Bill Hanson

Ancient Astronauts and Atlantis *

Published December 16, 2012

Ancient Astronauts and their technology is often promoted as the inspiration behind aspects of many ancient religions such as the vimanas of the Hindus, the flying chariots of Ezekiel as well as the gods of Mesopotamia. The most widely known proponents of these ideas are Erich von Däniken and the late Zecharia Sitchin.

However, I must also include Josef Blumrich who proposed that the biblical Ezekiel had encountered an alien spaceship in his 1973 book ^[0692]. It is worth noting that a decade earlier Arthur W. Orton wrote The Four-Faced Visitors of Ezekiel which was recently republished ^[1735] and offers similar ideas as Blumrich. Ulrich Magin has written a critical review of Bloomrich’s interpretation of Ezekiel’s visions^(m).

Extraterrestrial visitors have been suggested by a few of the more imaginative and sometimes unscrupulous authors and their publishers, as the source of an advanced civilisation in the past, remembered today as Atlantis. Martin Brady makes such a claim in a brief paper available online^(s).

Another example of this genre of b.s. is offered by Tricia McCannon, who delights us with an account of Atlantis as “the seat of a Great Galactic Empire, with many extraterrestrial races coming and going from its shores”, with lots more of the same^(t).

Decades before von Däniken, Harold T. Wilkins was already suggesting prehistoric extraterrestrial visitors in the 1950s. He also wrote a couple of books about Atlantis^[363][364]. Not long after that, Egerton Sykes wrote some short articles for his Atlantis magazine⁽ⁱ⁾ that were sympathetic to the idea of ancient astronauts.

R. Cedric Leonard is another Atlantis researcher who has written about Atlantis and ancient alien technology. A more recent attempt to link Atlantis with ancient astronauts came from Kevin Falzon, who closely follows Sitchin while locating Atlantis in his native Malta^[869]. Richard Mooney speculated on a connection between Atlantis and ancient aliens four decades ago^[842].

However, Professor Emilio Spedicato may have added some degree of respectability to the concept when he wrote^(u) “There are significant indications in worldwide traditions that intelligent people from planets within a few hundred light-years from Earth visited our planet and intelligently interacted with our biosphere”. He went on to claim that around 5500 BC some of these visitors landed in the Hunza valley of Pakistan where they engaged in a little genetic engineering which led to the ‘creation’ of Adam and Eve!

It should be noted that Plato’s account does not relate any technology beyond that of a Late Bronze Age society, whereas any civilisation founded by alien astronauts should offer some evidence of technologies at least equal to if not more advanced than that of our present-day capabilities.

Nevertheless, the idea of visitors from other worlds is often traced back to the 18^th century and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)^(e), who not only argued that extraterrestrial beings had visited our planet, but that he had met them^[¹⁵⁸³^]! Greg Little has also recently^(g) credited Swedenborg as the originator of the alien visitors’ idea, but Jason Colavito has rubbished Little’s article^(f) and traced the concept of extraterrestrial encounters back to Lucian (125-180 AD) together with a few others before Swedenborg. Colavito and Little are not ‘best friends’, so I can only conclude that Colavito simply wished to undermine Little’s credibility as a researcher.

Ever since Kenneth Arnold saw ‘flying saucers’ near Mt. Rainier in 1947, his report paved the way for the ancient astronaut idea to evolve into the prolific writings of W. Raymond Drake and later Erich von Däniken, among others. In turn, this seemed to lead naturally to speculation of a possible linkage with Atlantis.

Jason Colavito has also drawn attention^(a) to an exhibition held in Beijing in July 2012, which purported to offer evidence of these ancient visitors, and has published^(b) the official U.S. Government view on ancient astronauts. He also offers an overview of alien theories and scathingly criticises their proponents^(c). In 2011 Colavito published a free ebook with the self-explanatory title of The Origins of the Space Gods^(j).

Colavito has also an interesting blog for 29/08/14 which quotes from a 1977 magazine that has an article suggesting that Jesus was an American astronaut who came back from the future, no doubt inspired by the film Planet of the Apes!^(d)

Bill Hanson and Bert Thurlings are some of the more recent promoters of this idea of an alien origin for Atlantis. Hanson has been joined by the German researcher, Dieter Bremer, who claims^(v) that the winged disks found in Sumerian art represent a space station, which crashed! Bremer also provides a spirited defence of The Manna Machine^[755] by George Sassoon (1936-2006) and Rodney Dale, combined with some bizarre theories regarding Christ. Incredibly, Bremer was invited to deliver a paper to the 2011 Atlantis Conference on the concentric circles of Plato’s Atlantean capital. He has published two books on his view of Atlantis^[1022/3]. A more rational review of The Manna Machine is offered by Frank Dörnenburg^(w).

The late Flying Eagle and his partner Whispering Wind specified the planet Xylanthia(^(aa) in the Sirius star system as the original home of a visitor who fell in love with an earthling and later became known as Poseidon!

The History Channel’s series entitled Ancient Aliens^(y) has been heavily criticised on the Bad Archaeology website^(x) and elsewhere. October 2011 saw another claim that the Maya had contact with extraterrestrials and that a documentary providing evidence is planned^(z).

A sceptical review of extraterrestrial visitations was published in the 26th January 2014 edition of Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch^(ab).

I feel compelled to include a quote from the Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson who wrote “The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that they have never tried to contact us.”

Perhaps even more disconcerting is the results of a survey^(h) carried out by Chapman University that show 20% of Americans believe in ancient astronauts!

In 2020, we had a bizarre tweet from the billionaire, Elon Musk, claiming that “aliens built the pyramids”^(l), I hope that this was a tongue-in-cheek comment!

Nevertheless, there are still (2021) attempts to promote the ancient astronaut idea using the same material that has failed to convince in the past^(k).

An example of this is the 2023 book, Prehistory Explained ^[2007] by Shane Leach, who recycled some of the ideas of von Däniken and Sitchin and then for good measure threw in the old suggestion that our Moon and the Martian moon Phobos are artificial. Of course, Atlantis was not ignored, which he placed in Antarctica and deemed that Stonehenge had been laid out like the Pleiades constellation!

More depressing is the study by Graham E.L.Holton, which surveyed the ancient astronaut literature and found nothing but superior white blond ‘gods’, usually male, such as Quetzalcoatl⁽ⁿ⁾. This theme was continued in later UFO reports. Erich von Däniken is arguably the best-known of the ancient astronaut proponents, but he was not the first and certainly not the last⁽ⁿ⁾. Jason Colavito has reviewed the racism expressed by von Däniken^(o). Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews was equally critical of Däniken’s racist views^(p).

2023 also saw the publication of Gods of the Bible ^[2059] by Mauro Biglino, who also wrote a paper as ‘Author of the Month’ for Graham Hancock’s website^(q). In both, he explores the Bible for evidence of ancient extraterrestrial visitors who interacted with humans, just as Zechariah Sitchin had done nearly half a century ago using Mesopotamian texts.

There are also some who have endeavoured to use the Palermo Stone as evidence of extraterrestrial visitors in our ancient past^(r)!

Avi Loeb who is probably better known as a contributor to the Ancient Aliens TV series has recently (Nov. 2023) endeavoured to develop his ‘fame’, by offering by offering an alternative to the conventional theories offered to explain UFOs, now redesignated UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). Jason Colavito^(ad) has drawn attention to an attempt by Loeb to suggest that UFOs, sorry, UAPs, might be remnants from a very early highly technologically advanced civilisation.

“Any technological infrastructure left on the surface of Earth from that early civilization could have been demolished by geological activity including subduction, covered by water or tarnished by meteor impacts and weathering.

However, functional relics could have been preserved in space. Within the past century of modern technology, our civilization has launched many thousands of functional devices in orbit around Earth. A more advanced or longer-lived technological civilization could have used more sophisticated devices. Are there unfamiliar technological relics in our sky?” ^(ac).

For those interested in having a look at other entries touching on the subject of Atlantis and ancient astronauts see: Jack Countryman, Christos A. Djonis, Andrew Greig, Kurt Jurgen Hepke, Marius Lleget, Louis Millette, Semir Osmanagic, Hubert Zeitlmair.

^(a) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post/2012/07/chinese-government-endorses-ancient-astronauts.html

^(b) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/the-von-daniken-letter.html

^(c) http://www.swans.com/library/art18/jcolav01.html

^(d) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-bizarre-1977-article-on-jesus-the-ancient-astronaut

^(e) https://web.archive.org/web/20200731011955/https://www.swedenborgproject.org/2007/09/08/the-life-on-other-planets-question/ or See: Archive 2262

^(f)https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/greg-little-claims-to-have-found-the-first-ancient-astronaut-theorist-except-that-he-didnt

^(g)https://apmagazine.info/index.php/component/content/article?id=570

^(h) https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2015/10/13/this-haunted-world/

⁽ⁱ⁾ Atlantis, Volume 20, No.3, May/June 1967.

^(j) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/origin-of-the-space-gods.html

^(k) Evidence of Aliens and Ancient Astronauts – Strange Unexplained Mysteries (archive.org)

^(l) Weekend Omnibus: Younger Dryas Volcano, Elon Musk’s Ancient Astronaut Tweet, Steve Quayle’s Plagiarism, and More! – Jason Colavito

^(m) Spaceship or God’s apparition? The Visions of Ezekiel – Mysteria3000 (link broken)

⁽ⁿ⁾ https://www.academia.edu/30755438/Ancient_White_Astronauts_Race_and_Religion

^(o) http://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post/2014/01/the-astonishing-racial-claims-of-erich-von-daniken.html

^(p) https://badarchaeology.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/is-pseudoarchaeology-racist/

^(q) https://grahamhancock.com/biglinom1/

^(r) Reddit – Dive into anything (archive.org)

^(s) Earth, Aliens and The Universe | PDF | Atlantis | Calendar (archive.org)

^(t) https://www.triciamccannon.com/dvd-time-travel-ufos-atlantis-and-world-changes/ (Link Broken) *

^(u) https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-2090/

^(v) https://www.atlantisbremer.de/

^(w) https://web.archive.org/web/20201021072640/http://fdoernenburg.de/alien/alternativ/manna/man01_e.php

^(x) https://badarchaeology.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/i-remember-why-i%E2%80%99ve-never-wanted-satellite-television/

^(y) https://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/episodes/season-3#slide-9

^(z) Mayan Filmmaker Offers Photo as Proof of Aliens, Says Hawking Agrees (Exclusive) (archive.org)

^(aa) https://atlantis-today.com/Great_Atlantis_Flood.htm

^(ab) See: Archive 2098

^(ac) https://avi-loeb.medium.com/are-uaps-relics-from-an-earlier-civilization-on-earth-86d1190c6539

^(ad) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/avi-loeb-embraces-lost-prehistoric-civilization-as-possible-ufo-explanation

Tagged 2011 Atlantis Conference, ancient astronauts, Andrew Greig, Antarctica, Arthur W. Orton, Avi Loeb, Bert Thurlings, Bill Hanson, Chapman University, Christos A. Djonis, Dieter Bremer, Egerton Sykes, Elon Musk, Emanuel Swedenborg, Emilio Spedicato, emir Osmanagic, Erich von Daniken, Ezekiel, Flying Eagle, Frank Dörnenburg, Graham E.L.Holton, Greg Little, Harold T. Wilkins, Hubert Zeitlmair, Jack Countryman, Jason Colavito, Jesus, Josef Blumrich, Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Kenneth Arnold, Kevin Falzon, Kurt Jurgen Hepke, Louis Millette, Lucian, Malta, Marius Lleget, Martin Brady, Mauro Biglino, Maya, Palermo Stone, Pleiades, Poseidon, R. Cedric Leonard, Richard Mooney, Shane Leach, Sirius, Stonehenge, The Moon, Tricia McCannon, W. Raymond Drake, Zecharia Sitchin

Hanson, Bill

Published June 8, 2010

Bill Hanson is a fine arts restorer from Vero Beach, Florida, who has also written three books^[³⁵²^][³⁵³^][³⁵⁴^] on the Atlantis mystery. He contends that the Biblical Garden of Eden and Atlantis were two names for the same place, which he claims had been located in the Bahamas region.

Most serious Atlantis investigators will be put off Hanson’s writing by his insistence that Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle are linked, not to mention his apparently blind acceptance of the reports of underwater pyramids off the Florida coast, such as the claim of Ray Brown. If this was not enough, Hanson’s credibility is further undermined, in my opinion, by his support for the idea that aliens founded Atlantis.

Hanson has also completed a work^[³⁵⁵^] on the ‘assassination’ of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Overall, I feel that Hanson is inclined to depend on bold assertion rather than hard evidence.

Tagged Bahamas, Bermuda Triangle, Bill Hanson, Garden of Eden, pyramids, Ray Brown

Bermuda Triangle

Published June 5, 2010

The Bermuda Triangle is the name given to an area of sea encompassed by Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. In his article, “Sea Mystery at Our Back Door”, George X. Sand described the disappearance of several aeroplanes and ships, including the story of Flight 19 in the October 1952 issue of Fate magazine. Sand was the first to define the borders of the then, unnamed Bermuda Triangle. It wasn’t until February 1964 that Vincent Gaddis coined the name “Bermuda Triangle” in an article published by Argosy Magazine⁽ⁱ⁾.

It alleged that within this area there has been an inordinate loss of ships and aircraft. It is an issue that captured the attention of the ever-present ‘batty brigade’, who linked the area with UFO’s, underwater crystals and, of course, Atlantis. Much has been written about the subject, beyond the efforts of one or two authors, writers in the main, have offered very little original material, preferring to re-hash existing and sometimes rather dubious material.

The writer most readily identified with the Bermuda Triangle is Charles Berlitz who gave us two books^[¹⁶⁸^]^[¹⁶⁹^]on the subject, in which he linked it with alien abductions, UFO’s and of course, Atlantis. Bill Hanson is also a supporter of an Atlantis connection.

More recently, a German historian, Dr Michael Preisinger, has claimed to have mapped magnetic anomalies in the area^(j), which have led some to conclude that they may be caused by micro-wormholes. Preisinger has suggested that there may be some connection between these anomalies and the fact that the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Centre (AUTEC) are based in the area with a possible UFO connection. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that Dr Preisinger is just another attention-seeking nut, it must be pointed out that he has offered a rational explanation for many of the allegedly man-made stones of the “Bimini Wall” namely, the fact large quantities of ballast stones were jettisoned in the area during the American Civil war. Gavin Menzies made a similar suggestion but with a twist, in his book 1421, he speculated that the Chinese fleet suffered damage during a storm and landed at Bimini where they used their large square ballast stones to build an emergency drydock, the remains of which is now the Bimini Road!

Gian Quasar, who appears to be attempting to take up Berlitz’s mantle, has written a comprehensive volume^[¹⁷⁴^] on the Bermuda Triangle supported by an interesting website^(a), which is to be transferred to a new address^(d). A sequel to his book is also in preparation. Quasar barely touched on the subject of Atlantis in his book, where he wrote “It is true, of course, that the greatest electromagnetic and undersea phenomena do recur where Cayce predicted that Atlantean ruins would exist.”

In December 2015, The Telegraph (UK) published a sober review^(b) of the Bermuda Triangle story, in my view, effectively debunking it. A year later Norwegian scientists claimed^(c)that underwater methane explosions were responsible for losses in the ‘Triangle’.

The British tabloid The Daily Star in its January 29th, 2017 edition^(e) published a pathetic article that vaguely attempts to link Atlantis with the Bermuda Triangle. I can only assume it was a slow news day! Marina Michaels, the psychic, also locates the centre of Atlantis as almost congruent with that of the Bermuda Triangle^(f⁾. On May 13th, 2018, The Daily Star regurgitated the previous year’s nonsense.

In 2020, a further lame attempt to link Atlantis with the so-called Bermuda Triangle was made on the American TV show, Forbidden History. Needless to say, it gave Jason Colavito an opportunity to dispose of this hogwash^(h⁾.

Statistically, it would appear that the Bermuda Triangle is no more dangerous than anywhere else, a view borne out by the fact that insurance underwriters do not load premiums for travelling there. This view was highlighted in 2017 by Australian scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki^(g).

>The Popular Mechanics website had a 2023 article reiterating the conclusions of scientists who attribute losses of ships or planes in the ‘triangle’ over the past century to probabilities. An explanation endorsed by Lloyd’s of London^(k), the world’s greatest insurance market.<

⁽^a⁾ https://www.bermuda-triangle.org/index.html (offline April 2016)

^(b) https://web.archive.org/web/20191211082707/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/12031649/Whatever-happened-to-the-Bermuda-Triangle.html

^(c) https://www.thelocal.no/20160314/have-norwegian-scientists-solved-the-bermuda-triangle-mystery

^(d) https://www.thequesterfiles.com/html/gian_quasar_s_the_bermuda_tria.html

^(e) https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/582023/bermuda-triangle-lost-city-atlantis-mystery-antarctica-pyramid-crystal-plato-proof

^(f) https://web.archive.org/web/20200804102918/http://www.thelighthouseonline.com/articles/atlantis_location.html

^(g) https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/07/scientist-claims-hes-solved-the-bermuda-triangle-mystery/

^(h) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-forbidden-history-s06e09-mysteries-of-the-bermuda-triangle

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/b/bermuda-triangle/

^(j) Atlantis Rising magazine – Issue 18

^(k) https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a43827267/bermuda-triangle-mystery-solved-says-scientist/

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Tagged Atlantis, Bermuda Triangle, Bill Hanson, Charles Berlitz, George X. Sand, Gian Quasar, Jason Colavito, Karl Kruszelnicki, Marina Michaels, Miami, Michael Preisinger, Puerto Rico, Vincent Gaddis

Garden of Eden *

Published April 5, 2010

The Garden of Eden, like Atlantis, has excited the imagination of many over the centuries. Its location has been the subject of what was sometimes wild speculation that offered a range of locations compared with the variety of sites proposed for Atlantis.

The traditional belief was that the ‘Garden’ had been situated in Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris as noted in the Bible. Athanasius Kircher, who is better known to many for his speculative map of Atlantis located in the Atlantic Ocean also produced a plan of the Garden of Eden in what is now southern Iraq. David J. Gibson (1904-1966) arrived at a similar conclusion placing ‘Eden’ just south of Baghdad in his book, The Land of Eden Located, now available online^(t).

The T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism offers a clue to the sort of difficulties that ‘Garden seekers’ must deal with, in the Garden of Eden entry. “as an earthly garden, its specific location within both the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple literature. Thus, some texts place it in the east (Gen 2:8; 1En.32; Jub 8:16; 2 En. [rec.32] 42:3, 65:10; Philo QG 1:7; Leg 1:56; Josephus, Ant. 1.3), while others place it in the west (Gen 3:24; Josephus, JW 2.155), north (Ezek 28:13; 1En. 61.1), or northwest (1 En.24-25, 70:3).”^(ap)

More recently, Robert McRoberts in an article about the rivers of Eden included a map by Arianna Ravenswood, who placed Eden northwest of Babylon in what is now the Iraqi Province of Diyala^(u).

Within the same region is a submerged location at the head of the Persian Gulf promoted by Juris Zarins (1945- ).^(w) In his theory, the Bible’s Gihon River would correspond with the Karun River in Iran, and the Pishon River would match the Wadi Batin river system that had drained the now dry, but once quite fertile central part of the Arabian Peninsula. His suggestion about the Pishon River is supported by James A. Sauer (1945–1999) formerly of the American Center of Oriental Research although strongly criticized by the archaeological community^(x).

A number of commentators have suggested that the site of Eden is now under water, where lower sea levels during the Ice Age would have revealed land now submerged, such as in the Persian Gulf. The Red Sea has also been proposed.

Kircher’s Garden of Eden

The conventional idea has been enhanced in the opinion of some by the discoveries of the German archaeologist, Klaus Schmidt, who believed that his excavations at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey have unearthed artefacts dating to 8000 BC when the people there changed from hunting and gathering to agriculture. This region also contains Ur and Harran, mentioned in the Old Testament and since Göblekli Tepe is located between the Tigris and Euphrates and is within view of the Taurus Mountains, it conforms remarkably to the topographical description of Eden in the Bible. Tom Knox speculated on this in an article in the UK’s Daily Mail Online^(aa).

It was no great surprise when I found at that least one commentator has proposed Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding area was the site of the Garden of Eden^(au).

Garold Spire jr, an American researcher, offers a strong case for placing Eden in southern Turkey at the Karaca Dag shield-volcano. He studied the sacred books of the Abrahamic religions and drew up a short list of characteristics that the Garden must have;

1) It must have been warm enough to be comfortable without protective clothing. Gen 2:25.

2) It must be uphill geographically, due to the fact that four rivers exited

from it, these are the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Pishon, and the Gihon. Gen 2:10-14

3) The Pishon must compass or border Havila where there is gold and onyx. Gen 2:11, 12.

4)The Gihon must compass or border the whole land of Cush. Gen 2:13

5) It must account for a flaming sword on its east side. Gen 3:24

6) It must be well watered, Gen 13:10 by a mist (in Hebrew) not rain, Gen 2:5-6, which came up from the earth.

Spire maintains that his Turkish location has all these features^(an).

Christopher Columbus believed that the source of the Orinoco River, in what is now known as Venezuela had been the location of Eden. Antonio de León Pinelo (1590-1660) was a Spanish chronicler who spent some years in South America and was also convinced that the Garden of Eden had been situated between the great rivers of South America^(k)!

The imaginative Augustus Le Plongeon claimed the Yucatan as the location of the ‘Garden’^(s)an idea endorsed by his wife, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon.

In more recent times, Ramiro Gonzales Yaksic (1966- ), the author of Earthly Paradise: The Garden of the Andes ^[1055] in which he claims to have identified the biblical Garden of Eden in his native Bolivia^(ar). Dieter Groban has written in support of Yaksic^(as).

James Bailey published Sailing to Paradise ^[^0150] in 1994, some years before Yaksic’s book, in which he added further support for his Atlantis in America contention. Additionally, he placed the Garden of Eden somewhere on the Bolivian Altiplano.

^[0150] in 1994, some years before Yaksic’s book, in which he added further support for his Atlantis in America contention. Additionally, he placed the Garden of Eden somewhere on the Bolivian Altiplano.

General Gordon of Khartoum fame was so impressed by the island of Preslin in the Seychelles that he declared it to be the Garden of Eden and its famed Coco de Mer and breadfruit plants to be the Tree of Life and the Tree of Good and Evil. Science writer, Karl Shuker, has written an extensive article, Forbidden Fruit, for the January 2016 edition of Fortean Times, in which he gives the background to Gordon’s obsession and his inability to garner any serious support for it.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, it was reported^(r) that G. F. Becker (1847-1919) a geologist with the USGS nominated Luzon in the Philippines as the site of the biblical ‘Garden’, while Sven Hedin (1865-1952) a much-decorated Swedish geographer chose Janaidar a mythical city in Central Asia.

George H. Cooper, the American writer, identified Salisbury Plain ^[⁰²³⁶^.111] as the Garden of Eden along with its Wiltshire river system matching the Euphrates and Tigris in the Genesis story. W. Comyns Beaumont chose Britain’s Glastonbury as the site of the original Garden.

In the middle of the last century, a Baptist preacher, Elvy E. Callaway, announced that the Garden had been located in the vicinity of Bristol, Florida^(j).

David Rohl has studied the matter in great detail ^[²³⁰^] and located the ‘Garden’ in the northern Iranian province of East Azerbaijan near the city of Tabriz^(ad)(aj). Rohl’s reasoning is worthy of study and perhaps a comparison with the views of Emilio Spedicato, who offers his explanation for placing Eden in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley in two papers on the Internet⁽^b)(y⁾. Rohl was partly inspired by the work of Reginald A. Walker ^[1388/9].

The inventive David Hatcher Childress published an article in issue 31 of the Atlantis Rising magazine with the title of Central Asia’s Ancient Heart and a subtitle that asks the question ‘Could Afghanistan Once Have Been the Garden of Eden?’ He then proceeds to offer a couple of pages about ancient Mongolia, with little reference to either Afghanistan or the Garden of Eden!

Andrew Collins claims ^[⁰⁷³^] that the original Mesopotamian name for Eden was Kharsag, a view echoed by the late Christian O’Brien^(q). O’Brien’s nephew, Edmund Marriage, identifies the Bekka Valley in Lebanon as the location of Eden of Genesis. A new Lebanese location site is the subject of a website and forum^(h)(i). An excerpt from O’Brien’s book, relating to Eden, can be read online^(v).

Ari Zuker bravely suggests that the land of Israel was the Garden of Eden^(ao). John Appelt, an American pastor also supports this idea ^(at).

The Sabbah brothers, Roger and Messod, controversially place Eden in Egypt ^[³¹⁰^]and offer a range of evidence to support this contention. Ralph Ellis has also opted for Egypt in his book, Eden in Egypt^[⁰⁹⁵¹^] and claims that Adam and Eve were in reality, Akhenaton and Nefertiti! Ellis also supports his theory with two online papers providing excerpts from his books^(o)(p).

A Christian website, logoschristian.org, used to also claim that Eden had been located in the eastern Nile Delta, specifically named Al Mansura. In 1933, John G. Jackson wrote a paper advocating an African origin for the legend of the Garden of Eden. Jackson’s extreme Afrocentric views may have coloured his view of this subject!

Further to the west is the Tunisian town of Oudna, which has been nominated as Eden by one Patrick Archer on his somewhat sparse website⁽^d⁾.

Gerald Wells also identified some of his Algerian Atlantis territories as having included the biblical Garden of Eden^(aq⁾.

Another African location was put forward by Georg Hinzpeter over half a century ago when he suggested that the Ethiopian plateau had been the home of Adam & Eve before their eviction^(z).

Stephen E. Franklin has also opted for an African location for the Garden of Eden, placing it south of the Ahaggar Mountains near the Wadi Tafanasset in southern Algeria.^(ah⁾ He also claims that Mt. Tahat, the highest peak in the Ahaggars, was, according to Franklin, the original Atlas mountain referred to by Herodotus as the home of the Atlantes (sometimes Atarantes^(ai⁾). Sprague De Camp noted ^[194.191]that Paul Borchardt also identified the ancient Mt. Atlas with the Ahaggar Mountains rather than the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb! I should add that this identification of Mt. Atlas remains moot.

In 2014, Stan Deyo chose Tanzania as the location of the Garden of Eden^(h). Paulo Riven has also supported the region as the site of the ‘Garden’^(ak). This idea has been echoed elsewhere and more recently on a website dealing with the history of Israel^(f) and on a Christian website where the Ngorongoro Crater is specified^(g).

Carl Seaver has also offered an African location for the Garden. In a 2022 article, he reports that according to recent research, Botswana is the most likely location of the Garden and where humans originated. Eden sat in the Kalahari Desert, which used to be a wetland where the early humans lived. During this time, Lake Makgadikgadi stretched from Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe^(am).

In 2023 an African location for the Garden was again proposed by journalist, Tom Hale, who wrote^(al) “The so-called Cradle of Humankind can be found in South Africa around 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. This site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. Among the thousands of fossils found here, researchers have unearthed the remains of Australopithecus, an early ape-like human species dated to around 3.4 to 3.7 million years old.

It wasn’t until 200,000 to 300,000 years ago that modern Homo sapiens evolved. Once again, Africa was the location of this development, with modern humans most likely first emerging somewhere around modern-day Ethiopia.

So, if we’re looking for a scientific Garden of Eden, it looks like South Africa and Ethiopia are our best bet. Whether these sites were once home to a paradise where four rivers once met remains to be seen, however.”

What may appear just as implausible to many is the claim by Felice Vinci^[⁰¹⁹^], that the Eden story was imported from northern Europe, specifically from Finnish Lapland^(af⁾. At the end of the 19th century, William Fairfield Warren placed the Garden in the Arctic ^[0078].

Even more incredible is the assertion by the likes of William C. Chappell that the Garden of Eden was situated in the United States. His Mormon-inspired views are available as a free eBook⁽^c⁾ on the Internet. Interestingly, Jackson County, Missouri was the location of Eden revealed by Joseph Smith^(ac). the founder of Mormonism and well-known collector of wives.

A more ‘commercial’ suggestion has come from Dennis Brooks who suggested that Tarpon Springs, Florida, was originally the location of the Garden of Eden and that Tampa Bay contained the port of Atlantis.

The Urantia Book promotes the idea of two Edens, one near Cyprus and a second further east! In 2003, Robert Sarmast compiled a list of similarities between Plato’s account of Atlantis and the description of the Garden of Eden in the Urantia Book^(l).

In his 2004 book Finding Atlantis he claimed one of the Edens, noted in The Urantia Book, along with Atlantis had been situated near Cyprus, now in waters a mile deep! Two expeditions were organised to verify his claims, but nothing conclusive was found. Although very little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years, in 2018, Robert S. Bates attempted to breathe new life into Sarmast’s ideas that the Mediterranean region around Cyprus had been home to both Atlantis and the Garden of Eden^(ae).

Stephen Oppenheimer has pointed out^[⁰⁰⁴^] that Genesis 2:8 reads that “the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden”. He argues (p.409) that this supports the idea of a ‘paradise’ in the Sundaland region. However, Oppenheimer does not equate Eden with Atlantis.

As Monty Python used to say “now for something completely different” – The North Pole. This suggestion has come from Gene Matlock who advocated that ‘Eden was the North Pole’ in a paper of the same name^(ab).

The Garden of Eden has been suggested by some as another name for Atlantis, representing as it does a mythical time of peace and abundance. However, Eden is never spoken of in terms of military might and commercial success attributed to Atlantis. One of the better-known proponents of this idea of an Atlantean Eden was the late Professor Arysio dos Santos⁽^a⁾ who was convinced that it was located in the South China Sea before the ending of the last Ice Age submerged large areas of Sundaland. Confusingly, he referred to Eden as ‘Lemurian Atlantis’, but added that “This Lemurian Atlantis of ours should not be confused with the purely fanciful counterparts of the Theosophists and other such followers of Mme. Blavatsky. Their ‘Lemuria’ is a hypothetical sunken continent of the mid-Pacific region, one which never existed at all.

Shortly before his death in 2005, Santos published ^[³²⁰^] his theories, expanding on material that he had made available on the Internet for some years. Frank Joseph also claims ^[¹⁰⁶^][¹⁰⁷^] that the Garden of Eden was located on the lost island of ‘Lemuria’ located in the Pacific.

Bill Hanson, who has authored a number of books on ancient ‘mysteries’, has recently written a work ^[³⁵²^] that links the Garden of Eden with Atlantis. He identifies five similarities between the two accounts:

Both prehistoric locations are regarded as ‘lost paradises’
The four rivers of Eden are reflected in the four waterways of Poseidon the island capital of Atlantis.
Atlantis started with ten kings and the Bible speaks of ten patriarchs.
Zeus destroyed Atlantis because mortals and gods mated, whereas the Bible records the mating of the ‘sons of God’ and human females.
Atlantis was flooded just as the Age of the Patriarchs ended with the flood of Noah.

The late Joseph Robert Jochmans identified^(g⁾ Atlantis with Eden in a comprehensive article on his website. John Nichols also wrote a long article^(e⁾ identifying Atlantis with the Garden of Eden and placing it on the Celtic Shelf about a hundred miles off the coast of France due west of Brest.

Frederick Dodson in a hefty 523-page book^[989]claims an Atlantis-Garden of Eden connection⁽ⁿ⁾. In 2018, the Catalan researcher, José Luis Espejo also equated Atlantis with the Garden of Eden^[¹⁶⁰⁷^].

In 2022, a writer, hiding behind the nom de plume of ‘gserpent’, produced a lengthy article blending Atlantis, Eden and Lemuria into one heap of literary manure⁽^ag⁾.

Currently. the sadly benighted Iraq is trying to lure tourists to spend their holidays in ‘the Garden of Eden’^(m⁾!

⁽^a⁾http://www.lost-civilizations.net/atlantis-corroborating-evidence-page-12.html

⁽^b⁾kharsag (grazian-archive.com)

⁽^c⁾http://losttruthfound.com/gardenofedenfound.pdf

⁽^d⁾https://patrickofatlantis.com/

⁽^e⁾ https://jjswn35.wordpress.com/article/atlantis-eden-how-to-find-2vfxjftuay98o-9/

⁽^f⁾ https://sites.google.com/site/tribesofatlantis/Home/the-garden-of-eden

^(g) See: Archive 3602

^(h)The Garden of Eden – Found in Rashaya El-Wadi – the-lebanon.com (archive.org) ^or Archive 3182

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-garden-of-eden-origin-of-agriculture-found-near-rashaya-el-wadi-lebanon.7535161/*

^(j) Weird Florida (archive.org) *

^(k) See: Archive 2999