Since antiquity, there have been ongoing disputes about the legendary Atlantis and its ancient civilization. More than 6 thousand volumes of books have been written about Atlantis. Dozens of academicians, hundreds of doctors of sciences of Russia took part in the research of the topic, having written more than 215,000 articles. But did this mysterious civilization exist at all? If yes, when and where? How to interpret the testimonies of the ancients? And - most importantly - what practical significance does, if it has, now, the fact of the existence of this country in ancient times?

My plans do not include attempts to conduct my own research and write an essay on the epochal mystery of Atlantis. I will only try to acquaint curious readers with some of the hypotheses existing in the world of scientists. And only on some of them I will express my personal opinion. The legend of Atlantis - a sunken island where a highly developed civilization once existed, where a strong, enlightened and happy people lived - the Atlanteans - has been worrying mankind for more than two thousand years. The primary source of information about Atlantis is the writings of the ancient Greek scientist Plato.

He lived in the 4th century BC, he told us about Atlantis in the form of conversations-dialogues ("Plato's Dialogues"). Two books of the thinker - Timaeus and Critias - contain a story about Atlantis by Plato's contemporary, the writer and politician Critias, who heard in childhood from his grandfather, and he, in turn, from "the wisest of the seven wise "- the Athenian legislator Solon. Solon became aware of this from the Egyptian priests.

The dialogue "Timaeus" begins with the arguments of Socrates and Timaeus about the best state structure. Having briefly described the ideal state, Socrates complains about the abstractness and schematic nature of the picture obtained and expresses a desire “to listen to a description of how this state behaves in the struggle with other states, how it enters the war in a worthy manner, how during the war its citizens do what what befits them, according to their training and education, 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 political figure Critias, recounts the story of the war between Athens and Atlantis, allegedly from the words of his grandfather Critias the Elder, who, in turn, recounted to him the story of Solon, heard last from the priests in Egypt.

The meaning of the story is this: once, Athens was the most glorious, powerful and virtuous state in the world. Atlantis was their main rival. "This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined." A “kingdom of amazing size and power” arose on it, which owned all of Libya to Egypt and Europe to Tirrenia (western Italy). All the forces of this kingdom were thrown into the enslavement of Athens. The Athenians rose to defend their freedom at the head of the Hellenes (ancient Greeks); and although all their allies betrayed them, they alone, thanks to their valor and virtue, repulsed the invasion.

The Atlanteans were crushed, and the peoples enslaved by them were freed. After that, however, a grandiose natural disaster occurred, as a result of which the entire Athenian army perished 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 the "Timaeus" and is entirely devoted to the story of Critias about ancient Athens and Atlantis. Athens then (before the earthquake and flood) was the center of a large and extraordinarily fertile country; they were inhabited by a virtuous people who established an ideal (from Plato's point of view) state structure. Namely, everything was controlled by rulers and warriors who lived separately from the main agricultural and handicraft mass, - on the Acropolis, - by the community (Acropolis is a hill in Athens, on which the main temple of the ancient Greeks, the Parthenon, was erected and is still located). Modest and virtuous Athens is opposed by the haughty and powerful Atlantis.

The ancestor of the Atlanteans, according to Plato, was the god of the seas, Poseidon, who met with the mortal girl Kleito, who gave birth to ten divine sons from him. The eldest of them was called Atlant, after his name the island was named Atlantis, and the sea - the Atlantic.

A particularly numerous and revered family originated from Atlantis, in which the oldest was always king and transferred the royal dignity to the oldest of his sons, from generation to generation retaining power in the family, and they accumulated such wealth that no royal dynasty had ever had in the past. and they hardly ever will again, for they had at their disposal everything necessary, prepared both in the city and throughout the country ... There was also a temple dedicated to Poseidon; there was something barbaric in the appearance of the building. The entire outer surface of the temple, except for the acroteria, they laid out with silver, the acroteria with gold; inside the eye was an ivory ceiling, all decorated with gold, silver and orichalcum, and the walls, pillars and floors were completely lined with orichalcum (aurichalcum, literally "golden copper" - approx. The author of the article). They also put golden statues there: the god himself on a chariot, ruling with six winged horses and reaching his head to the ceiling, around him there are a hundred Nereids on dolphins (for people in those days imagined their number as such) ... Outside, around the temple, there were golden images of wives and all those who descended from the ten kings, as well as many other expensive offerings from the kings and from individuals of this city and those cities that were subject to it. The altar was proportionate in size and decoration to this wealth; likewise, the royal palace was in due proportion, both with the greatness of the state, and with the decoration of the sanctuaries.

From Plato's Dialogues

According to Plato, Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean beyond Gibraltar and died about 12 thousand years ago (between 9750 and 8570 BC). The Critias dialogue gives a detailed description of Atlantis, its relief, cities, and social system. And before that follows an equally detailed story about the ancient homeland of the Athenians (the current Attica - or even Greece, - according to Critias, "only the skeleton of a body exhausted by an illness, when all the soft and fat earth was washed away and only one skeleton is still in front of us"), about its capital with the Acropolis, which is much larger than the current one, about its inhabitants - “the leaders of all other Hellenes by the good will of the latter” (testimony of Critias). The code of laws that Poseidon himself gave to the Atlanteans was inscribed on a high orichalcum pillar, installed in the middle of the island. Atlantis was ruled by ten kings - each with his own part of the island. Once every five or six years they gathered behind this pillar. Here they "conferred about common affairs, or they sorted out whether anyone had committed any misconduct, and they made a court."

The Atlanteans were distinguished by their nobility and lofty way of thinking, “looking at everything except virtue with disdain, they valued little that they had a lot of gold and other possessions, were indifferent to wealth as a burden, and did not fall to the ground in the intoxication of luxury, losing power over oneself.

But “nature inherited from God” was depleted, “repeatedly dissolving in mortal impurity, and human disposition prevailed” - and then the Atlanteans “were unable to endure their wealth any longer and lost their decency”, losing the most beautiful of their values, although they “seemed most beautiful and happiest just when they were seething with unbridled greed and power.

Time passed - and the Atlanteans changed, filled with "the wrong spirit of self-interest and power." They began to use their knowledge and the achievements of their culture for evil.

Atlantis had a strong army and navy, consisting of one thousand two hundred warships. And so all this cohesive power was thrown at one blow to plunge into slavery both your and our lands and all the countries on this side of the strait in general. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its valor and strength; surpassing all in fortitude and experience in military affairs, it first stood at the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies, it turned out to be left to itself, faced extreme dangers alone, and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victorious trophies. Those who were not yet enslaved, it saved from the threat of slavery; all the rest, no matter how much we lived on this side of the Pillars of Heracles, it generously made free.

Testimony of Timaeus

In the end, Zeus became angry with the Atlanteans, and "in one day and a disastrous night, the island of Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the sea." According to Plato, this happened in the 10th millennium BC.

And the debate about whether Atlantis really existed or was invented by Plato began in ancient times.

Afterword

It is natural to assume that after reading the article, the reader will have a reasonable question: What is the purpose of the proposed series of publications on the portal. As mentioned in the annotation to the article, more than 6 thousand volumes of books have been published about Atlantis, hundreds of thousands of articles have been written. Not only venerable scientists, but also science fiction writers, journalists, and poets took part in writing articles and books. So is it still necessary to produce articles, especially not for a professional researcher, not for a geocachingist and not for a columnist?

The fact is that when selecting materials for publications, I came across a great many sources (books, reviews, abstracts, portals), each of which sometimes contains up to several hundred pages. Often texts are repeated to a large extent. Reading and analyzing these materials is a laborious and tedious task. Therefore, I wanted to write a small series of articles that would give the most general ideas about the legendary Atlantis in an extremely compressed form (about the hypotheses of its location on the planet, the causes and time of death, about earthly civilizations and cataclysms, etc.). This is not an easy task, and therefore I am not sure if I can handle it. However, I will try if I see readers' interest in continuing the story. In each article, I intend to provide links to sources of information that, if desired, inquisitive readers can find and get more complete and in-depth knowledge about Atlantis.

The article uses sources from the Internet:

1. Plato on Atlantis (original from the Timaeus and Critias dialogues)
2. Atlantis. Wikipedia
3. A.M. Kondratov. "Atlantis of the Tethys Sea"
4. Historical portal
5. Article "Renaissance Titans"
6. Ancient Greece. Wikipedia
7. Encyclopedia "Circumnavigation". Atlantis (Alexander Gorodnitsky)

To be continued

Help of the World Encyclopedia of Travel

Pythagoreans led a special way of life, they had their own special daily routine. The Pythagoreans had to start the day with verses: “Before you get up from the sweet dreams cast by the night, think, spread out what things the day has prepared for you.”

Weird, but in the section "Ancient Greece" (in the same Wikipedia) the historical periods of Greece are somewhat (!) Later:

This is completely inconsistent in time with Plato's dialogues.

To be continued

The "fatal" mistake of Plato (Critias or Solon) is revealed, which led to confusion with the location of Atlantis.

Atlantis has not disappeared, it exists and lies in the depths of the sea. A lot has been said about Atlantis, thousands of research materials have been written. Historians, archaeologists, searchers have proposed fifty versions of a possible location around the world (in Scandinavia, in the Baltic Sea, in Greenland, North and South America, in Africa, the Black, Aegean, Caspian Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and so on), but the exact location is not named. Why such confusion?

Starting to understand, you discover one pattern that all assumptions are initially tied to some kind of similarity, a find of antiquity, a single description, under which (which) the materials were subsequently “fitted”. As a result, nothing worked. There is a similarity, but Atlantis cannot be found.

We'll go the other way

Let's look for Atlantis in a different way, which in this case (judging by the well-known proposals), has not been used by anyone before. First, let's take the method of elimination, where Atlantis could not be. As the circle narrows, we will use all the "benchmarks" that were proposed by the ancient Greek scientist, the sage (428-347 BC) Plato (Aristocles) in his works - Timaeus and Critias. In these documents, the only and rather detailed description of Atlantis, its inhabitants and historical events related to the life of the legendary island is given.

“Aristotle taught me to satisfy my mind only with what reasoning convinces me, and not just the authority of teachers. Such is the power of truth: you are trying to refute it, but your attacks themselves elevate it and give it great value, ”said the Italian philosopher, physicist, mathematician Galileo Galilei in the 16th century.

Below is a map of the world, as it was presented in Greece during the time of Plato, Herodotus (IV - V century BC).

Mediterranean Sea

So, let's start "cutting the ends." Atlantis could not be in any far corner of the world, and even it was not in the Atlantic Ocean. You will ask why? Because the war (according to the history of the story) between Athens and Atlantis could not be anywhere except in the Mediterranean Sea on this “patch of civilization” due to the limited development of mankind. The world is big - but the developed one is small. Close neighbors fight among themselves more often and constantly than distant ones. Athens simply could not, with her army and navy, reach the limits of Atlantis if she were somewhere far away. Water and vast distances were an insurmountable obstacle.

“This barrier was insurmountable for people, because ships and shipping did not yet exist,” Plato narrates in his work Critias.

In ancient Greek mythology, which arose many thousands of years later than the time of the death of Atlantis, the only (!) hero Hercules (according to Homer in the XII century BC) performed a feat, traveling to the farthest western point of the world - to the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

“When the Atlas Mountains arose on the path of Hercules, he did not climb them, but made his way through, thus paving the Strait of Gibraltar and connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic. This point also served as a border for navigators in the ancient era, therefore, in a figurative sense, “Hercules (Hercules) pillars” is the end of the world, the limit of the world. And the expression to reach the pillars of Hercules "means" to reach the limit.

See picture The Strait of Gibraltar today is the place reached by the historical hero Heracles.

In the foreground is the Rock of Gibraltar on the edge of mainland Europe, and in the background on the coast of Africa is Mount Jebel Musa in Morocco.

What western limit of the earth reached Hercules (“end of the world”) was unattainable by other mortals. Thus, Atlantis was closer to the center of the ancient civilization - it was in the Mediterranean Sea. But where exactly?

There were seven pairs of Pillars of Hercules (according to Plato's story, behind which lay the island of Atlantis) in the Mediterranean Sea at that time (Gibraltar, Dardanelles, Bosporus, the Kerch Strait, the Nile Mouth, etc.). The pillars were located at the entrances to the straits, and all had the same name - Heracles (later Latin name - Hercules). The pillars served as landmarks and beacons for ancient sailors.

“First of all, let us briefly recall that, according to legend, nine thousand years ago there was a war between those peoples who lived on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules, and all those who lived on this side: we will have to tell about this war ... How we have already mentioned that it was once an island larger than Libya and Asia (not their entire geographical territory, but rather areas inhabited in antiquity), but now it has failed due to earthquakes and has turned into impenetrable silt, blocking the way for sailors who would try to swim from us to the open sea, and making navigation unthinkable. (Plato, Critias).

This information about Atlantis, which dates back to the 6th century BC. came from the Egyptian priest Timaeus from the city of Sais, located on the coast of Africa, in the western delta of the Nile. The current name of this village is Sa el-Hagar (see below the picture of the Nile River Delta).

When Timaeus said that the barrier from the remains of the sunken Atlantis blocked the way "from us to the open sea", then speaking about us (about himself and about Egypt), this clearly testified to the location of Atlantis. That is, it lies in the direction of travel from the Egyptian mouth of the Nile to the wide waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

In ancient times, the Pillars of Hercules were also called the entrance to the main navigable (western) mouth of the Nile, nicknamed the mouth of Heracles, that is, Hercules, where the city of Heracleum was located and there was a temple in honor of Hercules. Over time, the silt and floating material from the sunken Atlantis was blown across the sea, and the island itself went even deeper into the abyss.

“Since in nine thousand years there have been many great floods (namely, so many years have passed from those times to Plato), the earth did not accumulate in the form of any significant shoal, as in other places, but was washed away by waves and then disappeared into the abyss.” (Plato, Critias).

Crete

Next, we exclude other, impossible locations. Atlantis could not be located in the Mediterranean Sea north of the island of Crete. Today in that area there are countless small islands scattered over the water area, which does not correspond to the story of flooding (!), and by this very fact excludes the entire territory. But even this is not the main thing. There would not have been enough space for Atlantis (according to the description of its size) in the sea north of Crete.

The expedition of the well-known explorer of the sea depths of the French oceanographer to the area north of Crete on the periphery of the islands of Thira (Strongele), Fera discovered the remains of an ancient sunken city, but from the above it follows that it belongs to another civilization rather than Atlantis.

In the archipelago of the islands of the Aegean Sea, earthquakes, catastrophes associated with volcanic activity, which led to local subsidence of the earth, are known, and according to new evidence, they occur in our time. For example, a recently sunken medieval fortress in the Aegean Sea near the city of Marmaris in a bay on the coast of Turkey.

Between Cyprus, Crete and Africa

Narrowing the search circle, we come to the conclusion that only one thing remains - Atlantis could only be in one place opposite the mouth of the Nile - between the islands of Crete, Cyprus and the northern coast of Africa. She is there today at a depth and lies, having fallen into a deep basin of the sea.

The collapse of an almost oval water area with influxes from the coast, horizontal wrinkling (from sliding) of sedimentary rocks to the center of the "funnel" is clearly visible from the Internet survey of the seabed from space. The bottom in this place resembles a pit, sprinkled with soft sedimentary rock on top, there is no solid "crust of the continental mantle" under it. Only visible on the body of the Earth is a hollow inside that is not overgrown with firmament.

The Egyptian priest Timaeus, in his story about the location of the silt from the flooded Atlantis, gives a link to the Pillars of Hercules (it was logical for him to say - closest to him), located at the mouth of the western Nile.

In another case (later already in Greece), when Plato described the power of Atlantis, we are already talking about other pillars, as mentioned above, there were seven of them in the Mediterranean at that time. When Plato expounded the text of the work (according to the retelling of Solon and Critias), the Egyptian priest Timaeus (the primary source of the story) had not been there for 200 years by that time, and there was no one to clarify the information about which pillars the conversation was about. Therefore, the subsequent confusion arose with the location of Atlantis.

“After all, according to our records, your state (Athens) put an end to the insolence of countless military forces that set off to conquer all of Europe and Asia, and kept their way from the Atlantic Sea. […] On this island, called Atlantis, there arose a kingdom amazing in size and power, whose power extended to the whole island, to many other islands and to part of the mainland, and moreover, on this side of the strait they took possession of Libya (northern Africa ) as far as Egypt and Europe as far as Tirrenia (west coast of Italy). (Plato, Timaeus).

The sea that washed the island of Atlantis (between Crete, Cyprus and Egypt) was called the Atlantic in ancient times, it was located in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the modern seas: the Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian.

Subsequently, due to an error in tying Atlantis not to the Nile, but to the Pillars of Gibraltar, the name "Atlantic" Sea automatically spread to the ocean beyond the strait. The once inland Atlantic Sea, due to the inaccuracy of the interpretation of the story of Timaeus and the description (Plato, Critias or Solon), became the Atlantic Ocean. As the Russian proverb says: “We got lost in three pines” (more precisely, in seven pairs of pillars). When Atlantis went into the abyss of the sea, the Atlantic Sea disappeared with it.

Timaeus, narrating the history of Atlantis, noted that the victory of Athens brought freedom from slavery to all other peoples (including the Egyptians), who had not yet been enslaved by the Atlanteans - "on this side of the Pillars of Hercules", speaking about himself - about Egypt.

“It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its valor and strength: all, surpassing all in fortitude and experience in military affairs, it first stood at the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies, it turned out to be left to itself, met alone with extreme dangers and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victorious trophies. Those who were not yet enslaved, it saved from the threat of slavery; all the rest, no matter how much we lived on this side of the Pillars of Heracles, it generously made free. But later, when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods, in one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the cracked earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss. After that, the sea in those places has become unnavigable and inaccessible to this day due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind. (Plato, Timaeus).

Description of the island

You can even more clarify the place of Atlantis from the description of the island itself.

“Poseidon, having received the island of Atlantis as his inheritance ..., approximately in this place: from the sea to the middle of the island, a plain stretched, according to legend, more beautiful than all other plains and very fertile.” (Plato, Timaeus).

“This whole region lay very high and steeply cut off to the sea, but the whole plain that surrounded the city (capital) and itself surrounded by mountains that stretched to the sea itself, was a flat surface, three thousand stadia long (580 km.), And in the direction from the sea to the middle - two thousand (390 km.). All this part of the island was turned to the south wind, and from the north it was closed by mountains. These mountains are praised by legend because they surpassed all the present ones in their multitude, size and beauty. The plain ... was an oblong quadrangle, mostly rectilinear. (Plato, Critias).

So, following the description - approximately to the middle of the island of Atlantis stretched a rectangular plain measuring 580 by 390 kilometers, open to the south and closed from the north by large and high mountains. Fitting these dimensions into a geographical map north of the mouth of the Nile, we get that the southern part of Atlantis could completely adjoin Africa (near the Libyan cities of Tobruk, Derna and Egyptian cities on the coast west of Alexandria), and its northern mountainous part could be (but not a fact) - the island of Crete (in the west), and Cyprus (in the east).

In favor of the fact that Atlantis in earlier times (than its mention in the ancient Egyptian papyri), namely tens of thousands of years ago, was connected with Africa - says the story of the animal world of the island.

“Even elephants were found on the island in great abundance, for there was enough food not only for all other living creatures that inhabit the swamps, lakes and rivers, mountains or plains, but also for this beast, of all the animals, the largest and voracious.” (Plato, Critias).

It should also be taken into account that with the end of the ice age, with the beginning of the melting of the northern glaciers, the level of the world ocean rose by 100-150 meters and, probably, the part of the land that once connected Atlantis and the mainland was gradually flooded. Elephants and the inhabitants of the island of Atlantis (named after their king Atlanta), who came here earlier from the depths of Africa, remained on a large island surrounded by the sea.

The Atlanteans were ordinary people of a modern look, and not four-meter giants, otherwise the Hellenes from Athens would not have been able to defeat them. The insular, isolated position of the inhabitants prompted civilization to a separate active, ahead of external warring barbarians, development (fortunately, everything needed was on the island).

On Atlantis (in its capital, similar to the hill of an extinct volcano), hot springs of mineral water flowed from the ground. This indicates a high seismic activity of the territory located on the "thin" mantle of the earth's crust... "a spring of cold and a spring of hot water, which gave water in abundance, and, moreover, amazing both in taste and in healing power." (Plato, Critias).

Immersion under water

I will not now assume what caused the internal "hiccups" of the Earth, as a result of which Atlantis sank into the basin of the Mediterranean Sea in a day, and then even deeper. But it should be noted that exactly in that place along the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea there is a fault boundary between the African and European continental tectonic plates.

The depth of the sea there is very large - about 3000-4000 meters. It is possible that a powerful impact of a giant meteorite in North America in Mexico, which, according to the US National Academy of Sciences, occurred 13 thousand years ago (about the same time) and caused an inertial wave and plate movement in the Mediterranean.

Just like continental plates, crawling on top of each other, breaking edges, uplift mountains - the same process, but in the opposite direction, when diverging, it forms subsidence and deep depressions. The African plate slightly moved away from the European one, and this was quite enough to lower Atlantis into the abyss of the sea.

The fact that Africa in the history of the Earth has already moved away from Europe and Asia is clearly evidenced by the huge intercontinental fault that runs through the Mediterranean Sea. The fault is clearly visible on the geographical map along the lines (seas) of the split in the earth's crust, which go in the directions - the Dead Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Persian and Oman.

See the picture below, how the continent of Africa moves away from Asia, forming the above seas and bays at the break points.

Crete - Atlantis

It is possible that the current island of Crete was earlier that very northern, high mountainous part of Atlantis, which did not fall into the abyss of the sea, but, breaking away, stayed on the "European continental cornice". On the other hand, if you look at Crete on a geographical map, then it does not stand on the very cliff of the mantle of the European mainland, but about 100 kilometers from the basin of the Mediterranean (Atlantic) Sea. This means that there was no catastrophic fracture of Atlantis along the current coastline of the island of Crete.

But here we must also take into account the fact that since then the sea level has risen by 100-150 meters (or more) due to the melting of glaciers. It is possible that Crete and Cyprus, as independent units, were part of the archipelago of the island Atlantis.

Historians and archaeologists write: “Excavations in Crete show that even four or five millennia after the alleged death of Atlantis, the inhabitants of this Mediterranean island sought to settle away from the coast. (Memory of ancestors?). Unknown fear drove them to the mountains. The first centers of agriculture and culture are also located at some distance from the sea”…

The former proximity of the location of Atlantis to Africa and to the mouth of the Nile is indirectly evidenced by the extensive Kattara depression in North Africa in the Libyan Desert, 50 km from the Mediterranean coast, west of the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The Qattara depression is minus 133 meters below sea level.

See the picture above - the huge Qattara depression near the Mediterranean coast in Egypt.

There is also another lowland on the tectonic fault line - this is the Dead Sea (minus 395 meters) in Israel. They testify to a once-completed territorial catastrophe, common to all, associated with the subsidence of large tracts of land from the divergence in different directions of the European and African continental plates.

What gives the establishment of the exact location of Atlantis

The depression of the Mediterranean at the site of the former Atlantis is too deep. At first, the silt that rose and then settled to the bottom and subsequent sedimentary deposits somewhat covered Atlantis. The golden capital with its countless treasures in the temple of Poseidon turned out to be at great depths.

The search for the capital of Atlantis in the southern part of the Mediterranean Sea in the "triangle" between the islands of Crete, Cyprus, the mouth of the Nile will bring a useful result to the "treasury" of the world history of mankind, but this requires research by deep-sea vehicles.

There are guidelines for the attentive reader to search for the capital... There are two Mir underwater stations in Russia that could survey and study the bottom.

For example, Italian explorers-oceanographers in the summer of 2015 on the shelf of the island of Pantelleria, located approximately in the middle between Sicily and Africa, at a depth of 40 meters at the bottom of the sea found a giant man-made column 12 meters long, weighing 15 tons, broken in half. Traces of drilling holes are visible on the column. Its age is estimated at about 10 thousand years (comparable to the era of the Atlanteans). Divers also found the remains of a pier - a ridge of stones half a meter in size, laid out in a straight line, protecting the entrance to the ancient ship harbor.
These findings suggest that the search for the capital of Atlantis is not hopeless.

It is also encouraging that the confusion with the "Pillars of Hercules" has been successfully resolved and the location of Atlantis has finally been established.

Already today, for the sake of historical truth, the Mediterranean basin, at the bottom of which lies the legendary island in memory of Atlantis and its inhabitants, can and should be returned to its ancient name - the Atlantic Sea. This will be the first important world event in the search and discovery of Atlantis.

Research vessel and bathyscaphe "Triton"

Organized public expedition to search for Atlantis

There are many wealthy people and organizations in the world who are thinking about how they can invest their capital profitably and profitably. They have a good offer. A public expedition is organized to discover the remains of the Atlantean civilization in the Atlantic (Mediterranean) Sea (not to be confused with the Atlantic Ocean). For humanity, for modern science, for history, the discovery of the ancient civilization of Atlantis is an important subject of research.

The vacancy of "Columbus" of the XXI century is free. An investor who finds an opportunity to finance the expedition will have the opportunity to perpetuate his name in history. Just as Columbus, having gone at his own risk across the ocean to an unknown world, found America, similarly, the name of the investor will go down in the history of Atlantis. If artifacts of Atlantis are discovered, any respected museum in the world will gladly accept them, and the investor can compensate the financial expenses for the expedition with a profit. But the main thing is that all material costs are worth nothing compared to the fact that Atlantis and its subsequent study will remain in the treasury of mankind's achievements for all subsequent centuries.

In Russia, the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has the appropriate equipment for the expedition (ship, MIR submersibles), and interested researchers and specialists could perform search work. But according to the head of the laboratory of underwater vehicles of this institute, Anatoly Sagalevich, the MIR bathyscaphes have not been in demand since 2011, they need 10-12 million dollars to repair, it is necessary to change attachments. Russia has lost its primacy in this area. Today, the leaders in underwater exploration are the Americans. Businessman, explorer of the world's depths of the oceans Victor Vescovo from the state of Texas, USA, on the bathyscaphe "Triton" in 2019, sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to a depth of 10928 meters in the Pacific Ocean. He intends to explore other deepest points of the planet.

Discoveries always bring dividends in everything else. Only "failure is an orphan, and victory has many parents." Everyone is invited to take part in a project of the scale of the entire civilization and invest their capital with benefit and profit. To the one who undertakes this business, I will name more accurate landmarks and coordinates of the search for the capital of Atlantis.

Modern researchers have not yet been able to fully reveal all the hidden secrets of the existence of Atlantis. However, thanks to the many studies carried out in this area, there are still a number of assumptions and hypotheses regarding the existence of the described ancient civilization.

Official science, of course, does not recognize the existence of this mysterious - perhaps really only mythical - civilization in the past.

The achievements of the Atlantean civilization are impressive.

There is an opinion among scientists that the Atlanteans have achieved a very high level of progress in all spheres of life. They could plan their life in completely different ways. For example, it was not alien to the people who once inhabited this sunken continent, telepathic communication with family and friends. They also liked to have long conversations about their role in the Universe.

According to the Theosophists, the Atlanteans were the fourth race on earth. They appeared after the death of the Lemurian civilization, having absorbed some of its achievements, and existed before the appearance of the fifth race, the Aryans. The Atlanteans were much more god-like than the Lemurians. Beautiful, smart and ambitious.

They worshiped the sun and rapidly developed their technology, just as we do today.

Description of Atlantis by Plato

In the year 421 BC, Plato spoke in his writings about the vanished civilization of the Atlanteans.

According to him, it was a large island, located in the middle of the ocean, beyond Gibraltar. In the center of the city there was a hill with temples and the palace of the kings. The upper city was protected by two mounds of earth and three water ring channels. The outer ring was connected by a 500-meter canal to the sea. Ships sailed along the canal.

Copper and silver were mined in Atlantis. Sailing ships delivered ceramic dishes, spices, and rare ores.

The temple of Poseidon, the lord of the seas, was built of gold, silver, orchilak (an alloy of copper and zinc). His second temple was protected by a golden wall. There were also statues of Poseidon and his daughters.

After forty years, after the death of the philosopher, the Athenian resident Krantor went to Egypt to find Atlantis. In the temple of Neith, he found hieroglyphs with texts about the events that had taken place.

Scientific and technological progress in Atlantis

Due to their high level of mental and mental development, the inhabitants of Atlantis managed to establish contact with extraterrestrial beings. Some researchers give information that the Atlanteans were able to create ultra-fast and practical aircraft. Their very deep knowledge in the field of physics, mathematics and mechanics made it possible to produce equipment of the highest quality with unusual properties. And it was these devices that easily helped them travel through space!

The progress in technology was so stunning that today humanity has not yet been able to develop analogues to those flying devices, even taking into account the fact that science is constantly striding by leaps and bounds forward in all spheres of life without exception.

All this suggests that the inhabitants of Atlantis were outstanding people, possessed of great intellect and knowledge. At the same time, the Atlanteans willingly shared the acquired skills and experience with the younger generation. Therefore, progress in technical development was gradually improved and reached unprecedented heights.

The first pyramids were built just on the territory of Atlantis. This unusual phenomenon still causes bewilderment among researchers, due to what improvised means and equipment it was possible to build such unusual structures!

Also economically, their country was prosperous. The work of any person in it was paid at its true worth. According to legend, Atlantis was an ideal country, there were no beggars and rich people who boasted of their wealth.

In this regard, the social situation in this country was always stable, no one was worried about food.

The appearance and morality of the Atlanteans

Due to the fact that the body of the Atlantean had remarkable physical strength compared to modern man, they could do much more work than our contemporaries.

The body of the Atlanteans was staggering in size. According to the evidence, it reached 6 meters in height. Their shoulders were very wide, the torso was elongated. There were 6 fingers on the hands, and 7 on the feet!

The facial features of people who once lived on Atlantis are also unusual. Their lips were very wide, their nose had a slightly flattened shape, while they also had huge expressive eyes.

According to their physiological data, the average life span of an average Atlantean was about 1000 years. At the same time, each of them tried to look beautiful in the eyes of others. Often, a variety of jewelry made of silver or gold, as well as precious stones, were used as decorations.

The Atlanteans were highly moral people. Therefore, they were alien to bad habits and an immoral way of everyday life. In any situation, they tried to act honestly with others, no one tried to deceive and set anyone up. In family relationships, marriage once in a lifetime was the norm. And the relationship itself was built solely on mutual trust, support and love for each other.

The political system in Atlantis was built in a democratic field. In many ways, it is similar to the one that prevails in the modern successful states of Europe with freedom of speech and the right to choose. The ruler of the Atlanteans was chosen by voting. At the same time, he ruled for a very long period - from 200 to 400 years! But whoever rules Atlantis, each of its leaders has always sought to create such a social environment within the state, thanks to which any person could always feel protected and cared for.

Causes of the death of Atlantis

One of the assumptions why Atlantis disappeared is based on the fact that the kings and the population of this continent began to abuse knowledge, with the help of which they carried out their aggressive intentions.

For example, the pyramids they built created portals to other worlds. All this contributed to the fact that the energy coming from a parallel reality could be negative and at a certain moment could adversely affect the entire continent, completely destroying it in an instant.

In their daily lives, magic has increasingly been used exclusively with malicious intent.

Too much knowledge creates a temptation to use it for selfish interests. And no matter how morally pure the inhabitants of Atlantis were at first, in the end, negative tendencies began to grow in their society over time. The predatory attitude towards nature, the growth of social inequality, the abuse of power by the small elite that ruled the Atlanteans ultimately led to tragic consequences associated with the incitement of a long-term war. And it was she who became the main reason that one day the entire continent was swallowed up by the waters of the ocean.

Some scientists also assert with certainty that the death of Atlantis occurred approximately 10-15 thousand years ago. And this large-scale event provoked a huge meteorite that fell on our planet. The fall of a meteorite could change the earth's axis, which caused a tsunami of an unprecedented scale.

What did Helena Blavatsky say about the causes of the death of Atlantis

According to Helena Blavatsky, the fall of Atlantis happened because the Atlanteans played God. It turns out that from high morality the Atlanteans rolled down to indulgence of passions.

The technology of the Atlanteans, which surpassed their spiritual qualities, allowed them to create chimeras - a cross between man and animals, to use them as sex slaves and physical workers. The Atlanteans were masters of genetic modification and cloning technology at a high level. This is similar to what people are doing now, in the 21st century.

Being telepathically warned that the continent would sink, many of the inhabitants of Atlantis fled, having managed to board ships before the final sinking of the mainland in 9564 BC. by a series of earthquakes.

The American mystic Edgar Cayce, who looked into the so-called astral akashic records in a trance state, claimed that many of the souls who once lived in Atlantis now live as representatives of modern Western civilization in order to fulfill their destiny.

The search for a lost civilization

Over the past two thousand years, there have been multiple speculations about the location of Atlantis. Interpreters of the works of Plato pointed to the modern islands of the Atlantic. Some argue that Atlantis was located in present-day Brazil and even in Siberia.

Modern archaeologists consider the thinker's story about the Atlanteans a fiction. Circular networks of canals, hydraulic structures in those days were still beyond the strength of mankind. Researchers of Plato's philosophy and literature believe that he wanted to call for the creation of an ideal state. As for the period of disappearance, Plato names information that this happened eleven and a half thousand years ago. But during this period, man was only emerging from the Paleolithic, the Stone Age. Those people were not yet sufficiently developed mind. Perhaps these data of Plato about the time of the death of Atlantis are incorrectly interpreted.

There is one assumption why the figure of the death of Atlantis by Plato appears 9 thousand years ago. The fact is that in Egyptian reckoning "nine thousand" was depicted by nine lotus flowers, and "nine hundred" - by nine knots of rope. Outwardly, in writing, they were similar, and therefore there was confusion.

Modern research

In one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine, all European newspapers were full of headlines "The Russians found an island." Photographs were presented in which vertical ridges, similar to walls, peeked out of the sand. Search operations unfolded exactly where Plato indicated - behind the Pillars of Hercules, above the underwater volcano Ampere. It was reliably established that it stood out from the water, was an island.

In 1982, another Russian ship, having sank under water, discovered the ruins of the city: walls, squares, rooms. These findings were refuted by another expedition, which found nothing. In addition to frozen volcanic rocks.

There are suggestions that the disaster occurred due to a sudden shift in the African tectonic plate. Its collision with the European caused the eruption of Santorin - and the western islands sank.

Of course, it is now impossible to say with accuracy what exactly happened once to Atlantis and what contributed to its death. And many of the hypotheses set forth by the researchers can only come close to the truth.

Whether Atlantis was simply a figment of the imagination of Plato and other thinkers, or a reality reflected in ancient legends, miraculously preserved to this day, remains a mystery ...

Perhaps our civilization is moving towards the same finale, when we will become for our distant descendants the same mythical event that Atlantis is for us. And our continents will also unsuccessfully search for days of deep oceans.

Surely Plato, when he wrote his famous Dialogues, did not even suspect that he would be known to mankind even after two and a half thousand years.

The mystery of the missing mainland Atlantis has not been solved so far, despite amazing technical means.

The desire to find the lost Atlantis has been driving scientists and historians around the world for more than a millennium. It is impossible to call the work of the seekers of the "cradle of the Atlanteans" useless, because many significant discoveries were made during the search for a mysterious country.

The ancient philosopher devoted more than one page of his works to the description of Atlantis.

The mainland strikes the imagination with luxury and wealth, the Atlanteans are entirely cultural highly developed personalities, which is not surprising, because they are all descendants of Poseidon. According to Plato, and he described Atlantis in great detail, the vanished civilization was one of the most advanced on the planet.

It can be assumed that the historian visited the Atlanteans personally, and later described his impressions and experiences. However, the facts say otherwise.

During his travels in Egypt, he wrote down the stories of Solon, his uncle, and passed them off as his own. Solon, in turn, heard the story from the priest of the goddess Neith. The priest not only spoke about the superior race, but also confirmed his words with inscriptions on the walls of the temple.

Judging by them, the Atlanteans knew their unenviable fate and they made a lot of efforts to preserve the human gene pool. The ancient Hellenes and Egyptians had no doubts about the existence of Atlantis, but to this day they have not been able to find the mainland.

Plato in his writings hinted at the Strait of Gibraltar, but nothing was found there. Maybe the mythical Poseidon is to blame for everything, not letting the dwelling of his descendants be disturbed, or the Atlanteans themselves, living among people, keep the peace of their disappeared homeland?

The search for the "cradle of the Atlanteans"

A lot of efforts in this area were made by the famous traveler, explorer of the deep sea and writer Jacques Yves Cousteau. With his team, the Frenchman traveled all over the Mediterranean in search of a fabulous country, but, alas, he failed to unravel this mystery.

The aspirations of the Russian writer Vladimir Shcherbakov, who collected many facts and myths about this continent in his book "In Search of Atlantis", were not crowned with success either. Shcherbakov not only collected and analyzed bits of information about the Atlanteans and their homeland, but also tried to find it in the Atlantic and Siberia. But, despite the bones and volcanic ash found, no one has yet been able to prove the existence of the mainland.

Video "Atlantis - literally according to Plato"

"Atlantis, if you literally believe Plato of Athens."

Historical reconstruction of the legendary city-state in strict accordance with the "dialogues" of Plato and news on the reconstruction of the map of Atlantis. The author's hypothesis about the location of objective information about Atlantis. At the club lecture "Origins of Civilizations"./p>

For many millennia, world scientists have been discussing, but still do not dare to come to a consensus regarding the details of the existence and mysterious disappearance of Atlantis - the "city of Atlantis".

The ancient Greek scientist and philosopher Plato in his writings called Atlantis a densely populated island located in the Atlantic Ocean. According to his descriptions, this territory was very fertile, it was inhabited by a huge number of various domesticated animals, and the inhabitants of this island had all the benefits that modern people have.

The great scientist claimed that Atlantis went under water and the reason for this was an earthquake of great power, which was sent by the gods of Olympus.

Description of Atlantis in the writings of Plato: Timaeus and Critias

An extremely detailed account of the philosopher's life and death of the Atlanteans is presented in the form of two essays built in a dialogue form. This dialogue is conducted between Plato's great-grandfather named Critias and the grandfather of Critias, who is familiar with the history of Atlantis from the words of people living at different times.

According to their stories, Atlantis was a “state on an island”, and this island was located beyond the Strait of Gibraltar (another name is “Pillars of Hercules”).

In a series of descriptions of the life of the islanders, Plato tells in all colors about their way of life, the benefits that they possessed, about how developed this mysterious civilization was. In his opinion, the state had a capital, also on the territory of the island there was a palace of the king called "Acropolis", there were also structures in the form of temples.

Mounds of earth and water barriers gave the Atlanteans protection from external threats, they had their own ship port and a capacious harbor that could accommodate more than a thousand ships.

The main deity that the Atlanteans prayed to and worshiped was Poseidon. Temples in his honor had precious gold and silver trim both inside and out. Poseidon's wife named Kleito was considered the "mother of all Atlanteans", their progenitor.

Plato also told about some features of the political structure of Atlantis.

So, for example, in the framework of the Timaeus dialogue, he praised the amazing royal alliance, which gained power over a huge number of neighboring (and not only) territories, up to Africa and America.

According to Plato's narratives, death came to the Atlanteans from the gods from Mount Olympus, who directed their anger at them. The gods considered that the inhabitants of Atlantis had become too greedy and cruel, so they decided to punish them by sending an earthquake of unprecedented strength. The result of the disaster was that a huge, developed civilization disappeared under the water column.

The beginning of the search for an ancient civilization

From the time of the fifties from the Nativity of Christ to the present day, an active search for the "city of Atlantis" has been carried out throughout the planet.

Until now, scientists have not decided on the specific location of the ancient state, but have come to a certain denominator, and have identified about forty possible locations, for example:

Direction north of Crete;

Caribbean Sea, west of the island of Haiti;

The Taimyr Peninsula, or rather its northeastern part;

Central Bolivia in South America; other.

A new wave of searches for the sunken Atlantis

When the 1st World War ended, during which there was a rapid development of new technologies in scuba diving, serious interest again woke up in the search for the lost "city of Atlantis". Fans of risky adventures everywhere launched entire search campaigns.

For example, in the USSR a few decades ago, a shocking statement was made that Atlantis was found. At that time, the headlines of all newspapers "shouted" about the discovery of Russian people, which was confirmed by the presence of photographs taken on the seabed. In these pictures, structures were quite clearly distinguishable, outwardly similar to the walls of a sunken civilization. The photographs were taken by researchers from one of the respected Moscow universities.

After a while, the crew of another Soviet ship, which had more modern equipment, announced that they had found reliable confirmation of the veracity of the find. Namely: with the help of a special underwater vehicle capable of operating at great depths, the expedition members saw with their own eyes the ruins of the destroyed city, as reported by the ship's commander.

However, in 1984, the Vityaz ship went on an expedition to the site of the supposedly discovered Atlantis, the study of which stated that the ruins found were not the result of human labor, they were just pieces of hardened lava of volcanic rock.

One of the scientists of that expedition suggested that a geological catastrophe of this magnitude could have occurred due to sharp displacements of tectonic plates that caused the volcanic eruption. By the way, modern scientists partly share this version. But the result of this is that against this background, all other versions regarding the existence of Atlantis, in principle, lose their plausibility.