Atlantis is the subject of a legend about an advanced island civilization that was destroyed or lost. Stories about Atlantis are first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, in which characters say it was destroyed by an earthquake or a tsunami about 9,000 years before the time in which Plato wrote.
J. M. Allen argues that the site of Atlantis was on the Bolivian Altiplano (a series of high plains). Allen's major points rest on rather shaky foundations: the similarity of the Bolivian terrain to the geographical details in Plato's dialogues; that floods and earthquakes have occurred in the Bolivian Altiplano; and the fact that precious metals referred to by Plato as mined in Atlantis are also found in Bolivia. Was Bolivian Altiplano the real location of Atlantis? Did this place really exist?
2006-10-22 14:06:03 · 13 answers · asked by Hugoski 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I do think Atlantis existed, but with all the sites around the globe that have hints of a great civilization that was destroyed by a great flood and yet we are looking for a specific site to call Atlantis, what if Atlantis was global. Like if they went looking for us in 9,000 years...would they not find some here some there? So I do believe it existed but we wont find the one place where it was because it was everywhere.
2006-10-22 14:26:29 · answer #1 · answered by gtbobcat 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Plato got this story from Solon, who had visited Egypt about 600 BC and got it from an Egyptian priest. It was about 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 1500 BC. So it could all arise from 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.
Other historians have related it to the inundation of the Black Sea basin when the Mediterranean broke through the Bosphorus about 5000 BC, or to other undersea locations, and a lot of different crank ideas have been put forward too. J.M. Allen's is one of them. All the stories have some historic implausibilities, and it just boils down to which implausibilities you find most acceptable.
2006-10-23 04:33:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi there. The only basis for Atlantis is in a single reference in the works of Plato, who discussed the legend (which was old even then). Every other claim has come from that single point. Every culture of Europe and the near east has flood legends though, from Noah onwards, so it is not unreasonable to suppose that there is a common root for the flood stories. Cheers, Steve.
2016-05-21 23:40:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No it is not in the Bolivian antiplano, it is imposible because Bolivia is surrounded by land. I read somewhere that Some islands in the Pacific Ocean are the remain of Atlantis
2006-10-22 14:14:43 · answer #4 · answered by pelancha 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Atlantis probably never existed. Plato is the only one in ancient history to mention it and it was probably a story told as a moral lesson, much like Aesop's fables.
2006-10-22 15:55:57 · answer #5 · answered by Sinned2471 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
I don't think anyone has "found" it. There are references to high civilization in many ancient texts, and there is evidence in our world today that very advanced societies with advanced tools and methods have occupied our past (like the Pyramids - they say that the Pyramids are engineered to more exact specs than even modern buildings adhere to...).
2006-10-22 14:56:47 · answer #6 · answered by J Scott 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I saw a program a while back that said some archeologist think they found it. They showed the large blocks and colomns that were once a temple of some sort. So, I guess that it really did exist.
2006-10-22 14:17:22 · answer #7 · answered by MadforMAC 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I believe that Atlantis, and many other ancient civilation exsisted.
2006-10-22 18:02:52 · answer #8 · answered by dancinintherain 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't know about Atlantis itself, but there are many real cities like it that are hidden underwater today.
2006-10-22 14:08:34 · answer #9 · answered by Loved By Someone Above 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes, it's true, there are many secret places like it with secret technology you can't even believe. However, it is well covered up.
2006-10-22 14:10:17 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋