Scientists who wrote about Atlantis. Where is the mythical island of Atlantis located? Atlantis in the Mediterranean

In the works of some ancient Greek historians, geographers, mythographers, mathematicians, theologians and astronomers, there are references to one state that has sunk into oblivion: the legendary island of Atlantis. About two thousand years ago, Plato, Herodotus, Diodorus and other respected authors wrote about him in their writings.

Basic information about the lost Atlantis is contained in the writings of Plato. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he talks about an island state that existed about 11,500 years ago.

According to Plato, the god Poseidon was the ancestor of the Atlanteans. He connected his life with a mortal girl who bore him ten sons. When the children grew up, the father divided the island between them. The best part of the land went to the eldest son of Poseidon: Atlan.

Atlantis was a powerful, wealthy and populous state. Its inhabitants built a serious system of defense against external enemies and built a network of circular canals leading to the sea, as well as an internal port.

Large cities were distinguished by amazing architectural structures and beautiful sculptures: temples made of gold and silver, golden statues and statues. The island was very fertile, with a variety of natural world; in the bowels of the earth, people mined copper and silver.

The Atlanteans were a warlike people: the army of the state included a navy of 1000 ships, the number of crews was equal to 240 thousand people; The ground army consisted of 700 thousand people. The descendants of Poseidon fought successfully for many years, conquering new territories and wealth; so it was until Athens stood in their way.

The Athenians created a military alliance with the peoples to defeat the Atlanteans. Balkan Peninsula. But on the day of the battle, the allies refused to fight, and the Athenians were left face to face with the enemy. The fearless courageous Greeks defeated the aggressor and liberated the peoples previously enslaved by him.

But early Greek warriors rejoiced at their achievements: the gods decided to intervene in the affairs of people, who had been watching the inhabitants of Atlantis for the last centuries. Zeus considered that the Atlanteans had become greedy, greedy, depraved and decided to punish them to the fullest extent by flooding the island along with its inhabitants and the Athenians who did not have time to celebrate the victory.

Here is what Plato writes about Atlantis in his two writings. At first glance, it's simple beautiful legend, interesting story. There is no direct evidence for the existence of Atlantis in ancient times, nor any reference to authoritative sources.

But these two dialogues survived not only Plato himself, but also two millennia more - during this time many disputes and theories arose regarding lost state.

Plato's student Aristotle, who listened to the speeches of the Platonist philosophers for about 20 years, eventually categorically rejected the existence of Atlantis, stating that the dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias" are just an invention, the nonsense of an old man.

It was because of Aristotle that Atlantis was talked about reluctantly, in an undertone until the end of the 18th century. After all, this venerable philosopher enjoyed unquestioned authority in Europe, especially in the Middle Ages. All statements of Aristotle were perceived by Europeans as the ultimate truth.

So why was Aristotle so sure that Atlantis was fiction, because he did not have irrefutable evidence of this? Why was he so harsh in his judgments? Some sources claim that the philosopher simply did not like his mentor, so he decided in this way to spoil the authority of Plato in the eyes of his admirers and admirers.

Mentions of Atlanteans in the writings of other ancient authors

Other ancient authors wrote very little about Atlantis: Herodotus claimed that the Atlanteans had no names, did not see dreams and were defeated by troglodytes - cavemen; according to the stories of Diodorus, the inhabitants of Atlantis fought with the Amazons. Posidonius, who was interested in the causes of land subsidence, believed that Plato's story was plausible.

Proclus in his writings reports on one follower of the ancient thinker: an Athenian Krantor.

Allegedly, he specially went to Egypt 47 years after the death of the philosopher, in order to find evidence in favor of the existence of an island state; returning from a trip, Crantor said that in one of the ancient temples he saw columns with inscriptions retelling the historical events described by Plato.

Search for Atlantis

It is quite difficult to indicate the exact location of the lost Atlantis: there are many hypotheses about where the flooded state may be.

Plato wrote that huge island was once in the ocean Pillars of Hercules(i.e. beyond Gibraltar). But his search in the Canary, Balearic, Azores and british isles led to nothing.

Some researchers suggest looking for the remains of the material culture of the Atlanteans in the Black Sea, linking the flooding of the island with the "Black Sea flood" that occurred 7-8 millennia ago - then the sea level in less than a year rose, according to various estimates, from 10 to 80 meters.

There is a hypothesis according to which Antarctica is lost Atlantis. Scientists who adhere to this theory believe that Antarctica in ancient times was shifted to the south pole due to a lithospheric shift, or a sharp shift in the earth's axis as a result of a collision of our planet with a large cosmic body.

There is also an opinion that traces of Atlantis can be found in South America or Brazil. But most interpreters of Plato's dialogues are sure: the lost island must be sought only in Atlantic Ocean.

In recent decades, the lost state has been looking for many expeditions, most of which returned empty-handed. True, from time to time the whole world is disturbed by news about the found traces of a flooded island.

Have the Russians found Atlantis?

In 1979, a Soviet expedition, while testing a diving bell, accidentally discovered some objects in the Atlantic Ocean that looked like the ruins of an ancient city.

The action unfolded just behind the “Pillars of Hercules” indicated by Plato, 500 km from Gibraltar, above the Amper seamount, which protruded above the surface of the ocean many millennia ago, but then for some reason went under water.

Three years later, the Soviet ship "Rift" went to the same place to explore the ocean floor with the help of the Argus submersible. The aquanauts were amazed by what they saw; from their words, they opened the panorama of the city ruins: the remains of rooms, squares, streets.

But the expedition that took place in 1984 did not live up to the hopes of the researchers: an analysis of two stones raised from the ocean floor showed that it was just volcanic rock, solidified lava, and not the creation of human hands.

The opinion of modern scientists about Atlantis

Atlantis is a fantasy

Most modern historians and philologists are convinced that Plato's dialogues are just a beautiful legend, of which the philosopher has many. There are no traces of this state either in Greece, or in the west of Europe, or in Africa - this is confirmed by archaeological excavations.

The opinion of scientists that Atlantis is just a figment of the imagination is also based on the following: the philosopher writes about the network of canals built on the island, about the inner port, but such large-scale projects in ancient times were beyond the power of people.

Plato indicated the approximate date of the island's sinking into the ocean depths: 9000 years before he wrote the dialogues (i.e., approximately 9500 BC). But this contradicts the data modern science: at that time, mankind was just emerging from the Paleolithic era. It is not easy to believe that somewhere in those days there lived a people who overtook the entire human race in their development by thousands of years.

Many scientists are convinced that Plato, when writing his works, took as a basis some of the events that took place during his lifetime: for example, the defeat of the Greeks when they tried to conquer the island of Sicily and the flooding of the town of Gelika as a result of an earthquake followed by a flood.

Other researchers believe that the basis for the works of the philosopher was the volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini, which subsequently hit the coast of Crete and other islands of the Mediterranean Sea - this disaster led to the decline of the developed Minoan civilization.

The version is supported by the following fact: the Minoans really fought against the Archeans who inhabited Greece in ancient times and were even defeated by them (just like the Atlanteans were defeated by the Greeks in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias).

In general, many researchers of the thinker's works believe that Plato, being a utopian idealist, with his writings only wanted to call his contemporaries to build an ideal exemplary humane state in which there would be no place for dictatorship, violence and tyranny.

However, the philosopher himself in the dialogues constantly emphasizes that Atlantis is not just a legend, but actually existed once. Island state.

Plato doesn't lie

Some researchers nevertheless admit that there is a grain of truth in the writings of the ancient thinker. Excavations carried out in recent years by archaeologists have helped scientists obtain new information about life and technical achievements our ancestors living 5-10 thousand years ago.

Modern archaeologists find the remains of grandiose structures created by ancient people everywhere: in Egypt, Sumer, Babylon. Tunnels for collecting groundwater, many kilometers of galleries, stone dams, man-made lakes- all these structures operated long before the birth of Plato.

Consequently, the philosopher's dialogues cannot be attributed to fiction only on the grounds that mankind 11 millennia ago was unable to build a network of canals and bridges: recent archaeological excavations prove the opposite.

In addition, since the works of Plato rewritten more than once have come down to us, it is likely that over the two millennia there has been a confusion with dates.

The fact is that in the system of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the number "9000" is indicated by lotus flowers, and the number "900" - rope knots; supporters of the existence of Atlantis believe that the later scribes of the dialogues could easily confuse symbols so similar to each other, thus pushing back the historical event several thousand years ago.

On top of that, Plato, who belongs to one highly revered in Ancient Greece family, in his dialogues he refers to his ancestor: the wisest of the "seven wise men" legislator Solon. And the ancient Greeks were very kind to their roots, tried to protect the sacred memory of their relatives. Would Plato, given his moral qualities, refer to Solon in his works, because if the whole story with Atlantis is just a fiction, he would tarnish the name of the wisest representative of the family?

Afterword

Atlantis has been shrouded in a halo of mystery for many centuries. People have been trying to find the suddenly disappeared state for almost two thousand years: some - wanting to take possession of the treasures described by Plato, others - out of scientific interest, others - just out of curiosity.

In the 50s of the last century, even a doctrine called "Atlantology" appeared, its main task is to identify true information about Atlantis in historical sources and mythical legends.

The debate about whether the mysterious land once existed or the ancient Greek thinker simply invented it does not subside to this day. Various theories are born and die, conjectures appear and disappear. Some of them are backed by science, while others are more like beautiful fairy tale.

Perhaps our children or grandchildren will solve the riddle of Atlantis. But it may turn out that another two thousand years will pass, and the mystery lost island will remain undisclosed, and our descendants, just like we are today, will be tormented by conjectures and assumptions.

ARTICLE IN VIDEO FORMAT

Atlantis has been described by many researchers as the most advanced of human civilizations. Some believe that the city was destroyed by one of the biggest natural disasters, known to man, while others are inclined to believe that it is nothing more than a mere figment of Plato's imagination. This article contains some "facts", conceptual images and videos. Let's dream a little together, plunging into the story of Atlantis.

The legend of Atlantis begins with two dialogues: Timaeus and Critias, written by the classical Greek philosopher, Plato. He describes the inhabitants of Atlantis as noble and strong people who lived on an island located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Greek myths tell us that Poseidon created a dwelling for the mortal woman Kleito, with whom he fell in love. To protect her, he surrounded the island with rings of water and earth.

Kleito soon gave birth to 5 pairs of twin boys who became the rulers of the country. Atlas became the first king. Atlantis was a thriving trading center due to its location and natural resources.


Unfortunately, as happened to everyone lost civilizations, greed and power began to corrupt the inhabitants of Atlantis. Zeus was outraged by the immorality of people and had to decide the fate of Atlantis by gathering other gods and determining punishment. At the peak of its greatness, Atlantis was swallowed up by sea waves after a terrible earthquake.


It is believed that the center of Atlantis was connected to the sea by an extremely large and deep channel - almost 9 km long, 100 m wide and 30 m deep. He was even deeper than Panama Canal, which reaches 18 meters at its deepest location.

At the very top central mountain A temple was built in honor of Poseidon. Inside was a statue of Poseidon on a chariot with winged horses (Pegases). The statue was usually surrounded by the senior rulers of Atlantis, who discussed laws here, made decisions and paid tribute to Poseidon.


The main city of Atlantis was located outside the 1st ring of water and covered 17 km of land. It was very densely populated, most of the inhabitants lived here. Outside the city were fertile fields and farms 530 km long and 190 km wide, surrounded by another canal used to collect water from rivers and mountain streams. Each year, the climate of Atlantis allowed 2 harvests. One in winter, which was fed by rains, and one in summer, which was fed by irrigation from canals.

High mountains surrounded the plain in the north of the 3rd circle. small villages, lakes, rivers and grasslands covered most of this area. In addition to lush vegetation, the island was very rich in various metals (gold, copper, bronze, silver) and several types of stone. It is also believed that elephants lived here.


Due to the size of the army and navy, which consisted of approximately 1,200 ships, Atlantis was able to control lands far beyond its territory, including Egypt.


Today, there are few places in the world where you can experience a small fraction of the atmosphere of Atlantis: the Dubai Palm and Atlantic Paradise (Bahamas). Here are some photos of these places:










It's always interesting to see how other people feel and imagine Atlantis. Below are some artworks by artists from different parts of the world. Enjoy! Mankind can only hope that soon Atlantis will become one of the new

The real facts of the existence of a huge continent of high intellectuals modern world with all its technical capabilities and did not receive. Atlantes, as they were the mystical heritage of the times before our era, so they remain. The vast majority of the scientific world compete for the opportunity to provide evidence against the words of Plato and his followers.

To be or not to be Atlantis. History of an unknown civilization

According to the ancient gods, the available land was distributed among the central terrestrial gods. That is how Poseidon got into his power the beautiful island of Atlantis, which he later settled with people from his underwater world. natural conditions on the island they disposed to a peaceful life - from the coast to the very center stretched a plain ideal for agriculture, without rocks or cliffs, there was only one elevation on the island - a steep mountain, on top of which the first of the wisest men, Evenor, settled. In earthly life, the man was bound by marriage to Leucippe, a young and incredibly beautiful woman. During the years of marriage, they had a daughter, Kleito, of indescribable beauty and liveliness of mind.

After the death of her parents, Kleito was seduced by Poseidon, who had been watching the inhabitants of the mountain all this time. In order to protect his most tender lover from other men, the god of the sea depths enveloped the hill with several ditches and embankments, which were not easy to cross even for the strongest of people. Soon Kleito gave birth to five pairs of children from Poseidon, all sons. In honor of this, God created two springs on the body of the island: with hot water and cold.

Poseidon wisely divided the entire perimeter of the island between his sons in turn of their birth. The firstborn got the most fertile part of the earth, so they called him Atlas. The descendants of a strong heir became Atlantes, people of unreal wealth and intelligence. The land allocated by the father fully provided the people with food and even mountain copper, which the Atlanteans traded with coastal states.

For several centuries of their existence, the Atlanteans have adorned their island with unprecedented buildings, communicating channels and bridges. The built-in line of defense by Poseidon himself over time became just a legend, the chain of ditches began to shrink, and the embankments themselves were leveled by skillful Atlanteans. Soon the land of Atlantis was covered with sacred monasteries, temples and palaces, the greatness of which was described by the craftsman Plato in his creation.

A selection of popular science documentaries
The Flood or the Search for Atlantis

Mysterious Revelations vanished civilization. The battle of civilizations.

Atlantis, Lemuria and Hyperborea

The mighty country of Atlantes. The collapse of the great empire.

In Search of Atlantis (National Geographic Documentaries)

Atlantis of the Russian North/ 1080p

Atlantis. Reality or fantasy. Documentary

Mystical Artifacts of Disappeared Civilizations - Documentary about Atlantis.

Atlantis. Secret stories

fantasy stories. Atlantis. The Mystery of a Lost Civilization Fantastic Stories

The point here is not at all in the malicious intent of scientists or a global political conspiracy. It's just that time is merciless to the monuments of the past: material and intangible.
Eyewitness accounts are full of inaccuracies, emotional distortions, exaggerations, sincere delusions. Artifacts that have come down to us are often so damaged that even the most experienced experts just shrug: it is impossible to reliably determine either the time of the creation of the artifact, or the chemical composition of the material from which it was created.
The historical picture of the world created by scientists is largely conditional. It is based on hypotheses that are recognized by the world scientific community the most plausible. However, who can guarantee that this plausibility is not an illusion?
To recreate more or less complete history humanity, you need to find absolutely all the books, buildings, household items, in a word, everything that can tell us about the life of people of the distant past. Moreover, archaeological excavations should be carried out throughout our planet. Indeed, it would be a grand undertaking.
Among different peoples, one can find a myth about an unknown person speaking an incomprehensible language, who taught them various crafts. In the myths of the Old World, the stranger comes from the West, and in the myths of the New World, from the East. It is possible that these were the surviving Atlanteans.
But, alas, archaeological activity of this magnitude is impossible. At least for now. Firstly, over hundreds and thousands of years, many artifacts simply disappeared due to natural physical and chemical processes. And secondly, most of the Earth's surface is simply inaccessible for a full-fledged archaeological study.
Thousands of years ago, the globe would have looked different, and we would not have recognized our Earth, deciding that we see a model of some other planet. What was once dry land is now hidden under many kilometers of the World Ocean.
What hides its depths? Science is silent on this.
Is it possible to assume that somewhere in the ocean lie the remains of a civilization much more advanced and ancient than all known to us today?

Are you saying it's impossible? So you have explored every centimeter of the ocean floor, cleaned and checked every underwater rock, every coral, looked into every geological layer across the entire surface of the planet ...
And if not, you not only do not have the right to assert with certainty that existence ancient civilization impossible.
The world's oceans are full of secrets. It is there, under the water column, that one of the most famous, powerful and mysterious civilizations of the past can be hiding - the civilization of the Atlanteans, which once flourished in Atlantis.
Atlantis is a legendary land, a haven for the descendants of the ancient gods, the cradle of a civilization that has reached imaginable and unimaginable heights of development and fell in just one day.
Atlantis is sometimes called an island, sometimes an archipelago, sometimes a continent. Its exact location is unknown, so the land of the Atlanteans is "placed" in the Atlantic Ocean, and in the Mediterranean Sea, and in South America, and in Africa, and in Scandinavia. The legendary Atlantis "travels" around the world. The time of its existence and death remains unclear. The causes of the fall of the mighty civilization of the Atlanteans are much disputed.
A whole scientific (or near-scientific) direction is engaged in the study of Atlantis - atlantology. It took shape in 1959, and the Soviet chemist Nikolai Fedorovich Zhirov became its creator. The merit of atlantologists is that they are trying to find a rational grain in the numerous myths about Atlantis, to apply a scientific approach.
Today "orthodox" science does not recognize the right to exist for Atlantis. Atlantis is officially considered a myth, fiction, literary and philosophical fantasy. To seriously engage in the civilization of the Atlanteans means to abandon the reputation of a "serious scientist." There are also less plausible, but very curious.

Atlantic Ocean

It is quite logical that in the first place they are looking for Atlantis where Plato indicated - in the Atlantic Ocean. The Egyptian priests, retelling the history of the Athenian-Atlantean wars, mentioned that the Atlantean army "was on its way from atlantic sea". According to the priests, Atlantis was located opposite the Pillars of Hercules. In ancient times, the Strait of Gibraltar and the rocks of Gibraltar and Ceuta located in it were called so.
Atlantis, therefore, was located across the Strait of Gibraltar, near the coast of Spain and modern Morocco. The Greeks believed that the territory now belonging to Morocco is the country of the Far West, that is, the edge of the world, where the titan Atlant (Atlas) lives, holding the Earth on his shoulders. Presumably, the names of the ocean, the Atlas ridge and the islands of Atlantis go back to the name of this titan. Plato named Atlantis the firstborn of Poseidon and Cleito and said that the legendary island is named after him. Perhaps, initially the name "Atlantis" meant something like "a country lying in the extreme West", "the country of the titan Atlanta".

According to the stories of the Egyptian priests, Atlantis was an island larger than total area Libya and Asia. From it, on other islands, it was possible to cross over to the "opposite mainland" (most likely to America).
Proponents of this hypothesis believe that traces of the sunken Atlantis must be sought at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or near the islands located at the indicated coordinates. Atlantologists suggest that several thousand years ago these islands were mountain peaks Atlantis. There is enough free space in the modern Atlantic Ocean to accommodate an island the size of Atlantis.
It was this hypothesis that was always defended by the founder of cynology N. F. Zhurov.
Many atlantologists placed Atlantis in the region of the Kshears and Canary Islands.
Vyacheslav Kudryavtsev, an employee of the famous Vokrug Sveta magazine, agreed that the sunken island was located in the Atlantic Ocean, but believed that Atlantis should be sought somewhat closer to the north pole - in the place of modern Ireland and Britain.
The cause of the death of Atlantis, according to Kudryavtsev, was the melting of glaciers during the period ice age which ended just about 10,000 years ago.

The Bermuda Triangle: An Atlantean Legacy?

The mystery of Atlantis is often associated with another no less famous mystery of the Atlantic Ocean - the formidable and deadly Bermuda Triangle. This anomalous zone is near oi southeast coast USA. The "tops" of the "triangle" lie on the islands of Bermuda, Miami (Florida) and San Juan (Puerto Rico). In the area of ​​the Bermuda Triangle, more than one hundred ships and aircraft disappeared without a trace. People who were lucky enough to return from the mysterious triangle with kivim talk about strange visions, about fog appearing from nowhere, about gaps in time.
What is the Bermuda Triangle? Some atlantologists are inclined to believe that involuntary (or
free?) the Atlanteans became the culprits for the appearance of this anomalous region.
The famous American clairvoyant Edward Casey (1877-1945) in his visions observed pictures of the life of the Atlanteans. Casey said that the Atlanteans had special energy crystals that they used "for worldly and spiritual purposes."

Before the inner eye of Casey, there was a hall in the temple of Poseidon, called the Hall of Light. Here was kept the main crystal of the Atlanteans - Tuaoi, or "Fire Stone". The cylindrical crystal absorbed solar energy and accumulated it in its center.
The first crystal was a gift presented to the Atlanteans by representatives of alien civilizations. The aliens warned that the crystal contains a huge destructive power, so it must be handled with extreme care.
Crystals were the most powerful energy generators. They accumulated the radiation of the Sun and stars and accumulated the energy of the Earth. The rays emanating from the crystals could burn through the thickest wall.
It was thanks to the crystals that the Atlanteans erected their grandiose palaces and temples. alien stones also helped to develop the psychic abilities of the inhabitants of Atlantis.
Separate confirmation of Casey's words can be found in the myths and traditions of different peoples.
For example, Julius Caesar in his "Notes on the Gallic War" cited the story of a druid priest that the ancestors of the Gauls came to Europe from the "Island of the Crystal Towers". They talked about the fact that somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean rises a glass palace. If any ship dared to get too close to it, it disappeared forever. The reason for this was the unknown forces emanating from the magical palace. In the Celtic sagas (and the Gauls are representatives of one of the Celtic tribes), the destructive power of the Crystal Tower is called the "magic web."
One of the heroes of the sagas turned out to be a prisoner of the House of Glass, but managed to escape from there and return home. It seemed to the hero that he spent only three days in the palace, but it turned out that in fact thirty years had passed. Today we would call this phenomenon a distortion of the space-time continuum.
In 1675, the Swedish atlantologist Olaus Rudbeck stated that Atlantis was located in Sweden, and the city of Uppsala was its capital. Rudbeck argued that his correctness should be obvious to anyone who has ever read the Bible.

According to some legends, part of the Atlanteans managed to escape death when their homeland fell into fashion. They moved to Tibet. The local peoples have preserved legends about huge pyramids, on top of which rock crystals shone, which, like antennas, attracted the energy of the Cosmos.
Edgar Cayce has repeatedly warned of the dangers posed by the Bermuda Triangle. The clairvoyant was sure: at the bottom of the ocean, a pyramid crowned with an alien crystal rests - a powerful energy complex of the Atlanteans. Crystals still operate today, causing distortions of space and time, forcing objects passing by to disappear, having a detrimental effect on the psyche of people.
Casey named the exact location of the power plant: on the ocean floor east of Andros Island at a depth of 1500 m.
In 1970, Dr. Ray Brown, a great lover of underground swimming, went to rest on the island of Barii near Bahamas. During one of the underwater excursions, he discovered a mysterious pyramid at the bottom. On top of it, fixed by unknown mechanisms, rested a crystal. Despite his apprehension, Dr. Brown took the stone. For 5 years he hid his discovery and only in 1975 he decided to demonstrate it at the congress of psychiatrists in the USA. Congresswoman Elizabeth Bacon, a New York psychologist, claimed to have received a message from the crystal. The stone reported that it belongs to the Egyptian god Thoth.
Later, there were reports in the press that high-energy crystals were found at the bottom of the Sargasso Sea, the origin of which was unknown. The power of these crystals allegedly made people and ships disappear into nowhere.
In 1991, an American hydrological vessel discovered at the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle giant pyramid, surpassing in size even the pyramid of Cheops.
According to echograms, the mysterious object was made of a smooth material similar to glass or polished ceramic. The edges of the pyramid were perfectly even!

Studies of the Bermuda Triangle and the mysterious objects resting on its bottom have not yet been completed. There is no exact information, reliable facts, reliable material evidence. There are far more questions than answers.
Maybe anomalous forces are really to blame for the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe there in the dark ocean depths there is a lone pyramid. Abandoned and forgotten by everyone, it continues to do what it was created for - to generate powerful flows of energy for the benefit of people, not suspecting that its owners, the Atlanteans, have been resting there for several millennia, in the dark waters of the oceans. And the people who now dominate the surface curse the mysterious and destructive force coming from nowhere.
Mediterranean Sea: Minoan Civilization
The legend of Atlantis is a story about a once powerful and highly developed civilization that died or fell into decay as a result of a terrible natural disaster. Perhaps Atlantis as described by Plato never existed. The Greek philosopher created this myth based on real historical events, which he creatively rethought. In this case, both the area of ​​Atlantis and the time of its existence are all just artistic exaggerations. The prototype of Atlantis was the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete (2600-1450 BC).
The hypothesis about the Mediterranean origin of Atlantis was expressed in 1854 by the Russian statesman, scientist, traveler and writer Avraam Sergeevich Norov.
In his book A Study of Atlantis, he cites the words of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (23 AD-79 AD) that Cyprus and Syria were once one. However, after the earthquake, Cyprus broke away and became an island. This information is supported by the Arab geographer Ibn Yakut, who told how the sea once rose and flooded vast inhabited territories, and the catastrophe even reached Greece and Syria.
Norov makes some adjustments to the translation of Plato's dialogues and to the interpretation geographical terms. The scientist draws attention to the fact that the word “pelagos” and not “oceanos” is used in the text, that is, it does not mean the Atlantic Ocean, but some kind of Atlantic Sea. Norov suggests that this is how the ancient Egyptian priests called the Mediterranean Sea.
In ancient times there were no unified names geographical objects. If Plato's contemporaries called the Pillars of Hercules Gibraltar, then the Egyptians and the Proto-Athenes could call any strait like that, for example, the Messianic Strait, Kerch Strait, the Strait of Bonifacio, Cape Malea in the Peloponnese and the island of Kitira, the islands of Kitira and Andikitira, the Canary Islands, the walls of the temple near the Gulf of Gabes, the Nile Delta. The mountains named after Atlas were located in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Norov himself was inclined to believe that the Bosporus was meant by the Pillars of Hercules.
This hypothesis also has a purely logical justification. In the treatise Timaeus, Plato describes the catastrophe that led to the death of the armies of the Athenians and Atlanteans in this way: earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss. Judging by this description, the Athenian army was not far from Atlantis at the time of the catastrophe. Athens is located at a decent distance from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. To get to Gibraltar, the Athenians, who, as we remember, were betrayed by all allies, would have had to single-handedly conquer all the lands from Tirrenia to Egypt from the Atlanteans, defeat the mighty fleet of Atlantis and sail to the shores of the legendary island. For a myth that idealizes the ancestors of the Athenians, such a situation is quite acceptable. However, in reality, this was hardly possible.
It is more logical to assume that the Greek army did not go too far from their native shores, and, therefore, Atlantis was located somewhere near Greece, most likely in the Mediterranean Sea.
In this case, a natural disaster could cover both Atlantis and the nearby Athenian army.
In the texts of Plato, one can find a number of other facts confirming the Mediterranean hypothesis.
The philosopher, for example, describes the consequences of a devastating natural disaster: “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.” Silty shallow waters do not fit in at all with the Atlantic Ocean, but in the Mediterranean Sea such a change in the bottom topography looks quite plausible.
Even the famous French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau made his contribution to atlantology. He explored the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea in search of traces of the Minoan civilization. Thanks to Cousteau, a lot of new information about the lost civilization was obtained.
Nature, the relief of the island, minerals, metals, hot springs, the color of stones (white, black and red) as a result of volcanic and post-volcanic processes - all this corresponds to the conditions of the Mediterranean coast.

In 1897, the doctor of mineralogy and geognosy, Alexander Nikolaevich Karnozhitsky, published an article “Atlantis”, where he suggested that Atlantis was located between Asia Minor, Syria, Libya and Hellas, near the main western mouth of the Nile (“Pillars of Hercules”).
Shortly thereafter, the British archaeologist Arthur John Evans discovered the remains of the ancient Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. In March 1900, during the excavations of the city of Knossos, the capital of Crete, the legendary Labyrinth of King Minos was found, in which, according to myths, the half-man, half-bull Minotaur lived. The area of ​​the palace of Minos was 16,000 m2.
In 1909, The Times newspaper published an anonymous article entitled "The Lost Continent", which, as it turned out later, was written by the English scientist J. Frost. The note expressed the idea that the Minoan state is lost Atlantis. Frost's opinion was supported by the Englishman E. Bailey ("Sea Lords of Crete"), the Scottish archaeologist Duncan Mackenzie, the American geographer E. S. Balch, and the literary critic A. Rivo. Not everyone supported the idea of ​​the Minoan Atlantis. In particular, the Russian and Soviet zoologist and geographer Lev Semenovich Berg believed that the Minoans were just the heirs of the Atlanteans, and the legendary island itself sank in the Aegean Sea.
Of course, the Minoan civilization did not die 9500 years ago (from the time of Plato's life), the territory of the Minoan state was much more modest than that of Atlantis described by Plato, and it was located not in the Atlantic Ocean, but in the Mediterranean Sea. However, if we agree that these inconsistencies are the result of artistic processing of real historical data, then the hypothesis becomes quite plausible. The main argument is the circumstances of the death of the Minoan civilization. About 3000 years ago, on the island of Strongila (modern Thira, or Santorini), an unheard-of eruption of the Santorin volcano occurred (according to some estimates - 7 out of 8 points on the scale of volcanic eruptions). Volcanic activity accompanied by earthquakes, which led to the formation of a giant tsunami that covered north coast Crete. For a short time, only memories remained of the former power of the Minoan civilization.
The history of the Athenian-Atlantean wars, outlined by Plato, is reminiscent of the clashes between the Achaeans and the Minoans. The Minoan state conducted active maritime trade with many countries and at the same time did not disdain to trade in piracy. This led to periodic military clashes with the population of mainland Greece. The Achaeans did indeed defeat my opponents, but not before the natural cataclysm, but after it.

Black Sea

In 1996, American geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman put forward the theory of the Black Sea flood, according to which around 5600 BC. e. there was a catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea. During the year, the water level rose by 60 m (according to other estimates - from 10 to 80 m and even up to 140 m).
After examining the bottom of the Black Sea, scientists came to the conclusion that this sea was originally freshwater. Approximately 7,500 years ago, as a result of some natural disaster, ocean sea water poured into the Black Sea basin. Many lands were flooded, and the peoples who inhabited them, fleeing the flood, moved deep into the continent. Along with them, both Europe and Asia could come with various cultural and technological innovations.
The catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea could serve as the basis for numerous legends about the Flood (for example, the biblical legend about Noah's ark).
Atlantologists, on the other hand, saw in the theory of Ryan and Pitman another confirmation of the existence of Atlantis and a hint where to look for the coveted island.

Andes

In 1553, the Spanish priest, geographer, historian Pedro Cieza de Leon, in his book Chronicle of Peru, first cited the legends of the Indians of South America that the truth, the dating of events in this case diverges from that proposed by Plato. But this is only at first glance. A witty solution to this contradiction was proposed by a Russian specialist in the field of computer systems, network information technologies and computer modeling Alexander Yakovlevich Anoprienko. He suggested that, speaking of 9000 years (the time of the death of Atlantis), 1 Plato did not mean the usual years for us, but seasons of 121 - 122 days. This means that the legendary civilization has sunk into oblivion 9000 seasons 121-122 days ago, that is, approximately in the 4th millennium BC. e. during the period of Indo-European expansion.

Atlantis - Antarctica

In the book of the British writer and journalist Graham Hancock "Traces of the Gods", a hypothesis is put forward that Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. Based on numerous ancient maps and artifacts of unknown origin found in Antarctica, Hancock puts forward the version that Atlantis was once located closer to the equator and was a flowering, green land. However, as a result of the movement of lithospheric plates, it moved to South Pole and now stands, bound by ice. Unfortunately, this curious hypothesis contradicts modern scientific ideas about the geological movement of the continents.

HOW ATLANTIS DIE

Not only the location of Atlantis, but also the reasons for its death cause a lot of controversy.
True, the atlantologists were not so inventive in this matter. Attention deserves 3 main hypotheses of the death of Atlantis.
Earthquake and tsunami
This is the main, "canonical" version of the death of the Atlantean civilization. Modern concepts of the block structure of the earth's crust and the movement of lithospheric plates state that the strongest earthquakes occur just at the boundary of these plates. The main shock lasts only a few seconds, but its echo, an earthquake, can last up to several hours. It turns out that Plato's story is not at all fantastic: a strong earthquake could really destroy a huge land area in just one day.
Science also knows cases when an earthquake caused a sharp subsidence of the earth. For example, in Japan, a 10-meter subsidence was noted, and in 1692 the pirate city of Port Royal (Jamaica) went under water by 15 m, as a result of which a significant part of Gnala Island was flooded. The earthquake that led to the death of Atlantis could have been several times stronger. It is likely that it sank a huge island or archipelago to the bottom of the ocean. Still Azores, Iceland and the Aegean Sea in Greece remain areas of high seismic activity. Who knows what violent tectonic processes took place in these areas several thousand years ago.
An earthquake goes hand in hand with a tsunami - gigantic waves reaching several tens and even hundreds of meters in height and moving at great speed, sweeping away everything in its path. (beginning the sea recedes a few meters, its level drops sharply. And then several waves run one after another, one higher than the other. In a few hours, a tsunami can destroy whole island. Such cases are also recorded by seismologists.
Even if Atlantis managed to survive the earthquake, it was "finished off" by a giant tsunami, overthrowing the legendary island into the abyss of water.

All these data confirm that the Tulean land stretched between the northern part of the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. It may have been cut through by the mid-ocean ridge in the Iceland region.
The Soviet expedition aboard the Akademik Kurchatov, led by oceanographer and geomorphologist Gleb Borisovich Udintsev, explored bottom sediments around Iceland. Flogs of continental origin were found in the samples.
Summing up the results of the expedition, Udintsev stated: “It can be argued that the land of quite extensive size really once existed in the North Atlantic. It may have connected the shores of Europe and Greenland. Gradually, the land was breaking up not blocks. Some of them slowly and gradually descended, turning into the ocean floor. The immersion of others was accompanied by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis. And now, "in memory" of the old days, only Iceland remains for us ... "
However, scientists failed to put an end to the study of Hyperborea on this. Comparative geochemical analysis of the earth's crust of Iceland, on the one hand, and Kamchatka with the Kuriles, on the other hand, showed a fundamental difference in their chemical composition. The food of Iceland was predominantly basaltic, i.e., oceanic, and the crust of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands was granitic, continental. It turned out that Iceland is not a surviving part of Hyperborea, but only the top of the median ridge blows.
Meanwhile, North Arctic Ocean Get scientists new surprises. Studies have shown that soups also once existed in the polar zones, and, unlike Hyperborea, it went under water relatively recently, several millennia ago, which means that humanity has already found this mysterious continent. Scientists have suggested that this is the lunch box Arctida.

But where Atlantis was "found", it did not correspond to Plato's descriptions. And in the place indicated by the philosopher (that is, behind the Pillars of Hercules), this mysterious land cannot be found until now ...

Among scientists there are two approaches to the term "Atlantis". As mentioned above, in the first Atlantis was called Atlantis by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. But the predecessors of Plato also knew about it, although they called this country by other names. Ancient authors understood Atlantis as a certain state that was at the same stage of development with Greece, fought with it and died in a grandiose catastrophe during one of the wars.

However, in the occult sciences there is an idea of ​​Atlantis as a kind of proto-civilization that preceded ours and died as a result of a series of catastrophes. This is also evidenced by the myths and legends of the peoples of various countries living on different continents. But many of them have an idea of ​​some kind of people that preceded modern humanity and died as a result of some powerful cataclysm.

"Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer," the great Aristotle once said. This is how this problem was posed: where, when and how did the state of the Atlanteans exist? Someone recognizes the existence of Atlantis without any doubt, someone rejects it without any doubt, based on the formula: "This cannot be, because this can never be." But most researchers consider the existence of Atlantis quite probable, but requiring proof. The Greek philosopher Krantor says that in 3010 BC. I saw a column in Egypt, on which the whole history of the island that disappeared in the depths of the sea was engraved.

What did Plato know about Atlantis? In his dialogues, he reports that Atlantis disappeared in the course of one day and one tragic night - "in one terrible day."

Starting to describe Atlantis, Plato warns that both the name of the island itself and all the other names in his story are not corrupted, but translated into Greek. The Egyptians, who first wrote the history of Atlantis, translated the Atlantean names in their own way. Solon, who informed Plato of information about this island, did not see the need to preserve the Egyptian names and translated them into Greek.

Russian symbolist poet V.Ya. Bryusov in his essay "Atlantis" notes that "Plato describes Atlantis already in the state it reached after several millennia. cultural life when the island already had many separate kingdoms, many rich cities and a huge population numbering in the millions. "And the history of the island itself began with the division of the earth between the three brother gods: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. By lot, Poseidon got the island of At -lantis and, in addition, he became the ruler of the seas.When Poseidon received Atlantis, then only three people lived on the island - "one of the husbands, at the very beginning, was born by the Earth, named Evnor with his wife Livkippa and the beautiful daughter Kleito" Poseidon fell in love with Kleito, she became his wife and gave birth to five pairs of twins - the first ten kings of Atlantis.

Poseidon was the first to fortify the island in order to make it inaccessible to enemies. Around a low hill, gradually turning into a plain, three water and two earth rings were dug around the circumference, one after the other. In the very center of the hill (acropolis), on a hill, Poseidon built a small temple for Kleito and himself, surrounding it with a wall of pure gold.

A palace was built on the acropolis, which was expanded and decorated by each king, and the new one was sure to surpass its predecessor. "So it was impossible to see this building without being amazed at the size and beauty of the work."

The kings - the children of Poseidon, of course, could not do without bathing, and for this reason they built numerous baths on the acropolis. "For swimming there were reservoirs, open, and, for winter time, closed; there were special ones - for royal family and for individuals; still others - separately for women, and also for horses and beasts of burden; each of them was located and decorated according to its purpose. The water that came out of these reservoirs was directed to irrigate the forest of Poseidon, where the fertility of the soil produced trees of amazing height and beauty.

The largest and most majestic building of the acropolis was a temple dedicated to one god Poseidon. It was truly gigantic in size: 185 meters long, 96 meters wide and a "corresponding" height. Outside big temple was entirely lined with silver, except for the "extremities" made of pure gold. Inside the temple there were many statues made of gold. The largest of them depicted the god Poseidon, who, standing on a chariot, controlled six winged horses. The statue of Poseidon was so tall that it almost touched the ceiling with its head, which was trimmed with ivory and all decorated with gold, silver and orichalcum. The walls, pillars and floors inside the temple were entirely lined with orichalcum. Everything literally sparkled and "lit up", as soon as the sunbeam penetrated into the sanctuary.

Plato also tells a lot of wonderful things about the capital of the Atlanteans, and then proceeds to describe the whole country. "The island of Atlantis was very elevated above sea level, and the coast rose in an inaccessible cliff. Around the capital, a plain stretched, surrounded by mountains that reached the sea." Everyone said about this plain that it is the most beautiful on earth and very fertile. It was densely dotted with flourishing villages, separated by lakes, rivers, meadows, where many wild domestic animals grazed.

Much came to the Atlanteans from outside, in view of the vastness of their power; but the island itself produced almost everything necessary for life. "Firstly, all metals are hard and fusible, suitable for processing, including the one that we now know only by name: orichalcum ... its deposits were found in many places on the island; after gold, it was the most precious of metals.

The island delivered all the necessary materials for crafts. Lived on an island a large number of domestic animals and wild animals, among other things, many elephants ... The island provided abundant food for all kinds of animals, both living in swamps, lakes and rivers or on mountains and plains, and these (elephants), although they are huge and gluttonous.

Produced and delivered to the island all the flavors now grown in different countries, roots, herbs, juice flowing from fruits and flowers. There was also a fruit that gives wine (grapes), and one that serves as food (cereals), along with those that we also eat, calling common word- vegetables; there were also fruits that simultaneously gave drink, food and incense (coconuts?) ... Such were the divine and amazing riches, such, in innumerable quantities, this island produced.

On a happy island, each of the ten brothers-kings had absolute power in his kingdom, but the general rule of the state of Atlantis was decided by the kings by the Council, to which they gathered after 5-6 years, alternating even and odd numbers. The supreme power always remained with the direct heir of Atlantis, but even the main king could not sentence death penalty none of his relatives without the consent of the majority of the kings. "As long as the Atlanteans followed the principles of virtue during their reign and as long as the "divine principle" dominated in them, they succeeded in everything. But when the "human disposition" triumphed - the base beginning, when they lost all decency and unbridled greed began to boil in them, when people began to present a "shameful sight", then the God of the Gods - Zeus, seeing the depravity of the Atlanteans, once so virtuous, decided to punish them. "He gathered all the gods in the heavenly sanctuary and addressed them with these words ...".

This is where Plato's dialogue "Critias" abruptly ends. And the story of Atlantis and its search for two thousand years begins. The priests lamented the spiritual wisdom of Atlantis, which defiled itself. Philosophers talked about the divine rulers of this island, poets sang about the fabulous perfection of its structure. However, some researchers believe that Plato needed dialogues about Atlantis in order to express his thoughts about the ideal structure of the state.

But the story of Atlantis, as noted by Valery Bryusov, "is not something exceptional in Plato's writings. He also has other descriptions of fantastic countries, denounced in the form of myths. But none of these stories is furnished, like the description of Atlantis, with references to sources Plato, as if anticipating future doubts and objections, takes care to indicate the origin of his information with the greatest accuracy that only ancient authors knew.

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

The search for Atlantis was and is being conducted everywhere - all over the globe. The Soviet hydrogeographer Ya. Ya. Gakkel presented his "Atlantis" as a narrow strip that stretches along the underwater Lomonosov Ridge and connects the Canadian Arctic Archipelago with the New Siberian Islands. Active member Geographic Society, member of the Scientific Council on Cybernetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Kondratov devoted many works to the links between the history of mankind and the history of the oceans. He wrote many books about the legendary Platonic Atlantis and numerous "Atlantis" - the so-called hypothetical lands, now submerged.

Foreign researchers Renata and Yaroslav Malina in their works on natural disasters and aliens from outer space write that the Atlantean navigators explored the Earth ... They say that "they traveled through the air and under water, photographed objects at a great distance, used X-rays, fixed images and sounds on video tapes, used a laser from a crystal, invented a terrible weapon using cosmic rays, and also used the energy of antimatter.However, the use of the dark forces of nature by ambitious priests for selfish purposes and more frequent earthquakes led to the disintegration of the mainland into many islands, which later also disappeared into the sea "And ten thousand years before our era, an underground explosion destroyed the island of Poseidonis. But the radiation emitted by a large crystal lying in the place of the death of Atlantis leads to the sudden disappearance of ships and aircraft in the famous Bermuda Triangle."

As can be seen from the foregoing, the geography of the search for Atlantis is very wide and varied.