An A-Z Guide To The Search For Plato's Atlantis

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  • NEWS September 2023

    NEWS September 2023

    September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we move to Sicily and Malta. The trip is purely vacational. Unfortunately, I am writing this in a dreadful apartment, sitting on a bed, with access to just one useable socket and a small Notebook. Consequently, I possibly will not […]Read More »
  • Joining The Dots

    Joining The Dots

    I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
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Robert Sarmast

Bates, Robert Stanley

Robert Stanley Bates is a retired US naval officer. He is a supporter of Robert Sarmast’s theories that Atlantis and a/the Garden of Eden had been situated in the Eastern Mediterranean in the region of Cyprus. In 2004, Bates was the expedition leader to the suspected site of the First Garden of Eden/Atlantis. In 2006 he was the consultant to the History Channel for the second expedition in their lead story for its “Digging for the Truth” series.

Although very little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years, in two papers in 2014(a) and 2017(b) Bates attempted to breathe new life into Sarmast’s ideas(a) with a claim of fresh evidence. This new support is the 1978 claim of Yaakov Petrovitch Malovitskiy (1932-2002) that the Levantine Basin was a sunken continent. In my opinion, Malovitskiy’s claim along with Bates’ rehashing of much of Sarmast’s arguments fails to locate Atlantis and/or the Garden of Eden.

>In April 2022, it appeared that Sarmast was once again trying to resurrect interest in his Cypriot Atlantis location(c). I have not had this report confirmed. However, I now see that Bates is due to have a short book [1961] published in February 2023 entitled The Eden-Atlantis Project which puts forward the case for a third expedition to find Eden/Atlantis near Cyprus. This proposed expedition is apparently to be led by Bates, now promoted to commodore, with minimal reference to Sarmast(d).<

(a) https://squarecircles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstEdenAnalysis.pdf

(b) EAP-Essay-FINAL.pdf (evolving-souls.org)

(c) https://www.travelmole.com/news/atlantis-discovered-near-cyprus/ *

(d) http://edenatlantisproject.org/ *

Gielow, Robert L.

Robert L. Gielow is a retired American aeronautical engineer and a fundamentalist Gielow_ImageChristian. In his latter capacity, he has written Noah’s Flood[808], which is an attempt to offer a technical justification for accepting the literal reality of the biblical seven days of creation and>Noah’s Ark. He dates the Deluge to 2300 BC(a).<

Not content with advocating one lost cause he devotes a chapter to Atlantis in which he jumps on the slowing bandwagon of Robert Sarmast’s* ‘Atlantis off the coast Cyprus’ theory. He fails to apply any critical thinking to Sarmast’s ideas and accepts them in the same unquestioning manner with which he embraces a literal interpretation of Genesis.

(a) (20+) Robert L. Gielow | Facebook<

Sarmast, (Robert) Behzad *

(Robert) Behzad Sarmast is an Iranian-American and an architect by profession. He abandoned his career to pursue his lifelong passion for ancient history. He is the author of a book[535], in which he controversially places Atlantis near Cyprus. His website(a) has an interesting collection of maps and diagrams. Coincidentally, the Urantia Book had previously identified a site in the Eastern Mediterranean as the location of Atlantis. Their description matches closely the underwater topography of Sarmast’s site and the

However, a 2016 sermon by Sarmast on the Urantia religion was published online

RobertSarmast_smUrantians have not been slow to exploit this coincidence(b). However, the link between Sarmast and the Urantians has not been actively admitted, although Sarmast’s publisher, Byron Belitsos, revealed that Urantian funding had been used to obtain the 3D computer modelling of the underwater topography of the seafloor off Cyprus where Sarmast claims Atlantis was located. In October and November 2008 several blogs appeared under the name of Robert Sarmast(c). The content of these is religious in tone, although they make some references to Atlantis. However, a 2016 sermon by Sarmast on the Urantia religion was published online.

In 2003 Sarmast compiled a list of similarities between Plato’s description of Atlantis and the Urantia Book’s ‘Garden of Eden’(d).

Sarmast organised an expedition in late 2004 that produced ‘evidence’ of manmade structures, including two ‘walls’ over 3 km long. The site is about seventy miles east of Cyprus towards Syria. At a press conference to announce his discoveries Sarmast was challenged by, Michel Morrisseau, a French geologist who lives on Cyprus, to prove that the Mediterranean had been inundated more recently than the conventionally accepted five million years.  Sarmast had no convincing response. However, after that he attempted to bolster his views with the unsupported assertion that earliest geographers knew of the breaching of the Gibraltar Dam and that ancient traditions had it that Hercules used his giant mace to smash open the Dam and allow the Atlantic to flood the Mediterranean and so led to the association of Hercules with Gibraltar.

Much more work must be done before Sarmast can rightfully claim that he has discovered Atlantis. In the meanwhile, raise funds for the next expedition, his website sought to charge a monthly fee to provide interested ‘members’ with additional information on the preparations for the second expedition. This took place in 2006 with inconclusive results.

Sarmast returned to Cyprus in June 2011 to film a documentary in support of his theory. He had support from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation as well as the History Channel together with some private investors. Filming took place during the Kataklysmos Festival which interestingly celebrates the Deluge and/or Flood of Deucalion.

Since 2013, almost nothing further has been heard from Sarmast, his blogspot(c) is empty and there are no updates on the Discovery of Atlantis website(a)! It is informative to contrast today’s silence with the rhetoric of the initial 2003 press release(e).

However, in 2014, Sarmast had the more than dubious honour of being included in the online Encyclopedia of American Loons(h).

The Arysio dos Santos website offers a critical review of Sarmast’s book(g). Benny Peiser was even more disparaging, describing Sarmast’s claim as The Great Atlantis Hoax(i) on his CCNT network in 2004.

Although very little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years two papers in 2014(k) and 2017(j) by Robert S. Bates attempted to breathe new life into Sarmast’s idea that the Mediterranean region around Cyprus had been home to both Atlantis and a/the Garden of Eden.

(a) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20180417053508/https://discoveryofatlantis.com/

(b) The theory of evolution What scientists believe it is and isn`t (archive.org) *

(c)https://robertsarmast.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

(d) https://web.archive.org/web/20180710105515/https://www.squarecircles.com/articles/atlantiseden.htm

(e) https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/30/1064819881656.html

(f) https://urantiareligion.com/transcript-for-urantia-religion-video/ {link broken May 2020}

(g) Archive 3327

(h) https://americanloons.blogspot.ie/2014/07/1109-robert-sarmast.html

(i) https://www.livescience.com/amp/91-claimed-discovery-atlantis-called-completely-bogus.html

(j) EAP-Essay-FINAL.pdf (evolving-souls.org) *

(k) https://squarecircles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstEdenAnalysis.pdf *

From Atlantis to the Sphinx (L)

From Atlantis to the Sphinx: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of the Ancient World [335] by Colin Wilson, presents the idea that the inhabitants of Atlantis were the precursors of the ancient Egyptians as well as the Maya and Aztecs. He perceives Atlantis as a seafaring nation with worldwide reach. He contends that Atlantis was originally located in Antarctica and was destroyed in a worldwide catastrophe. This theme is developed further in a second book[063] that Wilson co-authored with Rand Flem-Ath. More recently Wilson has altered his views and supported Robert Sarmast’s claim for Atlantis being located off Cyprus.

To support an extended antiquity for Egypt, he outlines evidence for a 10500 BC construction date for the legendary Sphinx. Unfortunately, most of the material is a re-working of information to be found elsewhere.

Flem-Ath, Rand & Rose

Rand Flem-Ath

Rand and Rose Flem-Ath live in British Columbia, Canada. Both are librarians and have spent several years in the British Museum assembling evidence that they believe supports their contention that Antarctica was the home of Plato’s Atlantis. Together they wrote a highly controversial book,  When the Sky Fell [0062], promoting the Antarctic location, which included an Introduction by the late Colin Wilson.

In 2000, Rand published his second book[063], co-authored with Colin Wilson on the subject of ancient civilisations including Atlantis. However, Wilson subsequently changed his views and switched his support to Robert Sarmast’s theory of Atlantis being located off Cyprus. Wilson revealed later, in a 2007 edition of From Atlantis to the Sphinx [p381], that he was unhappy with the final content of The Atlantis Blueprint stating that “it did not represent his views” and wrote an account in Fortean Times(f) of how that book evolved.

In 2014, the Flem-Aths published Killing Moses[1090], which is a speculative account of the life and particularly the death of Moses, even identifying his killer(e)(g). Their narrative builds on ideas originally expressed by Sigmund Freud [1091]. In 2017, they published From Atlantis to the Promised Land 1594], which is a recycling of a variety of material already published by them over the past forty years. Rose Flem-Ath is also a thriller writer[297].

The Flem-Aths used to maintain an interesting and well-illustrated website(a). It recently included a paper on their theory of crustal displacement written over twenty years ago(d).

Professor Steven Earle at the Geology Department of Malaspina University in British Columbia uses the Flem-Ath’s Crustal Displacement hypothesis as the basis for his students to write an essay on its inconsistency with our current understanding of crustal and mantle processes(b).>Geologist Paul Heinrich offers a number of flaws in the claims of the Flem-Aths, particularly relating to glacial evidence that they have used to justify their Pole Shift contentions.(h)<Further criticism of the Flem-Aths work is offered by David L. Mohn(c), a Christian writer.

A new revised and expanded hardcopy edition of When the Sky Fell, entitled Atlantis Beneath the Ice, was published in 2012[981].

To put the Flem-Ath theory in its historical context see my Antarctica entry, where I show that they were not the first to suggest the southern pole as the location of Atlantis, a distinction that belongs to Roberto Rengifo, nearly a century ago.

(a) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20170720023341/https://www.flem-ath.com/

(b)  Wayback Machine (archive.org)  

(c) https://web.archive.org/web/20141005025030/http:/www.ccs-hk.org:80/DM/pyramids/Atlantis.html or See Archive 2858 

(d) See Archive 2893

(e) https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors/fatal-secret-jesus-took-jerusalem-002820?utm_source=Ancient-Origins+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b13875770a-Top_Trending_Stories_June_No1_REAL_6_7_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dcd13de15-b13875770a-85158329

(f) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20190107190740/https://subscribe.forteantimes.com/

(g) Atlantis Rising magazine #110  At – PDF Archive *

(h) https://www.hallofmaat.com/earth-crustal-displacement/paleoclimatic-reconstructions-and-scandinavian-and-scottish-ice-sheets/ *

Discovery of Atlantis

Discovery of Atlantis [535] by Robert Sarmast presents a determined argument for locating  Atlantis close to the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. The author claims to have used nearly fifty clues from the works of Plato to pinpoint an area south of Cyprus in waters a mile deep.

However, there is one fundamental weakness with his theory, namely, that the depth at which his proposed site is located (1,650 metres) would have required a Gibraltar Dam and desiccation of the Mediterranean within human memory, which is more recent than conventional wisdom currently allows. It would seem more cost-effective to invest in an in-depth review of the evidence for an inundation of the Mediterranean within historical times before engaging in an expensive underwater expedition.

Using new scientific data, Sarmast has offered a number of 3-D bathymetric maps of this underwater site that can be matched to the topographical descriptions offered by Plato. The author presents his hypothesis as superior to any previously proposed location.

Sarmast is convinced that a fully equipped diving expedition will confirm his belief with clear images of buildings and artefacts. An expedition in late 2004 produced further images that Sarmast claims to indicate structures matching Plato’s description. There was an immediate claim by a German physicist, Christian Huebscher that the features in question were underwater volcanoes that he had previously surveyed [the text should have read as ‘mud volcanoes’ rather than ‘underwater volcanoes’]. Sarmast responded with a demand that Huebscher proves that the particular mound that he identified as the acropolis of Atlantis was a mud volcano.

The book and the associated website(a) are well illustrated and a new theory for students of the Atlantis mystery to consider. Recently, Sarmast has received support from Colin Wilson who previously supported an Antarctic location for Atlantis.

The believers in the Urantia Book have received unexpected support from Sarmast’s claims as their ‘holy book’ had identified Cyprus as the location of one of its two ‘Gardens of Eden’ in the eastern Mediterranean.

(a) https://web.archive.org/web/20190511040418/http:/www.discoveryofatlantis.com:80/

Diaz-Montexano, Georgeos

Georgeos DiazMontexano (1966- ) is the nom de plume of Cuban-born Jorge Diaz Sanchez. He has been exploring off the coast of southern Spain and Gibraltar for evidence of Atlantis. He is the founder of the Civilisations Origins Scientific Society and is a diaz-montexanoleading advocate for the Afro-Iberian location theory. He contends that Atlantis was only partially submerged and that parts of it, which remained above water, are now to be found in southwest Spain and northern Morocco.

Jacques Collina-Girard who, the following year also opted for the Strait of Gibraltar and more specifically Spartel Island mirrored Montexano’s theory on the location of Atlantis, first expressed publicly in April 2000. Intense rivalry exists between the two men as is evident from the content of Diaz-Montexano’s websites.

More recently Diaz-Montexano has also accused Dr. Rainer W. Kühne of plagiarism(a) and for good measure threw in a few unkind words about Robert Sarmast and his identification of Cyprus as the location of Atlantis. His online debates in various forums with other writers have been frequently marred by acrimony.

Diaz-Montexano has studied the earliest versions of the Atlantis story and published a considerable amount of controversial material on the Internet relating to the accuracy of the Platonic texts that we use today. Unfortunately, the English version of this work has been poorly translated from Spanish leaving a monolingual such as myself unable to clearly understand what has been written. One of the most interesting comments(b) from Diaz-Montexano relates to his study of a 16th-century translation of Critias that in his view indicates that 9,000 was NOT the number of years recorded by Solon. His firm conclusion is that Atlantis was destroyed between 1500BC and 1300BC.

Diaz-Montexano has also unearthed a number of ancient Spanish works including a Chronicle of Zaragoza that he maintains includes a number of obvious references to a Spanish connection with Atlantis(c). Unfortunately, once again, the quality of his English makes any clear reading very difficult. The only ‘Chronicle of Zaragoza’ that I could locate was a two-page document covering the period 450–568 AD that is totally unrelated to the Atlantis question. Nevertheless, it does appear that he has discovered information that may have an important bearing on the resolution of the Atlantis mystery.

Without wishing to detract from any work that Diaz-Montexano has done, it may be no harm to point out that while he has been free with his accusations of plagiarism, he himself has been accused of fraudulently misleading the public regarding his academic qualifications(d).

In August 2012 he published the first volume of a large six-volume work, ATLANTIS <> TARTESSOS. AEGYPTIUS CODEX. Epítome de la Atlántida Histórico-Científica, devoted to arguing the case for a Iberian Atlantis. Unfortunately, this huge undertaking is only available, at least initially, in Castilian Spanish. This promises to be an important addition to Atlantean literature and Diaz-Montexano is to be congratulated for his efforts.

The first volume begins with a critical overview of recent Atlantis theories such as those of Robert Sarmast (Cyprus) and Ulf Erlingsson (Ireland) and then proceeds to analyse the texts of ancient writers wherever they refer directly or indirectly to Atlantis. He cites the original Greek texts together with a modern (Spanish) translation. This first volume is also available as an inexpensive (€1.95) Kindle ebook. July 2015 saw the publication of another Kindle book by Diaz-Montexano entitled ATLÁNTIDA Historia y Ciencia (Atlantis: History and Science)[1105] together with a synopsis online(e).

Late in 2016 will see the broadcasting of a new documentary by National Geographic concerning Atlantis in the Mediterranean. Diaz-Montexano has already been interviewed in connection with this production as has Robert Ishoy. The exact focus of the show, if there is one, is still unclear, but the involvement of James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici as co-producers has been widely publicised.

In conjunction with the filming of the new NG documentary, Diaz-Montexano has decided to publish, in English, the details of his Atlantis studies over the past decades. Available is the introduction and outline of the new book(f), NG National Geographic and the scientific search for Atlantis[1394] published in January 2017, in both English and Spanish, to coincide with the airing of the documentary at the end of that month. 

montexanong(a) eListas.net – Mis eListas: odiseo: Mensajes (archive.org) *

(b)  https://web.archive.org/web/20100118052529/https://www.campusanuncios.com/detcom-57723517X-New-Paleographical-Madrid.html

(c) https://web.archive.org/web/20170607195216/https://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Science/The_Atlantis_Chronicles_Forgotten._The_Hispano-Romans_authors._35096.html*

(d) https://www.samizdata.net/mt/93uhdy736.cgi?entry_id=4856

(e) See: Archive 2579 (English & Spanish)

(f) https://web.archive.org/web/20190517172152/https://atlantisng.com/en/

 

Cyprus

Cyprus has now been shown to have had an agricultural settlement as early as 9000 BC(c). In 2005, it was claimed that flints found on Cyprus and dated to a possible 10,000 BC, offered evidence of the earliest long-distance sea travel in contrast to earlier shore-hugging(g). I would question this, since twelve thousand years ago sea levels were much lower and landmasses in the eastern Mediterranean were more extensive removing the need for lengthy sea travel. Cyprus would have been much more easily accessible and what is now the Aegean consisted of more land than water.

Cyprus was also added to the list of possible Atlantis sites with the publication of Discovery of Atlantis[535 in 2003, which offered a radical new theory by Robert Sarmast. This theory is based principally on 3-D images of a section of the present seafloor near Cyprus. Sarmast has compiled an impressive list of similarities between Plato’s description of Atlantis and the underwater topography. He also claims to have identified a wall 3km long wall that intersects with another. A YouTube clip centred on Sarmast’s 2004 expedition is available online(i).

Although it is true to say that this is a radical theory, it is not a completely new idea as the Urantia Book(a) had already suggested an Atlantis/ Eden off the coast of Cyprus. The Urantia Book specifically claims that this Eden was a long narrow peninsula almost an island projecting westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea (Paper 73). This detail coincides remarkably with Sarmast’s claim.

Atlantis-Cyprus355I must point out, that in order to uncover this putative site, the sea level would have to be dropped 5,250 feet. Now, the only explanation for this would be the existence of at least one archaeoastronomer in the Mediterranean, probably at Gibraltar within the memory of man, a suggestion advocated by Sarmast but, crucially, without any supporting evidence. This is quite feasible, as it has been shown that the Mediterranean has dried out on a number of occasions in the past. Current orthodoxy places the last inundation of the Mediterranean by the Atlantic around five million years ago. However, Paulino Zamarro, among others, has postulated the existence of the Gibraltar Dam within human prehistory, which, if true, would add to the credibility of Sarmast’s theory. However, if the Mediterranean had dried out the result would have left Sarmast’s location with a thick salty deposit, a far cry from the fertile land described by Plato.

Supporters of Sarmast’s theory have drawn attention to the annual Festival of the Flood, an event unique to Cyprus when people in coastal towns sprinkle each other with water to commemorate the salvation of Noah.

In 2005, Philip Coppens published a review of Sarmast’s theory commenting And some of the maps he and his team of researchers have been able to get from the area in question do seem to indicate that Atlantis may indeed be located there. Though much more work is required, at least, this possibility is more hopeful than so many of the alternatives…”(h)

Nevertheless, Sarmast’s mile-deep location contradicts Plato’s description of the sunken capital of Atlantis that even in Solon’s or Plato’s time was described as existing in unnavigable shallows.

Since Plato, sea levels have only risen a few feet, not by a mile. Sarmast should have focused on demonstrating the existence of a landbridge or dam at Gibraltar or Sicily and witnessed by man. No landbridge – No Atlantis at Cyprus!

Professor Arysio dos Santos who wrote Atlantis: The Lost Continent Finally Found[320] in which he proclaimed his idea that Atlantis was located on the huge swathes of territory around Indonesia that were inundated at the end of the last Ice Age, has also written(b) a paper denouncing the claims of Robert Sarmast as “an obvious hoax and a possible scam”[0320.189]

However, Colin Wilson, who previously supported the idea of Atlantis in Antarctica[063] switched his support to the Cyprus location, which led to him writing the foreword to the 2006 expanded edition of Sarmast’s book. In 2009, Robert L. Gielow, a fundamentalist creationist, also added his endorsement to Sarmast’s theory in another book[808]. In two papers, in 2014(k) & 2017(l), Robert S. Bates offered further support to Sarmast’s location theories.

A further claim placing Atlantis south of Cyprus on a scarab-shaped underwater feature (33°N-33°E), has been made by blogger Nicolas Fenning. He has also suggested that Freemasonry, Macedonia and the Pharos Lighthouse, all have links with Atlantis. He also maintains that clues to its location were contained in DaVinci’s Last Supper(d)!

Although little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years, the idea of Atlantis near Cyprus was apparently given a boost in early 2018 when it was reported that Atlantis had been discovered off Paphos. However, any euphoria was quickly dissipated when the last lines of the report(j) were reached. *This news article was compiled from a press release issued by the CTO on April 1, which celebrates April Fool’s Day – a day where practical jokes and hoaxes are spread.”

In April 2022 it appeared that Sarmast is once again trying to resurrect interest in his Cypriot Atlantis location(m). I have not had this report confirmed.>However, I now see that Robert S. Bates, mentioned above, is due to have a short book [1961] published in February 2023 entitled The Eden-Atlantis Project which puts forward the case for a third expedition to find Eden/Atlantis near Cyprus. This proposed expedition seems to be led by Bates, now promoted to commodore, with minimal reference to Sarmast(n).<

(a) https://urantiabook.org/

(b) Statement on the Alleged Discovery of Atlantis Off Cyprus | Atlantis (archive.org)

(c)https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/05/15/Oldest-Mediterranean-island-farm-uncovered/UPI-66221337120492/ 

(d) https://atlantisrediscovered.weebly.com/atlantis-re-discovered.html

(e) https://atlantisrediscovered.weebly.com/atlantis-re-discovered-part-ii.html

(f) Archive 2775 | (atlantipedia.ie) 

(g) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Dp8xBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT33&lpg=PT33&dq=flints+on+cyprus+10,000bc&source=bl&ots=EowAYLhDa1&sig=pMQMogJeph_aR93mcXeREPBXy6A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT7aHHwurJAhWDMhoKHceDDmcQ6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=flints%20on%20cyprus%2010%2C000bc&f=false

(h) See: Archive 2934)

(i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcI7Zg0lxzA 

(j) https://cyprustraveller.com/atlantis-paphos-6828-2/  (link broken)

(k) https://squarecircles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstEdenAnalysis.pdf 

(l) EAP-Essay-FINAL.pdf (evolving-souls.org) 

(m) https://www.travelmole.com/news/atlantis-discovered-near-cyprus/ 

(n) http://edenatlantisproject.org/ *

 

Gibraltar Landbridge or Dam

A Gibraltar Landbridge or Dam is generally accepted to have existed on several occasions during the earth’s history. There is a broad consensus among geologists that the last time an enclosed and desiccated Mediterranean had its barrier to the Atlantic breached was around 5.3 million years ago. A paper by Daniel García-Castellanos on the refilling of the Mediterranean deserves a read(u).

Today, we generally think of the Strait of Gibraltar as the only gateway between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, while in fact there is evidence that millions of years ago the Strait was closed but that there were earlier access routes between the two bodies of water(n). The Betic Corridor in the north, which later became part of the Spanish Guadalquivir Basin and the Rifian Corridor in the south, in what is now Morocco(t).

However, a number of experts in different fields (noted by Van Sertima) have opted to suggest a more recent landbridge, perhaps 120,000 years ago, in order to explain some of the faunal migrations from Africa to the Iberian Peninsula[322].

When the last opening of the Mediterranean was demonstrated by Kenneth Hsu to have taken place 5.5 million years ago, the idea of a landbridge at Gibraltar being destroyed within the memory of man seemed rather unlikely. However, when I saw the bathymetric maps of the Mediterranean produced by Brosolo, Mascle & Loubrie, relating to the Younger Dryas Period, it raised new questions for me.

However, Hsu’s date for the last flooding of the Mediterranean has, understandably, found little support from young-Earth creationists, such as Lambert Dolphin(o). and Barry Setterfield, who have striven to reconcile the irreconcilable with obscure ideas, such as changes in the speed of light!

The 18th-century writer Georges-Louis Buffon speculated as early as 1749 on the existence of a Gibraltar Dam. Alexander Braghine refers[156.21] to Bishop Tollerat, a contemporary of Bory de Saint Vincent, claiming that a Gibraltar landbridge was breached by an earthquake and led to the submergence of Atlantis. Unfortunately, I have been unable to track down Tollerat.

Even popular fiction featured the idea of a Gibraltar landbridge. In 1869, Mark Twain in chapter 7 of Innocents Abroad[1123] voiced a then-current theory that there had been dry land between Gibraltar and North Africa allowing the passage northward of the so-called ‘Barbary apes’ that live on the ‘Rock’ today.

In 1921, H.G.Wells, in The Outline of History, offered a graphic, although speculative, description of the breaching of the Gibraltar Dam(g).  He wrote that “This refilling of the Mediterranean, which by the rough chronology we are employing in this book may have happened somewhen between 30,000 and 10,000 B.C., must have been one of the greatest single events in the pre-history of our race.” 

Manuel Sánchez de Ocaña was the Spanish Lieutenant General during the 1909 war in Africa. In a rare 1935 book, Accion de España en Africa(a)  (Spanish Action in Africa) he refers to the ancient isthmus that linked Spain and North Africa as well as landbridges linking Europe and America on which he believed Atlantis had been situated.

François de Sarre (1947- ) was a noted French evolutionary zoologist who proposed that a landbridge had existed at Gibraltar, which was only destroyed in relatively recent times, possibly in the second millennium BC. In support of his view, he quotes Pomponius Mela, Diodorus Siculus and Pliny. He has also published a paper, in English, supporting his opinion with a spectrum of faunal evidence(k). 

Others have ventured further and proposed that a dam existed within the experience of man and that its last destruction led to the sinking of Atlantis which many claim was located in the Mediterranean. H. S. Bellamy refers to Strato quoted by Strabo, declaring that originally the strait did not exist but that the barrier was broken through in a cataclysm. Bellamy also quotes Seneca describing how Spain was separated from Africa by earthquakes. Neither of these references could have originated without human witnesses.

Alexander Braghine also added to the idea of a relatively recent landbridge when he wrote[156.139]  We possess a whole series of records of the width of these Straits, left by ancient and medieval writers of various centuries. At the beginning of the fifth century B.C. the width was only half a mile, but the writer Euton in 400 B.C., estimated it at 4 miles; Turiano Greslio, in 300 B.C., at 5 miles; and Titus Livius, at the beginning of the Christian Era, at 7 miles. Victor Vitensa, in A.D. 400, gives the width of the Straits as equal to 12 miles, and at present it is 15 miles wide.” John Jensen offers the same information as a graphic.

C. M. Hardy subscribed to the view that there had been a dam at Gibraltar that was breached around 4500 BC with such a force that it also led to the destruction of a landbridge between Tunisia and Italy. He believed that remnants of Atlantis will be found in the seas around Greece.

C. S. Rafinesque, the famous naturalist, claimed that there was a Gibraltar landbridge that was destroyed 654 years after Noah’s Flood. These claims are to be found in chapter 14 of Vol II of The American Nations published in 1836. This volume can now be downloaded for free(e). A creationist website(i) links the breaching of the landbridge with Noah’s Deluge, which the author claims not only flooded the Mediterranean but also spilled into the Black Sea, the Red Sea and also the Persian Gulf. (see below)

floodmapfinalThe standard argument against the landbridge theory is that although the Atlantic was dramatically lower during the last Ice Age it was not sufficient to expose a land bridge between Spain and Africa at Gibraltar. However, it should be noted that the underwater sill between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean would have been much higher than now. When we consider that the breaching of a landbridge at Gibraltar would have caused an incredible flow of water through the breach (hundreds of times the flow of Niagara Falls), scouring its bottom, so that by the time the levels in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean had equalised, the erosion of the sill between them would have been considerable and when viewed today would misleadingly suggest that the Mediterranean had not have been completely cut off from the Atlantic during the last Ice Age. In the future, the consequence of this is that when (not if) the next Ice Age begins the ocean levels will have to drop even lower if the Mediterranean is to be isolated from the Atlantic once again. An example of what a sudden release of large bodies of water can do is visible in the scablands of North America, created by the breaching of the glacial dam retaining Lake Missoula.

The Spanish researcher Paulino Zamarro contends, in his 2000 book, Del Estrecho de Gibraltar a la AtlantidaGibraltar Landbridge that a Gibraltar dam was created by silting when the Atlantic was very much lower during the last Ice Age and that it lasted until 7,500 years ago when it was breached and destroyed Atlantis, which he locates in the Cyclades, with the island of Melos containing its capital city. Details of his theory can be found on the Internet(d). A larger version of Zamarro’s map is shown on the right.

Other researchers such as Constantin Benetatos maintain that this idea is supported by comments of ancient writers who suggest that at one time the Mediterranean had no existence. The philosopher Strato supported by Seneca refers to the sundering of such a dam linking Europe and Africa. The same idea was expressed by Diodorus Siculus, who said that Africa and Europe were joined and separated by Heracles. Such ideas could only have arisen if there had been a Gibraltar Dam far more recently than the conventionally accepted 5.3 million years ago. The lowering of the ocean levels at the beginning of the last Ice Age and the exposure of a landbridge or dam between Spain and Morocco would have had the effect of drying out the Mediterranean due to the fact that loss of water through evaporation in the region is greater than the amount of water from rivers that feed into it.

It is worth considering that although the catastrophic breaching of the Bosporus and consequent expansion of the Black Sea is generally accepted as fact, there are no specific legends to support it apart from a reappraisal of the Flood of Noah. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to point out that there is little by way of local myth or legend relating to the breaching of a Gibraltar Dam which is not proof that such an event did not occur.>Although, as you will see below, a number of highly regarded Arabic scholars have endorsed the idea of a breached dam at Gibraltar.<Furthermore, the area around the mouth of the Mediterranean is geologically unstable and could have been subjected to seismic activity that could have breached or even blocked the strait.

Alberto Arecchi agrees(a) with the concept of a historical land bridge at Gibraltar, but places its breach to around 2300 BC. John Jensen puts it about a millennium later and suggested that the sundering of the Gibraltar Dam was probably outward from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic(q) rather than the more generally accepted other direction. As already intimated, Constantin Benetatos also supported(b) the existence of the Gibraltar Dam.

Joseph S. Ellul the Maltese writer was probably the first modern author to link the breaching of a Gibraltar landbridge with the destruction of Atlantis, which he claims to have been located adjacent to Malta. He identifies this submergence of Atlantis by the waters of the Atlantic with Noah’s Flood. Ellul interprets Genesis 7:11, 8:2, which refers to the “fountains of the great deep” bursting forth, as a reference to the collapse of the Gibraltar Dam.

David Hatcher Childress also supports the idea of such a landbridge and has ventured a date of around 9000 BC for its collapse[620.261] and the consequent flooding of a desiccated Mediterranean.

Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, who has been searching for Atlantis off the coast of Spain and Gibraltar, has favourably referred to Zamarro’s silting theory and included the illustration, shown above, from Zamarro’s book on his websites. A further reference to silting can be read on another website(f).

When the Mediterranean eventually filled up, it is highly probable that it was then that the pressure of its waters led to the flooding of the Black Sea. It is reported that there are scouring marks at the entrance to the Black Sea that are very similar to those at Gibraltar. The date of the putative collapse of the Gibraltar Dam would therefore be marginally earlier, while the Mediterranean basins filled, than the accepted date for the breaching of the Bosporus currently calculated to have been around 5600 BC.

Robert Sarmast’s apparently dormant theory of Atlantis submerged off the coast of Cyprus under what is now a mile of water is totally dependent on the existence of a Gibraltar Dam during the last Ice Age and it being subsequently breached when the level of the Atlantic rose or the even more improbable lowering of the seafloor by a mile, as a consequence of seismic/tectonic activity in the region.

On the basis of evidence(c) offered by the quoted classical writers, the fact that sea levels rose hundreds of feet after the last Ice Age and examples of water damage to temples on elevated ground in Malta and nuraghi in Sardinia it is not unreasonable to conclude that a rupturing of a landbridge at Gibraltar within the last ten thousand year was possible if not probable.

The most dramatic suggestion regarding the creation of the Strait of Gibraltar has been offered by Terry Westerman(h), who proposed that the rupturing of the landbridge was caused by two meteor impacts.

>Finally, it is worth considering the comments of a number of respected Arabic scholars such as Al-Biruni, and Al-Mas’udi who lent support to the idea of a Gibraltar landbridge. Additionally, Al-Idrisi recounts how the Gibraltar landbridge was breached by Alexander the Great. While the introduction of Alexander, who was very highly regarded by the Arabs, is obviously a folkloric embellishment, it demonstrates an underlying belief in the existence of such an isthmus in the distant past. Adding strength to this idea is that al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar and consequently would undoubtedly have been fully aware of local traditions regarding a landbridge there in ancient times.<

However, all that must be reconciled with the scientific findings of Kenneth Hsu who dated the last opening of the Gibraltar Strait to 5.5 million years ago(m). This date has been unchallenged as far as I’m aware.

A paper published online in May 2022 would appear to contradict the idea that a landbridge blocking the Gibraltar Strait had collapsed, flooding the Mediterranean and contributing to the destruction of Atlantis.

This paper(a)  includes a map showing the gradual encroachment inland by the Mediterranean at Spain’s Pego-Olvia (opposite Ibiza), between 9000 BC and 8100 BC. This was the result of post-glacial melting of the glaciers gradually raised sea levels allowing water to slowly move inland over the flat coastal plain at a rate of about a kilometre every century. Little has changed since then, indicating that any suggested landbridge could not have been breached after 8100 BC without a more significant expansion inland by the Mediterranean. It also suggests that in a scenario where a Mediterranean Atlantis was flooded during that period and particularly during the second millennium BC, it should still be in relatively shallow waters!

(a) https://www.liutprand.it/articoliMondo.asp?id=111

(b) See: Archive 2365

(c) https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/601935/posts

(d) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20180820052424/https://www.atlantidaegeo.com/autor.html

(e) https://books.google.com.mt/books?id=8GMFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

(f) https://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_depth_of_the_Mediterranean_Sea_during_the_last_Ice_Age

(g)  https://archive.org/details/OutlineOfHistory

(h)  https://www.geoledgers.com/Europe/Gibraltar/Gibraltar.html (link broken)

(i) https://www.makesyouthinkblog.com/?m=201204 (link broken) See Archive 2536 

(k) https://www.migra(o)tion-diffusion.info/article.php?year=2015&id=477

(m) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis

(n) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014PA002719/full

(o) http://www.ldolphin.org/meddead.html

(p) Full article: Impacts of sea-level rise on prehistoric coastal communities: land use and risk perception during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in central Mediterranean Spain (tandfonline.com) 

(q) (99+) Earth’s Axis Tilt, Global Catastrophe, Breach of Gibraltar Strait and a Global Calendar Change -3,450 Years Ago | John Jensen – Academia.edu *

(r) http://www.csun.edu/~vcgeo005/Nr64Fountains.pdf 

(s) https://www.grisda.org/origins-01067  

(t) https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2014PA002719

(u) https://mappingignorance.org/2014/02/07/how-the-mediterranean-was-refilled/ 

Wilson, Colin

Colin Wilson (1931-2013) was born in Leicester, England. He has been a most prolific author with around a hundred titles to his credit. The range of early colin_wilsonsubjects that he has covered is breathtaking; from Jack the Ripper to Sex to Atlantis. A 2004 article in The Observer described him as a self-declared genius and knicker fetishist!

Initially, he was a supporter of the Minoan Hypothesis, then in 1996 he linked the controversial redating of the Sphinx by Robert Schoch, with the influence of earlier sophisticated Atlanteans. It is revealing to note that the original title of Wilson’s book was Before the Sphinx but this was altered at the insistence of his publishers(d) in order to include ‘Atlantis’ on the cover!

A few years later he was co-author with Rand Flem-Ath, the promoter of the Atlantis in Antarctica theory, of The Atlantis Blueprint[063] again promoting the idea of the Atlantean civilisation having spread to other parts of the world that is now visible in the remains of so many megalithic cultures around our planet. Wilson revealed later, in a 2007 edition of From Atlantis to the Sphinx [335]+, that he was unhappy with the final content of The Atlantis Blueprint stating that “it did not represent his views”[p381] and wrote an account in the Fortean Times(b), of how that book evolved.

Wilson joined the Sarmast expedition in October 2004, as he had then shifted his preference(d) to the Cyprus region as the location of Atlantis. He eventuallyColin Wilson found the idea of Atlantis in the Antarctic waging war against Athens, a distance of many thousands of miles, untenable. Unfortunately, this brief display of critical thinking was short-lived as he shifted his support to Cyprus as Atlantis’ location. I believe that he might have revised his position again if he had just given some consideration to Plato’s report of how the flooded Atlantis was still a hazard to shipping centuries later. Sarmast’s Cyprus site is in water over a mile deep and could never have been a shipping hazard!

In 2006 Wilson continued[336] his support for Sarmast but added a new dimension with the claim on the cover notes that ‘the Neanderthals had been the civilising force behind Atlantis’. However, in his earlier book [335.390], he stated clearly that he was “not suggesting there was some connection between Atlantis and Neanderthal man”. Perhaps the cover notes were just a concoction of Wilson’s publisher.

At best, Wilson’s book, Atlantis and the Kingdom of the Neanderthals can be described as disappointing. Laura Knight-Jadczyk goes further, classifying it as ’embarrassing’(c).

>Stelios Pavlou has noted(e) that in 2001, Peter Jakubowski published a paper Atlantis of the Neanderthals, in which he argues that Atlantis was a Neanderthal civilization that was destroyed in 4804 BC’.” In 2014, Jakubowski revised and expanded the paper into an ebook titled Atlantis of the Neanderthals [1970] with the subtitle of Colin Wilson Corrected, which is offered as a review of Wilson’s book but is more of a promo for Jakubowski’s own ideas of unified physics (naturics)

Pavlou also noted that Jakubowski formerly supported the notion of Atlantis in Sicily and Malta. It is unclear if this is still the case as all mentions of Sicily and Malta were removed in the book’s  recent revision.”<

[335]+ Available online: https://archive.org/details/FromAtlantisToTheSphinx.ColinWilson 

(b) https://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/5167/a_100000yearold_civilisation.html (offline November 2015)

(c) https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RZWH2PZ425PJW

(d) See Archive 2719

(e) Peter Jakubowski – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)  *