According to evidence gathered by vulcanologists and seismologists of a later day, the civilization was destroyed by what has come to rate as one of the most violent cataclysms the world has ever seen. The eruption of the volcano made smoke and then ash rained down. Then in the underneath of the volcano, the magma chamber started spewing out millions of tons of solid rock which made the volcano collapse on itself and form a crater which the sea poured into. This also caused giant tsunamis. So it was as if the earth was trying to unleash all of its power onto this one spot all at once. This is what’s believed to have happened according to scientists. They believed the explosion that happened to be equal to 500-1000 atomic bombs.

Plato, Greek philosopher extraordinaire, is the only direct link to the legend of Atlantis. He used to speak of Atlantis as a kind of paradise. His descriptions were of a huge island, larger than Libya and Asia put together. This island contained magnificent mountain ranges, lush plains which had every variety of animal, including elephants, and a luxuriant gardens. Numberless generations of Atlanteans lived in peace under a system of laws, which had been handed down to them by Poseidon, whose justness commanded universal admiration. But in the end, Atlantean society began to decay and become corrupt. It was during this era of corruption that the Atlanteans embarked on a war of world conquest, launching huge fleets against other islands and making slaves of the inhabitants of the costal settlements of the Mediterranean. Their only competition was Athens. The heavy infantry of Athena was successful in stopping the attempted invasion and was also able to win the battle.

Plato placed Atlantis in the Great Ocean, which is known today as the Straits of Gibraltar. The extensive arguments that rage about where, and if, Atlantis existed are fueled by Plato’s positioning of the lost continent. No one knows for sure who kept the legend alive, but it appears likely that the Egyptians had helped to preserve the story with their tablets and sacred archives. Many people believed that Plato made up the city of Atlantis to “liven up” his parables. Even Plato’s own pupil, Aristotle, believed that Atlantis was no more than a poetic fiction, invented to enhance the narrative, and that Plato created it just so he could sink it conveniently at the end of the story.

Debates continue to rage on about Atlantis being fact or fiction. (Non-Intentional reference to “Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction”, a TV show that used to sometimes does come on FOX.) History and legend contain many accounts of islands that were swallowed by the sea-King Arthur’s mysterious Isle of Avalon is an example. Plato is clear that Atlantis was in the Atlantic, and a couple of the more serious investigators have searched for it there, believing that there was once a vast continent in the middle of the ocean. According to this theory, the Azaves, the Cape Verde Islands, the Canaries and Madiera were the mountain peaks of Atlantis and are all that remain visible of a lost continent. Atlantis as a reality was rescued from legend in the 15th century, the time that Europeans were heavy into exploration and discovery. The map-makers during that period drew it in on their maps, even though stories were the only thing they had to go by. When America was discovered, it was frequently identified with Atlantis, in spite of the obvious objection that it was clearly dry land and had not been submerged.

Then there were various stories refuting or proclaiming Atlantis throughout history. But in 1912 the story of Atlantis still had the ability to stir up the imaginations of the American public. On October 20th, a banner headline in William Randolph Hearst’s (the guy who’s the basis for the movie Citizen Kane, which is a good movie) New York American proclaimed, “How I found the Lost Atlantis, the Source of All Civilisation”. The article was by Dr. Paul Schliemann, described as a grandson of the discoverer of Troy. But it turned out that he was a fake and no one has heard from him since. In 1958, an observation in the Bahamas led to a new discovery which was to provide further fuel for Atlantis fantasists, as well as some new puzzles to perplex serious scholars. Dr. J. Manson Valentine, an American Zoologist and a veteran deep-sea diver, noticed some strange structures on the sea-bed, but their pattern was clearly visible from the air. They were curious geometric structures-regular polygons, circles, triangles, rectangles, and dead straight lines extending over several miles. In 1968 Dr. Valentine found a giant “wall” several hundred yards long, submerged in the waters off the small island of North Bimini. The wall had Two branches, running at right-angles, in a perfectly straight line. The construction, which was precisely perpendicular, was of massive stone blocks over 16 square feet. As he explored further, a much more complex structure was revealed which, with its quays and double jetty, resembled a drowned harbor. In no time, the clear, blue waters of the Bahamas were teeming with divers and with equal swiftness, controversy about the walls began to rage. Some observers stated positively that they were of natural origin. Just as definite were the arguments that proclaimed an unprecedented archaeological site, whose huge man-made structures revealed the existence of an advanced civilization in remote antiquity. Dr. Valentine’s new findings provoked further waves of speculation. It was pointed out that North Bimini lies within the Bermuda Triangle, a part of the ocean that is famous for mysteries. [Note: We’ll be covering that eventually.] And inevitably, of course, there was talk of Atlantis. The geology of the area showed that the submersion of the Bahama Plateau had been caused by the melting of the polar glaciers, which raised the level of the world’s oceans. This would give a probable date for the North Bimini ruins of 8000 to 7000 BC and would upset all the current theories about the peopling of the Americas and the origin of its civilizations.

Atlantis has captured the thoughts of many people. The mysteries surrounding it are extremely fascinating. Hell, even Disney jumped on the train. So will we ever know the answer of the Atlantis mystery, or will we just continue to market the “maybe” factor? Only the future, or corporations, will tell us…

-Matt

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