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NEWS October 2024
October 2024 Hi to everyone I’m taking a break during the first two weeks of October, so there will be minimal activity on the site apart from the ongoing project of replacing broken links. Back Soon, Tony September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we […]Read More »
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 »
Giuliani, Charles
Charles Giuliani is an American talk show host(c), often espousing right-wing causes, particularly anti-semitism(d). In 2008, he published An Alternative View of The Distant Past [1969] in which he supported the idea of the Richat Structure in Mauritania as the location of the city of Atlantis.
He quotes Plato’s description of Atlantis being 14.5 miles (23.3km) in diameter which according to Giuliani “corresponds perfectly” with Richat. Unfortunately, Richat is at least 40km in diameter(b); which means that Richat is nearly three times the area of Plato’s Atlantis!
Giuliani, who is not a geologist, was quick to dismiss the professionally accepted explanation that the feature was a naturally eroded salt dome. He also rejected the assessment of qualified geologists who date the origins of the circular ‘structure’ to millions of years ago(a).
His non-conformist views were compounded by his claim that Atlantis was destroyed around 9600 BC. For various reasons, this early date must be rejected. First of all, the distance from Richat to Athens is 3,000-4,000km depending on the route taken and while a sea route would appear to be the easier way to get there, in the 10th millennium BC, archaeology has so far found nothing more seaworthy than dugout canoes, not ideal for major seaborne invasions. So, Plato’s Giuliani’s Atlanteans had to paddle their way up the Atlantic coast of Morocco and then traverse the length of the Mediterranean before making their way to Athens, only to find that the Athenian army would not be able to turn up for another five thousand years and then suffered the indignity of being defeated by these non-existent Athenians. Similarly, a structured society did not exist in Egypt until the 5th millennium BC and like Athens, was not available for invasion around 9600 BC.
The date of the Atlantean War is one of the key details that has not been definitively resolved within Atlantology and is an aspect of Plato’s narrative that has provided Atlantis critics with ammunition!
See: Dating Atlantis
(a) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1464343X14000971
(b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure