In what year did Atlantis disappear? Atlantis - myth or reality

Atlantis! One word is enough to evoke images of mermaids, underwater cities, sunken ruins. But that's not all: the main image that this word evokes is an ancient, technologically advanced civilization that perished at the whim of unkind gods or due to its own carelessness.

Where did the idea of ​​Atlantis come from? Was this a real place, or just an old fairy tale?

The story of Atlantis begins with ancient Greek philosophy, then finds its way into a literary movement inspired by Christopher Columbus, before its popularity soars again when a Minnesota congressman decides to try his hand at science and linguistics. Add to this considerable interest on the part of the leaders of the Third Reich and countless pseudoscientific theories. And yet, today there are a huge number of people who are still hunting for the lost continent.

Prepare for a deep dive into the history of the sunken city of Atlantis.

To understand the origins of Atlantis, you need to know a little about the Greek philosopher Plato. He lived in Greece in the 5th century BC, and it was on his work that Socrates built his philosophy. He is without a doubt the most famous and influential philosopher of all time.

Plato introduced the idea of ​​a lost continent called Atlantis in his writings. Plato describes Atlantis as a large continent. According to him, Atlantis was originally a rather bizarre place that Poseidon himself loved.

The state was headed by kings who worked in alliance with each other, making the state a powerful formation. However, 9000 years before the time of Plato, the Atlanteans became too warlike, which angered the gods. And they, as Plato assures, sent the state to the bottom.

Etymology and mythology

According to the myth presented by Plato, the Greek gods at the dawn of time divided the lands among themselves, and Poseidon got Atlantis. There he fell in love with the girl Clito, whom he “protected” by taking her to a cave surrounded by ring-shaped mountains and the sea.

Presumably, this “care” protected Clito from escaping. And she, it is worth noting, had something to run from: she gave birth to Poseidon 5 pairs of twins, and they were just huge children. The eldest of them, Atlas, was appointed the rightful king of this place. The entire island nation was named after him. Plato claims that the Atlantic Ocean was named in honor of this ancient king (however, modern science has a different version and connects the name of the ocean with the Atlas Mountains).

Allegory

The story of Atlantis is an allegory, a kind of extended metaphor, whose hidden meaning reveals a deeper philosophical point. Plato uses this move quite often, and perhaps his most famous example is the "Myth of the Cave", which he uses to explain his theory of forms.

In this case, Plato's allegory is associated with the idea of ​​an ideal state. Atlantis appears as the anti-Athena. Her ambitious war plans end in failure.

Utopian literature

Plato's works had a great influence on medieval philosophy, but scientists sometimes find it difficult to understand where the ancient thinker is serious and where he uses artistic techniques.

The discovery by Europeans of land west of Gibraltar opened up a completely new world and expanded the boundaries of the possible. Utopian literature established the existence of previously unknown worlds whose cultures and morals were presented as different from "normal" European ones. The idea of ​​Atlantis received a new twist.

One such work, Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, revived interest in the lost continent. At the time, European settlers were trying to learn more about the origins and mysteries of the Indian peoples, and Bacon's work helped spark the idea that the Mayans were descendants of the Atlanteans.

Proposed locations

The next significant event is the 1882 book “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World” by Ignatius Donnelly.

Donnelly uses some really sophisticated linguistics combined with the racist theories of Mayanism to suggest that not only was Atlantis real, it was also the ancestral home of all humanity.

His ideas became extremely popular and people soon began searching for the real location of Atlantis. Even real-life islands – Sardinia and Crete – were included in the list of “suspects”. Plato left a too vague definition: “west of Gibraltar.” Therefore, the geography of the search was quite extensive.

In art and literature

Since Donnelly's book, Atlantis has been referenced throughout popular culture and art. At that time, science fiction was beginning to emerge as a genre. Thanks to this, we got Captain Nemo, who found a sunken continent 20,000 leagues under the sea. The plot was addressed in their works by Edgar Burroughs (“The Lost Continent”), Alexey Tolstoy (“Aelita”), Arthur Conan Doyle (“Marakot’s Abyss”), Kir Bulychev (“The End of Atlantis”), Andrea Norton (“Operation Search in time"") and many others.

Dozens of films have depicted life on the mysterious continent, including Disney's 2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

The most chilling example is the opera "Emperor of Atlantis", which alludes to Hitler, and was written by a prisoner in a concentration camp.

Occultism

One of the main works of Theosophy is the “Secret Doctrine” of H. P. Blavatsky, which, according to Helena herself, was dictated to her in Atlantis.

Blavatsky's Atlantis differs from Plato's. To her, the Atlanteans were heroic figures who existed a million years ago and were destroyed for their careless use of magic.

Nazis

The 1985 book The Occult Roots of Nazism describes how Nazi philosophy had connections to Ariosophy, a white nationalist occult philosophy. According to The Independent, SS chief Heinrich Himmler sought the Holy Grail to prove Christ's Aryan origins.

The seminal works of Nazi philosophy include Alfred Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth Century, based on a racial theory that posits that modern white Europeans are descended from Hyperboreans who emerged from Atlantis.

Reliable data on research into the Third Reich is extremely scarce. But it is reliably known that they were carried out.

Other Lost and Sunken Lands

Atlantis is called the most famous lost continent. But she is not the only one of her kind. In fact, there are some pretty shocking facts about other landmass. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we can say that the loss of one continent is a misfortune; and the loss of a dozen is just a statistic.

One of the most famous continents that was lost is Lemuria. This version was first put forward by British zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater to explain why the ranges of lemur-like animals are separated by oceans. This idea never received any real scientific treatment, but thanks to the mention of Blavatsky, it became firmly entrenched in popular culture.

The Lost Continent of Mu was an attempt to explain the similarities between distant cultures (such as the pyramids in Egypt and Central America) before aliens were brought into the story.

An ancient legend said that off the coast of Ireland there was an island called Hy-Brasil, which mysteriously appeared once every seven years before one day sank into the abyss forever. Note that, despite the similarity in names, this is not at all connected with real Brazil.

Bad news

Let's remember the fact that there is no historical evidence of the existence of the mysterious continent. And thousands of researchers returned from expeditions with nothing. In truth, scientists have more facts to refute the myth than to prove it. Modern science has absolutely no reliable facts that could reassure those who are fascinated by Atlantis.

But this is not enough. Man continues to believe that one day the secret of the depths will be revealed, and the ancient continent will appear in all its glory.

In the works of some ancient Greek historians, geographers, mythographers, mathematicians, theologians and astronomers, there is mention of one state that has sunk into eternity: the legendary island of Atlantis. About two thousand years ago, Plato, Herodotus, Diodorus and other respected authors wrote about it in their works.

Ancient authors about the sunken island of Atlantis

Basic information about the lost Atlantis is contained in the writings of Plato. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he talks about an island state that existed about 11,500 years ago.

According to Plato, the ancestor of the Atlanteans was the god Poseidon. He connected his life with a mortal girl, who bore him ten sons. When the children grew up, the father divided the island between them. The best part of the land went to Poseidon's eldest son: Atlan.

Atlantis was a powerful, rich and populous state. Its inhabitants erected a serious defense system against external enemies and built a network of circular canals leading to the sea, as well as an internal port.

Large cities were distinguished by amazing architectural structures and beautiful sculptures: temples made of gold and silver, golden statues and sculptures. The island was very fertile, with a diverse natural world; people mined copper and silver in the depths of the earth.

The Atlanteans were a warlike people: the army of the state included a navy of 1000 ships, the number of crews was 240 thousand people; The ground army numbered 700 thousand people. The descendants of Poseidon successfully fought for many years, conquering new territories and wealth; This was the case until Athens stood in their way.

To defeat the Atlanteans, the Athenians created a military alliance with the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. But on the day of the battle, the allies refused to fight, and the Athenians were left alone with the enemy. Fearless, courageous Greeks defeated the aggressor and liberated the peoples previously enslaved by him.

But early on, the Greek warriors rejoiced at their achievements: they decided to intervene in the affairs of people, who had been monitoring the inhabitants of Atlantis for the last centuries. Zeus considered that the Atlanteans had become greedy, greedy, depraved and decided to punish them to the fullest extent by flooding the island along with its inhabitants and the Athenians who did not have time to celebrate the victory.

This is what Plato writes about Atlantis in his two works. At first glance, this is just a beautiful legend, an interesting fairy tale. There is no direct evidence of the existence of Atlantis in ancient times, nor any references to authoritative sources.

But these two dialogues survived not only Plato himself, but also two more millennia - during which time many disputes and theories arose regarding the lost state.

Plato’s student Aristotle, who listened to the speeches of Platonist philosophers for about 20 years, eventually categorically rejected the existence of Atlantis, declaring that the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias” were simply fiction, the ravings of an old man.

It was because of Aristotle that Atlantis was talked about reluctantly, in a low voice, until the end of the 18th century. After all, this venerable philosopher enjoyed unquestioned authority in Europe, especially in the Middle Ages. All of Aristotle's statements were perceived by Europeans as the ultimate truth.

So why was Aristotle so sure that Atlantis was a fiction, because he had no irrefutable evidence of this? Why was he so harsh in his judgments? Some sources claim that the philosopher simply did not like his mentor, so he decided in this way to spoil Plato’s authority in the eyes of his fans and admirers.

Mentions of the Atlanteans in the works of other ancient authors

Other ancient authors wrote very little about Atlantis: Herodotus claimed that the Atlanteans had no names, did not see and were defeated by troglodytes - cavemen; According to the stories of Diodorus, the inhabitants of Atlantis fought with the Amazons. Posidonius, interested in the causes of land subsidence, believed that Plato’s story was plausible.

Proclus in his writings talks about one follower of the ancient thinker: a resident of Athens, Krantor.

Allegedly, he specially went to 47 years after the death of the philosopher to find evidence in favor of the existence of the island state; Having returned from his trip, Krantor said that in one of the ancient temples he saw columns with inscriptions retelling the historical events described by Plato.

Search for Atlantis

It is quite difficult to indicate the exact location of the lost Atlantis: there are many hypotheses about where the sunken state could be located.

Plato wrote that a huge island was once located in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules (i.e., beyond Gibraltar). But his searches in the area of ​​the Canary, Balearic, Azores and British Islands led to nothing.

Some researchers propose to look for the remains of the material culture of the Atlanteans in the Black Sea, linking the flooding of the island with the “Black Sea flood” that occurred 7-8 thousand years ago - then the sea level rose in less than a year, according to various estimates, from 10 to 80 meters.

There is a hypothesis according to which Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. Scientists who adhere to this theory believe that Antarctica in ancient times was shifted to the south pole due to lithospheric shift, or a sharp displacement of the earth's axis as a result of the collision of our planet with a large cosmic body.

There is also an opinion that traces of Atlantis can be found in South America or Brazil. But most interpreters of Plato’s dialogues are sure: the lost island must be looked for only in the Atlantic Ocean.

In recent decades, the lost state has sought many expeditions, most of which returned empty-handed. True, from time to time the whole world is excited by news about the found traces of a submerged island.

Did the Russians find Atlantis?

In 1979, a Soviet expedition, while testing a diving bell, accidentally discovered some objects in the Atlantic Ocean that looked like the ruins of an ancient city.

The action took place just behind the “Pillars of Hercules” indicated by Plato, 500 km from Gibraltar, above the Ampere seamount, which many thousands of years ago protruded above the surface of the ocean, but then for some reason went under water.

Three years later, the Soviet ship Rift set off to the same place to explore the ocean floor using the Argus submersible. The aquanauts were amazed by what they saw; from their words, a panorama of city ruins opened up to them: the remains of rooms, squares, streets.

But the expedition that took place in 1984 did not live up to the hopes of the researchers: an analysis of two stones raised from the ocean floor showed that it was just volcanic rock, frozen lava, and not the creation of human hands.

The opinion of modern scientists about Atlantis

Atlantis is a fiction

Most modern historians and philologists are convinced: Plato’s dialogues are just a beautiful legend, of which the philosopher has many. There are no traces of this state either in Greece, or in western Europe, or in Africa - this is confirmed by archaeological excavations.

The opinion of scientists that Atlantis is only a figment of the imagination is also based on the following: the philosopher writes about a network of canals built on the island, about an inland port, but such large-scale projects in ancient times were beyond the power of people.

Plato indicated the approximate date of the island's immersion in the ocean depths: 9000 years before he wrote his dialogues (i.e. approximately 9500 BC). But this contradicts the data of modern science: at that time humanity was just emerging from the Paleolithic era. It is not easy to believe that somewhere in those times there lived a people who were thousands of years ahead of the entire human race in their development.

Many scientists are convinced that Plato, when writing his works, took as a basis some events that occurred during his life: for example, the defeat of the Greeks during their attempt to conquer the island of Sicily and the flooding of the town of Gelica as a result of an earthquake followed by flooding.

Other researchers believe that the basis for the philosopher’s works was the volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini with a tsunami that subsequently hit the coast of Crete and other islands of the Mediterranean Sea - this catastrophe led to the decline of the developed Minoan civilization.

The version is supported by the following fact: the Minoans really fought with the Archeans who inhabited Greece in ancient times and were even defeated by them (just as the Atlanteans were defeated by the Greeks in the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias”).

In general, many researchers of the thinker’s works believe that Plato, being an idealistic utopian, with his writings only wanted to call on his contemporaries to build an ideal exemplary humane state in which there would be no place for dictatorship, violence and tyranny.

However, the philosopher himself constantly emphasizes in his dialogues that Atlantis is not just a legend, but a real island state that once existed.

Plato doesn't lie

Some researchers still admit: there is a grain of truth in the works of the ancient thinker. Excavations carried out by archaeologists in recent years have helped scientists obtain new information about the life and technical achievements of our ancestors living 5-10 thousand years ago.

Modern archaeologists find the remains of grandiose structures created by ancient people everywhere: in Egypt, Sumer, Babylon. Tunnels for collecting groundwater, many kilometers of adits, stone dams, man-made lakes - all these structures were in operation long before the birth of Plato.

Consequently, the philosopher’s dialogues cannot be attributed to fiction only on the grounds that humanity 11 thousand years ago was unable to build a network of canals and bridges: recent archaeological excavations prove the opposite.

In addition, since Plato’s works have come down to us, rewritten more than once, there is a possibility that over two millennia there has been confusion with the dates.

The fact is that in the system of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the number “9000” is indicated by lotus flowers, and the number “900” by rope knots; supporters of the existence of Atlantis believe that later copyists of dialogues could easily confuse symbols that were so similar to each other, thus pushing the historical event back several thousand years.

On top of that, Plato, who belongs to a highly revered family in Ancient Greece, refers in his dialogues to his ancestor: the wisest of the “seven wise men,” the legislator Solon. And the ancient Greeks were very sensitive to their roots and tried to preserve the sacred memory of their relatives. Would Plato, given his moral qualities, have referred to Solon in his works, because if this whole story with Atlantis was just a fiction, he would have tarnished the name of the wisest representative of the family?

Afterword

Atlantis has been shrouded in an aura of mystery for many centuries. People have been trying to find the suddenly disappeared state for almost two thousand years: some wanting to take possession of the treasures described by Plato, others out of scientific interest, others simply out of curiosity.

In the 50s of the last century, a doctrine called “Atlantology” even appeared; its main task is to identify true information about Atlantis in historical sources and mythical legends.

The debate about whether the mysterious land once existed or whether the ancient Greek thinker simply made it up continues to this day. Various theories are born and die, guesses appear and disappear. Some of them are supported by science, while others are more like a beautiful fairy tale.

Perhaps our children or grandchildren will solve the riddle of Atlantis. But it may happen that another two thousand years will pass, and the mystery of the lost island will remain unsolved, and our descendants, just like us today, will be tormented by guesses and assumptions.

ARTICLE IN VIDEO FORMAT

Questions about whether Atlantis existed, about the location of Plato’s sunken Atlantis, as well as all the secrets of Atlantis, torment the minds of many generations of seekers. Some researchers have not decided whether it was a large island or a small continent. Many atlantologists are trying to find evidence of the existence of the island; other representatives of modern science believe that the “city” of Atlantis was located in the west. While others believe that Hyperborea disappeared along with the disappeared Atlantis.

The first acquaintance with the continent lost more than 10,000 years ago is associated with Plato’s dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias”. This work of Plato allows some scientists to claim that they have found and identified the area of ​​the sunken island, and know where Atlantis sank.

Places on Earth where archaeologists searched for the ancient sunken Atlantis

There are at least five known places on Earth where the search for Atlantis was carried out:

• Baltika;
• Eastern Mediterranean;
• Spain;
• Great Britain;
• Bermuda Triangle.

What did archaeologists find in these places?

Secrets of Swedish Atlantis

Swedish archaeologists managed to discover ancient artifacts dating back to the Stone Age at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Apparently, nomads could have stopped near the place where they were discovered about eleven thousand years ago. The press immediately called this discovery, important for science, “Swedish Atlantis.”

Atlantis of the Eastern Mediterranean

In 2004, American scientist Robert Sarmast thought he had uncovered the secrets of Atlantis. He announced the discovery of a lost city between Syria and Cyprus at a depth of one and a half kilometers. The expedition, which he led, managed to discover man-made buildings at the bottom, as well as canals and river beds. The scientist argued that all this coincided with the outline of Plato's Atlantis.

History of Spanish Atlantis

In 2011, Spanish scientists announced a version of the location of Atlantis. They believed that the ancient city was washed away by a tsunami off the Spanish coast. Local scientists claimed that at the bottom lay a complex of buildings that also corresponded to Plato’s descriptions. Using the instruments, it was possible to record the concentration of methane, which in turn may indicate the death of many people.

History of British Atlantis

British scientists did not have to lag behind their colleagues. So, in 2012 they announced the discovery of Atlantis off their coast. A hypothesis has been reported that the "British Atlantis" had to go under water about nine thousand years ago. According to this hypothesis, it was a part of the land that stretched between Denmark and Scotland. In the center, this land was the size of modern France, and this entire part of the land had an area of ​​almost 900 thousand square kilometers.

Atlantis of the Bermuda Triangle

In 2012, Canadian researchers near the eastern coast of Cuba, using a special robot, photographed some underwater ruins. In the photo one could see the remains of buildings similar to pyramids, a figure resembling a sphinx, as well as huge engraved slabs. However, later archaeologists believed that this drowned city was not part of Atlantis. It turned out that it was built up to two thousand years ago. Whereas, according to Plato's instructions, the island of Atlantis sank into the depths of the sea around 9500 BC.

What did Plato write about Atlantis?

Having found the right places in the text of Plato’s dialogues, you can read that he wrote about the civilization of Atlantis, which existed thousands of years ago. The island where it originated was larger than Libya and Asia combined. Here arose a great and amazing association of kings. All their power extended throughout the island, to many other islands, and also to part of the continent. Moreover, from this side of the strait they were masters of Libya as far as Egypt, and also of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.

Some researchers mentioned Solon, who wrote down the story of the destruction of Atlantis. He visited the Egyptian city of Sais around 611 BC. There, from local priests, he learned that a terrible catastrophe had occurred that occurred nine thousand years BC. e. Then the flooding of a huge island occurred, larger in size than “Libya and Asia”.

Scientists, after the necessary calculations, placed an island of such volumes near Gibraltar. They decided that from this huge island by now only small islands could remain, such as Cape Verde, the Canaries, Madeira, the Azores and others. Thus, there was in reality a huge archipelago, and therefore Plato’s civilization of Atlantis.

Secret maps of Christopher Columbus

Some believe that in ancient times Atlantis meant the Canary Islands, and complement this with the fact that Columbus had accurate navigation maps with the Atlantic ridge in all his four campaigns.

By the way, he also looked for the remains of the islands of the once existing empire. Later, some of the maps that were at the disposal of the great commander were captured by the Turks in one of the naval battles, so that they ended up in Piri Reis.

The maps of Piri Reis that have survived to this day did not contain the details necessary for scientists. There were no images of the sunken continent. However, this did not prevent the location of Atlantis from being determined; the routes of Columbus's caravels of all four expeditions were known. It should be noted that all four of Columbus's expeditions always began from the Canary Islands.

The Mystery of Ocean Currents

In the last two expeditions, Columbus decided to take advantage of the current that carried his ships in the right direction. Navigators in those days could hardly have been aware of the secret of such a current. However, this secret was well known to Columbus himself, which means he could have found it in secret sources that could have come to him along with maps of the disappeared continent.

In our days, little attention has been paid to these ocean currents, since the modern fleet is adapted to complete autonomous navigation over any distance. This made the secrets of the currents, which in ancient times ensured the regularity of communications between parts of the world, irrelevant. However, in ancient maps one can find unequivocal evidence that these messages existed.

However, according to some researchers, after a global cosmic cataclysm in 1528 BC. communication between the continents was interrupted. And only because of Christopher Columbus everything returned to normal. The great Genoese possessed maps unknown to science and, indulging in them, made his great discoveries.

The Fall of Great Poseidonia

According to ancient philosophers and writers, all its citizens were warned that Atlantis would perish. However, after nothing happened for several years, people continued to “sin.”

The collapse of the great empire of Atla began with the appearance of huge cracks into which rivers rushed. Death spread throughout the state for three days, mountains collapsed and fell into valleys, rivers rushed into the ocean. On the fourth day there was such a downpour, as if the abyss of heaven had opened up, and the terrible roar of thunder did not stop.

Suddenly there was a shaking of the earth, after which part of the land began to plunge into the stunned streams. Everything that was on land began to sink lower and lower under the water.

Then everything became quiet. No rain, no crushing blows of the wind, no downward movements - everything ended, as if so that the survivors could rest. Nothing happened for several days. To the exhausted people, hiding in insignificant shelters, it seemed that everything was over.

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The debate about whether the existence of Atlantis was a reality or a beautiful legend has not subsided for many centuries. A large number of the most controversial theories have been put forward on this matter, but they were all based on information obtained from the texts of ancient Greek authors, none of whom personally saw this mysterious island, but only conveyed information obtained from earlier sources. So how true is the legend of Atlantis and where did it come from in our modern world?

An island that has sunk into the abyss of the sea

First of all, let us clarify that the word “Atlantis” is usually understood as a certain fantastic (since there is no direct evidence of its existence) island located in the Atlantic Ocean. His exact location is unknown. According to the most popular legend, Atlantis was located somewhere near the northwestern coast of Africa, bordered by the chain of the Atlas Mountains, and near the Pillars of Hercules, which framed the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar.

The famous ancient Greek philosopher Plato placed it there in his dialogues (works written in the form of a conversation between historical or fictional persons). Based on his works, a very popular legend about Atlantis was subsequently born. It says that around 9500 BC. e. In the area indicated above, a terrible earthquake occurred, as a result of which the island forever plunged into the abyss of the ocean.

On that day, an ancient and highly developed civilization, created by the islanders, whom Plato calls “Atlanteans,” perished. It should immediately be noted that, due to their similar names, they are sometimes mistakenly identified with characters from ancient Greek mythology - the mighty titans holding the vault of heaven on their shoulders. This mistake is so common that when they see the sculptures by the outstanding Russian sculptor A. I. Terebenev (see photo below), decorating the portico of the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg, many people have an association with heroes who once sank deep into the seas.

A mystery that worries people's minds

During the Middle Ages, the works of Plato, as well as most other ancient historians and philosophers, were consigned to oblivion, but already in the 14th-16th centuries, called the Renaissance, interest in them, and at the same time in Atlantis and the legend associated with its existence , has grown rapidly. It continues unabated to this day, giving rise to heated scientific discussions. Scientists around the world are making attempts to discover real evidence of the events described by Plato and a number of his followers, and to answer the question of what Atlantis really was - legend or reality?

The island, inhabited by people who created the highest, at that time, civilization, and then absorbed by the ocean, is a mystery that excites the minds of people and encourages them to look for answers outside the real world. It is known that back in Ancient Greece, the legend of Atlantis gave impetus to many mystical teachings, and in modern history it inspired thinkers of the theosophical trend. The most famous of them are H. P. Blavatsky and A. P. Sinnett. The authors of various pseudo-scientific and simply fantastic works of various genres, who also turned to the image of Atlantis, did not stand aside.

Where did the legend come from?

But let us return to the works of Plato, since they are the primary source that aroused centuries-old disputes and discussions. As mentioned above, mention of Atlantis is contained in two of his dialogues, called “Timaeus” and “Critius”. Both of them are devoted to the issue of government and are conducted on behalf of his contemporaries: the Athenian politician Critias, as well as two philosophers - Socrates and Timaeus. Let us immediately note that Plato makes a reservation that the primary source of all information about Atlantis is the story of the ancient Egyptian priests, which was passed down orally from generation to generation and finally reached him.

The troubles that befell the Atlanteans

The first of the dialogues contains a message from Critias about the war between Athens and Atlantis. According to him, the island, whose army his compatriots had to face, was so large that its size surpassed all of Asia, which gives every right to call it a mainland. As for the state formed there, it amazed everyone with its greatness and, being unusually powerful, conquered Libya, as well as a significant territory of Europe, stretching all the way to Tyrrhenia (Western Italy).

In 9500 BC. e. The Atlanteans, wanting to conquer Athens, brought down the full might of their previously invincible army on them, but, despite the clear superiority of forces, they could not achieve success. The Athenians repelled the invasion and, having defeated the enemy, returned freedom to the peoples who had until then been enslaved by the islanders. However, the troubles did not recede from the prosperous and once prosperous Atlantis. The legend, or rather, the story of Critias, which is its basis, further tells about a terrible natural disaster that completely destroyed the island and forced it to plunge into the ocean depths. Literally within 24 hours, the raging elements wiped out a huge continent from the face of the earth and put an end to the highly developed culture created on it.

Commune of Athenian rulers

The continuation of this story is the second dialogue that has come down to us, called “Critius”. In it, the same Athenian politician tells in more detail about the two great states of antiquity, whose armies met on the battlefield shortly before the fatal flood. Athens, according to him, was a highly developed state so pleasing to the gods that, according to legend, the end of Atlantis was a foregone conclusion.

The description of the system of government that was established in it is very remarkable. According to Critias, on the Acropolis - a hill that still towers in the center of the Greek capital - there was a certain commune, partly reminiscent of those that the founders of the communist movement imagined in their imagination. Everything in it was equal and there was enough of everything in abundance. But it was inhabited not by ordinary people, but by rulers and warriors who ensured the maintenance of the order they desired in the country. The working masses were only allowed to reverently look at their shining heights and fulfill the destinies descended from there.

Arrogant descendants of Poseidon

In the same treatise, the author contrasted the humble and virtuous Athenians with the proud Atlanteans. Their ancestor, as is clear from Plato’s work, was the god of the seas himself, Poseidon. One day, having witnessed how an earthly girl named Cleito lay her young body in the waves, he was inflamed with passion and, having evoked reciprocal feelings in her, became the father of ten sons - half-gods, half-humans.

The eldest of them, named Atlas, was put in charge of the island, divided into nine parts, each of which was under the command of one of his brothers. Subsequently, his name was inherited not only by the island, but even by the ocean on which it was located. All his brothers became the founders of dynasties that lived and ruled on this fertile land for many centuries. This is exactly how the legend describes the birth of Atlantis as a powerful and sovereign state.

Island of abundance and wealth

In his work, Plato also gives the known dimensions of this legendary island-mainland. According to him, it reached 540 km in length and was at least 360 km in width. The highest point of this vast territory was a hill, the height of which the author does not specify, but writes that it was located approximately 9-10 km from the seashore.

It was on it that the ruler's palace was built, which Poseidon himself surrounded with three land and two water defensive rings. Later, his Atlantean descendants threw bridges across them and dug additional canals through which ships could easily approach the piers located right next to the walls of the palace. They also erected many temples on the central hill, richly decorated with gold and decorated with statues of the celestials and earthly rulers of Atlantis.

Myths and legends, born from the writings of Plato, are full of descriptions of the treasures owned by the descendants of the sea god, as well as the wealth of nature and the fertility of the island. In the dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher, it is mentioned, in particular, that, despite the dense population of Atlantis, wild animals lived very freely on its territory, among which there were even elephants that had not yet been tamed or domesticated. At the same time, Plato does not ignore many negative aspects of the life of the islanders, which aroused the anger of the gods and caused the disaster.

The end of Atlantis and the beginning of the legend

The peace and prosperity that reigned there for many centuries collapsed overnight through the fault of the Atlanteans themselves. The author writes that until the inhabitants of the island put virtue above wealth and honors, the inhabitants of heaven were favorable to them, but turned away from them as soon as the shine of gold overshadowed spiritual values ​​in their eyes. Looking at how people who had lost their divine essence were filled with pride, greed and malice, Zeus did not want to restrain his anger and, having gathered the other gods, gave them the right to pronounce their sentence. This is where the manuscript of the ancient Greek philosopher ends, but, judging by the catastrophe that soon befell the evil, proud people, they were considered unworthy of mercy, which ultimately led to such a sad outcome.

The legends of Atlantis (or information about the events that actually happened - this remains unknown) attracted the attention of many ancient Greek historians and writers. In particular, the Athenian Hellanicus, who lived in the 5th century BC. e., also describes this island in one of his works, calling it, however, somewhat differently - Atlantiad - and without mentioning its destruction. However, modern researchers, for a number of reasons, believe that his story is related not to the lost Atlantis, but to Crete, which successfully survived centuries, in whose history the sea god Poseidon also appears, who conceived a son from an earthly maiden.

It is curious that the name “Atlanteans” was applied by ancient Greek and Roman authors not only to the islanders, but also to the inhabitants of continental Africa. In particular, Herodotus, as well as an equally famous historian, call this a certain tribe that lived in the Atlas Mountains near the ocean coast. These African Atlanteans were very warlike and, being at a low stage of development, waged constant wars with foreigners, among whom were the legendary Amazons.

As a result, they were completely exterminated by their neighbors, the troglodytes, who, although they were in a semi-animal state, still managed to win. There is an opinion that Aristotle said on this occasion that it was not the military superiority of the savages that led to the death of the Atlantean tribe, but the creator of the world, Zeus himself, destroyed them for the lawlessness they committed.

A figment of fantasy that has survived centuries

The attitude of modern researchers to the information presented in Plato’s dialogues and in the works of a number of other authors is extremely skeptical. Most of them consider Atlantis a legend that has no basis in reality. Their position is explained primarily by the fact that for many centuries no material evidence of its existence was discovered. This is true. There is absolutely no archaeological evidence of the existence of such a developed civilization in West Africa or Greece at the end of the Ice Age, as well as the millennia closest to it.

It is also puzzling that the story, allegedly told to the world by the ancient Greek priests and then reaching Plato in an oral retelling, was not reflected in any of the written monuments discovered on the banks of the Nile. This involuntarily suggests that the ancient Greek philosopher himself composed the tragic story of Atlantis.

He could well have borrowed the beginning of the legend from the rich Russian mythology, in which gods often became the founders of entire nations and continents. As for the tragic outcome of the plot, he needed it. The fictitious island had to be destroyed to give the story external credibility. Otherwise, how could he explain to his contemporaries (and, of course, his descendants) the absence of traces of his existence.

Researchers of antiquity also pay attention to the fact that when talking about the mysterious continent located near the western coast of Africa and its inhabitants, the author cites exclusively Greek names and geographical names. This is very strange and suggests that he came up with them himself.

Tragic mistake

To conclude the article, we will present several very interesting statements made today by ardent supporters of the historicity of the existence of Atlantis. As mentioned above, today it has been raised on the shield by many supporters of occult movements and various kinds of mystics who do not want to reckon with the absurdity of their own theories. Pseudoscientists are not inferior to them, trying to pass off their fabrications as discoveries they allegedly made.

For example, in recent years, articles have repeatedly appeared in the press, as well as on the Internet, that the Atlanteans (whose existence the authors did not question) achieved such great progress that they conducted extensive research activities in the field of nuclear physics. Even the disappearance of the continent itself is explained by the tragedy that occurred as a result of their unsuccessful nuclear test.