History Of Atlantis brutal fashion of life.
10. A fable based on actual events?
While many still consider the Lost City of Atlantis a conspiracy theory, many studies doing the rounds suggest that the fable is based on actual events.
Ocean explorer Robert Ballard finds logic in the story as it has similarities with a massive volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea near Greece.
Ballard says a highly advanced society that lived there disappeared suddenly, as with Atlantis. Similarly, Ignatius Donnelly also confirms the existence and disappearance of a mid-Atlantic continent in the exact location that Plato mentioned.
As the debate continued, few researchers claimed that this utopian kingdom was a whole continent located off the Bahamas, and the Bermuda Triangle later swallowed it up. At the same time, another group suggested current Antarctica is the newer History Of Atlantis.
Meanwhile, James Romm, a professor at Bard College in Annandale in New York, says Plato created the story to convey some of his philosophical theories, mostly about his vision of an ideal civilization.
source: globalclub.info
