|
|
|
Many legends, myths, and stories surrounded the island continent of Atlantis and the apparent destruction of the Atlantean advanced culture. Many sites have been suggested for its current location besides the middle of the Atlantic Ocean which include: Antarctica, the Azores, the Bahamas, Bolivia, the Caribbean, Cornwall, Crete, Cuba, the Celtic Shelf, North Africa, the Red Sea, Swedish Hyperborea, Thera, Troy and most recently Ireland. From the time of Saint Brendan's Voyage to the modern day, explorers and scientists have gone in search of the fabled land of Atlantis and an earthly Atlantean paradise, travelling thousands of miles around the globe. Their quest has yielded many possible locations but no conclusive scientific evidence. Opinions were mixed on the authenticity and the cultural origins of the few buildings that have been discovered beneath the seas. Plato's Dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias" were the first historically verifiable writings on Atlantis and the Atlantean Culture. Subsequent articles and books have been written by occultists, philosophers, theosophists, scientists and lots of others that discussed sometimes divergent ideas on where Atlantis was situated, the Atlantean Culture and its utopian political system and the reasons for its demise. The most prevalent reasons cited for the destruction of Atlantis and the Atlantean Culture were: the misuse of power and the moral decay of the Atlanteans themselves; the wrath of the gods; passing or impacting asteroids or comets; earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanoes; rising sea levels caused by the melting of the ice sheets; and, polar shifts and crustal displacements which resulted in dramatic climatic changes. Countries and cultures from every region of the globe have stories of massive flooding. The ancient Greeks dated the end of a succession of worldwide inundations at around 10,000 BCE. Flooding was also recorded in Genesis 7:10-11 of the Old Testament where it stated that the fountains of the great deep broke up; and, the windows of heaven were opened. After ten days it came to pass that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Although there was no verifiable scientific proof of the existence of Atlantis and Atlantean Culture, when people searched their feelings, they triggered memories deep within their cellular structure; and, then they "know" that Atlantis and the Atlantean Culture were real and part of their heritage traditions. So they examine all of the available information on Atlantis. They shift though reams of data hoping to have an epiphany that fits all the pieces of the global puzzle together, forming a historically accurate picture complete with timelines. The process itself is important. Like a butterfly slowly breaking its way out of a cocoon, the truth seekers transform themselves; as well as, the mental awareness of the morphic field of the entire human species. Eleven of the most comprehension and persuasive theories on Atlantis and the Atlantean Culture include: Plato's Dialogues, Theosophical Viewpoints, Donnelly's Antediluvian World and Age of Fire and Gravel, Edgar Cayce's Life Readings, Viatcheslav Koudriavtsev's "Celtic Shelf Hypothesis", Jim Allen's Andes Solution, Otto Muck's Asteroid Strike, Ireland as Atlantis in Ulf Erlingsson's Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land, Minoan Culture as Atlantis, and Atlantis In Antarctica. In Plato's Dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias", the character Critias tells a 9,000 year old story on Atlantis which he heard from his grandfather, also named Critias, who heard it from Solon, who heard it from a priest when he visited Egypt. Since Atlantis was only one of the topics discussed in "Timaeus", it has been conjectured that Plato intended to devote the entirety of the unfinished "Critias" to the lost continent of Atlantis and the Atlantean culture. In the Dialogues, Atlantis was portrayed as a powerful island empire larger than Libya and Asia Minor combined, where the god of the sea Poseidon fathered five sets of twins. The continent and surrounding ocean were named after Atlas, his firstborn son. Located west of the Pillars of Hercules, now known as the Strait of Gibraltar, Atlantis was divided into ten different territories.
Plato described the capital city
in great detail and depicted the Atlantean society as wealthy, thriving,
political and militaristic. The Egyptian records told of a burgeoning war
between the Athenians and the Atlanteans which was abruptly halted when both
cultures were destroyed following a catastrophic event which sank Atlantis in
one horrendous day and night.
Next
|
|
|
Read