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

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    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 »
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    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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a. petit

Libya *

Libya, referred to as Ta Tenehu, is first mentioned in Egyptian texts around 1200 BC, when the name was applied to a relatively small district in the western Nile delta. Unfortunately, the Libya mentioned by Plato and other early writers is not geographically delineated with any degree of clarity. This is just another example of the unintentional ambiguity that is common in the writings of classical authors. Sometimes Libya appears to refer to all of Africa while at other times it is just the name for the land immediately to the west of Egypt. Robert Temple[736.414] quotes Percy Newberry, who referred to the variety of meanings applied to the term Libya by different ancient commentators. Temple also offers evidence that North Africa was a fertile region as late as 2500 BC.

Tribes of LibyaHerodotus stated that there were only three continents, Europe, Asia and Libya and that the latter was surrounded by sea except where it joins Asia (Bk IV.42). He also mentions that the names of all the Greek gods came from Egypt except Poseidon who came from Libya where he had always been worshipped (Bk II.50). This is interesting since Plato pronounced Poseidon the founder of Atlantis.

Ancient Libya had a megalithic culture, the remnants of which can be seen in the likes of the Terrgurt valley where “there had been originally no less than eighteen or twenty megalithic trilithons, in a line, each with its massive altar placed before it” according to H. S. Cowper, a 19th-century explorer[1566.279].

In the context of the Atlantis story Plato declares that Atlantis was ‘greater’ than Libya and Asia together. On the face of it, this might appear to be a geographical comparison,>but it has been shown that the Greek word ‘meizon’ which was used had a primary meaning of ‘greater’ or ‘more powerful’ rather than larger according to the respected lexicon of Liddell & Scott.<

An English Professor of History, P.B.S. Andrews has suggested that Plato may have misread Solon’s notes and used the word for ‘larger than’ instead of ‘midway between’ where there is a difference of only one letter. Diego Ratti has also opted to translate meizon as ‘between’ in his 2021 book Atletenu [1821]. When challenged on his interpretation he produced a spirited defence of his position(d).

Irrespective of the exact meaning of ‘meizon’ in this text, it is quite clear from it that ancient Libya as known to Plato was a separate entity to Atlantis. Notwithstanding this, the Cyrenaica region of modern Libya has now been identified as the home of Atlantis itself(a) by an anonymous German researcher who planned to lead an expedition to their proposed site in late 2006. Based on a study of satellite images he is convinced that a 590 x 320 km plateau to the east of Benghazi (ancient Berenice) is the location of Plato’s Atlantis. This mysterious researcher, using the pseudonym ‘a. petit’, claims that this area had been a large island in ancient times. The results of that 2006 expedition are now available, in German, in book form, entitled Expedition nach Atlantis[673].

>The Penn Museum, part of the University of Pennsylvania published a paper by David O’Connor in which he offers a view of the relationship of the Libyans with the New Kingdom Egyptians.(e) The paper also indicates that the New Kingdon had territorial control deep into what was known as Marmarica providing the Egyptians with a military ‘buffer’.<

In an address[0750.419] to the 2008 Atlantis Conference, George Sarantitis quotes a number of ancient authors who describe journies in and around Libya that have led him to conclude that the flooded chotts of Tunisia and Algeria had been linked to a much enlarged Lake Chad(b) further south creating a large Libyan peninsula. This situation, he believes, pertained until the 3rd century BC when the waters dried up and eventually led to the topography we have today.

An interesting overview of the history of Libya from the earliest time can be read on the temehu.com website(c).

(a) https://www.expedition-atlantis.com/index.html

(b) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150629162542.htm

(c) https://www.temehu.com/History-of-Libya.htm 

(d) More on Atlantis between Asia and Libya (archive.org) *

(e) https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/egyptians-and-libyans-in-the-new-kingdom/

Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica is a region of North-East Libya, which takes its name from Cyrene, the principal city of the Pentapolis or ‘five cities’ in the region. Following a study of satellite photos, this area has been identified as the location of Atlantis by an anonymous German researcher, who uses the pseudonym of ‘a. petit’. His website(a) offers some interesting images and comments, as well as an on-line book, Emergency Atlantis that is available in both German and English.

The reasoning behind his hypothesis has some merit but fails on a number of crucial points. For example, regarding the size of Atlantis he questions the conventional interpretations of Plato’s text, which speak of ‘an island that was bigger than Asia and Libya together’. How could Cyrenaica, which was only part of ancient Libya, have been more extensive than Libya and Asia together? The same applies to his chosen interpretation of the passage, which is that Atlantis was more powerful than the combined might of Libya and Asia together. This is equally nonsensical as a part cannot be greater than the whole, either in power or extent.

Other matters that are not adequately addressed include the location of the Pillars of Heracles and the rather obvious fact that Cyrenaica is not submerged.

Anyhow, ‘a. petit’ has hedged his bets and accepted that even if his proposed expedition to the region did not discover Atlantis, he was convinced that, at worst, the satellite images have revealed an important archaeological site. The expedition took place in December 2006 and the results have now been published[673] in German and English(b).

>This report was quite a disappointment for me, when I realised that the only discovery that might be construed as having even a vague connection with Plato’s Atlantis was fragments of red, white and black stone. Not a single building block or brick was found, but according to the author, this was because the harsh climate of the region since Atlantis was destroyed 10,000 years earlier. This ignores the accepted fact that for at least half of those thousands of years the North African deserts had been tropical and green. A. Petit also omits to explain how the submerged Atlantis is now on dry land when according to Plato even in his day the submerged city was a shipping hazard. The author also has a Google image showing a circular feature within a larger square one. All rather unconvincing.<

(a) http://expedition-atlantis.com

(b) Evidence for Atlantis (www-expedition–atlantis-com.translate.goog) *