Atlantis the Lost Continent Finally Found

by Arysio Santos

  Moreover, this legend also passed to Greece and Rome far earlier than that, another evidence of the utter impossibility of the relatively recent date in question here. No matter what, except for this delusion, Wohletz’ computer simulation of the Krakatoa’s supereruption is a peerless masterpiece of detailed information on this important matter.

  And so is his article on it, just linked above. As can be seen in this article, there are several distinct calderas of the Krakatoa, obviously attesting several different prehistoric supereruptions of the terrible volcano, some possibly simultaneous or mutually triggered in a serial paroxysm. We eagerly anticipate their actual dating by some reliable method, perhaps sedimentological or in situ.

  One should also observe in his article, the giant size of the “pillar of fire and smoke” which normally attend this kind of supereruption. It is this giant “pillar” – fully 50 kilometers high and 150 kilometers across – which gives the name of “Pillar of Heaven” to these singular geological features.

  No one who closely studies the magnificent simulations of the Krakatoa prehistoric supervolcanic eruptions presented in that article and pauses to ponder them over will, we are sure, fail to realize the real nature of these giant “pillars” and “umbrellas” of which the ancient myths so insistently speak.

  By the way, some experts write “Krakatau”, where others prefer to write “Krakatoa”. Which is the preferable form of the name? It is true that the Indonesian name of the famous volcano is Krakatau. But the European form is Krakatoa, a name which allegedly resulted from a misunderstanding on the part of a journalist working on its formidable eruption of 1883. This large eruption was the one that caused a giant tsunami which caused the death of fully 40,000 people (and probably many more) directly and due to its terrible aftereffects.

  The name of the Krakatoa apparently derives from the Sanskrit krakača, meaning “saw” or “sword”. This Sanskrit word ultimately derives from the Dravida krakaśa, also meaning the same. It is quite possible that the journalist who spelled the name as “Krakatoa” learnt it from a native using the more vernacular form krakaśa, which resembles “krakatoa” more than “krakatau”.

  As is clear, the Indonesian language merely uses a corrupt form of the ancient Indian name of the volcano. And why should one actually prefer the Indonesian form over the other, more vernacular one also obtained from a local language perhaps directly derived from Dravida or Sanskrit?

  Be that as it may, it seems more reasonable to me to cling to the now more usual form of the name, “Krakatoa”, as most experts have done. And the above etymology actually shows that its name and concept both date from a hoary antiquity, when these sacred languages of India were still spoken in the whole region of Indonesia. This evidence is further proof of the geological fact we just stated: the separation of Java and Sumatra by a giant explosion of the Krakatoa volcano long precedes the date given by David Keys and Ken Wohletz.

  The above curious etymology of “saw” or “sword” apparently refers to the fact that the Krakatoa eruption actually separated Java from Sumatra, as if cut off by the action of a saw or a sword. This separation of the two islands is told in a great many myths of this and other regions. One is the legend of Hercules opening the Pillars of Hercules which, as we already saw, ultimately derives from the Indonesian historic traditions. Another is the Rigvedic myth on Indra opening up the bellies of mountains which we quoted further above.

  Still another connected myth concerns the tradition of the Split Mountain of Paradise which we comment in more detail in Part III of the present book. In Mesopotamian mythology this myth concerns Mt. Mashu, whose name means precisely “Split Mountain”. It was from this mountain that the sun (Shamash) was said to rise daily, in order to start the new day.

  All this is of course an allegory of the successive Atlantean fiery cataclysms and the eras (“days”) they decree. Curiously enough, Shamash, the sun, emerges from the Split Mountain with a saw in his hand. So, the connection with the Krakatoa volcano is very hard to deny, unless a better explanation is offered. This type of motif also figures in the Bible in the myth of Jahveh splitting, with his sword or scimitar, Leviathan or Rahab. ↑030

  This seamonster is the primordial serpent which the Hindus call Ahi or Shesha. And this serpent is an alias of the volcano itself so imaged because it sheds long threads of whitish pumice stone. This passage is quoted in full above, in the main text, and needs no repetition here. And its context is clearly connected with the Flood and the mass migrations it caused.

  This curious Jewish myth is now known to have been copied from Phoenician and/or Mesopotamian mythology concerning Aleyan Baal, the mighty god who also performed a similar feat. Aleyan Baal is an alias of Hercules (Baal), so that these parallels are most perfect. But the clinching argument is afforded by the actual form of Indonesia in the region of Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra.

  This region is the very one where the Krakatoa volcano exists now submerged under the waters of Sunda Strait. As can be seen in this map here, the land in the region resembles a giant with his sword (or saw) raised, in the act of sundering Java and Sumatra in the region corresponding to the Krakatoa volcano, the “saw”. How can one scientifically account for, by means of empirically verifiable causes, such uncanny coincidences except as the result of diffusion from one place to another, even if academic opinion – so often erroneous – opposes this view? ↑031

  Endnotes to Part III

  5 In the Subject Index, at the end of the present book, we present a short Atlantean Glossary on certain of these essential terms used by Plato in connection with Atlantis. This glossary briefly glosses each term listed, but is far from thorough or complete. It briefly covers the essential terms having an initiatic character which were used as double entendres by the great philosopher; words such as “ocean”, “island”, “opposite”, “outer continent”, “Atlantic Ocean”, “earthquake”, “flood”, “mud”, etc..

  In the text that follows we also gloss some of the terms which we deem essential for a proper understanding of Plato’s texts. This explanation is extremely important for all who strive to understand what the prince of philosophers really meant by words and names such as these, when he used them in connection with Atlantis. After all, words change in the course of time, so that these terms all had, in his time, a meaning which is often radically different from what they mean nowadays.

  The reader is also advised to research these terms and keywords in full, either on the Internet or in specialized treatises, glossaries and encyclopedias. Plato really wrote for the members of his Academy. Plato’s disciples and colleagues were all initiates. When dealing with matters having to do with initiatic issues such as the secret of the Mysteries, Plato invariably used these double entendres and wordplays so that, while the profanes understood something, the initiates understood quite something else.

  This procedure was standard in Greece with myths, initiatic sagas and romances such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, not to mention their many counterparts everywhere. For instance, what Plato and other ancients really meant when they said that “the island of Atlantis lay opposite to the Pillars of Hercules” is nearly universally understood to signify that Atlantis lay just ahead of Gibraltar Strait. But such is not the case at all, factually speaking, for a series of reasons which are easy to understand.

  First, there were a great many “Pillars of Hercules”, some inside, some outside the Mediterranean Sea. Even the Indian and the Pacific Oceans had their own “Pillars of Hercules”. Second, the Greek word actually used by Plato (pro) may also mean “antipodal”, rather than “opposite, facing, in front of”. So, while the profanes got the wrong message, the true initiates understood the correct one, the idea of “antipodal”.

  We will return to this interesting topic further below. Again, when Plato referred to the “True Ocean” (or “Western Ocean”, “Outer Ocean” or “Atlantic Ocean”) he really meant not what we now understand by that term, but the “Wor
ld Ocean” now so named, the sum total of all interlinked oceans. Even more exactly, by “Atlantic Ocean”, Plato (and other ancients) usually meant the Pacific Ocean, rather than the Atlantic Ocean of today, deemed to be the eastwards extension of this “true ocean” then known from the east alone.

  The name of the Atlantic Ocean – which eventually got permanently transferred to what we presently call by that name – is actually a misnomer

  resulting from some confusions we discuss in more detail next. And this confusion mainly resulted from the fact that most ancients ignored the existence of America, believing, much as did Columbus and other navigators, that the Atlantic Ocean now so-called extended all the way to the East Indies, where they well knew that the formerly paradisial “Atlantic Island” was actually located.

  The very word “ocean” – originally derived from the Greek okeanos – ultimately comes from the Sanskrit aśayana and means “round-going”, that is, “going around the earth, in a circle”. This name alone should serve to prove our thesis sufficiently. But there is more, much more to it. As Plato affirms in his famous dialogues on the Lost Continent, Solon learnt the history of Atlantis from the Egyptian priests, and translated the names and corresponding geographical and geological features from that tongue into the Greek one.

  Plato also adds that the Egyptians in turn did the same when they originally learnt the history of Atlantis from some undisclosed source whose identity he most unfortunately declines to specify. And we have, after a great many years of dedicated study, been able to identify this undisclosed source to India and its two main sacred languages, Sanskrit and Dravida. India’s sacred traditions and holy books are both vast and extremely rich and detailed, particularly in what concerns the myth of Paradise Lost.

  This serendipitous discovery has allowed us to reconstruct in detail not only the initiatic message of Plato’s and similar texts on Atlantis, but even the geological and climatological reality of the sobering events the great philosopher so convincingly narrates. From then on, our work was mainly of “reverse engineering”, reconstructing what the philosopher and others ancient authorities (Indian included) really meant by their cryptic myths, their sagas and their pseudohistorical narratives.

  Were it not for this important discovery of ours, we would never have been able to decode these secrets and, even less, realized the unique geological reality of Atlantis’ demise and its connection with Eden and the Flood. The very universality of these myths serves to prove their hoary age and the Pleistocenic date of their occurrence, which of necessity took place before the Beringian Passage got closed by the rise in sea level.

  In the present chapter we also comment in some detail the issue of Taprobane, the true archetype of the “Atlantic Islands” or “Isles of the Blest”. These islands were of old believed to be the remainders of Atlantis as both the paradisial abode of the blessed elects and the site of Hell itself. These islands were in fact the highlands of Atlantis, the mountains which remained emerse when the huge continent sank under the rising waters of the ocean at the end of the Ice Age, some 11,600 years ago.

  Curiously enough, this is the exact date of the Atlantean cataclysm quoted by Plato, an uncanny coincidence, to say the least. The divine philosopher also specifically identifies this cataclysm with the Universal Flood, in a way which leaves little room for doubting the reality of the global disaster. In the present chapter we also collect and amplify the material on the Isles of the Blest and on the “Atlantic Islands”, of which the island of Taprobane was perhaps the most important of all in antiquity.

  Taprobane is even today believed to have been the actual site of Paradise Lost by the Hindus. Hence its great importance to all of us who seek Atlantis’ whereabouts now that we know that the Lost Continent was in fact the site of Paradise Lost. The Dravidian Hindus also know this sunken continent by the name of Kumari Kandam, and affirm to have come from there, in the dawn of time, when it sank away, at the end of the last Ice Age, some 11,600 years ago.

  In the present chapter we also review the many sites for Atlantis so far proposed by previous researchers, over the centuries. For the older authorities, our text is based in the detailed review of the subject made by L. Sprague de Camp, a great researcher of the theme of Atlantis. The themes of Atlantis, the Flood, and Paradise Lost have undergone a considerable revival in recent times, perhaps fostered by our own research on the matter, which opened new trends and new geologically tenable possibilities for Atlantology as a whole.

  In consequence, a great number of authors – several of whom are accredited academics and scientists – have been writing on the Lost Continent and related matters. Many of these Atlantologists, some serious, some mere hoaxers, have published their research on the Internet, which holds literally hundreds of articles and homepages describing their claimed finds and allegations. We also include these modern authors in our list and in the present critical review in order, above all, to orient the average reader on the often questionable validity of their claims concerning Atlantis and its possible location.

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  6 We note that the curve on the site just linked records rises of 30 meters and more in under a few centuries or so. How much under is hard to tell from the data in question. In fact, the rise must have been far faster in order to cause the tropical corals to drown, rather than build up at the measure that sea level rose. For all we know, these rises may have been essentially instantaneous, due to meltwater pulses or massive Heinrich Events. Compare, f. i., the graph here, where the large rise at 11,600 years ago is virtually instantaneous. ↑122

  This sudden rise corresponds to what is technically known as MWP1B (Meltwater Pulse 1B), which is an essentially instantaneous massive injection of glacier meltwater. The cause of this pulse is uncertain, and is perhaps due to the breakaway of dammed lakes of glacier meltwater or, more likely, the carrying off to the sea of huge flotillas of icebergs, perhaps by giant tsunamis or similar maritime invasions.

  We note that MWP1B probably caused the abrupt flooding away of the Sunda Shelf, as commented in this recent scientific article here. This sea level rise of 30 meters or more is known to have occurred within one or two centuries at most, and was very probably essentially instantaneous in nature. As the article just linked (and others related to it) shows, the whole of the Sunda Shelf was suddenly flooded by MWP1B; assuming its maritime character then, to become the South China Sea. ↑123

  The reader should observe that this meltwater pulse occurred at the exact date specified by Plato, of 11,600 BP [Before Present]. Hence, ordinary commonsense, as well as standard scientific practice (Ockham’s Razor) require that we at least attempt to identify the two events. We also note that the article in question also demonstrates that this cataclysmic flooding of the Sunda Shelf resulted from the opening of Sunda Strait, which connected the Sunda Shelf with the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

  The catastrophic opening of Sunda Strait was probably due to a giant eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, perhaps the very one which actually triggered MWP1B. This giant eruption broke off the Antarctic glaciers by means of the giant tsunami it caused in the Indian Ocean. At least one research team – that of Peter Clark from Oregon State University and colleagues – has concluded that the source of this MWP was the Antarctic glaciers and that the event is somehow connected with the flooding of the Sunda Shelf. Cf. also here and here and here and here and here and here. ↑124

  The cause and nature of this catastrophic event is still unexplained. So, it is tempting to identify these two simultaneous events with each other: the opening of Sunda Strait by the giant volcanism and the MWP1B, both of which occurred at the exact date given by Plato. We believe that we have the explanation of the events which led to the catastrophic end of the last Pleistocene Ice Age, which also took place at the exact date given by Plato: 11,600 years ago. We present a brief outline of the main geological events leading to the abrupt flooding of the lowlands of the Indonesian region here:

&
nbsp; 1) A supervolcanic eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, attended by caldera formation and the opening of Sunda Strait, created a giant tsunami in the Indian Ocean. This giant wave broke off the Antarctic glaciers, which then extended up to South Africa and Tasmania. Sea level then rose abruptly, by 30 meters and more (MWP1B) as these ice shelves drifted off to warmer seas.

  2) The resulting crustal stresses of enormous potency caused by this extra water then triggered a veritable chain reaction of giant tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanisms, which fast destroyed the glaciers both on land and on sea. This is a positive feedback process which quickly led to the end of the Ice Age. The rafting of the North American glaciers was probably the consequence of the giant maritime invasions caused by these giant tsunamis.

  3) The sudden flooding of the Sunda Shelf by the sea would be most disastrous to the people living on the whole expanse. It would flood the entire region, swamping out the paddy fields, and hence destroying the extensive rice crops and food sources of Atlantis mentioned by Plato.

  4) As a consequence of this disastrous flooding, people would be deprived of their staple food, rice, and would starve en masse, in one of the greatest catastrophes ever to hit humankind. Such major human disasters are now welldocumented, and can hardly be denied anymore. The recent disaster in Indonesia – one of the greatest ever, killing fully 400,000 people or even more – is proof sufficient that this whole region is disaster prone, and is periodically devastated by such major catastrophes since the remotest past.