The Lost City of Atlantis - From Top to Bottom

For thousands and thousands of years, the stories of Atlantis have developed and dissipated like hurricanes in the Atlantic.  Yet, throughout history and mystery, almost all stories reference Plato’s writings.  And yes, Plato had his share of skeptics and believers.  But Plato does not stand alone in the great debate over Atlantis.  Great minds have explored and discovered evidence for ages.  Some say Plato fabricated the entire existence of Atlantis, while others insist the truth behind his dialogues.  Will we ever know the real story of Atlantis?  And so, the lost city theories still circulate to date…

Plato initially wrote about Atlantis around 350-360 B.C., speculating its location to be west of the Pillars of Hercules (modernly referred to as the Straits of Gibraltar). In the first and second volumes of his dialogue trilogy, Plato theorized the origin and nature of mankind and the world. The first volume was entitled Timaeus and is filled with Plato’s beliefs on the nature of the physical world and human beings. And although Atlantis was first mentioned in Timaeus, the majority of reference and details of the legendary island can be found in the unfinished second volume, Critias. (The third volume was titled Hermocrates, but was never written.)

Within Critias, Plato tells of the Hellenic gods dividing up the land so each could have their own territory. Poseidon, the “god of the sea“, was given the island of Atlantis, which the ancient Egyptians claimed to be consisting of mountainous terrain in the north, surrounding an oblong grassland in the south. Poseidon ruled and soon fell in love with Clieto, daughter of Leucippe and Evenor. She delivered five sets of male twins: Atlas (first born) and Gadeirus (or Eumelus in Greek), Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, and Azaes and Diaprepes. Atlas was made king over the island and ocean in their entireties, naming them Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean in his honor. The dominion of Atlas was to be the mountain of his birth and the land surrounding it, and Gadeirus the land to the south. Poseidon then divided up the remaining land into the eight sections, delegating one for each son to rule. He also amorously created a palace for his beloved, and cleverly surrounded it by three circular moats, one within each other, guarded by walls of rock. The capital of Atlantis was also a fantastic display of intricate architecture and engineering. The city was made of concentric canals and walls, with a hill in the center of them all. And located at the top of the hill, a temple to Poseidon which housed a gold statue of him driving six winged horses. Pathways, bridges, and canals leading to and around the rest of island were laid into place and Atlantis flourished. Plato claimed that Atlantis sank “in a single day and night of misfortune” around 9600 B.C.

Plato’s epic monologues also seem to coincide with the folklore which details the events before his time of the Atlantean people becoming so cunning and avaricious that the gods decided to destroy them with an colossal earthquake, sending Atlantis to the ocean floor.
Some say that their demise stemmed from internal warfare using magical powers. Francis Bacon hinted at his beliefs in his 1627 essay, The New Atlantis, with his own version that he named Bensalem and located off the coast of America (North or South America was not detailed). Sir Isaac Newton jumped partially on the bandwagon with his publication The Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms that examined a range of mythological links to Atlantis.

One of Plato’s biggest enthusiasts was Ignatius L. Donnelly, who wrote Atlantis: The Antediluvian World in 1882. The release of his publication sparked a new fire of controversy and attention that surrounded Atlantis. Donnelly took Plato’s writings seriously…so seriously that he produced the theory that all civilizations were derived from Atlantean culture. He even claimed that the people of Atlantis were far more advanced in their technology than the rest of the world, claiming they invented gunpowder before the rest of the world embarked on written language. Many more great scholars entertained the thought of a sunken island, but just as many were trying to disprove their ideas. One of the main arguments concentrated on the continental drift and plate tectonics. Scholars came to the conclusion that it was virtually impossible for a lost continent to exist. Or does it?

Those that do believe are overwhelmed by mass speculation as to where Atlantis’s “X” actually lies. The Mediterranean Sea…the Atlantic Ocean…the Bermuda Triangle…these are among the many rumored locations of this great treasure. Cuba…India…Antarctica? The search for clues has sent its hunters on quite an expedition for generations and some have surprisingly produced artifacts. Whether these artifacts are in fact those from Atlantis remains to be seen. Case in point, Bimini Road…is it one of the other number of islands that have been alleged to have crumbled into the ocean or is it part of Atlantis? J. Manson Valentine discovered what seemed to be a road made of curved stone while diving in the waters off the coast of North Bimini in September 1968. Experts have studied the formation from the time of its discovery and have since found additional layers parallel to the “road”. These findings were soon wrote off as naturally occurring rock formations by geologists and archeologists alike. Although, in recent years, modern marine technologies have enabled scientists to read the topography of sea floors with more detail than ever before. And even still, findings of strange city-shaped grids carved out of the ocean floor have been dissected and doubted just the same as a majority of evidence before. Has anyone stopped to think that maybe the impossible is possible?

What do you think? Leave a comment and state your opinion!