Read the legend of Atlantis. Story

The debate about whether the existence of Atlantis was a reality or a beautiful legend has not subsided for many centuries. On this occasion it was put forward a large number of the most controversial theories, but they were all based on information obtained from the texts of ancient Greek authors, none of whom personally saw this mysterious island, but transmitted only information obtained from earlier sources. So how true is the legend of Atlantis and where did it come from? modern world?

An island that has sunk into the abyss of the sea

First of all, let us clarify that the word “Atlantis” is usually understood as a certain fantastic (since there is no direct evidence of its existence) island located in the Atlantic Ocean. His exact location is unknown. According to the most popular legend, Atlantis was located somewhere near the north west coast Africa, bordered by the chain of the Atlas Mountains, and near the Pillars of Hercules, framing the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar.

The famous ancient Greek philosopher Plato placed it there in his dialogues (works written in the form of a conversation between historical or fictional persons). Based on his works, a very popular legend about Atlantis was subsequently born. It says that around 9500 BC. e. In the area indicated above, a terrible earthquake occurred, as a result of which the island forever plunged into the abyss of the ocean.

On that day, an ancient and highly developed civilization, created by the islanders, whom Plato calls “Atlanteans,” perished. It should immediately be noted that, due to their similar names, they are sometimes mistakenly identified with characters from ancient Greek mythology - the mighty titans holding the vault of heaven on their shoulders. This mistake is so common that when they see the sculptures by the outstanding Russian sculptor A. I. Terebenev (see photo below), decorating the portico of the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg, many people have an association with heroes who once sank deep into the seas.

A mystery that worries people's minds

During the Middle Ages, the works of Plato, as well as most other ancient historians and philosophers, were consigned to oblivion, but already in the 14th-16th centuries, called the Renaissance, interest in them, and at the same time in Atlantis and the legend associated with its existence , has grown rapidly. It continues unabated to this day, giving rise to heated scientific discussions. Scientists around the world are trying to discover real evidence events described by Plato and a number of his followers, and answer the question of what Atlantis actually was - legend or reality?

The island, inhabited by people who created the highest, at that time, civilization, and then absorbed by the ocean, is a mystery that excites the minds of people and encourages them to look for answers outside the real world. It is known that even in Ancient Greece the legend of Atlantis gave impetus to many mystical teachings, and in modern history she inspired theosophical thinkers. The most famous of them are H. P. Blavatsky and A. P. Sinnett. The authors of various pseudo-scientific and simply fantastic works of various genres, who also turned to the image of Atlantis, did not stand aside.

Where did the legend come from?

But let us return to the works of Plato, since they are the primary source that aroused centuries-old disputes and discussions. As mentioned above, mention of Atlantis is contained in two of his dialogues, called “Timaeus” and “Critius”. Both of them are devoted to the issue of government and are conducted on behalf of his contemporaries: the Athenian politician Critias, as well as two philosophers - Socrates and Timaeus. Let us immediately note that Plato makes a reservation that the primary source of all information about Atlantis is the story of the ancient Egyptian priests, which was passed down orally from generation to generation and finally reached him.

The troubles that befell the Atlanteans

The first of the dialogues contains a message from Critias about the war between Athens and Atlantis. According to him, the island, whose army his compatriots had to face, was so large that its size surpassed all of Asia, which gives every right to call it a mainland. As for the state formed there, it amazed everyone with its greatness and, being unusually powerful, conquered Libya, as well as a significant territory of Europe, stretching all the way to Tirrenia (Western Italy).

In 9500 BC. e. The Atlanteans, wanting to conquer Athens, brought down the full might of their previously invincible army on them, but, despite the clear superiority of forces, they could not achieve success. The Athenians repelled the invasion and, having defeated the enemy, returned freedom to the peoples who had until then been enslaved by the islanders. However, the troubles did not recede from the prosperous and once prosperous Atlantis. The legend, or rather, the story of Critias, which is its basis, further tells about a terrible natural disaster that completely destroyed the island and forced it to plunge into the ocean depths. Literally within 24 hours, the raging elements wiped out a huge continent from the face of the earth and put an end to the highly developed culture created on it.

Commune of Athenian rulers

The continuation of this story is the second dialogue that has come down to us, called “Critius”. In it, the same Athenian politician tells in more detail about the two great states of antiquity, whose armies met on the battlefield shortly before the fatal flood. Athens, according to him, was a highly developed state so pleasing to the gods that, according to legend, the end of Atlantis was a foregone conclusion.

The description of the system of government that was established in it is very remarkable. According to Critias, on the Acropolis - a hill that still towers in the center of the Greek capital - there was a certain commune, partly reminiscent of those that the founders of the communist movement imagined in their imagination. Everything in it was equal and there was enough of everything in abundance. But it wasn't populated ordinary people, but by rulers and warriors who ensured the maintenance of the order they desired in the country. The working masses were only allowed to reverently look at their shining heights and fulfill the destinies descended from there.

Arrogant descendants of Poseidon

In the same treatise, the author contrasted the humble and virtuous Athenians with the proud Atlanteans. Their ancestor, as is clear from Plato’s work, was the god of the seas himself, Poseidon. One day, having witnessed how an earthly girl named Cleito lay her young body in the waves, he was inflamed with passion and, having evoked reciprocal feelings in her, became the father of ten sons - half-gods, half-humans.

The eldest of them, named Atlas, was put in charge of the island, divided into nine parts, each of which was under the command of one of his brothers. Subsequently, his name was inherited not only by the island, but even by the ocean on which it was located. All his brothers became the founders of dynasties that lived and ruled on this fertile land for many centuries. This is exactly how the legend describes the birth of Atlantis as a powerful and sovereign state.

Island of abundance and wealth

In his work, Plato also gives the known dimensions of this legendary island-mainland. According to him, it reached 540 km in length and was at least 360 km in width. Highest point this vast territory was a hill, the height of which the author does not specify, but writes that it was located approximately 9-10 km from the seashore.

It was on it that the ruler's palace was built, which Poseidon himself surrounded with three land and two water defensive rings. Later, his Atlantean descendants threw bridges across them and dug additional canals through which ships could easily approach the piers located right next to the walls of the palace. They also erected many temples on the central hill, richly decorated with gold and decorated with statues of the celestials and earthly rulers of Atlantis.

Myths and legends, born from the writings of Plato, are full of descriptions of the treasures owned by the descendants of the sea god, as well as the wealth of nature and the fertility of the island. In the dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher, it is mentioned, in particular, that, despite the dense population of Atlantis, wild animals lived very freely on its territory, among which there were even elephants that had not yet been tamed or domesticated. At the same time, Plato does not ignore many negative aspects of the life of the islanders, which aroused the anger of the gods and caused the disaster.

The end of Atlantis and the beginning of the legend

The peace and prosperity that reigned there for many centuries collapsed overnight through the fault of the Atlanteans themselves. The author writes that until the inhabitants of the island put virtue above wealth and honors, the inhabitants of heaven were favorable to them, but turned away from them as soon as the shine of gold overshadowed spiritual values ​​in their eyes. Looking at how people who had lost their divine essence were filled with pride, greed and malice, Zeus did not want to restrain his anger and, having gathered the other gods, gave them the right to pronounce their sentence. This is where the manuscript of the ancient Greek philosopher ends, but, judging by the catastrophe that soon befell the evil, proud people, they were considered unworthy of mercy, which ultimately led to such a sad outcome.

The legends of Atlantis (or information about the events that actually happened - this remains unknown) attracted the attention of many ancient Greek historians and writers. In particular, the Athenian Hellanicus, who lived in the 5th century BC. e., also describes this island in one of his works, calling it, however, somewhat differently - Atlantiad - and without mentioning its destruction. However, modern researchers, for a number of reasons, believe that his story is related not to the lost Atlantis, but to Crete, which successfully survived centuries, in whose history the sea god Poseidon also appears, who conceived a son from an earthly maiden.

It is curious that the name “Atlanteans” was applied by ancient Greek and Roman authors not only to the islanders, but also to the inhabitants of continental Africa. In particular, Herodotus, as well as an equally famous historian, call this a certain tribe that lived in the Atlas Mountains near the ocean coast. These African Atlanteans were very warlike and, being at a low stage of development, waged constant wars with foreigners, among whom were the legendary Amazons.

As a result, they were completely exterminated by their neighbors, the troglodytes, who, although they were in a semi-animal state, still managed to win. There is an opinion that Aristotle said on this occasion that it was not the military superiority of the savages that led to the death of the Atlantean tribe, but the creator of the world, Zeus himself, destroyed them for the lawlessness they committed.

A figment of fantasy that has survived centuries

The attitude of modern researchers to the information presented in Plato’s dialogues and in the works of a number of other authors is extremely skeptical. Most of them consider Atlantis a legend that has no basis in reality. Their position is explained primarily by the fact that for many centuries no material evidence of its existence was discovered. This is true. There is completely no archaeological data on the existence of such a developed civilization at the end of the Ice Age, as well as the millennia closest to it. West Africa or Greece.

It is also puzzling that the story, allegedly told to the world by the ancient Greek priests and then reaching Plato in an oral retelling, was not reflected in any of the written monuments discovered on the banks of the Nile. This involuntarily suggests that the ancient Greek philosopher himself composed the tragic story of Atlantis.

He could well have borrowed the beginning of the legend from the rich Russian mythology, in which gods often became the founders of entire nations and continents. As for the tragic outcome of the plot, he needed it. The fictional island had to be destroyed to give the story external credibility. Otherwise, how could he explain to his contemporaries (and, of course, his descendants) the absence of traces of his existence.

Researchers of antiquity also pay attention to the fact that when talking about the mysterious continent located near the western coast of Africa and its inhabitants, the author cites exclusively Greek names and geographical names. This is very strange and suggests that he came up with them himself.

Tragic mistake

To conclude the article, we will present several very interesting statements made today by ardent supporters of the historicity of the existence of Atlantis. As mentioned above, today it has been raised on the shield by many supporters of occult movements and various kinds of mystics who do not want to reckon with the absurdity of their own theories. Pseudoscientists are not inferior to them, trying to pass off their fabrications as discoveries they allegedly made.

For example, in recent years, articles have repeatedly appeared in the press, as well as on the Internet, that the Atlanteans (whose existence the authors did not question) achieved such great progress that they conducted extensive research activities in the field of nuclear physics. Even the disappearance of the continent itself is explained by the tragedy that occurred as a result of their unsuccessful nuclear test.

Atlantis is a legendary island that was located in the modern Atlantic Ocean and sank to the seabed one day as a result of an earthquake and flood, along with its inhabitants - the Atlanteans. This legend is first described by Plato in the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias” with reference to certain legends. Plato indicates the time of the catastrophe as “9000 years ago,” that is, in the middle of the 10th millennium BC. e.

The dialogue “Timaeus” begins with the reasoning of Socrates and the Pythagorean Timaeus about the best state structure. Having briefly described the ideal state, Socrates complains about the abstractness and schematic nature of the resulting picture. He expresses a desire to “listen to a description of how this state behaves in the fight against other states, how it enters into war in a manner worthy of it, how during the war its citizens do what befits them, in accordance with their training and upbringing, whether on the battlefield or in negotiations with each of the other states." Responding to this wish, the third participant in the dialogue, the Athenian politician Critias, recounts the story of the war between Athens and Atlantis, allegedly from the words of his grandfather Critias the Elder, who, in turn, retold him the story of Solon, who the latter heard from the priests in Egypt. The meaning of the story is this: once upon a time, 9 thousand years ago, Athens was the most glorious, powerful and virtuous state. Their main rival was the aforementioned Atlantis. “This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined.” A “kingdom of amazing size and power” arose on it, ruling all of Libya to Egypt and Europe to Tyrrhenia (western Italy). All the forces of this kingdom were thrown into the enslavement of Athens. The Athenians stood up to defend their freedom at the head of the Hellenes; and although all their allies betrayed them, they alone, thanks to their valor and virtue, repelled the invasion, crushed the Atlanteans and freed the peoples they had enslaved. Following this, however, a tremendous natural disaster occurred, as a result of which the entire army of the Athenians died in one day, and Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea.

The dialogue “Critias”, with the same participants, serves as a direct continuation of “Timaeus” and is entirely devoted to Critias’ story about ancient Athens and Atlantis. Athens, before the earthquake and flood, was the center of a large and unusually fertile country; they were inhabited by a virtuous people who enjoyed ideal state structure. Modest and virtuous Athens is contrasted with the arrogant and powerful Atlantis. The ancestor of the Atlanteans, according to Plato, was the god Poseidon, who met with the mortal girl Cleito. She gave birth to ten divine sons from him, led by the eldest, Atlas, between whom Poseidon divided the island and who became the ancestors of his royal families. On the island stood temples, lined with silver and gold and surrounded by golden statues, a luxurious royal palace, and there were also shipyards filled with ships

“The kings encircled the island on which the palace stood, as well as the earthen rings and a bridge plethra wide (30 m) with circular stone walls and placed towers and gates everywhere on the bridges at the passages to the sea. They mined white, black and red stone in the depths of the middle island and in the depths of the outer and inner earthen rings, and in the quarries, where there were recesses on both sides, covered with the same stone, they arranged anchorages for ships. If they made some of their buildings simple, then in others, for fun, they skillfully combined stones of different colors, giving them a natural charm; They also covered the entire circumference of the walls around the outer earthen ring with copper, applying the metal in molten form, and the wall of the acropolis itself with orichalcum, which gave off a fiery shine.” As long as the divine nature remained in the Atlanteans, they disdained wealth, putting virtue above it; but when the divine nature degenerated, mixing with the human, they became mired in luxury, greed and pride. Outraged by this spectacle, Zeus planned to destroy the Atlanteans and convened a meeting of the gods. At this point the dialogue - at least the text that has reached us - ends.

There are several versions of the death of Atlantis.

1. If we approach the problem from a geological point of view, it comes down to the following question: in historical times, did there exist a microcontinent or a huge archipelago that sank catastrophically quickly? From the point of view of this theory, the model of the death of Atlantis looks like this.

The outer shell of the Earth consists of separate, slowly moving lithospheric plates. Where the lithospheric plates converge, the thinner and more deeply submerged oceanic lithosphere, colliding with the continental lithosphere, breaks and moves under it, carrying ocean islands with it. Continental plates collide to form mountains. Thus, as a result of the fact that Africa “fell” on Europe, the Alpine folding arose, giving rise to the Pyrenees, Alps, Karadag in the Crimea and the Pamirs. Atlantis was located in a tectonically active zone that still exhibits volcanic activity.

Seismic data reveals short- and long-focus earthquakes, an anomalous magnetic field and heat flow in the Azores-Gibraltar region. Research has revealed signs of partial subduction of one plate under another, which could have resulted in the death of Atlantis.

In 1981 and 1984, the Institute of Oceanology equipped two expeditions for test dives of the underwater diving bell and testing of other equipment of the Vityaz research vessel. The research was carried out in the area of ​​the Ampere Seamount, located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 500 km west of the Strait of Gibraltar.

On the flat top of the mountain, formations were discovered that resembled the ruins of a city. The expedition members managed to photograph something similar to the masonry of the wall and make a number of drawings from life, which served as a reason for sensational reports in the newspapers. What we saw was surprisingly reminiscent of ancient dwellings in Chersonesos:

firstly, cells ranging in size from 5 to 10 m, very similar to the rooms of houses,

secondly, scientists saw structures that resembled stairs and even something like an arch.

Divers broke off fragments of weathered basalt from one of the supposed masonry, and experts checked them for traces of tool processing. Experts are inclined to conclude that the “walls” are still not made by human hands and there are no “ruins” ancient city" does not exist. Further study showed that the mountain is an old volcano, broken by deep cracks, stretched almost at right angles to each other and giving the impression of “rooms”. Another thing was more important: when the basalt was subjected to chemical analysis, it became clear that it was formed not under water, but in air, i.e. in those days when Ampere rose above the surface of the ocean.

2. One and a half thousand years BC. The largest eruption of the Santorini volcano in the history of mankind occurred in the Aegean Sea on the island of Strongele. The explosion demolished the central part of the island, and in its place a giant crater appeared into which the sea rushed. A huge amount of ash erupted from the crater of the volcano, and the shock wave, earthquakes and tsunamis destroyed the cities and settlements of the Minoans on Crete and other islands. A cloud of volcanic gases mixed with ash enveloped the Greek archipelago, killing a significant part of the population, burning vegetation and destroying the animal world. The Cretan-Mycenaean culture, which had recently flourished so much, was wiped off the face of the earth. But did the eruption cause the death of Atlantis or were there some other reasons?

Now more and more researchers are inclined to believe that Atlantis could have perished as a result of a strong earthquake or volcanic eruption, or most likely, both at the same time. Some scientists believe that Atlantis was destroyed by giant waves - tsunamis, which often arise as a result of earthquakes. Atlantis is a mystery both for geologists, geophysicists, oceanographers, and for historians, archaeologists, art historians and people studying ancient cultures. There is no hope of finding golden statues of goddesses, a temple of Poseidon, or anything like that in the depths of the ocean. Processes of erosion, sedimentation and other natural processes mercilessly destroy traces of ancient civilizations.



Nicholas Roerich

Myth of Atlantis

Professor at the University of Warsaw Zielinski, in his interesting research on ancient myths, came to the conclusion that the heroes of these myths were not legendary figures at all, but real figures. Many other authors came to the same conclusion, thus refuting the materialistic tendency of the last century, which tried to portray everything heroic as just some kind of abstract myths. Thus, the French scientist Senard tried to prove that Buddha never existed and was nothing more than a solar myth, which was immediately refuted by archaeological finds. Similar attempts have been made to prove that Christ never existed, although we have evidence very close to His time. In addition, a slab with a Roman inscription was recently found in Syria - an edict against the first Christians, extremely close in time to the manifestation of Christ. In this struggle between those who know and those who deny, the boundary dividing the entire world psychology is so clear. At the same time, it is extremely instructive to observe how all deniers are eventually defeated; those who defended Heroism, Truth, Great Reality, they find justification in reality itself.

He who truly understood heroes and myths and who was temporarily considered a dreamer turned out to be the greatest realist, while the skeptic-denier rightly took the place of the “dreamer” who believed either slander or a perverted source. So slowly but surely the wheel of evolution turns, bringing with it the restoration of forgotten truth.

Let's look back and notice how quickly and how easily humanity forgets even recent events and figures. Until recently, individuals such as Paracelsus or Thomas Vaughan were noted in encyclopedias as deceivers. But then some people, in whom justice was alive, took the trouble to familiarize themselves with their works and found, instead of the announced charlatans, profound scientists, whose discoveries brought much good to humanity. I remember how, as children, we were captivated by Gaston Tissandier’s book “Martyrs of Science.” Those who died as burnt offerings, in torture, on the scaffold, are now recognized as great scholars. But false skepticism continues its underground work and, instead of the former martyrs, hastens to invent others, so that then they, in turn, would also be honored with monuments and popular celebrations.

In recent years, there have been some isolated actions in social trends that give hope that harmful denial is already being recognized and thus, hopefully, taking its deserved dark corner.

People are starting to gravitate towards life stories. But the skeptical whisperers do not want to give in on this either. Shrugging their shoulders, they will tell you: “How can you be sure about the true motives that gave birth to the actions depicted in the biography?” Or: “How can you be sure that the events that colored the lives of your heroes were not accidents?” Or: “Can you say that the biographer was sincere and impartial?”

Let us assume that these remarks, to a certain extent, may have some basis. Let us give some color to the biography of the personality of the biographer himself. But nevertheless, the archives of historical documents still convey to us many undoubted life milestones of reality. Even in the recent past, chronicles were considered dubious documents that did not deserve serious attention. But archaeological and historical finds and documents contemporary with the chronicles show that they deserve much more respect than even recently superficial minds believed. Of course, let's hope that humanity will not now waste entire centuries in correctly illuminating outstanding phenomena.

Paying tribute to chronicles and biographies, humanity will learn to write them. It would be a great mistake to think that the concept of heroes is shared only with the past. The synthesis of our era crystallizes its heroes. One can hope that bonfires, prisons and executions will no longer be indispensable attributes of these great souls!

By establishing that the gods of antiquity were heroes imprinted in the memory of the people, we will strengthen ourselves in the consciousness that even in our days individuality and personality control the rudder of humanity. By affirming the existence of such individuals, we will learn, following the example of our ancestors, to convey the essence of their personality to subsequent generations in benevolent positive research. Let us not forget that in the future these biographies will be included in public schools as Lights of Progress. Therefore, we will teach young people not only to read biographies, but also to be able to write them, or, rather, to distinguish - which of the manifestations of their contemporaries will go down in history.

By reading legends, young people will learn to dream. This is a great quality, for it fills the heart with the best, most powerful lights. With these fires of the heart, youth learn how to discern where the truth is. Truth is not known by calculations; only the language of the heart knows where the great Truth lives, which, in spite of everything, leads humanity to the ascent. Are not legends a garland of the best flowers? Humanity does not create legends about the small, the insignificant and the pitiful. Often, even in seemingly negative myths, there is respect for the potential of inner power. In any case, each legend contains something unusual. Does not this singularity lead the human spirit beyond the twilight of the mechanical standard? Evolution is not based on this machine standard. A legend that frees us from the overwhelming conditions of everyday routine, renews our thinking, allows us to plunge into new depths of knowledge, full of inexhaustible youthful enthusiasm.

Ask a great mathematician, a great physicist, a great physiologist, a great astronomer, can he dream? I do not mention artists, musicians, poets, because their entire being is built on the ability to dream. A great scientist, if he is truly great and is not afraid of unkind witnesses, will, of course, confide in you how well he knows how to exalt himself with dreams. How many of his discoveries are based not only on calculation, but precisely on a high life dream.

Yes, legends are not an abstraction, but reality itself. Truly dreams are not signs of illiteracy, but the differences of refined souls. Therefore, let us in every possible way encourage in our youth the aspirations for calling and creating legends, and together with the youth, while remaining young, we will honor the dream as the leading and ascending wings of our revival and improvement.

Aspiration, Hierarchy, Infinity, Beauty - only along these milestones do we undoubtedly move forward. We must apply the essence of our activity to life immediately. By paying homage to the dream, we will not become “dreamers.”

The legend of Atlantis has haunted humanity for the third millennium; more than 6 thousand volumes have been written about it. But did this exist? mysterious civilization? If yes, when and where? How to interpret the evidence of the ancients? Atlantis is a mystery for geologists, geophysicists, seismologists, oceanographers, as well as for historians, archaeologists, art historians and people studying ancient cultures. There is no hope of finding golden statues of goddesses, a temple of Poseidon, or anything like that in the depths of the ocean. Processes of erosion, sedimentation and other natural processes mercilessly destroy traces of ancient civilizations, but indirect evidence of their existence still reaches us.

The Legend of Atlantis. The mythical continent, or the island of Atlantis, was first described Plato(427–347 BC) in dialogues Timaeus And Critias with reference to one of the seven sages of Ancient Greece - Solona. Plato allegedly learned about Atlantis from his grandfather Solon, who traveled to Egypt and met there with local priests - experts in ancient secrets, who, according to historians and archaeologists-Egyptologists, relied on written evidence left by the ancients more than 30 thousand years ago that had not survived papyri before us. It was they who told him the history of Atlantis. According to them, it was located somewhere in the Atlantic - west of the Strait of Gibraltar and was named after Atlas, the brother of one of the titans of Greek mythology - Prometheus. According to Plato, the mysterious continent was inhabited by the Atlanteans - a fearless and powerful people who reached the highest level civilization and fought with a certain pre-Athenian state. It was located in the Atlantic Ocean beyond Gibraltar and died approximately 12 thousand years ago (between 9750 and 8570 BC), plunging into the abyss of the ocean “in one day and a disastrous night” as a result of a tremendous natural disaster.

Where to look for Atlantis? If we collect and publish all the data about where Atlantis could be located, we would get a fascinating book in which we would have to talk about South America, with which the famous philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626) identified Atlantis in his utopia New Atlantis; and about the North Sea, where, according to the German pastor Jürgen Spanut, there was a mysterious continent not far from the island of Helgoland, and about searches in the early 19th century from Yucatan to Mongolia and from Spitsbergen to St. Helena. Atlantis was “registered” in Brazil, Scandinavia, Palestine, in the Pas-de-Calais Strait, etc. Among the active supporters of its existence were the artist and philosopher Nicholas Roerich and geologist, academician Vladimir Obruchev. Recently, the views of researchers are increasingly turning to the islands of Crete and Thira (Strongele), and in antiquity the island of Thera. The Minoan culture of these islands died as a result of a major disaster one and a half thousand years BC. Among the supporters of the latter hypothesis are Angelos Galanopoulos, Bacon, tectonist Evgeniy Milanovsky, a famous researcher depths of the sea, French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who discovered fragments of structures on the periphery of the underwater island of Thira, indicating that the city really died there. But was it Atlantis?

How they searched for Atlantis. At the beginning of the 20th century, three expeditions were equipped and sent in search of Atlantis, one of which (the second) was led by Pavel Schliemann, the grandson of the famous discoverer of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann. According to Pavel Schliemann, his famous grandfather left a sealed envelope so that it would be opened by one of the family members who would make a solemn promise to devote his entire life to research, indications of which he would find in this envelope. Pavel Schliemann made such an oath, opened the envelope and read the letter that was there. In a letter, Heinrich Schliemann reported that he undertook research on the remains of Atlantis, the existence of which he has no doubt and which he considers the cradle of our entire civilization. In the summer of 1873, Heinrich Schliemann allegedly found (during excavations in Troy) a large bronze vessel, inside of which there were smaller clay vessels, small figurines made of a special metal, money made of the same metal, and objects “made from fossil bones.” On some of these objects and on the bronze vessel was written in Phoenician hieroglyphs: “From the king of Atlantis, Chronos.” But many researchers, Russian and foreign, are distrustful of this story.

The search for Atlantis has been and is ongoing everywhere - all over the globe. Foreign researchers Renata and Yaroslav Malina in their works about natural disasters and aliens from outer space they write that Atlantean sailors explored the Earth. They say that they traveled through the air and under water, photographed objects at great distances, used X-rays, recorded images and sounds on video tapes, used a crystal laser, invented terrible weapons using cosmic rays, and also used antimatter energy. However, the use of the dark forces of nature for personal gain by ambitious priests and the increasing frequency of earthquakes led to the disintegration of the mainland into many islands, which subsequently also disappeared into the sea. And ten thousand years BC, an underground explosion destroyed the island of Poseidonis. Radiation emitted by a large crystal lying at the site of the destruction of Atlantis leads to the sudden disappearance of ships and aircraft in the famous Bermuda Triangle.

In 1981 and 1984, the Institute of Oceanology equipped two expeditions for test dives of the underwater diving bell and testing other equipment of the research vessel “Vityaz”. The research was carried out in the area of ​​the Amper seamount, located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 500 km west of the Strait of Gibraltar and part of the Hosshu seamount system. On the flat top of the mountain, formations were discovered that resembled the ruins of a city. The expedition members managed to photograph something similar to the masonry of the wall and make a number of drawings from life, which served as a reason for sensational reports in the newspapers. What they saw was surprisingly reminiscent of ancient dwellings in Chersonesus: firstly, cells ranging in size from 5 to 10 m, very similar to the rooms of houses, and secondly, scientists saw many straight parallelepipeds, buildings resembling stairs and even something like an arch. Divers broke off fragments of weathered basalt from one of the supposed masonry, and experts checked them for traces of tool processing. It was not possible to find a definite answer, however, experts were inclined to conclude that the “walls” were still not made by human hands and that no “ruins of the ancient city” existed. Further careful study showed that the mountain is an old volcano, broken by deep cracks, extending almost at right angles to each other and giving the impression of “rooms”. Another thing was more important: when the basalt was subjected to chemical analysis, it became clear that it was formed not under water, but in air, i.e. in those days when Ampere rose above the surface of the ocean.

How did Atlantis perish? Let's turn to Plato's dialogue Critias, where we are talking about the reasons for the death of Atlantis: “And so Zeus... thought about the glorious race that had fallen into such pitiful depravity, and decided to impose punishment on it, so that, having sobered up from trouble, it would learn good manners. Therefore, he called all the gods... and addressed those gathered with these words...". It is at this point that the narrative breaks off. What kind of punishment did Zeus prepare for Atlantis?

Where the myth ends, the painstaking work of scientists begins. Now more and more researchers are inclined to believe that Atlantis could have perished as a result of a strong earthquake or volcanic eruption, or most likely, both at the same time. Some scientists believe that Atlantis was destroyed by giant waves - tsunamis, which often arise as a result of earthquakes. But there are also more exotic options. Polish astronomer L. Seidler believes that the death of the continent is associated with the fall of a comet or asteroid on our planet. Astronomer O. Muk put forward a hypothesis about the fall of a huge meteorite in the area of ​​the Florida Peninsula on the Atlantic coast, which, according to his calculations, occurred on June 5, 8499 BC. (according to the Gregorian calendar) and caused the disaster. Hans Schindler Bellamy suggested that Atlantis was wiped off the face of the Earth by giant waves resulting from the Moon falling into the Earth's gravitational field. But, perhaps, the most probable version from a geological point of view is that deep tectonic processes and mutual collisions of continental plates gave rise to both earthquakes and tsunamis that destroyed this civilization.
Evidence of the ancients. What did Plato know about Atlantis? In his dialogues, he reports that Atlantis disappeared within one day and one tragic night - “in one terrible day.” Russian symbolist poet V.Ya. Bryusov in his essay “Atlantis” notes that “Plato describes Atlantis already in the state it reached after several thousand years cultural life, when the island already had many separate kingdoms, many rich cities and a huge population numbering in the millions.” And the history of the island itself began with the division of the land between three brother gods: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. Poseidon was given the island of Atlantis by lot and, in addition, he became the ruler of the seas. When Poseidon received Atlantis, only three people lived on the island - “one of the husbands, at the very beginning brought into the world by the Earth, named Eunor with his wife Livkippa and the beautiful daughter Cleito.” Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, she became his wife and gave birth to five pairs of twins - the first ten kings of Atlantis.

Poseidon was the first to fortify the island to make it inaccessible to enemies. Around a low hill, gradually turning into a plain, three water and two earthen rings were dug in a circle, one after another, alternately. In the very center of the hill (acropolis), on a hill, Poseidon built a small temple for Cleito and himself, surrounding it with a wall of pure gold. A palace was built on the acropolis, which was expanded and decorated by each king, and the new one certainly sought to surpass his predecessor. “So it was impossible to see this building without being amazed at the size and beauty of the work.” The kings - the children of Poseidon, of course, could not do without bathing, and therefore they built numerous baths on the acropolis. “For swimming there were reservoirs, open, and, for winter, closed; there were special ones - for the royal family and for private individuals; still others - separately for women, and also for horses and pack animals; each of them was located and decorated according to its purpose. The water coming out of these reservoirs was directed to irrigate the forest of Poseidon, where the fertility of the soil produced trees of amazing height and beauty.” The largest and most majestic structure of the acropolis was the temple dedicated to the god Poseidon. It was truly gigantic in size: 185 meters long, 96 meters wide and “appropriate” in height. The outside of the large temple was entirely lined with silver, except for the “ends” made of pure gold. There were many statues made of gold inside the temple. The largest of them depicted the god Poseidon, who, standing on a chariot, controlled six winged horses. The statue of Poseidon was so high that its head almost touched the ceiling, which was trimmed with ivory and all decorated with gold and silver. The walls, pillars and floors inside the temple were completely lined precious stones. Everything literally sparkled and “lit up” as soon as a ray of sunlight penetrated into the sanctuary.

Plato also reports many wonderful things about the capital of the Atlanteans, and then moves on to describe the entire country. “The island of Atlantis was very elevated above sea level, and the shore rose up like an inaccessible cliff. All around the capital was a plain, surrounded by mountains reaching to the sea.” Everyone said about this plain that it was the most beautiful on earth and very fertile. It was densely dotted with flowering villages, separated by lakes, rivers, and meadows, where many wild domestic animals grazed. Much came to the Atlanteans from outside, due to the extent of their power; but the island itself produced almost everything necessary for life. “Firstly, all metals are hard and fusible, suitable for processing, including the one that we now know only by name: orichalcum: deposits of it were found in many places on the island; after gold it was the most precious of metals. The island supplied all the necessary materials for crafts. A large number of domestic animals and wild animals lived on the island, including many elephants. The island provided abundant food for all kinds of animals, both those living in swamps, lakes and rivers or on mountains and plains, and these (elephants), although they are huge and voracious. The island produced and delivered all the aromas that now grow in different countries, roots, herbs, juice flowing from fruits and flowers. There was also a fruit that produces wine (grapes), and one that serves as food (cereals), along with those that we also eat as food, generally called vegetables; there were also fruits that provided drink, food and incense at the same time (coconuts?). Such were the divine and amazing riches that this island produced in incalculable quantities.” Further, Plato describes the political structure of the capital and itself, because “with such bounty of the soil, the inhabitants built temples, palaces, ports and harbors for ships and tried to decorate their island.” On the happy island, each of the ten brothers - the kings had absolute power in their kingdom, but the general rule of the state of Atlantis was carried out by the kings by the Council, to which they gathered every 5-6 years, alternating even and odd numbers. The highest power always remained with the direct heir of Atlas, but even the main king could not sentence death penalty none of their relatives without the consent of the majority of the kings, “as long as the Atlanteans followed the principles of virtue during their reign and while the “divine principle” dominated in them, they succeeded in everything.” But when “human morality” triumphed - the base principle, when they lost all decency and unbridled greed began to boil in them, when people began to present themselves as a “shameful spectacle”, then the God of Gods - Zeus, seeing the depravity of the Atlanteans, once so virtuous, decided to punish them. “He gathered all the gods in the heavenly sanctuary and addressed them with these words...”

As mentioned above, at this point Plato’s dialogue “Critias” suddenly ends and the story of Atlantis and its two thousand year long search begins. The priests mourned the spiritual wisdom of Atlantis, which had defiled itself. Philosophers talked about the divine rulers of this island, poets sang of the fabulous perfection of its structure. However, some researchers believe that Plato needed dialogues about Atlantis to express his thoughts about the ideal structure of the state. The story of Atlantis, as Valery Bryusov notes, is not something exceptional in the works of Plato. He also has other descriptions of fantastic countries, clothed in the form of myths. But none of these stories is provided, like the description of Atlantis, with references to sources. Plato, as if anticipating future doubts and objections, takes care to indicate the origin of his information with the greatest accuracy that ancient authors only knew.

Probably, the Greek Plato would think seriously if he knew what kind of excitement would surround his two works in which he mentions Ancient Atlantis. Some consider them almost the main books - revelations of humanity, others - false fabrications, a kind of ancient Greek yellow press, desperately distorting the facts. His "Dialogues" - "Timaeus" and "Critius" - by today's standards, these are two thin brochures, the contents of which could easily fit, for example, on the pages of a newspaper. But after Plato mentioned the superstate of Atlantis, more than 300 thousand articles have already been written on this topic.
In addition to the philosopher Plato, who described Atlantis in 360 - 370. BC e., other ancient writers also mentioned it. For example, a century earlier, the famous historian Herodotus wrote: “Mount Atlas stands near a salt lake. Narrow and high so that its top all year round shrouded in clouds. The locals, who are called Atlanteans, also got their name from it.” However, skeptics say that these people have nothing to do with Plato’s Atlantis. Another ancient Greek philosopher, Theopompus, who, like Plato, lived in the 4th century, described a certain giant island - a state with many cities. One day they sent an army of 10 million people across the ocean to conquer Hyperborea. But when the conquerors saw how the Hyperboreans lived, they considered them unhappy and returned home overseas.” True, Hyperborea is also a mythical state, and Theopompus did not mention the name Atlantis. These are the main literary sources where you can glean information about the mythical state. There were other authors, but they all worked much later and can be considered to have used the works of the ancient Greek trinity. Valery Bryusov at work Teachers of teachers defends the authenticity of Plato's story about Atlantis. In his opinion, if we assume that Plato’s description is fiction, we will have to recognize him as a superhuman genius, who foresaw the development of science for thousands of years to come and foresaw the discovery by historians of the world of Aegea, Columbus’s voyage to America, the discovery of the Mayan civilization, etc. With all due respect to the great philosopher, such insight is impossible, so a more plausible explanation arises: Plato referred to Egyptian manuscripts that came from ancient times.

The only way to prove that Atlantis existed is to find it. But in 10 thousand years from the moment of the catastrophe at the bottom of the sea, little would have remained of it. If the Atlanteans used iron, then no traces of it remained in sea water for a long time. Salty water- too aggressive environment. Only gold has a chance to survive to this day. But it is unlikely that the Atlanteans erected golden statues tens of meters high. It is impossible to find smaller objects at the bottom. Another question: what did the Atlantean aborigines build their houses from? If granite, basalt and shell rock are the building materials of the ancient world, then all of them have already turned into sand. In ten thousand years, nothing will remain of both wooden buildings and those built from baked clay bricks. Only buildings made of marble could survive.

Numerous artifacts found in all corners of the globe suggest the existence of a pre-civilization in the past. And it doesn’t matter what it was called: Hyperborea, Lemuria or Atlantis. 2500 years have passed since Plato. 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? Almost all peoples of the world have legends about a certain mysterious land, which one day went under water. Scientific research in recent years shows that it is too early to put an end to this problem. And many serious scientists and researchers are confident: the next ten years of research on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean will give us irrefutable facts of the existence of the legendary Atlantis. The search for Atlantis can become a unique interdisciplinary study using methods of geology, oceanology, history, and analysis of ancient manuscripts and documents. But the biggest difficulty faced researchers are interpreting data and correlating dates. The fabulous Atlantis, a powerful and mysterious wonderland, still keeps its secrets and awaits discoverers.

“Atlantis Supposed to be Discovered, Not in the Atlantic, but in the Aegean Sea,” was the headline of an article in the Norfolk Ledger-Star for July 19, 1967. The same article, under the headline “Minoan City Found After 3,400 Years, connected with Atlantis” appeared in the New York Times on the same day. The articles are devoted to the discovery of the city of Minoa, buried under a 9-meter thick layer of volcanic ash on the island of Thira in the Aegean Sea. The excavations were carried out under the supervision of Dr. James W. Mavor of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Emily Vermeuli, professor of art and Greek at Wellesley College. Mavor and Vermeuli connected their discovery with Atlantis, since evidence of the existence of a highly developed civilization was discovered on the island, as well as its sudden and violent death... Pay attention to both headings. The value of these messages was seen not only in the discovery of a practically preserved city that flourished around 1500 BC, but in its possible connection with the mythical Atlantis. This was the latest attempt to make the legend of Atlantis a reality by changing its location and time of existence.

The most ancient and known references to Atlantis are contained in Timaeus and Critias, two dialogues by Plato that date back to the 5th century. BC Plato introduces information about Atlantis into a conversation between Solon and a certain Egyptian priest in Sais. It is spoken of as a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, which sank into the water as a result of a volcanic eruption about nine thousand years earlier.

Since Plato's time, mostly in the last two hundred years, hundreds of books and articles have been written about Atlantis. Some have tried to prove that Plato's story of Atlantis is not only possible, but also probable. Others argued that Atlantis was just a myth or viewed it as historical fact, but they were correlated not with the Atlantic Ocean, but with other places and with a later time.

A significant portion of the literature about Atlantis consists of numerous works by esotericists of various kinds, as well as the chaotic production of eccentric personalities. The attention that pseudoscientists and adherents of various cults paid to the legend of Atlantis was the reason why representatives of official science avoid even discussing this issue.

Several medieval authors mention this legendary land, perhaps the best known and most popular is Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: The World Before the Flood. First published in 1882, it was revised and edited by Egerton Sykes in 1949. No book published before or since contains such a volume of geological, archaeological material, information from legends, or presents so many simple, artless and eloquent arguments , confirming the legend of Atlantis.

Donnelly's arguments are based largely on the evidence of similarities between cultures ancient egypt and Indian cultures of Central and South America. On both sides of the Atlantic, a 365-day calendar was used, embalming of the dead was practiced, pyramids were erected, legends about the flood were preserved, etc. Donnelly argues that both ancient cultures - Egyptian and American Indians - were the product of Atlantis, and when it was destroyed, they spread west and east. According to Donnelly, the legacy of Atlantis can explain the fact that the Basques of the Spanish Pyrenees differ in appearance and language from all their neighbors. (“The Basque language is the only non-Aryan language in Western Europe" Lincoln Library, vol. 1, p. 516). Also, the inhabitants of the Canary Islands bear little resemblance to any African people and had the custom of mummifying the dead. Donnelly says that Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands could have been a likely refuge for settlers from the dying Atlantis. He compared the names of the cities of Asia Minor and those cities of Central America that already had names by the time the first European explorers appeared:

ASIA MINOR CENTRAL AMERICA

Chol Chol-ula

Colua Colua-kan

Zuivana Zuivan

Cholina Colina

Zalissa Gzalisko

According to Donelly, it would be too bold to attribute such similarities to coincidence. He provided 626 references to sources. Despite the weaknesses that critics found in his argument - he was accused of "building a mountain of conjectures on the molecules of facts" - the work was an astonishing achievement. Donnelly's arguments are still interesting to read today, so it would make sense, using modern methods, to do the work of separating fact from speculation in his intriguing book.

Egerton Sykes, an Atlantean scholar who has probably the world's richest collection of Atlantean literature, states that thousands of books and articles have been written on the subject since Plato. However, only a few authors have added anything substantive to Donnelly's arguments. For example, an article supporting the possibility of Atlantis appeared in November 1948 in Science Digest. Originally published in MIT's Technical Engineering News in June 1948, it revisits Donnelly's strongest arguments regarding the possibility of existence and sinking. island country. The article discusses the presence on the ocean floor of a relief close to the continental one, namely mountains, valleys, plains with trenches and basins similar to the beds of rivers and lakes. Interestingly, a relatively small deformation of the earth's crust (1/8000 of the earth's diameter) can lead to uplift large area the ocean floor above the water level and the submergence of other parts of the land. Confirmations of such phenomena that occurred in the past are discussed in detail in the article. In 1898, the crew of a ship engaged in laying an underwater cable in the area Azores, tried to use “cats” to locate this cable, lost at a depth of about 3.7 km. The rugged, rocky ocean bottom made the task difficult, and the instrument had to be frequently cleared of stuck pieces of soil. I further quote the article: “It was determined by microscopic examination that these pieces of soil were lava, which had a glassy structure and, therefore, must have hardened under atmospheric conditions. (Lava that solidifies underwater has a crystalline structure.) Since the lava has weathered significantly over the past 15 thousand years, we can assume that at that time the surface covered by it was located above sea level.” This is another recent confirmation of the existence of land in the Atlantic. An article by R. W. Kolbe in 1957 (Science, vol. 126) reports on studies of a deep-sea core recovered from a depth of 3.7 km in one of the sections of the underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Findings of exclusively freshwater diatoms in sediment samples confirm that the studied area of ​​the ridge was above sea level.

O. Mellis in 1958, studying the origin of deep-sea sands in the Atlantic Ocean, showed that the sands of the Romanche Trench probably resulted from the weathering of a section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that once rose above the surface of the ocean.

In 1959, the Military Engineer reported that “during hydrographic surveys by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, flooded depressions more than 90 m wide and up to 150 m deep were discovered in the Straits of Florida. They are located 25 km from the Florida Keys, where the ocean depth is 270 m. It is assumed that they were freshwater lakes in an area that then sank.”

The most important expert arguments in favor of the existence of Atlantis can be found in the article by René Malais “Research of the ocean floor in connection with geological structure", which appeared in "Geologiska Foreningens" in "Stockholm Forhandlingar" (March-April, 1957). Malais argues that many of the continental-type landforms of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, in particular the canyons on the ocean floor, could not have been cut by underwater turbulent currents, but must have been formed when the modern sea floor was above water level. He looks at ocean currents and their impact on the glacier that covered Europe and America 10-12 thousand years ago. His paper also includes drawings comparing flint points found at Sandia Cave, New Mexico, with Solutrean tools from Morocco and France. The similarity of these finds indicates the unity of their origin. Since their origin is estimated at 25 thousand years ago, Malais believes that their owners could have spread west and east from Atlantis.

However, all these facts cannot serve as confirmation of the existence of Atlantis. At best, they indicate that parts of the Atlantic Ocean floor in the recent past were located above the water level.

From time to time, newspapers and magazines publish articles or statements citing authoritative statements both in support and against the legend of Atlantis. For example, the San Jose Mercury on July 17, 1958 quoted the Soviet physicist and mathematician Professor N. Ledner, who stated that he had studied the legends of Atlantis for 20 years and was convinced that ancient historical documents and cultural structures, together with the latest scientific discoveries, show that such an island continent actually existed. However, despite the efforts of authors such as Donnelly, Malays and others to collect and connect archaeological, geological and mythological evidence in support of the legend of Atlantis, there is no scientific evidence for the existence of Atlantis. There are no unmistakable remains of its culture and inhabitants. Myths and legends of the past, along with Plato's story, live to remind humanity of the ancient era. Some credible evidence is capable of suggesting "it could have been" propositions. But no evidence has been found that allows us to say with certainty: “it happened.” However, this does not mean that such facts will never be found. But for now, Atlantis seems to remain a myth in scientific circles.

What's on the other side of the coin? Is there scientific evidence that Atlantis never existed? Of course, the strongest argument against Atlantis is the lack of clear evidence of its existence. Most geologists agree with the concept of uniformitarianism, which assumes relatively slow changes. They do not believe that any catastrophic events that could lead to the submersion of the continent took place in the recent past, in the last 10-20 thousand years. There is evidence of certain, probably abrupt climatic shifts in the interval from 11 to 13 thousand years ago, but reputable scientists do not agree to connect them with earth movements. The uniformitarian position is well expressed by Elizabeth Chesley Batey in her very interesting book America Before Man. Referring to the legend of Atlantis, she says: “It is not surprising that so little satisfactory evidence has been found, since Atlantis, if it existed at all, disappeared long before it could be recorded in human memory. At normal speed of movement of the earth's crust, it takes millions of years for such big Island plunged into the depths of the sea."

You only have to read the chapter on Atlantis and Lemuria in Martin Gardner's book In the Name of Science (in the cheap edition called Fads and Errors) to understand why most scientists shy away from this topic. The mentioned chapter is full of angry, sarcastic comments about the Atlantean theory and those who wrote about it. Gardner's main arguments against the existence of Atlantis boil down to the fact that there is no real geological and archaeological evidence to the contrary. E. Bjorkman in his book “In Search of Atlantis” draws material from the Bible, the Odyssey and the works of the Greek historian Herodotus, trying to connect the idea of ​​Atlantis with the ancient Spanish or Portuguese city. L. Sprague de Camp and Willie Ley in the book “The Lands Beyond” question the very authority of Plato, using the opinions of his contemporaries, and being unable to draw a positive conclusion, they conclude the section with the following statement: “What did Plato mean when he said about the Atlantic Ocean and the continent on the other side remains not entirely clear to this day.” Even broad-minded scientists feel the need to demote Atlantis to the category of myths.

The Spring 1936 edition of The American Scholar carried an article by E. D. Merrill, curator of the botanical collection at Harvard University, entitled "The Sunken Atlantis and Mu," in which the author attempts to deny the possibility of the existence of Atlantis using scientific arguments and seeks to show that there is no philological connection between the languages ​​of America and Mediterranean region, and there are no common cultivated plants and domestic animals in Mexico and the Mediterranean. The theme of his discussion is the similar development of agriculture in America and in the Old World, but based on different plant species: most cereals, as well as vegetables and fruits of the temperate zone, are of Eurasian origin, while most American species originate from the tropics and subtropics. He provides an impressive list of types of fruits and vegetables from the Old and New Worlds, respectively; claims that man came to America from Asia and that highly developed civilizations Central and South America developed without the influence of Atlantis and without communication with Europe and Asia. Merrill believes that no common cultivated plant or domestic animal other than the dog existed before 1492. This point of view about the lack of connections between Europe and America before Columbus is not shared, however, by all scientists.

T. S. Ferguson, archaeologist and writer, in his book One Fold and One Shepherd, builds an impressive series of facts demonstrating the similarities between the cultures of the Middle East and Central America. The illustrations comparing seals, pottery designs and architecture are compelling. In addition, he provides a list of 298 items of general culture. It may be assumed that ideas and designs of a similar and even identical nature arose independently of each other in different parts of the world, but when one reads this extensive list of objects and practices common to the Old and New Worlds, the possibility of an independent emergence of all these in both hemispheres seems very unlikely . Us. Books 22 and 23 contain an image of a seal excavated at Chiapa de Corzo in Mexico. Ferguson then quotes a letter from Dr. Albright of Johns Hopkins (Marilyn State University, Baltimore, founded in 1876 - Ed.), which states that "the seal contains several clearly recognizable Egyptian hieroglyphs." Us. 49-52 quotes Dr. George F. Carter, also from Johns Hopkins: “Some plants undoubtedly existed in the Old and New Worlds in pre-Columbian times. There is a huge list of plants, most of them belonging to the territories of middle America and South-East Asia, which run the gamut from possibly to very likely transported with human culture. The long-standing doctrine of the absolute separation of agriculture of the Old and New Worlds does not currently have a strong position. Botanical evidence should be reconsidered with an open mind.”

Such statements, although they do not confirm the existence of Atlantis, nevertheless indicate that there are certain ambiguities in the ideas of scientists about the origin of developed civilizations in South and Central America, and discrepancies on the issue of the early stages of plant domestication. The modern view is presented in W. C. Bennett's beautifully illustrated book The Ancient Arts of the Andes, a publication sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Bennett comments on the situation: “The problem of the migration of the earliest inhabitants of South America is fascinating and confusing, but hardly more so than the problem of the origin of advanced civilizations in the Andes. This includes the question of the introduction of plants into cultivation, and it is as far from being resolved as the question of where the plants of the New World were first cultivated.”

In the April 1949 issue of Science Digest, another scientist, Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University, published a short article entitled: "The Lost Continent Called Myth." Ewing, in his words, “since 1935, has been mapping, taking samples, echoing the ocean floor and going down into the depths.” He took underwater photographs to depths of 5.5 km and "found no evidence of sunken cities anywhere." His research focused along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, stretching from Iceland to Antarctica. At first glance this may be taken as evidence against the existence of Atlantis, but some reflection leads to a different conclusion. Suppose the United States of America is destroyed by severe earthquakes and volcanoes over a period of months or years. Our cities are reduced to ruins and then buried under deposits of ash and lava. Huge tidal waves crashed onto the earth, sweeping away and destroying the remains of structures and all evidence of human creations. Finally, the whole country sinks into the ocean, and within 13 thousand years tidal currents dissipate, and ocean sediments cover all the remains of our civilization. In 14,967, someone will photograph several tens of square centimeters of the ocean floor or drill a hole 10 cm deep at the bottom. Can we expect him to see cities or the inside of a car, plane or factory? Everything speaks against this. But he will have no doubt that he has the right to conclude: America never existed.

The October 1953 issue of Atlantic Monthly featured an article by Robert Graves, “What Happened to Atlantis?” Graves drew attention to Greek myths and tried to show that the myth of Atlantis arose as a result of a mixture of different events - the flood of Libya with the splendor of civilization on the island of Crete and its end. He says that the Cretans turned Pharos - small island near the mouth of the Nile - to the port, one of the wonders of the world. The dramatic plunge into the sea of ​​this island shortly after the destruction of Knossos, the main city Minoan culture in Crete, was combined in legend with legends about the flood on Lake Tritonis, which brought disaster to the people of Libya. (This lake was once a vast inland sea, now it has turned into the Marets salt marshes). These stories were passed down to posterity by the priests of Sais through Solon, who embellished the legends and thus shaped our understanding of Atlantis. However, the dating of the events that Graves talks about is so much younger than the time of the catastrophe of Atlantis described by Plato that after reading the article one is left with the feeling that all this may be interesting, but there are no less fabrications in it than in some of Donnelly’s arguments.

One of the last attacks against the possibility of a continent in the middle of the Atlantic appeared on October 21, 1961, in the Saturday Evening Post. In an article entitled "Ocean Floor Spreading," Dr. Robert S. Dietz develops a theory of crustal structure and ocean floor spreading that he says appears inconsistent with the existence of Atlantis. If, as he says, the continents are moving relative to each other by about 2.5 cm per year, then over the last 10 or 15 thousand years this will amount to too small amounts of change. Dr. Dietz is a respected oceanographer, but his theory may only be partly correct. If we assume the existence of catastrophic events on Earth, then on the scale of Earth's history there will always be enough time for one or two continents to slip into the ocean.

In the end we seem to be going in circles. The harder you try to solve the problem, the clearer the impossibility becomes clearer. The current literature does not provide convincing evidence for either view or the other. Until written sources about its history other than Plato's are found, or until there is definitive evidence that it never existed, Atlantis is likely to remain a mystery.

How does the legend of Atlantis relate to Edgar Cayce's "life readings"? If evidence of Atlantis is never discovered, Cayce will be in an unenviable position. If his records are confirmed to be correct, he could become as famous an archaeologist or historian as he was a clairvoyant diagnostician in the field of medicine.

There are 2,500 documented "readings" given to approximately 1,600 people. About 700 of them - almost half of those who received information about their past lives - had incarnations in Atlantis that affect their present lives. Moreover, Casey did not mention all the incarnations of each individuality, but only those of them that most influenced his current life, as well as those that could be most useful to a person. Therefore, it is not impossible that almost everyone living today had incarnations in Atlantis at one time or another.

The amazing property of this specific trend in “life readings” is their internal consistency. Although the "readings" were given to hundreds of people over a period of 21 years (from 1923 to 1944), they can be collected into a series of related, non-contradictory events. Individual strengths and weaknesses are reflected in subsequent lives. When many entities that lived together at the same time are reincarnated again in another era, group or national tendencies become apparent.

According to the "readings" of Edgar Cayce, many individual souls who had one or more reincarnations in Atlantis are reincarnating on Earth in this age, especially in America. Along with technical abilities, they also bring with them a tendency towards extremism. They often exhibit individual and group karma, marked by selfishness and the desire for exploitation as it relates to relationships with other people. Many of them lived during the destruction or geological disasters in Atlantis. If Cayce's prophecies are correct, then a similar period of earthly changes is inevitably approaching.

Unfortunately, few questions were asked regarding the timing of events, and this information was rarely given without questioning. Only a few “readings” give specific dates for events in Atlantis. However, by comparing names and events in dated and undated cases, we have obtained a picture, probably in places hazy and incomplete, extending into the distant past beyond recorded human history. Instead of the continent collapsing in one day, as Plato's account suggests, we have the impression of human activity on a continent being destroyed in at least three major cataclysms, significantly separated in time.

There is a statement that we should consider especially carefully: land areas have undergone many changes - lowering, raising and lowering again - and millions of years have passed between the first of them and modern times. There is evidence of disturbances (for the continent of Atlantis - Ed.) around 50,000 BC. Another shift probably occurred around 28,000 BC, during which the continent was broken up into islands. The final destruction of the remaining islands occurred around 10,000 BC. I think it was this last catastrophe that Plato described in his writings. Each period of destruction lasted for, most likely, not days, but months or years. In any case, there were significant warnings, so many of the inhabitants escaped by moving to Europe, Africa and America. Thus, according to Cayce’s “readings,” both Americas and some areas of Europe more than once experienced an influx of Atlanteans in the prehistoric past.

Why does Edgar Cayce claim that Atlantean incarnations have such a great influence on people, especially in our time? He answers this question in a general “reading” conducted to prepare material for a lecture on Atlantis:

“If the fact of reincarnation and the existence of souls that once lived in such an environment (i.e. in Atlantis) are true, and are now penetrating the earthly sphere and dwelling in individuals, is it surprising if in the past they made such changes in affairs Lands that brought them self-destruction, and if they come now, they can cause many changes in the affairs of nations and individuals” (364 – 1).

When we look at people who seem to have once been citizens of a country strikingly similar to twentieth-century America, we can often discern both personal and national flaws. This is the first step to salvation, as shown in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32). The evils, when understood, can be corrected, and America can yet be spared the fate that befell Atlantis. At the very least, individuals, such as Robert Dunbar, may be capable of change and lead more constructive rather than destructive lives. (The story about this man is presented in the 2nd chapter of this book. – Ed.).

What nonsense is all this? Is there any basis for such ideas other than the imagination of Edgar Cayce? Let's look first at the source of this information and then see if it is supported by the light the latest discoveries. If this happens, then we will be able to look into the future with the help of clairvoyant consciousness and try to catch a glimpse of our changing destiny.