Arqueología
Donde se encontraba Atlantis
Where was the island Atlantis? At what place was it, if it ever was an island? We may also ask if Atlantis ever existed outside the mind of Plato, who could have used the dialogues to describe his students an ideal state. The latter is however contradicted by the assertions of the American medium and seer Cayce, who described many times in his lectures a technically advanced society, but in moral decline. It's precisely Cayce who, or rather those who have the task of interpreting his readings, located the island Atlantis north of Cuba and east of Florida, in other words in the area of the Grand Bank of Bahamas, where some old remains were found near the Bimini Islands in 1968.
It's among others that in 2004 a scientist of the University of Wuppertal thinks to have found a city, or the remains of a city in Spain, in the Gulf of Cadiz, on the coast of Andalusia. The satellite photos, released by NASA, indeed show some structures belonging to a city destroyed between 800 and 500 years before Christ. But I don't think that here it could be a question of Poseidon, the main city of Atlantis, because neither the location nor the time of its destruction do match. Then we must also consider the fact that Spain is not an island. It's is however not excluded that there was a city, which was monitored by one of the kings of Atlantis. It's a fact that Plato had mentioned that the country's first king whose name was Eumélos, twin brother of Atlas, had control of the coast of the island towards the side of the columns of Hercules, up to the region taht is now known as Gadir (Cadiz).
It was nowhere, Plato used it to illustrate his dialogues.
There, among the places where Atlantis could have existed, is also the possibility that Atlantis has in fact never existed. This claim is often made and advanced by many scientists, who say that Plato had invented the story of Atlantis to describe his students, and indirectly the Athenians, an ideal state. We can, on the other hand, ask us why he had brought as much details if he had only wanted to describe an ideal state. Such details would have been meaningless if he would have used the dialogues only as an illustration. And in case that Plato had wanted to describe a hypothetical ideal state, he certainly would not have insisted on the fact that the story was true. The assertions of the American medium and seer Cayce on the island Atlantis contradict also the contention that Plato had only described in his dialogues a hypothetical ideal state.
It was the island Thera, which was destroyed 3500 years ago.
The island Thera, which today is located 120 km north of the island Crete, halfway between Turkey and Greece, is that what remains of a disaster occurred in 1500 BC. It was a volcanic island, or rather a large volcano, which, like the Vesuvius, tended to have explosive eruptions. So it was 1500 years before Christ that the cap closing up the volcano, could not pop out and it's the volcano, and the whole island with him, which was completely blown.
Many scientists believe that the dialogues of Plato on Atlantis were originally a volcanic explosion. They manage to prove it by dividing all the figures forwarded by Plato by ten, hundred or thousand whenever needed. But this is a bit far-fetched, as divided by ten, the plain is still 23 km to 35 km, far greater than the size of the island. We can also ask where they could cram the 126'000 men of the army on an island as small. Another fact that does not hold water, is the one that the plain should have been surrounded by mountains, protecting it from the cold winds from the north. Then the fact that the island should be in front of the columns of Hercules, does not fit either.
It was there where is now the Indonesian archipelago.
There are a number of scientists who feel that the engulfed part, as the picture shows, since the end of the Ice Age of the Indonesian archipelago would be a good candidate for having harbored Atlantis. If we look at the area, we can see that the Indonesian archipelago is formed by the highest parts of a continent which has since been swallowed up by the melting ice of the Ice Age. The area is actually large enough to have hosted the Atlantis, especially as there was and still is volcanic activity. It's also certain that there were and always are sources of hot and cold water in this region. What is against the theory of Atlantis in the area of the Indonesian archipelago, is that this area has obviously been immersed slowly by the melting ice and not by a brutal decent. Especially since this area, once emerged, is not an island and no strait can be seen somewhere which could be called columns of Hercules. We can also doubt that either Plato or the Egyptian priests may have confused the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian Ocean. Because we must be a today's scientist to attribute them such stupidities. Especially as the Egyptians had a very good knowledge of the Earth and would certainly not make that mistake. It's on the other hand very well probable and even certain, that this area was once, at the time of the existence of Atlantis, the home of a society or even an empire.
It was below the ice of the current continent of Antarctica.
Antarctica has also been mentioned a place where Atlantis could have been located. On the other hand, the fact that Antarctica was covered by a thick layer of ice for at least a few hundred thousand years, excludes the possibility of locating Atlantis there.
It was somewhere on the Celtic plate.
The British Isles and Ireland are part of the Celtic plate which formed, with the parties now submerged, ten thousand years before Christ one and vast country. This area is frequently mentioned as a potential place of the location of Atlantis. Against this plate is that it was once in a rather cold climate zone, ie with a climate that was more like Siberia today. We can therefore doubt that this climate could be good enough to allow two harvests per year. In addition, this area isn't located in front of the columns of Hercules.
It was in the area of Madeira.
There is in the area north of the island Madeira, 700 km west of Gibraltar, a number of islands and shoals, which are part of the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge and could have been the island Atlantis, or at least a portion of Atlantis. These islands and benches are actually in front of the columns of Hercules. What is, on the other hand, less sure, whether this islands could have been brutally drowned in the sea. The area, ie the backbone, is 200 km wide and 600 km long and would have actually been able to accommodate the island Atlantis with its main city Poseidon. What is however lacking in this area is a mountain chain to the north that could have protected a plain south of it. Although it's unlikely that this could have been Atlantis, this area was certainly part of their empire. It's less likely that the backbone could collapse suddenly several thousands of meters so near the coast, without having rupture zones emerged in the vicinity of the backbone. There is, in fact, just the rupture zone of the Eurasian plate, which passes close to the area and for the rest, the bottom of the ocean does not show other signs of failure, or abnormal depths.
It was in the area of the islands of the Bahamas.
It's about a hundred kilometers south-east of the coast of Florida, up to a hundred kilometers north of Cuba that we find the so-called “Grand Banks of the Bahamas”. It's on this bank that some scientists want to have found the island Atlantis. This bank measures roughly 550 km long and 250 km wide and the sea is not very deep at this location. Indeed, it's also here that the American medium and seer Cayce had located Atlantis, at least that is what some of his followers believe, those who are in charge to interpret his readings. This belief is reinforced by the fact that we discovered in 1968, according to the predictions of Cayce, ruins near the Bimini Islands. What argues against the hypothesis that it could be Atlantis, is that this bank is barely large enough to accommodate the plain of the city of Poseidon, leaving little room for these mountains in the north (also not visible at all) to protect the plain against the cold winds from the north. We should not forget that Plato had described, according to his statements, only one of the ten sections of Atlantis and that they should also find their place somewhere. The Grand Bank of the Bahamas may just be large enough to have hosted the famous plain of the city Poseidon, but it will never be large enough to accommodate both the plain, mountains and the rest of the nine other states which Atlantis was composed of. We can, considering the facts mentioned above, neither pretend that this bank is right in front of the columns of Hercules. It's almost certain that the Great Bank of the Bahamas once formed a large island which was certainly under the control of one of the kings of Atlantis, like one of them once controlled the area ranging from the coast of the island Atlantis to the Cadiz region of the Andalusian coast of Spain.
It's still there where it once was: on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
If we take a look at the profile of the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, we can clearly distinguish a large island, or even a small continent, located in the corner formed by the fault junction of the American and Eurasian tectonic plates one hand and the fault junction of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates on the other. This island, even this small continent lies halfway between the Spanish coast and the American coast, in the area of the Azores Islands, which are indeed nothing but the tops of a chain of seamounts. They are perhaps these islands that Plato had spoken of when he said that there was nothing left of Atlantis but the bare rock and islands there where were once mountains, like the bones of a wasted body washed by rain and licked by wind. It's a fact that the North American, South American, Eurasian and African tectonic plates meet in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This center is a sort of bowl, with areas of great depth. It's especially on the side of Bermuda, or rather the area that we call the Bermuda Triangle, that the Atlantic Ocean shows a great depth. It lends itself to believe that the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean has been lowered from the line Ireland - Newfoundland up to the line Liberia - French Guiana. In all probability it's likely that in the event of a major disaster, the floor of the Atlantic Ocean has been lowered up to several thousand meters. In doing the reverse as we can see a very large island in the place where now the islands of the Azores are. If we raise the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean at the same average level as the South Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, we have a trapezoid-shaped island, almost rectangular, of 1'400 by 3'000 km. This island has not only place for a plain, with a size as Plato had indicated us to the south, but it could also be surrounded by mountains to the north, protecting it from cold winds from the north. Another observation we can make is that this island is actually in front of the columns of Hercules. From this island, we could indeed navigate to the continent which covers the entire ocean from north to south. Just to give an idea of the size of this island, it could cover Europe from southern Italy to northern Sweden and then from the Atlantic coast of France up to the East border of Slovakia. The area of this island was therefore double then that of the Europe Union of fifteen.
Of all the places described above, there is only the last, which could accommodate Atlantis, because this place has everything that Plato said that we should find. There are even hot springs which continue to flow up to this day, except now they flow at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that even a pyramid as big as a building of eleven floors has been found in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but no other details or exact location is available on the moment. Regarding the area of the island Madeira and the area of the Grand Bank of the Bahamas, they were certainly the equivalent to that we call today here in France the overseas departments. We should be willing to believe that the Kingdoms of Atlantis controlled much of the Earth, just as England did in 19th century. There exists also a very interesting story coming from ancient India, which refers to a war, worthy a war of the 21th century, that the empire of Rama would have had with the people of Atlantis, including atomic weapons!1 This war should have, according to these stories, taken place between 10'000 and 15'000 years ago. Looking very hard, we may encounter surprises leaving us stunned with our beliefs of contemporary science.
Next you will find a computer generated image, a simulation where the depth of ocean floor has been reduced to the same level, ie at the same average than all the other oceans. We see therefore appear an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The North Atlantic with Atlantis.
Map produced using a constant angle!
What is curious to observe is that the East profile of the island is the negative profile of the rest of the Eurasian continental plate. It shows everything, up to the hump of Africa. Then remind that this picture is an image based on actual data, and no arrangement has been made to obtain this result.
The only difference with a possible reality is that in this picture the poles were not placed in their presumed locations and the climate adaptation for the Ice Age has not been done either. The previous image is only there as an illustration to give us an idea where Atlantis should have been located in the current context.
During the Ice Age, Atlantis was certainly between thirteen and seventeen degrees further north. And then the northern part of the island should have been rather cold and should have an atmosphere as the climate of the Nordic countries today. Unlike the southern part, which should have been a rather unique climate, warm and dry summer and cool and wet in the winter.
1 The story speaks in fact of an iron thunderbolt destroying a town in a flash brighter as athousand suns. This was maybe meaningless to anyone living before August 6, 1945, but is well known to all of us now.