The Legend of Atlantis

The legend of Atlantis has to be one of the oldest and most
spellbinding of all the world's mysteries. It has puzzled both
skeptics and believers alike.   Where exactly was Atlantis and where
is it now?  What caused its destruction?  Exactly how advanced were
the Atlanteans?  I hope someday everyone will know the answers to
those questions.

Plato, a Greek philosopher, gave us the first known account of
Atlantis.   Plato was said to have lived from about 428 to 348 B.C.
He was a student of Socrates.  After studying with Socrates, Plato
opened up his own philosophy school.  There he began to write his
philosophies in a play-type form.  These dialogues always featured
Socrates as the main character.  In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias,
he wrote about an amazing place called Atlantis. In Critias, Plato
wrote of Atlantis' architecture, engineering, and ceremonies in great
detail.  Many people, even Plato's own students, thought this place
was Plato's own creation, but he argued that Atlantis was real, and
filled with more splendors than anyone could imagine.

All races share the story of a great flood that destroyed an entire
civilization.  The name Atlantis appears in various forms throughout
the world.  The Canary Islands have a legend involving Atalaya.  The
Basques of Northern Spain have Atlaintica.  The Vikings told the tale
of Atli.  Northern Africa called it Attala.  The Aztecs have Aztlán,
and the North American Indians called theirs Azatlán.

Plato said Atlantis was a large island in the Atlantic Ocean,
somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (the Rock of Gibraltar).
This description has lead to many people believing that Atlantis could
have been the Aegean Island of Thera (Santorini) which suddenly blew
up.  Atlantis was also identified as part of an ancient series of land
bridges that stretched across the Atlantic and even out into the
Pacific as far as New Zealand.  Others say that the Canary Islands are
the tops of Atlantis' tallest mountains.  Some say that the Bermuda
Triangle is the result of Atlantis sinking.  The discovery of
blue eyes and blondness among some of Africa's Berbers soon led some
people
to place Atlantis in the Atlas Mountians of modern Morocco and
Tunisia.   Still others claim that Atlantis was not even on this planet.

According to the continental drift theory, all the continents fit
together, like a jigsaw puzzle.  If you look at a map, you will see
that the continents really do fit together- with the exception of the
USA in North America and Western Europe.  Could Atlantis be the
missing piece?

According to Plato, one of the best splendors of Atlantis was the
palace compound located in the heart of its capital. It was ringed by
three canals. Plato remarked, "As each king received it [the palace]
from his predecessor, he added to its adornment and did all he could
to surpass the king before him, until finally they made of it an abode
amazing to behold for the magnitude and beauty of its workmanship.
The visitors passed through a wall of brass, a wall of tin, and a wall
of copper.  White and black and red stone quarried from the native
rock."  He also wrote that the wealth they possessed
was so immense that the like had never been seen before in any royal
house, nor will ever easily be seen again.  This, of course, lead to
Atlantis' destruction.

He stated that the Atlanteans appeared to be superlatively fair and
blessed, yet they were filled with lawless ambition and power. The
Atlanteans started valuing material wealth above goodness-that's where
they went wrong.  Plato said, "The portion of divinity within them was
now becoming faint and weak through being oftentimes blended with a
large measure of mortality."  The Atlanteans were unable to bear the
burden of their possessions. So, "There occurred portentous
earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them,
when...the island of Atlantis...was swallowed up by the sea and
vanished."  Plato doubted that any sign of the lost land would ever be
found. "The ocean at that spot, has now become impassable and
unsearchable." This
contributes to the Bermuda Triangle theory above.

Even though it seems that no one could survive such a tragedy, it is
believed that many Atlanteans escaped. One example of this is Edgar
Cayce.  In April of 1939, he fell into a trance and spoke about
Atlantis. "In Atlantis, when there was the breaking up of the land
came to what was called the Mayan Land or the what is now
Yucatan-entity was the first to cross the water in the plane or air
machine of that period." In support of the escape, Atlantis has been
hailed for spawning civilizations such as Hellenic Greece, the Mayas &
Incas of the New World, and ancient Egypt.

Atlantis has had an impact on every culture. In 1675, Olof Rudbeck, a
Swedish scholar, used Homeric sailing directions to Ogygia and located
Atlantis in Sweden.  English poet William Blake, believed that the
Atlantean King, Albion lead the last of his subjects to Britain, where
they became Druids.   Charles-Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a French
scholar, translated a Mayan manuscript in 1864, that described the
story of an ancient land that had sunk into the ocean after a great
catastrophe.  In 1882, Philadelphian politician, and avid reader,
Ignatius Loyola Donnelly published his book Atlantis: The Antedefuvian
World.  The world's reception of his writings was so great,
Donnelly was elected to membership in the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.

The most important thought that is on everyone's mind is not where,
what, or
how, but will.  Will Atlantis ever resurface??    - by TisavadeT@aol.com