Plato spoke about the destruction of Atlantis. They didn't believe him. But every year more and more facts appear in favor of his rightness. How are things really going?
Several years ago, one of my friends wrote a fiction book about Atlantis - “The History of Navrung”. The book intrigued me, and after reading it I decidedly plunged into the world of Atlantis and everything connected with it.
Studying numerous sources, I grasped what they had in common. And the following picture appeared before the eyes of my mind.

The history of Atlantis began about a million years ago with the rise from the waters of the sea plate on which it rests. Atlantic Ocean and both Americas - South and North. This is how the planet breathes: the lands rise and fall.
About 800 thousand years ago, a fairly developed civilization already existed in Atlantis.
It was a huge territory, subordinate to a single administrative center. But the structure of the power of Atlantis is interesting. It was a Theocracy - the power of the Gods who spoke through people. And the Delphic Oracle is just a reminder of the radiance of Light that was then.
There was a White Island. It was located in the Central Asian Sea, which, with the rise of Asia, turned into the Gobi Desert, and the island became an oasis.
On White Island (just like Buyan Island from Pushkin’s fairy tale) wise people lived in white stone chambers. Books were kept there that described the entire experience of mankind. There was also a powerful school there that taught light to the nation.

Periodically, the wisest and most knowledgeable gathered for services in the central Temple White Island and carried out service, as a result of which the Knowledge of how to govern the state descended on them. They recorded this Knowledge and passed it on to managers, who, in turn, implemented this knowledge.

These are the legislative and executive branches of power - only the Laws are dictated by Heaven. And Atlantis flourished. Plato describes this theocracy as the highest type of state, where there is the will of the Gods, and the King is God's anointed one who carries out the will of Heaven. As I understand it, this model was the main one in Atlantis, and it is probably very strong in the minds of people, since so much has been said about it.

The world prospered, people worshiped the Cosmos (later the philosophy and worldview of the Atlanteans smoothly passed into the Hellenic idea of ​​​​Cosmos and Movement), and everyone was happy to work under the guidance of the Gods. The gods even sometimes descended from Heaven and walked among people and taught them various crafts and sciences. Truly it was a golden age, and it lasted approximately half a million years. It is noteworthy that the Atlanteans had a different type of thinking, more figurative, based more on sensations and insight than on mental insinuations. They knew how to touch and believe, trusting not their minds, but their own feelings.

But as we know from Hindu philosophy, everything is cycles, and after the Golden Age a smooth descent begins, a fall into materiality. We also know that the use of Powers and Knowledge, which were so developed during the times of Atlantis, largely depends on the moral component. And then the fall of some Knowers followed. They decided that the power of the Gods is imposition and enslavement. And this group became rebels against the theocratic system. They first peacefully and then militarily decided to destroy the power of the White Island over the executive branch, taking leadership into their own hands.

Thus began a period of wars and destruction.
The first big war between rebels and supporters of the hierocracy took place about 200 thousand years ago. Formidable weapons were used, and as a result, the continent of Atlantis itself was shaken by powerful earthquakes, and it collapsed, turning into many islands, and was partially submerged in the waters. This is how the straits were formed between the Americas and the islands of Atlantis. In the legends of South American peoples we find that there was a cataclysm in the East (and North American Indians say in the West). The land was separated by a strait, which only expanded over time.

Many powerful cities went under water, and only hills and mountains remained above the ocean.
During this first grandiose war, the rebels were destroyed, some of them escaped, and a new religion, a new worldview was born in Atlantis, which differed from the first in the Doctrine of the perfect man as a co-worker of the Cosmos. This is how priests appeared, speaking about everyone’s responsibility before the Universe and about the interaction of processes on Earth and in the solar system. This was the first conscious step towards cooperation with the Cosmos, before which a more contemplative model of worship had prevailed.

Approximately 1,000,000 years after the Golden Age, the decline of the great Atlantean Race began. During the time of the Third Race, the bestiality of the “mindless” manifested itself in the generation of huge humanoid monsters - the offspring of human and animal parents. As time passed, the offspring of these creatures changed due to external conditions, until finally these offspring decreased in size and culminated in the lower apes of the Miocene period.

With these monkeys, the later Atlanteans resumed the sin of the “mindless” - this time with full responsibility. The result of their crime was apes known as anthropoids. The moral fall was followed by a spiritual fall. Selfishness took over and wars brought an end to the Golden Age. People, instead of working for the common benefit under the guidance of the Great Mentors in collaboration with the cosmic forces of nature, fell into the madness of self-destruction. Taking their cue from their owners, the animals also rushed to torment each other. This immoral influence of man on animals extends to the present day.

An example of this circumstance is the breeds of big cats trained by the Atlanteans and adapted by them for hunting, which over time turned into bloodthirsty leopards and jaguars. Each person then began to fight only for himself, to utilize his knowledge for purely selfish purposes and began to believe that in the universe there is nothing higher than man. Everyone was his own law, his own god. Then the cult celebrated in the temples no longer referred to an inexpressible ideal, but became the cult of man, as he was, as he was understood.

The Atlanteans began to create their own images - according to their example and likeness - and worshiped them. The statues were carved from erupted lava, from the white marble of the mountains and from black underground stone, and were also cast from silver and gold. Niches containing such statues were carved from wood and stone and embedded in the walls of temples. These niches were built quite large, so that the procession of clergy during celebrations in honor of a given person could walk around his image. This is how people worshiped themselves. The richest kept a whole staff of priests to serve this cult and take care of the altar in which the statues were located. Sacrifices were made to them as to gods. The apotheosis of self-worship could not be greater.

The kings, the majority of the clergy and a significant part of the people began to use hidden powers, regardless of the laws prescribed by the Initiates, frivolously neglecting their advice and instructions. The connection with the Hierarchy was interrupted. Personal interests, the thirst for wealth and power, ruin and destruction of enemies in order to enrich themselves more and more took possession of the consciousness of the masses. Secret knowledge, directed in the direction opposite to the goals of evolution, towards selfishness and ill will, turned into black magic and witchcraft. Luxury, brutality and barbarism increased even more, until the bestial instincts began to act unchallenged. Sorcerers and adepts of dark forces widely spread black magic and the number of people who comprehended and used it constantly increased.

Death of Atlantis

When the perversion of evolutionary laws reached its apogee and the city of the Golden Gate became a hell in its cruelty, the first terrible catastrophe shook the entire continent. The capital was swept away by the waves of the ocean, millions of people were killed. Both the emperor and the clergy who had fallen away from the Higher Hierarchy were repeatedly warned about this catastrophe. Under the influence of the Light Forces, who foresaw the catastrophe, best part people emigrated from this area before the disaster. These were the most developed members of the Race, who did not succumb to general madness, who knew the law of the world, retained a correct understanding of responsibility and control over psychic forces.

This first catastrophe occurred during the Miocene era, approximately 800,000 years ago. It significantly changed the distribution of land on the globe. The Great Atlantic Ocean lost its polar regions, and its middle part became smaller and fragmented. The American continent in this era was separated by a strait from Atlantis, which gave birth to it; the latter extended across the Atlantic Ocean, occupying the space from 50 degrees north latitude to several degrees south of the equator. Such significant subsidence and uplift of the continent also occurred in other parts of the world. So, from the detached one and in other parts of the world.

Thus, a huge area was formed from the detached northeastern part of Atlantis; The islands of Great Britain formed part of a huge island covering Scandinavia, northern France and all the surrounding seas. The remains of Lemuria were still shrinking, while the future territories of Europe, America and Africa were expanding significantly.

The second, less significant, catastrophe occurred about 200,000 years ago. The mainland of Atlantis was divided into two islands: the northern, large one, called Ruta, and the southern, smaller one, called Laitia. The island of Scandinavia then joined the European mainland. Some changes also occurred on the continent of America, as well as the flooding of Egypt.

After the catastrophe, the efforts of the Light Forces, acting under the leadership of the Hierarchy, still gave good results for some time and influenced the abstinence of the saved population from practicing black magic, but the Toltec subrace could never achieve its former brilliance. Later, the descendants of the Toltecs on Ruta Island repeated in miniature the history of their ancestors. The rulers and their dynasty again achieved a certain power and reigned over most of the island. Subsequently, this dynasty also fell under the influence of black magic, which spread more and more and again led to a cosmically inevitable catastrophe that cleared the world for its further evolutionary development. About 80,000 years ago, a third catastrophe occurred, exceeding all the others in strength and brightness.

Laitia almost completely disappeared, while insignificant remains remained from the island of Ruta - the island of Poseidonis. In this era and before the disappearance of Father Poseidonis, an emperor from the light dynasty always reigned in some part of the continent. He acted under the leadership of the Hierarchy and resisted the spread of dark forces, leading a minority who observed a pure and exalted life.

Before disasters there was always an emigration of the best minority. These emigrations were led by spiritual leaders who foresaw the disaster that threatened the country. Initiated kings and teachers, following the "good law", were warned in advance of the impending catastrophes. They were, as it were, the center of prophetic warnings and saved the faithful chosen tribes. Such migrations took place secretly, under the cover of night.

In 9567 BC. powerful earthquakes destroyed the island of Poseidonis and the island sank into the sea, creating a huge wave that flooded the lowlands, leaving behind a memory in the minds of people as a huge destructive “flood”. Here is one of the legends about the last days of Father Poseidonis. ... And the Great King of the Shining Face, the Head of all the yellow-faced ones, was sad, seeing the sins of the black-faced ones. And he sent his airships (vimana) with pious people in them to all the Brother Rulers, the heads of other peoples and tribes, saying: “Get ready. Arise, you people of the Good Law, and cross the land while it is still dry. The Storm Lords are coming. Their chariots are approaching the Earth. The Lords of the dark face (sorcerers) will live only one night and two days on this patient land. She is condemned, and they must go down with her. The Lords of the Fires of the Core - gnomes and elemental Spirits of Fire - make their magical fire armor. But the lords of the evil eye are stronger than the elemental Spirits, and they are the slaves of the powerful. They are omniscient in Astra-Vidia, in the magical arts. Rise up and use your magical powers to resist the forces of the sorcerers. Let each Lord of the Shining Face (Adept of white Magic) cause the vimana of each Lord of the dark face to fall into his possession, so that not a single sorcerer can, thanks to him, escape from the waters, escape the rod of the Four Karmic Deities and save their evil followers. Let every yellow-faced person send a dream to every black-faced one. May even sorcerers avoid pain and suffering. Let every person loyal to the Solar Gods paralyze every person loyal to the Moon Gods, so that he does not suffer and avoids his fate. And let every one of the yellow face give his water of life (blood) to the talking animals belonging to the black face, so that they do not wake up their master.”

(The talking animal was a marvelously crafted beast, in some ways similar to Frankenstein's creation, which spoke and warned its owner of every approaching danger. The owner was a "warlock" and the mechanical creature was animated by genie, an element. Only the blood of a pure man could destroy it.)

The hour has struck, the Black Night is ready... “Let their fate come true. We are the servants of the Great Four Karmic Gods. May the Kings of Light return." The Great King fell on his Shining Face and wept... When the Kings gathered, the waters had already moved. But the peoples had already crossed the dry lands. They were already beyond the water level. The kings overtook them in their vimanas and led them to the Lands of Fire and Metal (East and North). Meteors rained down on the lands of the blackfaces, but they slept.

The talking beasts (magic guards) were calm. The lords of the depths awaited orders, but they did not come, for their lords were asleep. The waters rose and covered the valleys from one end of the Earth to the other. The plateaus remained dry and so did the bosom of the Earth (the land of the antelopes). Those who escaped lived there: people with yellow faces and straight eyes (open and sincere people). When the Lords of the dark face woke up and remembered their vimanas to save themselves from the rising waters, but they disappeared. The peoples taken away were as numerous as the stars of the Milky Way. Just as the serpent-Dragon slowly unfolds its body, so the Sons of men, led by the Sons of Wisdom, unfolded their ranks and spread like a rushing stream fresh water. Many of them who were afraid died on the way. But the majority were saved. Some of the most powerful magicians, the “dark faces,” woke up earlier than others and began to pursue those who “robbed” them and who were in the last ranks.

Fall of an asteroid or comet fragments

To explain the death of Atlantis, supporters of its location in the Atlantic Ocean most often invoke cosmic catastrophes.
The first person to connect the death of Atlantis with the appearance of a comet was G.R. Carley published his work in 1784.
S. Bashinsky in 1914 suggested that the remains of the asteroid were Australia. His hypothesis has no geological basis.
Polish astronomer M. M. Kamensky came to the conclusion that Atlantis was destroyed by Halley's comet in 9541 BC.

German atlantologist O. Muck studied the traces of the fall of the Caroline meteorite (diameter 10 km, mass 200 billion tons, speed 20 km/sec) and came to the conclusion that it was the cause of the death of Atlantis. The force of the impact was equivalent to the explosion of 30 thousand hydrogen bombs.

Polish atlantologist L. Seidler believes that Atlantis perished when the Earth collided with Halley's comet.

The main “specialists” in the collision of the Earth with cosmic bodies are O. Muk and L. Seidler.

1. Some peoples have myths about extraordinary atmospheric phenomena.
2. Several meteorite craters have been discovered on the surface of the Earth. On this basis, it can be assumed that large meteorites fell on Earth in the past.
3. There are interpretations of the Mayan calendar according to which it is possible to establish the date of the meteorite fall.

Among the myths, the most famous is the myth of Phaeton, which says that the inhabitants of the northern regions suddenly felt hot, and the inhabitants of the tropics felt cold. But, as Zdeněk Kukal notes, “it is at least safe to assume that a comet once hit the Earth and tilted the Earth’s axis.” But, for example, L. Seidler takes this interpretation absolutely seriously.

The same Zdenek Kukal finds traces of a meteorite fall in the water and sundials of the Egyptians and Mayans, noting that at the equator they would show exact time. He further concludes that when the Earth's axis of rotation was tilted differently, Egypt was located on the equator. Then the Atlanteans taught the Egyptians and Mayans how to make watches.

Capture the Moon

In 1912, the Austrian engineer Herbiger proposed the “Doctrine of space ice“, according to which, the Earth had at least four satellites, 22,000 years ago the penultimate moon fell on the Earth, and 11,500 years ago the Earth captured the Moon, which caused the death of Atlantis. The moon supposedly pulled ocean waters from the poles to the equator and Atlantis was flooded.

Zdenek Kukal provides the following counterarguments against the fall of any cosmic body 11,500 years ago into the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea.

1. In the Azores, Canaries, Cape Verde Islands, Iceland and the Atlantic floor there are intact Pleistocene and Upper Tertiary deposits.
2. Magnetic anomalies in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge region are undisturbed.
3. There are few lavas in the Atlantic that are younger than 11,500 years.
4. The relief is logically explained by the expansion of the ocean floor from the median ridge without the attraction of meteorites.
5. There is no increase in the concentration of extraterrestrial materials in the 11,500 year layer.

Everything that has been said about the Atlantic, with minor amendments, also applies to the Mediterranean Sea.

I would like to note that all hypotheses of this kind ignore the simple fact that the fall of an asteroid or satellite to Earth is enough large mass, to cause a geological catastrophe, would lead to such a rise in temperature that almost all life on Earth (and certainly all intelligent life) would be destroyed. Meteorites of a smaller mass could not be sent to the bottom sea ​​island significant in size, which means that some celestial body is unlikely to have caused the disaster.

Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea

Many Atlantean researchers have come to the conclusion that it is useless to look for Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean. In search of a suitable place for an advanced civilization that fought with the Athenians, they came to the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1854, the Russian scientist, Minister of Education A.S. Norov publishes the book “Research on Atlantis.” At the beginning of his work, he cites the words of Pliny the Elder that Cyprus once formed a single whole with Syria, and became an island after an earthquake. He refers to the Arab geographer Ibn Yakut that the sea once flooded many inhabited lands and even spilled over Greece and Syria. Next, Norov moves on to the analysis of Plato's texts. He believes that the Egyptian priests called the Mediterranean Sea the Atlantic Sea. To prove this, he speaks of the Atlas Mountains in Barbary, Mount Jurjura near Algeria is the mythical Atlas, supporting the vault of heaven. Giving some more arguments, he concludes that the Mediterranean Sea was once called the Atlantic. He also notices that in Solon’s story the word “pelagos” is used, not “okeanos”, which means that we are not talking about the ocean, but about the sea.

By the Pillars of Hercules (Hercules), the Greeks of Plato’s time understood Gibraltar, but the ancient Athenians and Egyptians could, as many atlantologists prove, understand almost any strait! For example, Gibraltar, the Strait of Messina, Cape Malea in the Peloponnese and the island of Kythira, Kythira and the island of Antikythira, Canary Islands, the walls of the temple near the Gulf of Gabes, the Kerch Strait, the Bonifacio Strait, even the Nile Delta, etc. Many mountains in Europe, Asia and Africa also bore the name of Atlas. Norov himself understands the Bosporus as the Pillars of Hercules.

One fragment of Plato’s texts is very important: “...in one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the open earth; “In the same way, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss.” It seems to me quite logical to assume that the Athenian army was not very far from Greece, which means Atlantis must have been nearby.

Suppose that Atlantis was in the Atlantic, the Greek army also came there. It seems implausible that the Athenians, abandoned by their allies, single-handedly took the entire territory to Tyrrhenia and Egypt, defeated a considerable Atlantean fleet and sailed to Atlantis.

And if Atlantis was located in the Mediterranean Sea, then it could easily have failed along with both armies, which were fighting somewhere nearby.

“After this, the sea in those places became, to this day, unnavigable and inaccessible due to shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind.” In the Atlantic Ocean, obviously, there could not be shallow waters with silt.

Islands Mediterranean Sea perfectly correspond to the rest of the details of Plato's text, however, the entire Mediterranean Sea is not as vast as “Libya and Asia combined.” But the Central Atlantic is not that big either, so it becomes clear that this is a deliberate and very strong exaggeration.

So

1. The description of nature can be applied to all the islands of the Mediterranean Sea.

2. The color of the rocks (white, black, red) and the hot springs clearly indicate the presence of volcanic and post-volcanic processes. This is typical of the islands south of Sicily and some islands in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The wealth of metals is typical of the island of Cyprus, Asia Minor, the Iberian Peninsula and the northern coast of Africa.

3. The island rose vertically from the sea, but had a flat space at the top. This is typical for Crete, Sardinia, Corsica.

In 1897, Russian mineralogist A. N. Karnorzhitsky published an article “Atlantis” in Scientific Review, in which he places Atlantis “between Asia Minor, Syria, Libya and Hellas... and, moreover, near the main western mouth of the Nile (Pillars of Hercules).” After all, both the city of Sais, where the legend of the Atlanteans came from, and the city of Heraclea, founded by Hercules himself, lay very close.

Three years after the publication of Karnorzhitsky’s article, Arthur Evans, an outstanding English archaeologist, discovered traces of ancient civilization. In March 1900 he began excavations of the city of Knossos, ancient capital Crete, and discovered the legendary Labyrinth of King Minos.

The palace consisted of a large number of rooms, its area was 16 thousand square meters. And while Evans was excavating at Knossos and preparing his book about the palace of Minos for publication, the question arose: had Evans discovered Atlantis?

Creto-Mycenaean civilization

As A. M. Kondratov writes, the main difference between the civilization of Crete and the great civilizations of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus and Ganges, Yellow River and Yangtze is that it was not an agricultural, but a maritime power.

Shipbuilding and sailing Aegean Sea began in the Aegean 10,000 years ago. During the heyday of Crete, its fleet was the best in the world. Ships from Knossos visited the coasts of Spain, Syria, the Black Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Merchants of Crete maintained close ties with Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The island of Crete, located midway between Europe, Asia and Africa, occupies an excellent strategic position. Aristotle writes in his Politics: “It seems that the island was created to rule Greece. Its location is one of the happiest: the island dominates the entire sea, along the shores of which the Greeks were located... That is why Minos mastered sea power and conquered the islands, from which he formed his colonies.”

The civilization of Crete is distinguished by another characteristic feature: tauromachy - the cult of the sacred bull. Plato also attributed it to the legendary Atlanteans.

On January 19, 1909, an anonymous article “The Lost Continent” appeared in the English newspaper The Times, in which Atlantis and Crete were identified. Its author turned out to be J. Frost. Four years later he published an article in the Journal of Hellenistic Studies. Professor Frost was also supported by E. Bailey in the book “Sea Lords of Crete.” In 1912 D.A. Mackenzie wrote that Plato's Atlantis is Minoan Crete.

E.S. also agreed with this hypothesis. Balch, and A. Rivo.

However, some researchers, for example, Lev Semenovich Berg, believed that the Minoans were only the heirs of the Atlanteans, and Atlantis sank in the Aegean Sea.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who was searching for traces of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, did a lot to prove this hypothesis.

Cousteau's research off the coast of Psir, Dokos and Dia proves that Crete was the ruler of the Eastern Mediterranean and traded with all the peoples of that region. And the study of underwater “amphora walls” suggested that the powerful power was immediately destroyed by a tsunami wave caused by the explosion of the Thira volcano, and only after the economic collapse of the Minoan state were the Hellenes who came from the mainland able to conquer Crete.

Eruption of Strongile volcano

Between Hellas and Crete lie Cyclades Islands. Santorini occupies a special place among them. This is a collective name that refers to the islands of Thira, Thirasia, Nea Kaimeni, Palea Kaimeni, Mikra Kaimeni and Aspronisi.

At the end of the last century, the German archaeologist Hiller von Gortringen conducted excavations on Tire and discovered the remains large city.

According to scientists, 3,500 years ago there was a catastrophic eruption of the Strongile volcano on the single island of Santorini, after which the island split into several parts. In terms of scale, this eruption and its consequences can be compared with the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia in 1883, which killed 36 thousand people. Gases, vapors, debris, sand and dust then rose 70 km and dispersed over an area of ​​827,000 km2, and the sound of explosions was heard in Singapore and Australia. Half an hour after the explosion, a tsunami hit the shores of the nearby islands. The wave caused by the explosion circled the globe. Its speed reached 566 km/h, and its height was 35 meters.

In 1939, the Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos put forward a hypothesis according to which the death of the kingdom of Minos occurred after the eruption of the Santorini Volcano. As subsequent studies showed, this hypothesis was brilliantly confirmed. In 1956, Dr. Angelos George Galanopoulos realized that Strongyle's eruption and explosion had generated a tsunami wave several tens of meters high.

It is possible that it was at this time that the Jews walked from Egypt and crossed the sea on dry land. According to some Bible commentators, the Jews did not cross the Red Sea, but a gulf in the Mediterranean Sea. They crossed it in those few minutes when the water receded from the shore, and the Egyptian warriors who followed them were covered by a tsunami wave.

Counterarguments against this theory

Contradiction with Plato's clearly stated location of Atlantis. Inconsistency in dates and sizes. The Atlantic Sea is called “that sea that truly deserves the name.” According to many atlantologists, this means that the Atlantic Sea is an ocean.

Atlantomania and Atlantophobia

Plato's story is extremely attractive to any person. I really want to believe in the existence of a developed civilization, perhaps even not inferior to the modern one, 12,000 years before our days.

Fanatically Plato-believing Atlantomaniacs declared at the Vancouver Congress in 1933: “We will never give up the idea of ​​Atlantis just to please geologists and botanists. Atlantis has won too honorable a position in literature to be shaken by tedious scientific arguments.” It is useless to have discussions with such people or provide them with arguments and evidence. They, as the American archaeologist Robert Walkope noted, “consider themselves citizens of Atlantis and are ready to defend the legendary country to the last drop of blood.”

Just like atlantomania, there is also its antipode - atlantophobia. Unfortunately, in our time, to touch upon the question of Atlantis in one's serious scientific work means for many people to say goodbye to their reputation as a serious scientist. Therefore, many naively believe that the question of the existence of Atlantis has long been decided negatively by modern science, arguing that Atlantis never existed with the same conviction with which Atlantomaniacs prove that it existed.

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Atlantis is a disappeared continent in an amazing way. In ancient times, having reached its peak, a highly developed island civilization was suddenly destroyed as a result of a monstrous natural disaster.

“...A devastating earthquake occurred, accompanied by a gigantic flood, and according to Plato, the continent of Atlantis went under water “in the course of one terrifying day and one night.”

If you believe Plato, although few people still believe in this story of his, Atlantis was a huge island. More likely even a continent: after all, in size it exceeded Africa and Asia combined. How can this be? Everything is possible in the world, and Plato's story contains much more truth than fiction.

Atlantis... How tempting and interesting the mystery of this legendary land seems! Since antiquity, there have been ongoing debates on this issue. Thousands of books and articles are dedicated to her. Scientific works alone amount to more than 200 thousand pages. The famous atlantologist A. Bessmertny said that if Plato could predict the fate of his thirty-page dialogues, he would seriously think about whether to write them or not.

Since the time of Plato, some researchers have moved through evidence and confirmation of the facts he stated, while others have mercilessly and violently refuted it. Interest in Atlantis never faded, and sometimes this problem found itself in the center of everyone's attention. Once upon a time this happened thanks to scientific discoveries, however, more often due to the manipulations of pseudoscientists and the inventions of journalists.

Over time, a new scientific direction was born related to the study of Atlantis - atlantology. The main task of this science is to find evidence of the existence of Atlantis or to admit that it did not exist.

Atlantis is understood big Island or the archipelago described by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. There should have been a strong, developed state on this island.

Most likely, this state waged war with the Greeks. This island could have existed no later than 1000 BC. e., and be located either in the Mediterranean Sea or in the Atlantic. But does the fact of its description by Plato serve as the main criterion for the authenticity of Atlantis?

They have written about Atlantis from antiquity to the present day, that is, for 2000 years. But in ancient times little was written on this topic, and only two dozen pages of Plato’s dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias” have survived.

Supporters of the existence of Atlantis found many lines in Plato’s texts that correspond to the latest achievements of modern science. And opponents of its existence in response point to many contradictions in the texts of the dialogues. However, before moving on to the actual facts presented in the dialogues, we should consider the question of who is responsible for the errors and contradictions.

Plato writes that he learned this story from his great-grandfather Critias, who at the age of ten heard this story from his grandfather, also Critias, who was ninety years old at that time. He, in turn, learned about this from a great friend and relative of his father Dropidas, Solon, “the first of the seven wise men.” Solon himself heard this story from the Egyptian priests from the temple of the goddess Neith in Sais, who from time immemorial kept records of all events and knew about Atlantis.

The main witness, Plato's student, the great philosopher Aristotle. He stated that Plato used the description of Atlantis as a pretext for expounding his political views on the problem of the ideal state. And he added that “the one who invented Atlantis was the one who sent it to the bottom of the sea.” This is a pretty serious statement. Who could know Plato better than his student? This should have ended all controversy. But not everything is as simple as it seems. Proponents of the existence of Atlantis provide several reasonable arguments:

In the dialogue “Critias” Plato writes: “... the waters poured out every year from Zeus did not perish, as now, flowing from the bare land into the sea, but were absorbed in abundance into the soil, seeped from above into the voids of the earth and were stored in clay beds , and therefore everywhere there was no shortage of sources of streams and rivers." And again Plato shows such knowledge that no one could have had in Greece at that time. (No. 2 P.30)

When describing the death of Atlantis, Plato puts these natural disasters next to each other. Nowadays, it is known that during a powerful underwater earthquake, a giant wave is formed - a tsunami - which can destroy everything in its path and cause flooding in the coastal zone. Around the 15th century BC. e. A volcano exploded on the island of Thira, located in the Aegean Sea. A large tsunami wave then reached mainland Greece, Crete, Egypt and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. According to some researchers, memories of this disaster could serve as a source for Plato to describe the death of Atlantis. The description of the island in Atlantis resembles Crete, both in relief and in natural data. The capital of Atlantis is sometimes compared to Thira or Carthage. Plato writes that the island of the Atlanteans was rich in metals, which is strange for the Atlantic Ocean, but natural for the Mediterranean Sea. Judging by the description of the metals, it could be Cyprus or Ibiza (off the coast of Spain).

According to Plato, the Atlanteans knew gold, tin, silver, copper, orichalcum and iron. But this means that they lived in the Age of Iron, and their warriors were armed with iron weapons. It follows that the Athenians were also armed with iron weapons, otherwise how could they have defeated the Atlanteans? But we know for sure that iron appeared in Greece no earlier than the 11th century BC. e.

From the text of Plato's dialogues it is absolutely clear that Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean.

About two and a half thousand years ago, the worst disaster in the history of mankind occurred in the Mediterranean Sea. The explosion of the Strongile volcano was three times stronger than the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano. This explosion generated a tsunami wave several tens, or even a hundred meters high, which hit the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Scientists believe that this disaster caused the death of the Cretan-Mycenaean culture, which existed 3,000 years ago. (No. 8 P.59)

In 1638, the English scientist and politician Francis Bacon of Verulam. In 1675, the Swedish atlantologist Olaus Rudbeck argued that Atlantis was located in Sweden, and its capital was Uppsala. According to him, this was clear from the Bible.

Herodotus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder and some other ancient historians write about the Atlantean tribe living in North Africa near the Atlas Mountains. Atlanteans, according to them, do not dream, do not use names, do not eat anything living, and curse the rising and setting sun. Based on these messages, P. Borchardt claims that Atlantis was located on the territory of modern Tunisia, deep in the Sahara Desert. German ethnographer Leo Frobenius found Atlantis on the territory of the kingdom of Benin.

There are different opinions about the death of Atlantis. Many Atlantologists believe that the earthquake could have been the natural disaster that sank Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean. Earthquakes with their epicenter on the seabed cause tsunamis, another type of natural disaster. Others believe that the tsunami was to blame for the destruction of Atlantis. Some blame space disasters.

Thus, Plato's story is so simple, the details are so fascinating, the reference to the struggle of the ancestors is so convincing that you involuntarily begin to believe in Atlantis and look for this mysterious kingdom that disappeared ten thousand years BC, although history, critically armed with facts, is silent about this, Plato's History is extremely attractive to any person. I really want to believe in the existence of a developed civilization, perhaps even not inferior to the modern one, 12,000 years before our days.

Scientific hypotheses

Humanity is once again faced with the problem of the existence of unusual artifacts that do not fit into traditional ideas about the Earth, whose age sometimes reaches several hundred thousand, and sometimes millions of years. Unique finds collected over the past century and a half are stubbornly rejected by academic science, thereby revealing the inconsistency of modern scientific doctrine. In their book The Unknown History of Humankind, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson present a large body of evidence that contradicts long-held views of human evolution. This data has been and is being systematically suppressed, ignored, and forgotten in the process of the so-called “filtering of knowledge.” As part of this process, information of a certain kind is simply erased from public consciousness.

There is a difference between official academic science and the hidden history of mankind in the light of people's knowledge of Atlantis. The main postulates of this hidden history are as follows: 1) the divine origin of life on Earth and the origin of Homo sapiens not from an ape-like hominid, but from the Supreme Beings who lived on the lost continents. At the same time, people of completely different races and species lived on the planet: man-animal, man himself and superman, who occasionally interbred with each other; 2) analysis of ancient myths and legends of different peoples and on different continents speak of a certain ancestral home of humanity that perished in cataclysms; 3) one civilization replaces another; 4) the architecture of the oldest stone buildings, signs and symbols shows that some knowledge that was once available to people long ago was clearly lost.

Almost 2500 years have passed since the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote his dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias”. Was there really an Atlantean civilization, was their fate so tragic, and why has not a single material evidence of their existence been found yet? Scientific research in recent years shows that it is too early to put an end to the Atlantis problem. Data from various sciences related to the history of the emergence of man and the past of the Earth allow us to say that pre-civilizations existed on our planet when “homo sapiens” had not yet been born. In almost all the peoples of the world we can find legends about a certain mysterious land that one day sank under water. It was this land that many peoples considered their ancestral home. From this wonderful country came all the knowledge of mankind, all culture, all methods of construction and cultivation of the land.

The more we consider the various options for placing Atlantis, the more perplexed we are. How can one make sense of an unimaginable number of contradictory facts? There are more and more questions than answers. Isn’t it reasonable to combine all these hypotheses, or, say, several local ones, geographically close to one or another region of the planet, into one, but capacious, consistent in many respects with others, hypothesis, logically explainable, confirmed by many scientific data. There may be a need to work out several of these “local geographic hypotheses.”

Today, the most promising areas for searching for Atlantis are: America, Antarctica, the Arctic, the island of Sao Paulo, Cuban and Bahamian waters, Bermuda Triangle, Azores, Canary Islands, underwater Horseshoe archipelago, northwestern countries of Europe and Africa, Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, Crete and Santorini.

Most scientists agree that behind myths lies a certain reality that is not subject to empirical-rational understanding. It must be recognized that in the time of Plato (almost 2500 years ago), the body of knowledge about Atlantis, Poseidon and Atlantean was immeasurably larger, more significant and sacred than it is now. Scientists have managed to isolate from a great variety of myths and legends those that directly point to Atlantis. If there was a legend about Atlantis, told by Plato, then it must have been passed down from generation to generation in the form of genealogical diagrams, behind which stands the historical reality and ancestral memory of mankind, hidden in the deepest layers of the “collective unconscious”. In fact, oral transmission of information is much more reliable than written information, since the language can change. Some priest could talk about this amazing civilization in such a way that he would be understood in any country in the world, no matter what language people used at that time. Therefore, knowledge was transmitted through secret societies, religious cults and, of course, through myths and traditions.

In the 17th century German scientist and writer Athanasius Kircher first published a geographical map of Atlantis. Thus began the era of searching for the legendary country of the Atlanteans.

There are now dozens of research structures in Russia and abroad that work at the intersection of modern sciences and develop a non-standard approach to many scientific problems. In Russia, she deals with issues of Atlantis " Russian society for the Study of the Problems of Atlantis" (ROIPA) under the auspices of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P. P. Shirshov.

Numerous artifacts found in all corners of the globe suggest the existence in the distant past of an unknown pre-civilization that preceded ours. And it doesn’t matter what it was called: Hyperborea, Lemuria or Atlantis. Another important thing is that many years ago, when humanity’s skepticism regarding cyclical development was very high, there were great lone researchers like Zhirov, who wholeheartedly believed in the existence of antediluvian cultures. He was a real knight of Atlantis, an outstanding encyclopedist and atlantologist of the 20th century.

If you look closely at some mountain spurs, you can discern giant images of animals, birds, fish and humans. It’s as if some giant architect depicted his dreams in stone, and the sculptures used natural rocks in their work. Such stone sculptures are found on almost all continents.

The most famous megalithic culture (Masma) was found in Peru. Images of long-extinct animals or those that never lived here (elephants, lions, camels) were found there. Some rocks represented bas-reliefs of human faces, including Negro, Caucasian and Egyptian species.

The row of human heads bears a striking resemblance to those on Easter Island.

In Voronin's book "The Sea Colonies of Atlantis" an attempt was made to reconstruct geographical position Atlantis and its many colonies. In it, he first put forward the concept of “multiple Atlantean lands” scattered in distant times throughout the planet. Many such “Atlantean lands” were located on islands, continental shelves, coastal countries of America, Africa, Antarctica and the Eurasian continents, which later disappeared as a result of a planetary space catastrophe.

In recent years, underwater archaeologists off the coast of Cuba, Bahamas, England, Spain, Morocco, India, Japan, some man-made stone structures were found, the age of which often reaches 8-10 thousand years. In May 2001, in the Gulf of Guanajacibibes, in western Cuba, a joint Canadian-Cuban expedition led by Polina Zelitskaya discovered the remains of an underwater city, believed to be 6,000 years old. It is Cuba that Collins considers Atlantis.

In March 2003, Greg and Laura Little announced the discovery of a huge, three-tiered rock platform located 500 meters north of Andros Island at a depth of 3 meters. This structure stretches 450 meters in length, has a width of 45 meters, a height of 4.5 meters from seabed. The platform is made of large rectangular stone blocks and consists of three sections. These sections are made up of large stone blocks approximately 7.5 by 9 meters, their thickness is 60 cm. Some giants reached sizes of 9 by 15 meters! On the surface of some of the blocks square depressions were visible, the hole size was 14 by 14 cm.

Now the stone structures are overgrown with grass, bushes, trees, they have become lower, gone deeper into the earth. How many meters, no one knows. The density of the stone laying is surprising. Avalanche blocks of the most bizarre shapes and sizes are matched so tightly to each other that even Evgeniy, an engineer and technician, cannot lay out anything like it. The gaps are still visible! But in the old masonry they simply are not there.

Every major civilization is characterized by a strictly defined group of cultural and traditional manifestations and practices. As Lewis Spence wrote in his book The History of Atlantis: "From the shores Western Europe to the shores of Eastern America, as well as on the islands lying between them, one can detect the spread of a certain cultural complex, the manifestation of which can be found, on the one hand, in North Africa and Peru, on the other. This cultural complex is extremely stable in this region, and it is quite clear that the now lost connection across the ocean formerly united its American and European outskirts."

Recent discoveries in archeology suggest the incredible antiquity of human beings and the revision of the long-outdated biological and geological time scale in the history of the development of the Earth.



Everyone knows that the mysterious island civilization of Atlantis was first mentioned by Plato. According to him, Atlantis existed nine thousand years before the time when the philosopher himself lived, that is, it was incredible ancient history. A utopian island kingdom that had enormous sea power disappeared underwater in just one day. For centuries, various writers, historians, scientists and explorers have debated whether Atlantis existed and, if so, where it might have been located.

Atlantis - Mid-Atlantic continent that suddenly sank

Until the end of the nineteenth century, the idea that Atlantis might have been real historical place, and not a legend invented by Plato, was practically not raised. In 1882, writer Ignatius Donnelly, in his book Atlantis: The World Before the Flood, theorized that the scientists of the time were not advanced enough to create all the inventions, so they were most likely passed down by the more advanced civilization of Atlantis. Assuming that the Atlantic Ocean was only a couple of hundred feet deep, Donnelly wrote that Atlantis was sunk exactly where Plato described it. However, modern oceanography has already refuted such a theory, largely due to knowledge about the movement of tectonic plates, but many still believe exactly what Donnelly thought about this.

Atlantis was swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle

Inspired by Donnelly's work, many writers began to create their own theories regarding what might have happened to Atlantis. One of them was Charles Berlitz, who in the seventies of the twentieth century stated that Atlantis was a real continent, which was located near the Bahamas. And he suggested that the reason for the disappearance of the continent was the famous Bermuda Triangle, which became the site of the mystical disappearance of a large number of ships.

Atlantis is Antarctica

In his 1958 book, another author, Charles Hapgood, proposed the idea that Atlantis was just a much more impressive version of what is now Antarctica. According to this theory, about 12 thousand years ago there was a massive shift in the earth's crust, which led to Atlantis being in a completely different position. And the thriving civilization was doomed to destruction, as it was buried under a thick layer of ice. This theory appeared a little earlier than the moment when humanity learned the whole truth about the movement of tectonic plates - and this truth completely shattered Hapgood’s theory.

Atlantis is a mythical retelling of the Black Sea Flood

This theory suggests that the very existence of Atlantis is a myth, but the story of its sinking was based on real events: the breakthrough of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea into the previously closed Black Sea around 5600 BC. Then the Black Sea was freshwater lake twice the size it is now. This event led to the fact that the peoples who flourished along the shores of the Black Sea were forced to leave their place of residence, spreading news of a terrifying flood, which could become the basis for Plato's later narrative of Atlantis.

Atlantis is the history of the Minoan civilization

One of the most modern theories tells of the Minoan civilization, named after the famous king Minos, which flourished in the area between about 2500 and 1600 BC. greek islands Crete and Thira. It is believed that the Minoan civilization was the first great European civilization, whose inhabitants built palaces, laid roads and used writing. And at the very height of its greatness, this civilization suddenly disappeared from the chronicles, which made it possible to admit its connection with famous Atlantis. Historians believe that around 1600 BC, a massive earthquake shook volcanic island Thira, causing an incredible eruption. The eruption was followed by a tsunami that was powerful enough to wipe out a large number of Minoan cities, which made them practically powerless against invasions from the continent.

Atlantis did not exist - Plato invented it

Most historians and scholars have concluded for many years that Plato's story of lost civilization Atlantis is a fiction. The philosopher created Atlantis as his version of an ideal civilization and made its disappearance look like a cautionary tale about how the gods punished humans for their arrogance. There is no written evidence of the existence of Atlantis other than Plato's writings - even among the many surviving texts found in Ancient Greece in the times when Plato lived. Moreover, despite enormous progress in oceanography and cartography of the ocean floor, no traces of a sunken civilization have been found.