Information about Atlantis. The story is true...according to Plato. In other literature

History of Atlantis is a mystery that researchers have been trying to penetrate for thousands of years. It is rooted in deep antiquity, inaccessible to direct research, but interest in this problem has only become stronger over the years. Perhaps this is due to the fact that something very important for all mankind is connected with the history of Atlantis.

Lemuria and Atlantis

In ancient times, the appearance of the Earth was different than it is now, at that time there were continents and islands, which have long been gone. The Flood and other cataclysms forever changed the face of the planet. And of course, it is very difficult today to judge the ancient states that existed at that time. However, fragmentary information about them in the form of legends and legends has come down to us.

Perhaps the greatest interest among scientists is Lemuria and Atlantis, as once the most highly developed civilizations. Lemuria is reminiscent of the mysterious Easter Island, which is believed to have been part of a large mainland. As for Atlantis, no one can definitely say about its location yet. There is no such piece of land that could be tied to Atlantis. A fairly specific indication is the prediction of the clairvoyant Edward Casey, who claimed that Atlantis was in the area bermuda triangle. This prediction later found a number of confirmations - at the bottom of the ocean in this area, as Cayce predicted, large, well-preserved pyramids containing crystals on their tops were discovered. However, there interesting finds and in other places on the planet. Therefore, it is not yet possible to unequivocally answer which of the versions of the location of Atlantis is more correct, and therefore mysterious country looking all over the face of the earth.

The legend of Atlantis has become known to modern mankind from the works of the ancient Greek thinker Plato. In his dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias" he describes the history of Atlantis. In the first dialogue, Plato speaks of Atlantis only in passing. As for the Critias dialogue, it is entirely devoted to the description of Atlantis.

Dialogue Timaeus

Dialogue Timaeus It begins with the fact that Socrates and the Pythagorean Timaeus are talking about an ideal state. However, after describing his ideas about the ideal state, Socrates began to complain that the picture turned out to be abstract. He wanted to see how such a state would behave in a real life situation, how it would build relations with other states, whether it would be able to go to war, and whether citizens in this case would perform feats "according to their training and upbringing."

Another participant in the conversation, the Athenian politician Critias, unexpectedly responded to Socrates' question. He spoke about an ancient war that took place about 9,500 years ago (11,500 years for us) between Athens and the mysterious Atlantis. Critias himself learned about this story from his grandfather, and he learned about this war from Solon, while Egyptian priests told Solon about Atlantis.

Both Athens and Atlantis were very powerful powers, while Atlantis had under its control very large area, conquering more and more peoples. The aggressive policy of Atlantis eventually led to a war with Athens. The entire Athenian people, realizing the danger that hung over them, rose to the defense of the Fatherland. Abandoned by the allies, the Athenian warriors, having shown courage and valor, managed to defeat the conquerors. This victory also returned freedom to the peoples who were enslaved by the Atlanteans. But suddenly a terrible catastrophe broke out, ending the history of Atlantis. In one day and night, the country of powerful Atlanteans went under water. Alas, the Athenian army perished along with Atlantis.

Dialogue Critias

Dialogue Critias is a direct continuation of the dialogue Timaeus. Through the mouth of Critias, Plato here speaks in detail and authentically about Atlantis.

The history of Atlantis began with the relationship between Poseidon and the mortal girl Kleito, whom the lord of the seas fell in love with. From their union came 10 sons, the eldest of whom was called Atlas. Poseidon divided the island between his sons, which later became known as Atlantis. The children of Poseidon and Kleito were considered demigods and laid the foundation for the 10 royal families of Atlantis.

Plato accurately described legendary land and gave specific figures. The central plain of Atlantis reached 3000 stadia (which is 540 km) by 2000 stadia (360 km). In the center of the island there was a hill, which the father of the rulers of Atlantis surrounded by three water channels, separated by earthen ramparts. In the center of the fortification, a city or central island was created, which had a diameter of 5 stadia (slightly less than a kilometer). Here, in the heart of Atlantis, magnificent temples and a magnificent royal palace were built. The inhabitants of Atlantis made deep channels through the protective rings so that ships could sail directly to the capital.

Here is what Plato says about Atlantis. The island on which the palace is located was five stadia in diameter. And the island, and the earthen rings, as well as the bridge in the width of the plethra, the rulers surrounded with circular walls of stone, and towers and gates were placed everywhere on the bridges at the exits to the sea. In the bowels of the middle island, as well as the outer and inner earthen rings, the Atlanteans mined white, black and red stone. In the quarries they organized parking for their ships. Some of their buildings are simply made, while others are elaborately decorated with stones of different colors, which gave them a natural beauty. The walls around the outer earthen ring along the entire circumference of the Atlanteans were covered with copper, by applying metal in molten form. The wall of the inner shaft was covered with tin also by casting. The wall of the acropolis itself was trimmed with orichalcum, which radiated a fiery brilliance.

The place where the rulers of Atlantis lived inside the acropolis was arranged like this. In the very center was the inaccessible holy temple of Kleito and Poseidon. It was surrounded by a golden wall - it was the place where the generation of ten kings came from. In honor of this event, every year each of them brought sacrificial firstfruits from all ten destinies of Atlantis. Nearby was the temple of Poseidon, which was 1 stage long, three spans wide, and also a height corresponding to this size. The outer surface of the temple, except for the acroteria, was lined with silver, while the acroteria were trimmed with gold. The ceiling in the temple was made of ivory and decorated with gold, silver and orichal-com. Walls, pillars and floors were completely covered with orichalcum. There were golden statues in the temple, one of which was up to the ceiling. It depicted a god on a chariot, who ruled with six winged horses, around which there were one hundred Nereids on dolphins. Many of the statues in the temple were donated by private individuals. Outside, the temple was surrounded by images made of gold of wives and those who descended from ten kings. The size and decoration of the altar corresponded to this richness. Royal Palace in its splendor, it also corresponded to both the temples and the grandeur of the state.

Plato, in addition to all this, described many different details from the way of life of the Atlanteans, including data on the size of the army of Atlantis.

The laws by which Atlantis lived were established by Poseidon and inscribed on an orichalcum pillar. Despite the incredible wealth of the island, the inhabitants of Atlantis, being direct descendants of the gods, did not know greed. However, marriages with mere mortals gradually led to the degeneration of the divine nature of the Atlanteans, human vices prevailed in the hearts of the Atlanteans with great power. They were filled with greed, pride and the desire for conquest. Then Zeus decided to punish the inhabitants of Atlantis so that they "learned goodness." The Thunderer gathered all the gods and addressed the audience with a speech ... Plato did not say what was said by Zeus - Critias dialogue at this mysteriously breaks off. For what reason Plato did not finish his work on Atlantis is not known.

This is the story of Atlantis from Plato's story. Many secrets would be revealed if this mysterious country could be discovered. However, the time has not yet come and the ocean reliably stores the ancient mysteries of Atlantis.

Pollux and Castor

Castor and Pollux are the brothers of Helen and the sons of Leda, the wife of Tyndareus, King of Sparta. Some legends say...

Two wheeled electric car

A two-wheeled electric car C-1 has been developed that does not fall without movement like a motorcycle. San Francisco-based Lit Motors...

It is not necessary to assume that only seas and lakes disappear and appear. In the same way, islands appear and disappear. The best example of this is history of Atlantis, an island that was larger than Libya and Asia combined.

History of the island of Atlantis

Atlantis Island

Of course, in the time of Plato, (more:) they represented the size of both Libya and Asia in a different way, but still Atlantis island was not small.

The Atlantis hypothesis begins with Plato's Timaeus and Critias. In them, the great ancient Greek scientist talks about the once-existing large island in Atlantic Ocean that was swallowed up by the deep waters.

But what does Plato say? ancient legend or own imagination mythical island? Or maybe he tells real facts the existence of an ancient civilization, information about which came to him by chance? So what is this story of Plato - legend, hypothesis, reality? Since the first half of the 4th century BC, attempts have been made to answer this question. But there is still no definitive answer.

Legends of Atlantis

Legends of Atlantis inspired many writers and poets.

• Remember the Julvernian Captain Nemo, who, with his arms crossed over his chest, looks at a beautiful city illuminated by an underwater volcanic eruption. Before him is the dead Atlantis...
• From the golden top giant pyramid take off like huge cosmic eggs aircrafts to carry away the last Atlanteans from the raging elements to distant Mars. And the waves of the ocean are already licking its foot, and the tremors of a raging earthquake are absorbing the legendary “City of a Hundred Golden Gates”. You probably remember this picture, it was painted in Aelita by Alexei Tolstoy.
• And here's another thing: Aksa Guam, a priest who rebelled against the almighty priests on the pages of Alexander Belyaev's story "The Last Man from Atlantis", steps on the rocky coast of Europe.

And this list could be continued almost endlessly, a list of beautiful fictions generated by an ancient legend.

Atlantis in scientific literature

There are about Atlantis literature and others. No less fantastic in content, but claiming the right to be called scientific literature.

One of these books was rather self-confidently called "The History of Atlantis".

And the author of the other was Schliemann - the grandson of a man who discovered the stones of the legendary Troy from under the layers of many centuries. Shamelessly speculating on the name of his famous grandfather, he titled the book rather pretentiously: "How I found the lost Atlantis." Both of these books are from the current of the so-called "occult literature", which shrouded the problem of Atlantis in such a thick mystical fog that for other scientists it still obscures scientific significance this problem.
However, real science is interested in the problem of Atlantis, because it has countless questions waiting to be solved:

• Here, it would seem, is a science very far from the problem of Atlantis - botany. Where is the birthplace of the banana - a plant cultivated so long ago that it can now only be propagated by cuttings? How did bananas end up in the number cultivated plants in America and Africa?
• Where is the birthplace of maize - a plant that is now included in the famous "troika" of the main breads of mankind along with wheat and rice? Modern corn is completely incapable of propagating by self-sowing, and plants that could be considered its ancestors have not been found. Meanwhile, corn has long been known not only in America, but also in Africa. So where did this plant come from in the cultivated cereals of the two continents?
• Here is comparative linguistics. How did the roots of Greek words get into the Mayan language - one of the Indian peoples that inhabited Central America?
• How did the word "atlas" get from America to Europe? From North Africa this word passed into the name of the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, it has nothing to do with European languages, but in the Pagua language, which has long lived in Mexico, words with the same root mean "water", "sea", "death".
• Why did the myths of the American continent preserve stories about the death of the land located across the ocean in the east, and in the legends of European peoples about the sunken land across the ocean in the west?
• History of culture. Why were ancient sculptures of lions and other animals not living in America found in Peru, and no less ancient images of saber-toothed tigers that died out here about 300 thousand years ago in Europe?
• Why was the custom of making mummies widespread not only in Egypt, but also among the Maya in Central America?
• Ethnography. Why do Cro-Magnons, the ancient ancestors of Europeans and some Indian tribes have a close anthropological resemblance?
• Zoology. Why eels from the rivers Western Europe go to spawn in the Sargas Sea, whose algae are related to the Mediterranean?
• Wild horses were known in Europe during the Paleolithic era, they were used as a hunting item by cavemen. Then their traces disappear, and in the Bronze Age, a domestic horse appears. Who carried out this domestication?

It seems that these and many other questions do not give the right to an unconditional denial of the existence of Atlantis, although they do not give the right to assert that Atlantis existed. Therefore, again and again, researchers turn to the primary source of information about the sunken mainland, to two dialogues of Plato.

The history of Atlantis in Bryusov's poem

One of the first in modern times made an attempt to investigate the history of Atlantis by a remarkable Russian poet.

He was an amazing person, a poet, writer, mathematician, a great connoisseur of ancient history, an expert in research in various fields of natural sciences. The problem of Atlantis interested him literally from childhood. In his youth he worked on poem "Atlantis".

In the years of creative maturity, he wrote a cycle of poems dedicated to the same problem. He published a large scientific work "Teachers of teachers". The poet-scientist called the ancient inhabitants of Atlantis, in which

all knowledge originated

and in which

everything that is possible, comprehended the first children of the Earth.

(lines from the "Atlantic" cycle of Bryusov's poems are in quotation marks). He made an attempt to trace their influence on the most ancient peoples of the world, and first of all on the Cretan-Mycenaean culture.

After analyzing the stages of development of ancient cultures, including the Egyptian and Aegean, Bryusov comes to the conclusion that their initial stages are strange and incomprehensible.

Egyptian culture begins mysteriously: the most ancient pyramids are also the highest. The origins of their arts are unclear, they suddenly appear before the astonished world, like Pallas Athena, who arose in dress and weapons from the head of Zeus.

Bryusov also sees something similar in the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. The legendary labyrinth appears as if suddenly. Before him, only the remains of people who had not yet left the Stone Age could be found on the island. Shouldn't this leap be explained by someone's influence that spread to the culture of peoples living on different continents? Does not all this testify to the existence in ancient times of a people who became a universal teacher,

teacher of teachers?

It was after these arguments that the poet-scientist moved on to that culture that could claim the honor of being called

teachers teachers.

Tradition prompted him the right name - Atlantis. And in search of an answer, Bryusov turns to Plato's Dialogues.

Based on contemporary data about Atlantis, analyzing the messages of Plato, Bryusov comes to the conclusion (lines from the work "Teachers of Teachers"):

If we assume that the description of Plato is a fiction, we will have to recognize Plato as a superhuman genius who managed to predict the development of science for thousands of years to come, to foresee that someday learned historians will discover the world of Aegeia and establish its relations with Egypt, that Columbus will discover America, and archaeologists will restore the civilization of the ancient Mayans, etc.

Needless to say, with all our respect for the genius of the great Greek philosopher, such insight seems impossible to us and that we consider another explanation simpler and more plausible: Plato had at his disposal materials (Egyptian) that came from ancient times.

The method adopted by Valery Bryusov is simple and logical: he read Plato's dialogues and compared them with the objective level of knowledge of the ancient philosopher as a man of his time. Based on this, the poet comes to the conclusion that Plato could have obtained most of the information contained in the Dialogues only from people who knew about the existence of Atlantis. Well, for example,

Plato, like all Greeks, knew nothing of the Aegean kingdoms, which preceded the Hellenic on Greek soil. Therefore, Plato could not have had any reason to imagine a strong state in Attica many centuries before the beginning of Greek history.

Plato writes that Atlantis was located on the islands beyond the Pillars of Hercules (i.e., beyond the Strait of Gibraltar) and from it it was possible, sailing further west, to get to another "opposite" mainland. But the ancient Greeks knew nothing about America! Does this not indicate that these data also reached Plato from some competent source?

Having established in such a way that on the very first pages of his dialogues Plato makes two brilliant discoveries in different fields of science - in history and geography, Bryusov is convinced that Plato is surprisingly close to the truth even in seemingly insignificant details. This applies, say, to the unknown metal orichalcum. After there was no place for him in the periodic table, his very existence became doubtful.

Bryusov believed, however, that this unknown metal could be aluminum. True, to obtain it, an electric current is used, which the Atlanteans did not know about. Or maybe they knew another method for obtaining aluminum?

To this we can add historical fact, reported by the ancient historian Pliny: in the first years of our era, an unknown master brought a metal bowl that shone like silver, but extremely light, to the Roman emperor Tiberius. The master said that he received this metal from clay earth. Tiberius, fearing that the new metal would devalue his reserves of gold and silver, ordered the master's head to be cut off. It is quite possible that we are also talking about aluminum.

Scientists believe that orichalcum could be a natural alloy of copper and zinc, according to modern brass. Occasionally there are ores containing both of these metals at once. Such an alloy also corresponds to the color of orichalcum - "red, having the color of fire." In Plato's "Dialogues" we learn about the flora and fauna of Atlantis. They are amazingly realistic.

Apparently, the most fantastic in the fauna of Atlantis can be considered elephants and horses. According to Plato, the Atlanteans had horses and elephants in their colonies in Africa and America. But this does not contradict the truth at all: both horses and elephants in America died out relatively recently.

In "Teachers of Teachers" Bryusov, getting acquainted with the description of the capital of Atlantis - the City of the Golden Gate, believes that he

also does not go beyond the scope of the possible ... The statue of Poseidon, described by Plato, was huge, but even it approaches in size the statue of Olympian Zeus, sculpted by Phidias ... And in general, in the whole description there is not a single feature that would reveal deliberate fiction ...

Bruce writes. Does Plato's description of Atlantis correspond to new scientific data? After Bryusov, scientists returned to this issue more than once, who found new amazing coincidences. Well, for example, two springs feeding Plato's Atlantis - hot and cold water - could really be on an island associated with the active activity of volcanoes. Scientists also found a mysterious, maybe even for Plato himself, a tree,

which gives drink, and food, and ointment.

It could be a coconut palm, which really gives both "drink" - coconut milk, and "food" - the pulp of a nut, and "ointment" - semi-liquid coconut oil. Even Plato's remark that the walls and towers of the City of the Golden Gate were built of stone of three colors: white, black, red - found interesting confirmation: it is from such stones that the cities on the Azores are built; they are sometimes considered the mountain peaks of the sunken Atlantis.

Research carried out in last years, confirmed the date of the tragic catastrophe indicated by Plato, when the remains of a giant transatlantic island that once connected two great continents sank to the bottom of the ocean. What does not confirm such an ancient date? Changing currents?

Ocean currents to one degree or another determine the climate of the continents. Perhaps their appearance and disappearance is the rocket, at the signal of which the glaciers begin their movement? As the glaciers melt, they expose the earth's surface, leaving giant blocks of boulders, as if abandoned in a panic of retreat. Well, why do sea currents arise and disappear?

Atlantologist E. F. Hagemeister suggested that the end of the last ice age was caused by the outburst of the warm Gulf Stream into the cold Arctic Ocean. And it happened, she believes, this is because

Atlantis sank to the bottom of the ocean and opened the way for the Gulf Stream.

Academician fully agreed with this assumption. V. A. Obruchev. He wrote:

The sinking of Atlantis again cleared the way for the Gulf Stream, and in the north, its warm waters gradually stopped glaciation around the North Pole.

The remains of living beings found in the sediments at the bottom of the ocean can tell a lot. Here, for example, is what foraminifers testify to. The coils of foraminiferal shell spirals are twisted to the left in heat-loving forms, and to the right in cold-loving forms. Studying the columns of soils taken in North Atlantic, scientists came to the conclusion that about 10-13 thousand years ago, the waters of the North Atlantic warmed sharply. This is also associated with a breakthrough warm waters Gulf Stream.

But when did it happen? Russian hydrogeologist , examining soil samples from the bottom of the polar seas, found that for the first time the hot flow of the Gulf Stream penetrated into the northern seas about 12 thousand years ago. This was shown by radioisotope analysis.

Similar results were obtained by American scientists. They studied volcanic ash found in sediments at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. And it turned out that he appeared here about 12 thousand years ago. This once again confirmed the legendary date of the death of Atlantis: the island sank to the bottom of the ocean under the thunderous fireworks of volcanic eruptions.

Most of Bryusov's work is devoted to the connections between the most ancient civilizations of our planet. The poet-scientist pays special attention to the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. His book was published when the excavations in Crete had not yet been completed. This gave her an additional interest, which the author could not ignore. Well, today, does science confirm the existence of such connections?

The oldest civilizations of our planet

It is the question our oldest civilizations A. A. Gorbovsky's book "Mysteries of Ancient History" is dedicated to the planet. Some of Gorbovsky's conclusions may be questioned, but the facts he cites are, as a rule, accurate. And they most often relate to the most ancient ideas about the structure. Well, for example:

1. The thought of plurality inhabited worlds for which Giordano Bruno was burned. It turns out that Egyptian texts, sacred books ancient india and Tibet. Gorbovsky quotes the ancient Sanskrit book Vishnu Purana:
   

   Our Earth is only one of thousands of millions of inhabited worlds similar to it, located in the Universe.

   The idea that creatures like people live on distant stars was also common in ancient Peru.

2. Another example - The ancient Egyptians knew about it.
   

   "The earth was in front of me like a round ball"

   This quote is from the Leiden Demotic Papyrus. The Aztecs depicted the planets as small circles or balls played by the gods.

3. In the Middle East, in ancient Egypt and India, the year was divided into 12 months. But why did the same subdivision exist in South America? Why was the ancient Mayan year, which had 360 days, still used in ancient Egypt, Babylon and India?
4. The ancient Greeks, Indians, Celts, Mayans divided the history of mankind into four periods, and each of them was considered to be colored with a special paint. Surprisingly, they all considered the last, fourth, period to be painted with black paint.
5. Another example. The well-known biblical myth about construction Tower of Babel and the subsequent confusion of languages. It is not surprising that the Babylonians have a similar story: the creators of the Bible simply stole it. But where did this legend come from in ancient Mexico? And they talk about it like this:

They built high tower... But their languages ​​suddenly mixed up, they could no longer understand each other and went to live in different parts of the Earth.

And more, and more... You can often read that the legends of the "global flood" are common only among coastal peoples and that these are memories of previous floods. In reality there is no such ancient people who would not have this tradition.

Everyone knows the story of the Bible. Many people know that it is borrowed from the ancient Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. But the English ethnologist reports that of the 130 Indian tribes of North, Central and South America, not one does not have a myth of a great catastrophe.

In the fifty post-Bryusov years, this list has lengthened almost to infinity.

It would be fair to consider that the work of Valery Bryusov "Teachers of Teachers" summed up the first period of studying the problem of Atlantis, turning the legend set forth in Plato's dialogues into a scientific document. Approximately this is how the author himself assessed the result of his work: “From now on, the “problem of Atlantis” goes out of the realm of fortune-telling, becomes a certain historical hypothesis and must share the usual fate of scientific hypotheses, depending on whether the newly discovered facts will refute or confirm it.”

And yet, it would not be entirely fair if, having paid tribute to the merits of Bryusov's work, we keep silent about its fatal flaw: carried away by a charming legend, he recklessly considered the culture of the Atlanteans to be super-high.

Over the course of millennia, their power increased and their culture developed, reaching a height that, perhaps, was not reached by any of the earthly peoples after that.

This assessment, obviously, was also facilitated by the influence of the books of the occultists, who believed that the Atlanteans knew aeronautics, rocketry, etc.

Scientists in particular N. F. Zhirov, have carefully analyzed the question of how high culture Plato describes.

What metals is Plato talking about? About gold, silver, lead, iron, about the mysterious orichalcum? But gold and silver are found in native form, and their abundance in the capital of the Atlanteans does not indicate that these metals were widely used in the life of the city. Iron, which is mentioned only once in Plato, was probably meteoric.

Indeed, in the "Dialogues" there is no mention of iron or bronze weapons or tools. Metals were used only for facing giant stone walls or for decorating temples. All this cannot be considered evidence of the onset of copper, or, moreover, bronze age. Both weapons and tools, say, for cultivating the land, and household products were made only of stone and bone, which is quite consistent with the Stone Age.

Plato does not mention lime, cement, gypsum as binding building materials. To fasten the blocks of walls, obviously, metals were used, primarily copper. This also corresponds to the first period of the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. There is nothing contradictory in Plato's story about giant size temples. It is at this stage of development that many peoples of the world gravitate towards gigantism in architecture.

A number of authors associate with the culture of the Atlanteans megalithic buildings scattered throughout almost all sea ​​coasts the globe. Especially a lot of them in the west of Europe. Megaliths are structures made of unhewn or semi-hewn giant blocks of stone, laid in rows or circles. They were built so long ago that even the legends about it are silent. But they are known in Europe, South America, Palestine, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Madagascar. There is only one doubt - these structures were supposed to be built by people of the Stone Age.

The high culture of agriculture, by no means, does not contradict the general assessment of the level of development of the people of Atlantis, given by N. F. Zhirov. By the way, agriculture, apparently, arose 30-20 thousand years ago, which coincides with the date of the heyday and death of Atlantis.

The Russian scientist, Doctor of Chemical Sciences N. F. Zhirov, can rightly be considered the greatest atlantologist. He appeared with articles in newspapers and magazines, on radio and television, and published several books. The last of these, Atlantis, came out in 1964, a few years before his death. According to N. F. Zhirov, the question of the existence of Atlantis should be solved by science. In particular, oceanology has the final say here. It is she who must answer whether there could be and whether there was a sufficiently large island in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite Gibraltar, several millennia ago.

Yes, N. F. Zhirov answers these questions. Atlantis could exist. Data modern science they say that in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean there is an underwater North Atlantic Ridge, which could exist subaerially (above the surface of the water) at times close to those indicated by Plato in his legend. It is possible that some of these areas of land existed until historical time. So, maybe it makes sense to look for traces of Atlantis on these islands?

The islands of the Atlantic Ocean have long attracted the attention of atlantologists. Unfortunately, nothing like a large complex expedition, which would have carried out thorough archaeological excavations, would write down everyday rituals and legends, study in detail the flora and fauna, etc., were not on these islands. Although, according to many assumptions, it is here that the key to Atlantis should be sought.

Curious legends are associated with some of the Azores.

• So, on the island of Corvo, an equestrian statue was allegedly found. The person depicted on it extended his hand to the west. This fact is reported, in particular, by the German scientist R. Hennig.
• On other islands, gravestones were found with inscriptions in an unknown language.
• On one of the islands of Cape Verde, a dolmen and rock inscriptions in the Berber language were found.
• Population canary islands some experts consider the direct descendants of the Atlanteans. After a brutal war waged by the Spaniards against the population of the islands, who did not know any metal, let alone firearms, the twenty thousandth population of the islands was destroyed. By 1600, not a single purebred native remained alive. Palaeanthropological studies have shown that the natives belonged to various ethnic groups. These conclusions were made by the French scientist R. Vernot, who excavated the corresponding burials. The Guanches, as it is customary to call the inhabitants of these islands, spoke languages ​​of Berber origin. Two types of rock inscriptions have also been found. It is believed that one of these types is related to the hieroglyphs of Crete. But not a single inscription has yet been deciphered or read. During one of the first visits to the islands by the Portuguese, a statue of a man holding a ball was discovered here. She was taken to Lisbon, but her whereabouts are now unknown.

Not a little interesting conceals the bottom of the ocean.

• Swedish oceanographic expedition on board the Albatross in one of the columns of soil raised from the bottom West Africa discovered freshwater diatoms. Maybe they were washed into the ocean by the waters of the Congo or Niger River? But in this case, freshwater species would be mixed with marine ones. It is more logical to assume that the soil column was taken where a freshwater lake was once located.

Unfortunately, so far, scientists have not been able to raise any statues of Poseidon, or even a fragment of his trident, from the site of the death of Atlantis. However, there have been findings...

• In the mid-1950s, a sea dredge raised about a ton of very strange formations from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean south of the Azores. These were limestone discs with a recess on one side, which gave them the appearance of plates. On average, the diameter of these discs reached 15 centimeters, and the thickness - 4 centimeters. Their outer side was relatively smooth, but the inside of the depressions was rough. The strange shape of these formations testifies to their artificial origin. It was possible to establish the age of these "sea biscuits". It turned out to be equal to 12 thousand years, which corresponds to the date of the death of Atlantis. It was possible to establish something else: the "biscuits" were made in atmospheric conditions. By whom? For what? How did they get to the top of the seamount?

N. F. Zhirov in his book mentions the custom that existed among some Caucasian peoples to sacrifice food to the spirits on the tops of the mountains. Maybe the found "sea biscuits" - plates for similar sacrifices made by the inhabitants of Atlantis?

These are the few pieces of evidence for the existence of Atlantis. They could have been cited incomparably more.

Well, in general, what can be said about the problem of Atlantis from the level of modern knowledge?

• First of all, the mountain range located in the center of the Atlantic Ocean is the center of numerous earthquakes. This indicates a high seismic activity in the area.
• In the Atlantic Ocean there are a number of areas that were relatively recently dry land, and
  

  for all these places

  Notes N. F. Zhirov, -

  we do not exclude the possibility of the existence of islands even in historical time; some of them may have been inhabited.

• The scientist compares information about the islands that existed in historical times, which are available on modern maps. Surprisingly, they are identical. However
  

  there is every reason to assume the possibility of subsidence of individual islands and banks of the North Atlantic in our historical time, which had the character of a cataclysm.

  By this Zhirov explains the impossibility of carrying out such an identification in a number of cases.

• However, according to Plato, there is a lot of evidence of the existence of Atlantis exactly where it should be expected. Thus, relatively recently, a piece of coral was lifted aboard the ship Mikhail Lomonosov from one of the peaks of the North Atlantic Ridge. As you know, corals live only at relatively shallow depths. And since the coral was raised with a piece of bedrock from a depth of two and a half kilometers, it remains to be assumed that the mountain range has recently sunk at least two kilometers into the depths of the ocean here.
• And although many scientists categorically deny the possibility of the existence of large areas of land in the Atlantic Ocean in historical time, there are specialists who assert with equal conviction: yes, Atlantis could have existed and disappeared precisely in the time period that Plato spoke of, i.e., about 12 thousand years ago. In any case, it was precisely at this time that serious changes took place in the Atlantic Ocean, accompanied by breaks in the earth's crust, volcanic eruptions, a change in ocean currents, perhaps the warming of the entire northern hemisphere, which caused the end of the ice age.

More than half a century has passed since Bryusov wrote the work “Teachers of Teachers”. Unfortunately, even today the general attitude of scientists to this issue has not essentially changed. Most still treat Plato's story as unsubstantiated fiction. Evidence of this is that "such fabulous tales, as you know, are full of narrations of ancient writers." There have been no new confirmations of this over the past years. And the quotation given here refers to the very beginning of our century. Often there is an impression that the "opponents of Atlantis" did not read the works of Bryusov. However, this is also possible.

Bryusov's work was published only once, in 1917, in a magazine that was published in an insignificant circulation. Time did not contribute to his fame either: the world was then shaken by a world war. Russia stood on the eve of the revolution. The liveliest problems of modern life were incomparably more important than the history of the mainland that drowned thousands of years ago. And very soon the article "Teachers of teachers" became a bibliographic rarity. And she did not have the opportunity to convince readers that a particular "fabulous tale" contains too much information that Plato could not have, and this requires a more condescending attitude towards him. It remained the property of only specialist atlantologists who came to the same conclusion in their own ways.

But we must not forget another. The world has entered the era of the scientific and technological revolution, capturing ever new areas of knowledge. The ocean succumbed to this irrepressible pressure of science. Researchers have already reached its limiting depths in bathyscaphes. Yes, and without descending into the abyss of the ocean, scientists can already study its bottom in order to find the ruins of giant temples, the remains of city walls and surrounding canals. There is almost no doubt that these search for Atlantis will be undertaken in the near future.

What machines, devices, devices will they work with? Of course, clumsy, clumsy bathyscaphes are not very suitable for working on the ocean floor. But, perhaps, bathyscaphes will not be needed for this. Perhaps the search for Atlantis will be carried out by atlantologists-scuba divers.

Atlantologists scuba divers?! At a depth of more than 3 thousand meters?! Are such depths available for scuba diving? Or will they be available?

It is difficult to answer this question. After all, scuba gear as a means of underwater work appeared quite recently, in 1943, J.I. Cousteau believed at first that this invention of his would help a person master a maximum of two to three tens of meters of water. But…

Here are the record dives for the post-war 30 years. It must be said that in our time, today's record becomes a public value tomorrow. This can be confirmed, say, by an increase in the speeds of cars and airplanes. Probably, everyone remembers the story of overcoming the sound speed by aircraft. Was it a long time ago?! And today, supersonic passenger aircraft have become an everyday reality in many countries of the world. The same thing happens with the records of the diving depth achieved by scuba divers.

So, the first tens of meters are available for an amateur scuba diver who has put on an aqualung for the first time. But it is necessary not to cross the permissible physiological threshold. This threshold is breathing with highly compressed air. In this case, the blood is supersaturated with oxygen and nitrogen dissolved in it. Oversaturation with oxygen causes convulsions, and with nitrogen - intoxication and leads to decompression sickness. At the same time, nitrogen dissolved in the blood begins to be released directly in the veins and arteries. And people often die.

To prevent this from happening, divers rise from the depth extremely slowly, and then the blood has time to free itself from excess nitrogen. At the same time, the ascent from a depth of a hundred meters is delayed for 5-6 hours.

The witty idea of ​​a Swiss scientist helped to defeat decompression sickness Hansa Keller A. The essence of this idea is to use various gas mixtures when lifting from great depths. Once, while testing his idea, he rose from a depth of 222 meters in just 53 minutes! But the record for diving in a diving suit was only 180 meters, and the ascent from this depth took 12 hours.

Keller descended to a depth of 400 meters. It was in 1960-1962.

In 1970, English scuba divers descended to a depth of 457 meters. But at the end of the same year, the French moved it beyond the half-kilometer mark, they reached 520 meters! And in 1972 another was taken great depth- 565 meters.

The next step is striking in courage and magnitude. Four American volunteers descended to a depth of 1520 meters, spent 4 hours at the indicated depth and rose to the surface without any harm to themselves. True, the last experiment was carried out in a pressure chamber, but the essence of the matter does not change from this.

Depth reached!

It remains to double, triple it, and the depths of Atlantis will be in the power of scuba divers. They will be able to search for sunken land and, without returning to the surface of the ocean, relax in special underwater houses. Today, underwater houses of various designs are being tested in the USA, Holland and Italy, Japan and Cuba.

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the mystery of Atlantis has not ceased to excite mankind. The eternal question goes back 2500 years.
For the first time, the great ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis, and today's researchers and seekers of the sunken island rely on his writings. Everything that Plato knew about the mysterious Atlantis is told in his two dialogues "Critias" and "Timaeus". In them, Plato's ancestor Critias recalled the conversations of the ancient Greek sage Solon with an unnamed priest from Egypt. The conversation took place in the VI century BC. The Egyptian reported, referring to the sacred Egyptian texts, about the existing great country Atlantis, lying behind the Pillars of Hercules, and perished as a result of a terrible catastrophe.

“... There was an island that lay in front of that strait, which is called in your language the Pillars of Hercules. This island exceeded the size of Libya and Asia put together ... On this island, called Atlantis, there appeared a great and amazing alliance of kings, whose power extended over the whole island ... they took possession of Libya as far as Egypt and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia ... But later when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods ... Atlantis disappeared, plunged into the abyss. After that, the sea in those places became, until this day, unnavigable and inaccessible due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind ”(“ Timaeus ”).

“9000 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 ... The latter were headed by our state (that is, Athens), and the first were the kings of the island of Atlantis; as we have already mentioned, it was once an island larger than Libya and Asia, but now it has collapsed due to earthquakes and turned into impenetrable silt that blocks the way for sailors ”(“ Critias ”).

Since ancient times, supporters and opponents of the existence of Atlantis have appeared. The hypothesis was supported by Pliny the Elder and Diodorus Siculus, opponents were Aristotle and the geographer Strabo. Disputes do not stop even today - the number of published works on Atlantis exceeds 5000, and there are more than 10,000 versions about where Atlantis is located. To this we must add a lot of occult-theosophical speculations on the topic of Atlantis, and a large number of“research” of amateur “atlantologists”, whose activities, as A. Goreslavsky wrote, “did more harm than good, because through their efforts the most interesting problem of ancient civilization completely passed into the category of scientific curiosities.”

As soon as the “specialists in Atlantis” were swaggering: attributing to all the peoples of the world the origin of the Atlanteans, they called them space aliens, considered the Atlanteans “ancient Rus”, endowed them with some incredible wisdom and “ secret knowledge", etc. Well, "unfortunate people! - you can repeat after the Marquis de Custine. “They need to be delusional to be happy.”

By the way, Plato called Atlantis an island, and it does not follow from his texts that it was a whole continent. From the text of Plato it is also absolutely obvious that the civilization of Atlantis is the same archaic civilization of the Bronze Age as the civilizations ancient egypt, Hittites, Mycenae, Indus Valley, Mesopotamia. The Atlanteans had kings and priests, they made sacrifices to pagan gods, fought wars, their army was armed with spears. The Atlanteans were engaged in irrigation of fields with the help of canals, were engaged in the construction of ships, processed metals: copper, tin, bronze, gold and silver. Perhaps they did not use iron on a large scale. At least Plato did not mention it. Therefore, fictions about a certain “highly developed” civilization of the Atlanteans can only cause sympathy.

It is also doubtful that Atlantis could exist in 9000 BC. It has long and rightly been noted that at that time "there were neither Egyptians who could leave records of these events, nor Greeks who allegedly performed their feats." The first traces of Neolithic culture in Lower Egypt date back to about the 5th millennium BC, and peoples who spoke Greek did not appear in Greece until the 2nd millennium BC. It turns out that the Atlanteans simply could not in 9600 BC. to fight the Greeks, since the Greeks did not yet exist. The whole set of facts that are given in Plato's story does not allow us to attribute the time of the existence of the civilization of Atlantis beyond the 2nd millennium BC.

In accordance with Plato's instructions, Atlantis was placed behind the Pillars of Hercules - the Strait of Gibraltar, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Small archipelagos - Azores, Canaries and Bahamas- called the remains of the sunken mainland.

An event in 1898 made a lot of noise when, during the laying of a telegraph cable between Europe and the United States, a French ship 560 miles north of the Azores lifted a rock from the ocean floor, which, when tested, turned out to be a piece of vitreous volcanic lava. Such lava can only form on land at atmospheric pressure. By radiocarbon analysis, it was established that the eruption of a mysterious volcano took place approximately 13,000 BC. But apart from lava, nothing else was found in this place.

1979 - The Soviet research ship Moscow University took a series of photographs of the Amper seamount. They depicted the remains of some artificial structures. But this mystery has remained unsolved. In addition, serious doubts arose about the correctness of the interpretation of the images in the images - most likely, it could be the natural topography of the seabed.

After the discovery of America, it was suggested that this mainland is the legendary Atlantis. With such a hypothesis, in particular, was Francis Bacon.

H. Schulten in 1922 came up with the idea that Atlantis should be understood as the city of seafarers known in ancient times, Tartessus, located in Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, and which went under water around 500 BC.

In the 30s of the XX century, A. Herrmann suggested that Atlantis was located on the territory of modern Tunisia and was covered with the sands of the Sahara.

A scientist from France F. Gidon put forward a hypothesis that the legend of Atlantis tells the story of a dive into the sea of ​​the northwestern French coast. 1997 - this assumption was revived and developed by a Russian scientist - member Geographic Society V. Kudryavtsev, who hypothesized that as a result of this event, the so-called Celtic shelf, the bottom of the modern North Sea between France and Southern England. This shelf is shallow and has some semblance of a flooded coastline.

Almost in the center of this flooded area is the Little Sol Bank - a remarkable underwater elevation, on which, as Kudryavtsev believes, the capital of Atlantis was located: "a city located on a hill with a cliff towards the sea." True, according to Kudryavtsev's hypothesis, Atlantis is not an island, but part of the European continent, but the author of the study believes that the ancient Egyptian language did not have separate words to convey the concepts of "land" and "island".

During the end of the ice age, as a result of rising ocean levels, a significant area in western Europe was under water, on which Atlantis was located, which was the center of a highly developed culture. Attempts to connect the death of Atlantis with the rise in the level of the World Ocean after the melting of the glaciers have always met with serious objections. It is believed that this increase was gradual and occurred with different speed for several thousand years.

Critics of this hypothesis argued that the flooding associated with this rise could not match the catastrophicity described by Plato: "Atlantis perished ... in one terrible day and one night."

But Plato says: "Then ... there were earthquakes and floods of extraordinary destructive power, and in one terrible day and one night all your warriors were swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis was also swallowed up by the sea and disappeared." The mention of earthquakes and floods accompanying the catastrophe in the plural indicates that the catastrophe did not occur in one day.

1988 - X. Heinrich, a paleoglaciologist from America, published data that were obtained as a result of a study of bottom sediments in the North Atlantic, which indicated that at least six times during the last ice age, large-scale rapid ice melted into the ocean from the territory current Canada. Judging by what is said about many millions of cubic kilometers of ice, such events could not but lead to a noticeable rise in sea level.

1953 - German pastor J. Shpanut put forward a version that Atlantis was in the Baltic Sea, near the island of Heligoland. He based his assumption on the fact that in this place at a depth of eight meters, in the highest part of the underwater Steingrund ridge, the remains of a destroyed settlement were found.

The version that Atlantis is Antarctica was put forward relatively recently by Rand Flem-At from America. He drew attention to Plato's phrase that from Atlantis “it was easy to move to other islands, and from them to the entire opposite mainland, which borders the true ocean. After all, the sea on this side of the Strait of Gibraltar is only a bay with a narrow passage into it. Flem-Ath made the assumption that Plato's Atlantis was in Antarctica. And he gave an argument in favor of his assumption. Comparison of the configuration of the legendary island with the outlines of Antarctica, according to Flem-Ath, shows their striking similarity. And although on the ancient Egyptian map Atlantis is placed in the Atlantic Ocean, Flem-Ath believes that this is a mistake, which Plato also believed.

It is traditionally believed that Antarctica has been covered in ice for the past 50 million years. However, in 90 of the XX century, geologists found the remains of trees frozen into ice, 2-3 million years old. And on famous map Piri Reis, compiled in 1513, Antarctica is depicted without ice. On the map of Orontius Finney, compiled in 1531, Antarctica is marked mountain ranges and rivers. Thus, it is possible that Antarctica was ice-free in the memory of mankind. And the catastrophe that occurred with Atlantis-Antarctica was the same catastrophe when the earth's poles shifted.

More substantiated today is the version that the metropolis of Atlantis was the island of Santorin in the Aegean Sea, and the civilization of Atlantis is identified with the Crete-Minoan civilization. True, like all the others, there are some stretches in this hypothesis, but it is confirmed by numerous data from archeology, history and geophysics.

1780 - the hypothesis that Atlantis was located in Eastern Mediterranean, first voiced by Bortolli from Italy.

At the end of the 19th century, excavations by scientists from France drew attention to the island of Santorini. The central part of the island of Santorini sank into the water many years ago, and the remains of it today are three islands - Thira, Thirasia and Aspronisi. indicated that a fairly high culture once flourished here. The inhabitants of Santorin knew the system of measures and the system of calculation, they mined lime and were engaged in the construction of complex vaulted structures, painted the walls with frescoes. They successfully developed agriculture, weaving, and pottery.

Santorini may have been one of the centers of the Cretan-Minoan civilization. Around 1500 B.C. This civilization was at its peak. The inhabitants of Crete early mastered the processing of metals and began to trade them. It is believed that Crete was the first major metal-working European center. The methods of agriculture in Crete and in Atlantis described by Plato practically coincide. There are many other coincidences - in the political system, social and cultural life.

The capital of the Cretan-Minoan state was Knossos - the "Great City", glorified by Homer. The fleet of the Cretans dominated the sea, and extensive trade and numerous wars contributed to the strengthening of the state. Around 1580-1500 B.C. Aegeus, the king of Athens, was defeated by the Cretan king Minos, and Athens was forced to pay tribute to Crete. But suddenly the Cretan civilization ceased to exist...

1972 - L. Figuy suggested that the legendary Atlantis is an island in the Aegean archipelago that sank as a result of a geological disaster. This island could only be Santorini, part of which sank into the sea, and the rest was covered with a thick layer of volcanic pumice.

1909, January 19 - K. Frost published in the London Times his version that Plato's story about Atlantis is a literary and philosophical narrative about the death of the Crete-Minoan civilization. And further excavations and research showed that around 1520 BC. volcanic explosion in Santorini central part The island was destroyed and flooded. The explosion caused catastrophic consequences throughout the Mediterranean. The Minoan state suffered the most. Villages and fields were buried under volcanic ash and cinders, dozens of cities were washed into the sea by giant tsunamis ...

But what about the date of the death of Atlantis - 9,000 years ago from the date of Solon's conversation with the Egyptian priests? If we take 1,500 BC as the date of the catastrophe, then it turns out that the death of Atlantis took place not 9,000, but 900 years ago. Such an error, according to the researchers, could appear due to the difference in the calculation systems used in Egypt and Greece.

So what - the secret of Atlantis is revealed? Assume this most likely, no one dares. Although the "Creto-Minoan" version explains almost everything Plato said, questions still remain. And with them remains a mystery ...

Researchers who are confident in the authenticity of the information in Plato's dialogues believe that the death of the island occurred in the period from 9593 to 9583 BC. This date is indicated by some data in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias. Critias, a statesman who lived in the second half of the 5th century BC, told Plato a story that he read in the notes of his grandfather, Solon, which he kept from the words of an Egyptian priest in 593-583 BC. According to Critias, Atlantis died exactly 9000 years before these records, so it turns out that about 11560 years have passed since the death of the island. The author placed Atlantis directly behind the Pillars of Hercules or Hercules, i.e. in the Atlantic behind the rocks framing the entrance to strait of Gibraltar. And although some place Atlantis in the Black Sea, the Andes, and even the Caribbean, these are the most accurate coordinates and dates available to historians.

The death of the legendary state

According to Plato, Atlantis belonged to the ruler of the seas, Poseidon, he gave it to his sons from a mortal woman to manage. The state grew and prospered, it was unthinkably rich, had big influence on neighboring states and carried on a brisk trade with them. But over time, the inhabitants "corrupted" and the ancient gods decided to punish them. Plato's description of the death of Atlantis boils down to two main factors - and the ensuing tsunami. At first, the ground began to shake, cracks appeared in the soil, many people died in a few hours, and then a flood began, sinking the island to the bottom.

Skeptics claim that Solon mixed up the Egyptian hieroglyphs for hundreds and thousands and wrote down 9000 years instead of 900.

Versions of the death of Atlantis

One of the main versions of the death of Atlantis is the eruption underwater volcano that caused the earthquake and tsunami. No less popular is the version of the death of the continent as a result of the shift tectonic plates. By the way, in this version Atlantis is called the antipode of Great Britain, i.e. Atlantis sank on one side of the scale, England on the other. The reason for this shift, according to various researchers, could be the fall of a large asteroid in the area of ​​the Bermuda Triangle or off the coast of Japan, the capture by the Earth of its current satellite - the Moon, the change of geographical poles as a result of periodic "castling". This is indicated from ancient texts that “the Earth was once again renewed” or “reborn”, i.e. ancient peoples had the knowledge that such processes are natural and periodic.

In different parts of the world, the picture of the cataclysm could differ significantly. In some places, pieces of a falling cosmic body and the consequences of destruction could be seen, in others - only a roar and giant waves.

In the myths and traditions of different peoples, there are supplemented versions of the death of civilizations that existed before the first. So, for example, in “Chilam-Balam” the fall of some celestial body is described, followed by an earthquake and a flood: “it was going”, “a great serpent fell from the sky”, “and its bones and skin fell to the ground”, “and then flooded terrible waves. Other legends say that "the sky was falling" and in a short time the day changed into night several times.

Modern researchers the problems of Atlantis state that such a catastrophe may repeat itself. The melting of glaciers in recent decades has become more and more intense, this can lead to desalination of the world's oceans, the disappearance of the warm current of the Gulf Stream and a rise in the water level by several tens of meters. Consequently most of coastal areas will be flooded, and many lands will repeat the fate of the legendary Atlantis.

One of the mysteries of ancient history is the fate of Atlantis and its death. The story of this disappeared island has been preserved only in two dialogues of the Greek philosopher Plato - Critias and Timaeus. Plato himself called it "the true truth" and attributed it to the ancient sage Solon, who lived two centuries earlier.

In turn, he heard about Atlantis, having visited Egypt - in the city of Sais. Here, asking the priests about ancient times, he learned about the island, which "exceeded in its size Libya and Asia combined" and lay on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar.

This island could be called earthly paradise". The local wealth attracted people from all surrounding countries. Ships hurried to Atlantis, "merchants arrived from everywhere, and, moreover, in such a multitude that conversation, noise and knocking were heard day and night."

The trading power of the Atlanteans was combined with military power. Human strength could not defeat them. The inhabitants of Atlantis enslaved "all the countries on this side of the strait." However, they were also powerless against the gods. "The time has come for unprecedented earthquakes and floods." Finally, the earth opened up and "in one terrible day" swallowed up Atlantis. The island disappeared, "plunging into the abyss." It happened around 9600 BC.

Most ancient scientists (but not all!) believed Plato. So, the geographer Strabo, describing known lands, noted: "The story of the island of Atlantis may not be fiction." The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus recalled that the Atlantic Sea swallowed up "an island larger than all of Europe" - an island that existed "somewhere". That was the ancient answer.

Centuries have passed. In the 16th century, during the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, the riddle of Atlantis began to be solved again, trying to find its exact position. At first, it was placed off the coast of America, because Plato said that it was easy to move from Atlantis "to the opposite mainland." The hypothesis that the descendants of the Atlanteans settled America would later become popular.

Gradually, the search area expanded. Archaeologists who searched for Atlantis at the tip of a pen discovered traces of it everywhere.

Greenland? Did it once connect America and Europe? Perhaps, in ancient times, the northern peoples wandered on dry land from one part of the world to another?

Sahara? Why not Atlantis, whose lands "provided water in abundance, and, moreover, amazing in taste"? What if there was huge lake, devastated by an earthquake, and the ancient Atlanteans fled after this disaster, scorched by the sun and driven by thirst? Their descendants are the Berbers.

Lake Titicaca in the mountains of South America? Yes, because it lies on a high-mountain plateau, similar in everything to Atlantis, as Plato described it: “This whole region lay very high and steeply cut off to the sea, but the whole plain that surrounded the city and itself was surrounded by mountains that stretched to the sea, was a flat surface."

Azores? Certainly. Not far from them, at the bottom of the sea, they found blocks of solidified lava. In this case, Atlantis, like Pompeii, was destroyed by a volcano.

Troy? In the 1990s, the German archaeologist Eberhard Zangger suggested that under the name of Atlantis, Plato described Troy, albeit noticeably distorted its appearance.

Cyprus? In the fall of 2004, there were reports that "something similar" to Atlantis was found at the bottom of the sea, east of the island. However, only its newly discovered discoverer managed to recognize the features of a forgotten country in the underwater ridges.

Spain? In March 2011, an archaeologist from the University of Hartford, Richard Freund, discovered footprints in a swampy area north of Cadiz. ancient city, which, according to his hypothesis, was destroyed by the tsunami. In plan, this city had the shape of a ring. But after all, the capital of Atlantis, which lay about 10 kilometers from the sea, was surrounded by a system of round canals.

More than 10 thousand books tell about Atlantis. Ten thousand books, and almost every one of them indicates a new place of the disaster and new date death legendary country. As a result, the events described by Plato could take place in the period from 80,000 BC to 1200 BC.

At the first conference of atlantologists, held in 2005 in Greece, 24 criteria were established that a place where Atlantis could be located should satisfy. So far no such places have been found. The authors of hypotheses invariably fantasize "on the theme of Plato", as if not trying to read his story to the end.

So did Atlantis not exist? Was there an island that sank into the sea? Islands whose inhabitants challenged the Egyptians and Athenians? A fabulously wealthy island?

Back in the middle of the 19th century, while exploring the island of Thira (Fera), or Santorin, which lay 120 kilometers north of Crete, French archaeologists were surprised to note that it was covered with a thick layer of ash and pumice, under which lies an ancient settlement. It must have been destroyed by a volcanic eruption. However, this discovery did not arouse much interest.

Excavations of the city of Gortyna (Gortys) Crete

Meanwhile, half a century later, the English archaeologist Arthur Evans discovered traces of a great civilization on the island of Crete. Four thousand years ago, huge palaces were built here, their walls were painted with frescoes, elegant dishes were made, jewelry made of gold and ivory.

Hundreds of villages and towns dotted the island. It was as densely populated as Plato's Atlantis. He was rich, handsome and great. Ancient Greek culture owes a lot to Cretan. However, around 1500 BC, the Cretan state declined. An inexplicable fate destroys her. She will never be reborn.

Perhaps the Santorini volcano was to blame? But how could he threaten Crete? “At such a distance, there is nothing to be afraid of hot ash, and an earthquake caused by volcanic activity is barely perceptible,” was the opinion of skeptics. But they were put to shame.

In the 1950s and 1960s, a picture of the eruption of the Santorin volcano, one of the strongest volcanic eruptions in human memory, was recreated. It was accompanied by a powerful tidal wave - a tsunami that devastated the coast of Crete.

The Santorini catastrophe happened exactly 900 years before Solon learned from the Egyptian priests the history of Atlantis. Exactly 900, not 9000! And it sheds some light on the date confusion. The fact is that the Egyptians wrote these numbers in a similar way. It is not surprising for a stranger to make a mistake!

Plato noted in his dialogues that Atlantis consisted of two islands - a small round island, in the middle of which "there was a mountain, low on all sides", crowned with the temple of Poseidon, as well as an extended island, partly occupied by a plain, partly by mountains. In this description, Crete and Santorin are quite guessed, in the middle of which a volcano rose. Then "fire and water" fell on people. This is how Santorini perished.

Obviously, this is how Atlantis died. Forgotten about its inhabitants. In the story of the Egyptian priests, they turned into "Atlanteans".

It is worth adding that a huge contribution to the study of the problem of Atlantis was made by the Soviet researcher Nikolai Feodosevich Zhirov (1903-1970). Doctor of Chemistry, retired early due to disability, he devoted himself to the existence of Atlantis.

His final work "Atlantis: the main problems of atlantology" was published in 1964, but, despite the huge interest in this topic, it was released in only 12,000 copies. Fortunately, for everyone who lives in eternal search Atlantis, it was republished several years ago by the Moscow publishing house "Veche".

Tags: