Atlantis the Lost Continent Finally Found

by Arysio Santos

Crete is by far the best bet, though itself impossible. Impossible for the reasons already pointed out: wrong date, wrong volcano, wrong geographical size, wrong location, wrong side of the pillars, and so forth. Hence, the best one may do is to forget the whole proposition.

  Anyone who reads Plato closely will not fail to conclude that the prince of philosophers unequivocally spoke of an empire of continental dimensions destroyed by a supervolcanism. And this worldwide empire was clearly placed outside Gibraltar Strait and, very probably, antipodal to it. No matter what, Atlantis’ vast dimensions would never fit inside the smallish Mediterranean Sea.

  Starting to Bear Fruits

  We sincerely hope that the next expedition planned by Sarmast to research the site he thinks to be the one of Atlantis has a greater success than had his past one or that of Koudriavtsev, the Russian who claims Atlantis is located in the British Shelf. After all, a find there would perhaps prove that Atlantis once had a colony or factory in the Mediterranean region, as it very possibly did.

  But we were extremely skeptical on this, as nothing at all in Plato really fits the region of Cyprus or any others nearby. Besides, even in the unlikely event of the ruins of an Ice Age civilization being found there, who can guarantee that it was not a mere colony or a factory of Atlantis, rather than the real thing, as Sarmast so unfoundedly claims?

  No matter what, I am extremely glad to see that my pioneering proposal of looking underwater for Atlantis rather than on dry land is starting to bear fruits and to become popular with today’s Atlantologists: Hancock, Sarmast, Koudriavtsev, Collina-Girard, Ballard, Schoch, the Atlantis Team, Stephen Oppenheimer, the Flem-Aths, and a dozen other authors whom we could further name here.

  These researchers have now all or mostly abandoned their former pseudoscientific views such as Pole Shift in favor of my own theory that Atlantis’ demise was the result of the huge sea level rise which occurred at the end of the Pleistocene, as the result of the melting of the massive continental glaciers that then existed. 12

  Even in the unlikely hypothesis that they rediscovered this reality independently, they are obliged to give me credit for it, as I preceded them all by a full decade and more. This is demanded by scientific ethics, and is something that cannot be idly dismissed by anyone.

  Who knows, people will also soon start to accept my location of Atlantis-Eden as well, and start looking in the real site where Atlantis has always lain: the shallow seas of the Indonesia continental shelves? I have so much confidence in this location of Atlantis that I am in the process of setting up an oceanographic expedition to look at the seafloor of the region for certain features which I have already diagnosed by means of alternative techniques such as outer space spying.

  The Results for the Mediterranean Locations of Atlantis

  The main results we just got for the sites in the Mediterranean Sea locations are summarized in Table III.3 below. Now, can these tiny islands truly be considered “larger than Asia and Libya put together”, as Plato specifically affirms? Are there really any islands ahead of these that would help ships to get to the opposite continent beyond (Africa)?

  Are these islands many? Are they really located in the “true ocean” which Plato explicitly mentions? Is Africa really the “true continent” that environs the “true ocean” all around? Can the Mediterranean Sea indeed be considered the “true ocean” that Plato had in mind? Why, and how? Was Plato really so sloppy in his description of the geography of Atlantis?

  Even the allegation made by Bob Sarmast that Africa is the “outer continent” mentioned by Plato seems to be false, after all. Plato’s description of this “outer continent” clearly places it out, in the ocean. Why would it be called “outer” if it lay inside the Mediterranean Sea?

  Table III.3 - Results for Crete, Cyprus, Malta, Syrtis, etc.

  Two

  Pillars

  (Bosphorus?)

  Island of Cyprus, etc..

  (Larger than Asia + Libya) ???????

  Many Islands

  Ahead

  ???????

  In True

  Ocean

  ???????

  Outer

  Continent (Africa) ???????

  Besides, Plato and other ancient authorities reserved the name of “outer continent” to what seems to be the Americas, which in fact “contained” the Ocean, as we already affirmed. The other continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and even Atlantis – he and others dubbed “islands” in the sense of being encircled in whole or in part by water.

  In my humble opinion, no amount of arguing – no matter how cleverly done – will ever convince any commonsensical, down-to-earth person that by “true ocean” (pelagos ontôs; alêthinon ponton), Plato is really referring to the puny Mediterranean Sea. ↑097

  Plato was no fool. And he specifically contrasted the Mediterranean with the “true Ocean” in the passage of the Timaeus quoted above in extenso. So, how can one believe that the two are in fact one and the same sea or ocean? Not even a child would believe this type of claim were it not put to him by a would-be authority reputed to know what he is talking about.

  However, I well know that self-delusion is a sad fact of life, and that many people will let themselves be misled by this type of specious argumentation, if artfully done. Neither will I ever be convinced that these puny Mediterranean islands would be deemed “larger than Asia and Libya (Africa) put together” by Plato, the wisest of philosophers.

  Were the ancients all that stupid? And did they all believe that the actual “Atlantic Ocean” – which the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians and even the Greeks themselves often sailed – was dark and somber and “innavigable” due to pumice and sargassos and seamonsters of all sizes?

  Nor will I ever believe that Africa can be said to “encompass the Ocean all around”, as Plato specifically affirms of the Outer Continent. Facts are facts, and no amount of clever argumentation will ever change them a jot, no matter how craftily conducted. Plato and others often referred to Africa and Europe as “islands”, rather than “continents”.

  Rather than mere words, these “theorists” should be able to produce geological proof of their claims the way I did, rather than just artful arguments: viable geological mechanisms acceptable to all scientists; viable dates and locations; viable Ice Age climates, and so forth.

  Now, Plato would have to be an idiot to be affirming things that everyone in his own time well knew to be lies or falsehood. However, if some are willing to bend Plato’s words that far in order to make them fit their text, any result whatsoever can be had. But then, the philosopher’s words would really mean nothing anymore, would they?

  Such is the reason why I try to found my case on so much scientific proof, and insist on producing so much factual evidence for it: linguistic, geologic, traditional, and so forth, even at the risk of boring some of my dear readers to death.

  And I try to do that, no matter how intrinsically logical my arguments might in fact seem to myself and to other specialists, so that the dear readers can check it all by themselves.

  Returning to Sarmast’s case. The “true continent ahead of the many islands” might be taken to be Africa, as this researcher actually does. But the fact is that these many islands are apparently lacking here, as can be seen in the map just given. Moreover, as I just said, how can Africa be said to encircle the whole ocean on the outside?

  These are all important matters which, after I pondered them long enough, led me to reject any of these Mediterranean locations as possible sites for Atlantis, if the Lost Continent is indeed to be considered something real.

  We hope to have convinced the dear readers that such is really the case here, no matter how aptly this case may be defended by someone. Only new facts of an incontrovertible nature may cause me – and hopefully most of my readers as well, I think – to change opinion on this crucial issue. It is true that Plato might be just plain lying. Or was just simply an ignoramus? But if so, why bother with Atlantis at all?

>   When one looks closely at the results summarized in Table III.3 above, one can see that even if one accepts that the Bosphorus is really the “Pillars of Hercules” which Plato had in mind, nothing else fits the detailed description given by the philosopher.

  I advise the readers to again use the table just filled above (Table III.1) as some sort of yantra or mandala in order to meditate the issue long enough, as the Hindus are wont to do. The truth is all out there, but must be thoroughly absorbed before it is fully realized.

  And I believe that then, you too, dear reader, will probably come to the same conclusion that I and several others researchers of Atlantis also did: any Mediterranean location for Atlantis is sheer nonsense, if we are in fact decided to heed Plato’s words on it.

  Chapter 12 - The Celtic Shelf, Morocco and Tartessos

  In my opinion, the most serious argument in favor of the assumption that Atlantis had not been invented by Plato, is that the time when it vanished... the circumstances of its vanishing... coincide with the data which, no doubt, were inaccessible to Plato, on the time of the end of the last Ice Age and a substantial rise of the level of the World Ocean that accompanied it.

  Viatcheslav Koudriavtsev, Atlantis: New Hypothesis (2001)

  [I first mooted out this important fact, as far back as 1982]

  Another all time favorite candidate for Atlantis’ location is the west coast of either Africa or Europe. Among these we name Tartessos (Spain), Morocco, the Celtic Shelf (Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and England), the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. These coasts have the great advantage of being located in the Atlantic Ocean itself. But this does not help much, as we shall see next.

  Despite this reality, the sites in question here keep popping up in the news as possible locations for Atlantis. And the reason is that the astute Phoenicians, who first colonized this region of the world, recreated an illusory Atlantis in that region in order to fool the competition, who invariably attempted to follow them to the fabulous Cassiterides, the source of their precious metals, in the Far East.

  For the purposes of the preliminary assaying being done here, these and other sites at the west coast of Europe may be bunched together. But we will leave the submerged island of Espartel (inside Gibraltar) for later, because of its novelty and its alleged scientific importance, which is in fact nil. ↑098

  The Celtic Shelf (map here) is located to the south of Ireland and of England, extending eastwards to the coast of France. The area of the Celtic

  Sea which covers the Celtic Shelf is considered to range from 48ºN and 52ºN to 4ºW and the 1,000 meters isobath at the edge of the continental slope. It is bounded on the east by the English Channel, and on the south and west by the local continental slope. The major part of the Celtic Sea area is shallow and ranges between 100 and 200 meters in depth. ↑099

  Some shallower areas do, however, exist to the west of Cornwall (UK) and to the southeast of Ireland. There are also a number of relatively shallow banks encountered in the deeper parts of the Celtic Sea, including Labdie Bank, Jones Bank and the Great Sole Bank. These shallow waters indicate that the region generally lay above sea level during the Pleistocene Ice Age, when sea level was about 130 to 150 meters lower than presently.

  A number of curious geological features of the Celtic Shelf such as seamounts, canyons and ridges generally extend all the way to the continental slope of Brittany. Features such as slopes, trenches, basins, iceberg scour marks, seamounts and banks render this submarine region rather unique. Sedimentologically speaking, the seabed of the Celtic Sea is composed of gravel and sand, becoming somewhat muddier in nature to the south of Ireland.

  In truth, it is nice to see that the seeds which I have been sowing for such a long time are finally starting to yield fruits. Many Atlantologists of all shades are fast adopting my pioneering proposal that catastrophic sea level rise was the actual cause of Atlantis’ demise, as can be seen in the above quote and many others such.

  Some of these authors are even adopting my complementary proposal that the Flood is truly to be identified to the catastrophic end of the Pleistocene Ice Age and the catastrophic rise in sea level that resulted, a fact that gladdens my heart. They are also starting to accept this identification of mine of the cause of the Universal Deluge and of Atlantis’ identity with Eden, the site of Paradise Lost. Too bad that they often fail to give me credit for these revolutionary finds!

  Well, the consolation prize is that Atlantis is fast becoming a candent issue in the news, now that the riddle has finally started to make scientific sense to several experts, both maverick and academic. Hence, I am finally able to publish my research internationally, after having done it for a long time in Brazil and in my site. And I hope my pioneer research helps a lot in bringing Atlantis back to life.

  After this short preamble, let us apply the features of Table III.1 to the regions in question here, the west coasts of Europe and/or Africa. First of all, we note that these regions can hardly be said to be located “in front of the Pillars of Hercules”, as Plato specifically affirmed, being in fact at its sides.

  Why wouldn’t Plato, a peerless rhetor – called doctor mellifluus because he was deemed a supreme master in the art of expressing himself with perfect clarity when he wanted to do so – have said “at the sides of the Pillars of Hercules” or something to that effect, affirming instead that they lay “right in front of the Pillars of Hercules” as he actually does according to what we showed above?

  Does not this assertion of Plato seem somewhat foolish, were these sites in fact acceptable? Moreover, the sunken portions of the regions in question here can also hardly be said to be “larger than Asia (Near East) and Libya (North Africa) put together”, as Plato specifically affirms.

  These sunken areas are at best only 1/20 (or 5%) of the total area given by Plato, as we show further below, with actual maps of the sunken region to prove our case. This is an insignificant proportion, which can be wholly dismissed in practice. As such, it might be forgotten and dismissed as of no consequence for the history of Atlantis which we are attempting to recover here.

  The Many Islands Ahead

  With this, we turn to another problem: the one of “the many islands ahead”. Where, may we ask, are the many islands ahead of Ireland and Tartessos and similar locations which would have helped sailors to cross to the Outer Continent ahead, the Americas? The only islands on the way to America departing from the British Shelf are the ones of Newfoundland and those of the Caribbean Sea.

  But these are in America, and are only reached after one actually arrived in Plato’s “opposite continent”. So, they did not really help much in crossing to America, as Columbus found out. It is true that the Azores are about midway to America, and could hence help the crossing.

  But such is not the case at all. One of Columbus’ predecessors, Martin Behaim – who attempted to reach the East Indies via the west even before the great explorer himself – actually attempted to make a landfall in the Azores. However, the maritime currents there were headed the wrong way, and he failed, being shipwrecked and almost dying in his failed attempt.

  Columbus learnt this lesson very well. Instead, he departed not from Spain, but from the Canaries, rather than the Azores, taking advantage of the North Equatorial Current which circumvents the doldrums of the Sargasso Sea, and in fact helps the difficult crossing quite a bit. It is highly likely that the explorer had learnt the trick from ancient sources now lost or hidden in the secret vaults of Sagres School.

  However, the Canaries can hardly be said to lie “ahead of the way” there. Actually, they are inconveniently off the way, as can be seen in a map. Such is particularly the case for sailors departing from the British Shelf region or the North Sea and heading for North America.

  Most of these islands on the way – the fabled “Atlantic islands” – were ardently sought for centuries by hundreds of explorers, and never found except as actual misnomers such as Brazil (Ys Brazil) and Argentina, (Argyre, “the lan
d of silver”); Septe Cidades (Antilia); San Brandán; Satanazes; Roillo; Salvaggia; Capraria; Madeira; etc..

  Where are these islands to be found now, but as sore mistakes? We will return to this subject when we discuss the “Atlantic isles” as possible candidates for Atlantis further below.

  Is the Atlantic Ocean – so much smaller than the Pacific – indeed to be considered the “True Ocean” to which Plato specifically refers twice in a row in his texts on Atlantis? Why would it be so named if it is not really the site of Lost Atlantis?

  Sadly, the Internet site of Viatcheslav Koudriavtsev, the eminent Russian who so cogently proposed the Celtic Shelf and even led an expedition to the place, went off the air for some undisclosed reason. The more people engaged in the hunt for Atlantis, the faster the Lost Continent will be discovered, charted, researched and brought back to life in all its former glory.

  Maybe the real reason was that nothing worthwile was found on the Celtic Shelf, despite Koudriavtsev’s high hopes. It is also possible that he later found out that the Russian authorities who helped him out in the expedition were more interested in espionage than in really researching Atlantis. Life is hard, these Kali Yuga days...

  The Celtic Shelf is actually rather small, as can be seen in the map linked above. See also the interesting article that comments this issue here. Its area is roughly equivalent to the one of the Iberian Peninsula, as can be seen in the map just linked. The area of that region is only about 500,000 km2, roughly 1/20 (or 5%) of the area given by Plato for the size of the sunken continent of Atlantis. ↑100

  The actual area of the Celtic Shelf that was really subaerial in the Ice Age is far smaller (the 130 to 150 meter isobath, technically speaking), and is hence quite unlikely to have been a fit site for the Lost Continent of Atlantis, whose size is obviously far larger than this.