what do you know about ancient atlantis?

Answer 1

Nobody can know any more than Plato told us in his two dialogues (Timaeus, and Critias?). He got the story from Solon, who got it from an Egyptian priest. A wonderful island nation, rich, powerful, overwhelmed by the sea in a day and a night.

The story is full of NUMBERS. How long ago, how far away from Egypt, how large an island, how many people, how many cattle, how many ships, etcetera. Taking it literally, it was a huge island in the middle of the Atlantic and was destroyed about 9500 BC.

A book about it, whose name I have forgotten, pointed out that if you divided EVERY number in Solon's story by 10, it turned it into a very good description of Minoan Crete, destroyed by a huge tidal wave from the eruption of Thera (Santorini) in about 1450 BC.

So you can either believe in a huge lost continent that nobody can trace, or in a single simple error by Solon misunderstanding the Egyptian counting system - the priest was telling him it had happened only 900 years before, not 9000, and likewise for all the other statistics. For the Egyptian, 900 years ago was quite recent - their Pyramids were far older - but neither Solon nor Plato had any history going back that far. The Siege of Troy in about 1200 BC had become almost a myth, and the Minoans had been completely forgotten.

Answer 2

There's been more and more evidence found that the entire Minoan civilization was wiped out in 1500 BC. That was the same time the Santorini volcano erupted. The eruption was so great it left an ash cloud 1/2 mile across, and ash fell as far away as the Nile delta. It blew apart the island, dropping 1/2 of it into the Meditteranean, and it's believed to have caused an immense tidal wave. Crete, where the Minoan civilization was located, was only 10 miles away. A Minoan civilization was also located on Santorini. At the time, the Minoans had beautiful white limestone palaces, and the architecture was far beyond anything the Greeks had at the time. They were considered to be the only other civilized people of the Mediterranean by the Egyptians. When they were discovered in the modern world, only the foundations were present. Even though they were designed to be earthquake-proof, no buildings were left standing. An immense tidal wave may have washed them away.

The early accounts of the Minoans described them as being in tune with nature, and very peaceable. The Minoans dominated the Mediterranean, but they were not warlike--they were traders. Minoan murals generally depict all types of wildlife and sealife.

Finally, Plato described the harbor at Atlantis as circular, with a small island at the center. This was exactly the formation of the harbor of Santorini. Unfortunately, the "island" at the center was the volcano.

It seems to me that the Minoan civilization was the basis for Plato's description. It was long enough before his time that it would have passed into myth, and it's not the first time that there was a mix-up in dates.

Answer 3

It's mentioned in, um, Plato? I think Plato mentioned it. Some old Greek guy.

It supposedly was an island in the Atlantic (not sure where--Greeks weren't particularly adventurous sailors in distant prehistory) that sank because of an earthquake or because people found some knowledge they weren't supposed to, or...reports vary. Edgar Cayce had some visions about it, but I don't know that they're all that reliable. I think it was in the North Atlantic, like near Canada, maybe. Between Canada and Britain.

Celts/Druids sometimes said that their knowledge came from Atlanteans that made it off the island and went to Britain. There was a Marion Zimmer Bradley novel about it, The Firebrand. I guess the Atlanteans were the Picts (sometimes Pixies) who were already living in Britain when the Celts moved there from the European continent (they were living in Germany, Switzerland, and France for a while there.) But I didn't read the whole book--it was kinda boring or there was something on TV that was better, and I just didn't finish it. They're not all winners.

No, wait, The Firebrand was about Kassandra, in the Odyssey and the Iliad. What was the name of that book? Grrrr. I can't remember. _____ of Avalon, I guess. Not Mists or Priestess or Lady. Something else ____ of Avalon.

Answer 4

Ancient Atlantis is a myth.

Answer 5

Atlantis is a mythological continent that was superior to the greeks in technology and their people were the most beautiful in the world. Apollymi got angry and destroyed the land, banishing it to the sea and condeming those who lived there, thus earning the title of Atlantian destroyer, after which she was banished to kaloisis, the hell realm.

Answer 6

Atlantis is merely the imagination of man's mind.

Answer 7

I believe that Atlantis did indeed exist, and that they used black magic so much that they in their own way were overpowered by it and eventually destroyed them. But then , that's just me. My belief is that GOD does not punish, he is all good and love. I believe that his rules are the ones that punish and in a sense we punish ourselves.


Peace.

Answer 8

I know nothing, I suspect many things.

Answer 9

the city was punished by "God" for its sins

or if that's how it goes

Answer 10

has it even ben proved that it existed?