| by Jonathan Gray (New Zealand) |
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| YES? WHERE? “Just where did it go down?” asked Dale. “Where did WHAT go down?” I asked. “Atlantis” that’s what,” responded Dale. He swatted a blowfly and continued. “Look, I’m hearing so many theories, but how much is true?” “You really want it direct?” “Sure.” “The truth is, all we have for Atlantis is a legend. Yet, where there is smoke, there is fire. Legends are usually based on a core of truth, even if the final story becomes garbled or embellished.” We went out under the big oak tree and sprawled on the grass. “Okay, come clean,” challenged Dale. “Very well,” I said, “two possibilities are worth noting, in regard to Atlantis, both of them are fascinating.” Firstly, there are some similarities between the story of Atlantis and what we know concerning the pre-Flood world. It is possible that this story is a recollection of the highly technological world that was destroyed during the Great Flood. Secondly, since the tectonic upheavals of the Flood there have been some violent readjustments as’ the earth’s crust’ settles back to equilibrium. Such releases of stress have included some significant vertical droppings or raisings of land. It is quite reasonable, therefore, to presume Atlantis to have been a real location which suffered submersion since the Flood. Often Plato is taken as asserting a date of 9,600 BC. That could be looked at a little more carefully. There may be good reason to conclude that Plato’s account of Atlantis referred to a calendar period of 9000-time increments, which, according to another Greek writing were months, not years as translated in so many documents. Several astronomers have also supported the month interpretation for the 9000 number. This would fit comparatively well with geological events presumed to have occurred in the Mediterranean region around 1500 BC. It has been suggested by some researchers that details in the Atlantis story are consistent with the geography of nations in the Mediterranean area around that time. Not understanding this fact could well have been why Plato located the event outside the Pillars of Hercules, in the Atlantic Ocean. The location most often theorized for Atlantis was the Azores, in the Atlantic Ocean, which fit most closely with Plato’s description. The Pillars of Hercules to which he referred may be a reference to Gibraltar. Furthermore, the Azores, of volcanic origin, consist of the same geological formations mentioned by Plato, namely red, white, and black rock, and contain hot and cold springs. Although small volcanic islands may have risen and sunk within recent times, however, it has never been proved that a large island mass has existed in the vicinity of the Azores. Cores from the bottom of the Atlantic near the Azores show evidence of vulcanism of a pattern characterized only by land volcanoes. This may more reasonably suggest small volcanic islands than a large land mass that sank. TWO MAIN PROBLEMS: SIZE AND DATE The main problems in solving the Atlantis riddle are the time factor and the size of the island described by Plato. THE TIME FACTOR Plato dates the disaster that destroyed Atlantis 9,000 years before Solon’s time, or 12,000 B.C. But Plato’s dates do not conform to other evidence. The Atlantis Plato described is very similar to a Mediterranean type of culture not noticeably different from that readily understood by Solon and Plato. There is also a mention of a war between Atlantis and the Greeks, and the descriptions of chariots and galleys. The 9,000 [years] is perhaps not an exaggeration but an error in dating. LAND SIZE If we are considering an island-based empire in the Mediterranean, the size of the island or islands constitutes a further problem. Many authorities have reasoned that if Plato’s Atlantis was based on historical fact, it referred to the island-based Minoan sea-trading empire of Crete. The difficulty in this thesis was in reconciling the statistics given by Plato with the geography of Crete and its associated islands. The size of the plain, as given by Plato, was three thousand by two thousand stadia, or roughly 340 by 230 miles. This plain is much larger than the plain of Messara in Crete, or of any plain on mainland Greece. The ditch was stated to have been 10,000 stadia or 1,100 miles long, and was divided into 60,000 lots of land, each one a square mile in area. The leader of each lot was required to furnish for the war between Greece and Atlantis one sixth of a war chariot, two horses and riders, one light chariot, a foot soldier with shield, a charioteer, two heavily armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone shooters, three men, and four sailors to man the ships, of which there were 1,200. According to this formula, the military forces of Atlantis would have comprised 1.2 million men, an army far larger than any civilization could have possibly mustered. But what if Solon had erroneously translated the symbol for 100 as 1,000? The two symbols in Cretan script are almost identical. (Dr. Angelos Galanopolous, a Greek seismologist, first suggested this error in translation as a means to resolve the problem of dates.) Instead of 9,000 years, we would have 900 years before Solon. The disaster would have occurred about 1500 B.C. If the size of the plain were reduced by a factor of ten, to 34 by 23 miles, it would approximate closely the size of the plain of Messara on Crete. It has been reckoned that the Royal State of Atlantis, and the Citadel, or Capital, refer actually to two islands; the larger would be Crete and the Island of the City would be Thera. Again, reduced by a factor of ten, the dimensions given by Plato fit Thera almost exactly. Reduced by ten, the 60,000 lots become 6,000; 1,200 ships become 120 ships, and the size of the army is reduced to 120,000 men, which would conform with the kind of military power exercised in the Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C. These figures would seem to make sense in connection with the Minoan sea empire of Crete, with its capital city on Thera. Further, it has recently been found that around 1500 B.C., a colossal volcanic eruption occurred on the island of Thera, which completely destroyed the center of the island. The ensuing tidal waves, earthquakes, and deposits of volcanic ash wrought havoc throughout the entire Mediterranean basin, Egypt, the Palestine coast, Turkey, and mainland Greece, and virtually destroyed the civilization of Crete. A FOURTH-HAND ACCOUNT From our distance in time it is impossible to be certain as to the authenticity of the Atlantis legend or the precise time of the destruction of this legendary kingdom. However, there are reasonable grounds for placing the event (assuming it occurred) within the post-Flood era. Plato told the story of Atlantis, an island ‘beyond the Pillars of Hercules’ (Gibraltar), which sank suddenly below the sea about 9,000 years earlier. Plato wrote his story around 360 BC. He received the story fourth-hand, before writing it down. Plato’s version is the sole source of the account. About 600 BC, an Egyptian priest told it to the Greek Solon (638-559 BC). Solon told it to young Critias (his grandson) when he was a ten-year-old boy. Young Critias eventually retold it to his friend Plato. ALTERNATIVE DATES FOR ATLANTIS If there was a tenfold discrepancy in the translation of the Egyptian scripts by Solon, then the symbol representing 100 was rendered as 1000. The same sort of confusion in modern times is seen in the contrast between the American billion (a thousand million) and the English billion (a million million). This cutting of all figures used in Atlantis to 1/10 of their value, would enable Atlantis to fit into the Mediterranean. Plato, confused by the exaggerated figures of Atlantis, was forced to place Atlantis outside the Pillars of Hercules because it would not fit into the Mediterranean. Immanuel Velikovsky makes this pertinent observation: “Critias the younger remembered having been told that the catastrophe which befell Atlantis happened 9,000 years before. There is one zero too many here.” Numbers we hear in childhood easily grow in our memory, as do dimensions. When revisiting our childhood home, we are surprised at the smallness of the rooms, we had remembered them as much larger. “Whatever the sources of the error, the most probable date of the sinking of Atlantis would be in the middle of the second millennium, 900 years before Solon, when the earth twice suffered great catastrophes.” (Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision. p. 152) Whether or not Velikovsky’s final conclusion is correct, his reasoning is plausible. According to Robert Charroux, Constant Basir, referring to the Melpomene of Herodotus, mentions someone who, in 2350 BC, visited both the mainland of Atlantis and a maritime Atlantis. (Robert Charroux, The Mysterious Unknown. p. 119) An ancient history book, the Oera Linda Boek, dating primarily from AD 803, but added to for 500 years, bears this postscript: “Written in Liuwert (Ljuwert) in the 3,499th year after Atland (Atlantis) sank, or 1256, the year of the Christian reckoning.” This placed the sinking of Atlantis in 2244 BC. The Egyptian priest claimed that Atlantis existed (and perished) before the beginning of Egyptian civilization. This could adequately explain the excessively early date given for Atlantis’ destruction. Careful research supports a date for Egypt’s founding which is very soon after that given in the above mentioned Oera Linda Boek for the destruction of Atlantis. On the other hand, it should also be borne in mind that all the ancient kingdoms were fond of exaggerating their antiquity in competition with each other. The Egyptian method was by adding up the number of years in the reigns of all their kings, as preserved in the king-lists. As several kings had reigned simultaneously in various parts of Egypt on many occasions, this totting-up led to wildly inaccurate figures. The Greek historian Herodotus, visiting Egypt a mere 150 years after Solon, was given by this method an authoritative date of 12,040 BC for the founding of Egyptian civilization. |
| Iron Sharpening Iron In regard to: Atlantis – what they don’t tell you Article by Jonathan Gray Comments by Ray Daly (Lincoln, North Dakota) |
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| In the article by Jonathon Gray, he discusses the story surrounding Atlantis. A very interesting topic, and one in which many books have been written. In my studies, I find it to have been located in the Atlantic Ocean, off of the Strait of Gibraltar. One can look at the several islands of the Azores, and all of them at one time were of the island itself. Which was likely as large as Australia, or close to it. They say it was actually divided into 4 or 5 parts, with waterways between them. It was also the spot of the “city of gold”. Where all of the riches of the owners of the trade center of Tyre, stored their treasures. (One can read the prophetic Scriptures on “Tyrus” and have a good idea of Atlantis.) The point is, that the peoples to the east of Atlantis, along the Mediterranean knew of this city of gold, and this is what Columbus (and others before him) were looking for, when they came to the western lands. The “city of gold”. And, it is still there, awaiting its “return to its original position in the Atlantic”. A number of prophetic Scriptures show that, in the future, “wealth will be a common thing”. Or the wealth now beneath the ocean where the islands are now. But consider Scripture, when wondering when it was that caused Atlantis to sink in the first place. It has to do with the “earthquakes in the days of king Uzziah”. When the earth tilted 10 degrees on its axis. It was at the same time, that the land of Lemuria sank into the emerging waters of the Pacific as well. Lemuria was a land mass lying in the western Pacific from Japan all the way down to the areas off of New Zealand. Easter Island was the southeastern border. Hawaii was likely the eastern border. Many have written about this, but few can separate themselves from those that do not look to Scripture for the time period of present mankind was upon the earth. Yes, the earth itself is/could be a million or so years old. But “our earth cover” is only just over 7000 years. 6000 since Adam. Editor’s Note: Are we sure that Atlantis did not sink at the time of the flood? (Noah’s Flood) Laura Lee |
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