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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]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 »
Bimini Road
Tompkins, Peter
Peter Tompkins (1919-2007) was an American journalist, WWII spy and perhaps best known as the author of the 1971 book, Secrets of the Great Pyramid[783] which included an extensive appendix by Livio Catullo Stecchini on the relationship of Ancient Measures to the Great Pyramid.
Tompkins also wrote Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids as well as over a score of other books on various ‘fringe’ subjects as well as his wartime exploits. He was interested in the mystery of Atlantis and to that end, he went to the Bahamas to study the ‘Bimini Road’ but concluded that it was only beach rock.
A later interview with Tompkins son, Ptolemy, revealed that his “dad was convinced that the Edgar Cayce readings about the rising of Atlantis were correct. He spent thousands and thousands of dollars photographing the limestone formations off Bimini – the so-called “Bimini Road.” My father loved the idea of Atlantis returning because he wanted the world to become a kind of new Eden. He was a true father of the New Age in this sense – he had the core New Age belief that the world once was, and would be again a better place. But not better in some mundane sense, but in the sense of being elevated back into a spiritualised condition that it had fallen away from. That’s what the Bimini stuff was all about” (a). Apparently, Tompkins left Bimini unconvinced that it had Atlantean credentials.
Tompkins wrote the foreword to the English translation of Otto Muck’s book, The Secret of Atlantis [0098] and was impressed by Muck’s hypothesis of Atlantis in the Atlantic being destroyed by an asteroid and considered the work of Cesare Emiliani important in support of this contention.
>In the Preface to John Anthony West’s Serpent in the Sky [452], Tompkins wrote that “interestingly, West develops de Lubicz‘ notion that the Egyptian cosmology and understanding of this universe was not endemic to Egypt but came from colonists or refugees from Plato’s sunken continent of Atlantis, which could also explain the similarities and identities with the cosmologies of Central America, presumably brought there by other refugees from Atlantis”!<
Zink, David Daniel
David Daniel Zink (1927-2008) was formerly an English professor at the USAF Academy in Colorado and Lamar University in Texas. Following a 
meeting with J. Manson Valentine in the 1970’s he carried out extensive searches with funding from A.R.E. in the shallow waters off Bimini producing detailed maps of anomalous underwater features such as the ‘Bimini Road’. Zink published these findings in his 1978 offering, The Stones of Atlantis[178], described by the Los Angeles Times(a) as an “unintentionally hilarious compendium of pseudo-science”.
The following year Zink published a second book[588] that discussed megaliths in a more general manner. In 1990 he published a revised version of ‘Stones’, but it added very little new material.
However, it has transpired that Zink used the ‘services’ of psychics, including a well-known clairvoyant, Carol Huffstickler, during his Bimini investigations. One of Huffstickler’s contributions was to declare that Stonehenge was built around 16000BC! These psychic sources advised that highly evolved, loving extraterrestrial beings from the Pleiades arrived on earth around 30000 BC and joined the thriving commercial and religious community of Bimini and assisted with the construction of temples and buildings including the structures studied by Zink. The inclusion of this psychic ‘input’ did little to enhance the credibility of Zink as a serious investigator and led to the withdrawal of A.R.E. support.
Zink also warned us that a period of geological instability might be due in 2030, following the reversal of the poles. Perhaps it is noteworthy that had he lived, Zink would be 103 in 2030 and therefore conveniently unlikely to be affected by the projected catastrophe!
>(a) THE STONES OF ATLANTIS by David Zink (Prentice Hall: $10.95, illustrated) – latimes (archive.org)<
Bimini Road/Wall
The Bimini Road/Wall is located in about ten feet of water off Paradise Point on Bimini Island in the Bahamas. It was investigated in 1968 by Dr. J. Manson Valentine, Jacques Mayol, Harold Climo and Robert Angove. The discovery coincided with the ‘prophecy’ of Edgar Cayce, the American 
psychic, who pronounced in 1933 that parts of Atlantis would re-emerge in the late 1960s. His exact words are recorded as: “A portion of the temples may yet be discovered under the slime of ages and seawater near Bimini. Expect it in ‘68 or ‘69 – not so far away.”
Naturally, there was intense media interest and the idea of Atlantis in the Americas was given a new lease of life. Unfortunately, the exact nature of this unusual ‘J’ shaped feature was fiercely debated and controversy continues to this day. Eugene A. Shinn, a geologist and devout sceptic, has offered(a) a more critical interpretation of the Bimini discoveries. In an article in Nature magazine some years ago>(Vol. 287, 4 September 1980) Shinn and Marshall McKusick described Cayce followers as members of ‘a cult’.(h)
>Peter James in The Sunken Kingdom [047.53] commented on the Bimini controversy noting that “If the ‘Road’ were man-made we would not expect the grains and microstructure within the stones to be consistent from one ‘block’ to another. Yet they proved to be so, in every conceivable test test that was applied, showing that they were laid by natural means. Further, radiocarbon tests on shells included in the stones show that the ‘Road’ was formed between only 2,500 and 3,500 years ago, far short of the 11,000 years believed by Atlantologists.”<
Greg Little offered a vigorous refutation of Shinn’s claims in an article in the May/June 2006 edition of Atlantis Rising magazine(g). Little continued his criticism of Shinn in a 2017 article(e).
Without wishing to rain on anybody’s parade it should be pointed out that Manson Valentine was a fan of Cayce’s and as a consequence, it has sometimes been inferred that the date of his discovery might have been engineered to agree with Cayce’s prediction and enhance the subsequent publicity. Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince have pointed out[705.61] that the Bimini Road was known to the local islanders for years and even offered to show it to its eventual ‘discoverers’!
A comparable alignment of blocks in 22 metres of water was found off the coast of Lanzarote in the Canaries and originally reported in the Belgian magazine Kadath in 1987 and noted in the Science Frontiers website(d).
The Bahamas Geotourism website offers the following additional information “In the 1930s, an American psychic named Edgar Cayce reported that he had spoken with a person who had lived in the Lost City of Atlantis in a former life. This Atlantean told Cayce that Atlantis had been near Bimini.”(i). I have been unable to verify the source of this embellishment.
Dr David Zink carried out a detailed examination of the Bimini Road, which he outlined in his own book, The Stones of Atlantis[178]. Zink’s conclusion was to accept that Atlantis had been situated in the Atlantic but regarded “Bimini as an Atlantean colonial site or the location of a different culture parallel in time to Atlantis.” Not the ringing endorsement one might have expected.
In an interview with Peter Tompkins son, Ptolemy, he revealed that his “dad was convinced that the Edgar Cayce readings about the rising of Atlantis were correct. He spent thousands and thousands of dollars photographing the limestone formations off Bimini – the so-called “Bimini Road.” My father loved the idea of Atlantis returning because he wanted the world to become a kind of new Eden. He was a true father of the New Age in this sense – he had the core New Age belief that the world once was, and would be again a better place. But not better in some mundane sense, but in the sense of being elevated back into a spiritualised condition that it had fallen away from. That’s what the Bimini stuff was all about.”(j) Tompkins left Bimini unconvinced that it had Atlantean credentials.
A local Bimini writer and healer, Ashley B. Saunders, has produced a definitive two-volume history[179] of the island as well as a book[180] on Atlantis. Saunders has been described as “the gatekeeper of Atlantis”(c).
The most recent study of structures off the coast of Bimini by a team that included Greg Little and William Donato in 2005 and 2006, when Andrew Collins joined them, has produced evidence of ancient harbours that are now submerged at two locations. They also discovered a number of stone anchors, now in the Bimini Museum. However, acceptance of the reality of this evidence is a long way from proving any connection with Atlantis.
Gavin Menzies, a supporter of the Minoan Hypothesis has speculated, in his book 1421[0939], 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!
A YouTube film including an interview with Greg Little is worth viewing(b). Less interesting is a new documentary from Amazon Prime, aided and abetted by the UK’s Daily Express, which has apparently resurrected some interest in the Atlantis – Bimini connection(f).
(b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DbaA6NItNQ
(c) https://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_8736.shtml
(d) https://www.science-frontiers.com/sf058/sf058a02.htm
(e) https://apmagazine.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=956
(h) https://www.academia.edu/12724731/Bahamian_Atlantis_reconsidered
Bahamas
The Bahamas are a favoured location for Atlantis by some writers. They refer to the Spanish for Bahamas being Baha Mar or ‘Shallow Sea’ and link it with Plato’s reference to impassable or shallow sea encountered at the site of the sunken Atlantis. There is little doubt that large areas of what is now submerged land around the Bahamas were exposed during the last Ice Age, a situation 
paralleled around the world.
After the arrival of the Spanish, the natives of the Bahamas, the Lucayans, were gradually wiped out by disease and exploitation. Consequently, we are unable to avail of the legends of these people, which might have thrown more light on the early history of the region.
Interest in the region was heightened by the discovery of what appeared to be a manmade underwater road off the coast of Bimini in 1967. This ‘Bimini Road’ has been subject of continuing controversy ever since.
Atlantis seekers have pointed to this discovery as evidence of Atlantis in the Bahamas. They add to this Plato’s reference to impassable or shallow seas existing where Atlantis sank. They further suggest that these shallows exist today in the Bahamas. However, it must be pointed out that Plato refers to the impassibility being caused by mud. There is no indication of this mud today otherwise the Bimini Road would not have been visible and the waters in the region, although shallow, are certainly not impassable.
In 2005, a 23-year-old Canadian mechanic named Chris Shearer achieved his 15 minutes of fame when he claimed(a) to have discovered the concentric rings and canal system of Atlantis in NASA images off the Bahamas. He assumed that these had been uncovered by the recent tropical storms in the region. He immediately sought funds for an expedition to the area. Nothing has been reported since.
More recently, another site in the Bahamas, Cat Island, has also been identified as a possible location with remnants of an ancient civilisation.
Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search
Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search [594] two young writers Robert Ferro and his partner Michael Grumley. Most of their output was fiction but they collaborated on this non-fiction book in the late 1960’s. Unfortunately, it does little to advance the search for Atlantis. Apparently, inspired by the writings of Edgar Cayce they descended on Bimini in 1968 and began exploring the shallow seas there and where they encountered Dr. Manson Valentine one of the discoverers of the Bimini Road. However, their lack of scientific background allows them to declare that many of the rocks there were not local but quarried in the far-off Andes. The book contains a defence of pot-smoking which is probably more interesting than their grasp of the Atlantis mystery.
Sadly, Michael Grumley died of AIDS in 1988 and Robert Ferro died similarly less than three months later.
Rebikoff, Dimitri
Dimitri Rebikoff (1921-1997) was born in Paris of Russian parents. His grandfather, Vassily, had helped to develop the Czar’s air force and his father was an attaché at the Paris embassy and later 
murdered in Prague by the KGB. During the Second World War Dimitri was forced to work in Germany.
After the war, he returned to Paris and studied at the Sorbonne and in 1959 moved to the United States, where he developed his career as an oceanographer and engineer. He has many inventions to his credit including an underwater camera and the Pegasus underwater platform. He has written a number of books on underwater exploration and photography that have been published in French and German as well as English.
In 1968 Rebikoff, together with Dr. J. Manson Valentine, discovered an anomalous underwater structure in ten feet of water off North Bimini in the Bahamas.
This feature is 300 feet wide and 1600 feet long and has been the subject of controversy since its discovery. A number of writers have attempted, unsuccessfully, to link this strange structure with Atlantis. Rebikoff’s conclusion was that the Bimini Road is some form of ancient harbour works.
Menzies, Gavin
Gavin Menzies (1937-2020) is a former submarine officer with the British Navy.
He retired in 1970, a year after an incident in the Philipines in which the boat under his command collided with the USS Endurance. He followed this with a brief dalliance with British politics.
However, Menzies is best known as a controversial author beginning with 1421: The Year China Discovered the World[939]and six years later 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. His theories have been shown to be heavily flawed(a) and Menzies himself was accused of being either “a charlatan or a cretin” (b).
The badarchaeology website has, understandably, also given a thumbs-down to Menzies’s work(l).>>Similarly, linguist Mark Newbrook(q). has written a highly critical review of Menzies’ books, focussed primarily on linguistic flaws in the books(p).<<
In his book, 1421[939], Menzies 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 dry dock, the remains of which are now the Bimini Road!
In the 19th century, a number of commentators proposed that the Chinese had made contact with the Americas in ancient times. One proponent of this idea was Charles G. Leland wrote Fusang in 1875(o), in which he proposed that Chinese Buddhist priests reached America in the 5th century.
Later in 1913, a newspaper report of discoveries(k), including the image of a Chinaman just 19 miles from Mexico City, speculatively dated to around 3000 BC, revived interest in the idea. Similar claims have been made throughout the ensuing century, with John A. Ruskamp Jnr., one of the most recent(l). So, in fact, Menzies was just recycling a rather old idea!
Another, well-illustrated site(d), accuses Menzies of altering maps to suit his theory.
April 16th, 2010 saw the inventive Mr Menzies present his latest offering, The Lost Treasures of Atlantis, at the Royal Geographical Society in London before its formal publication in August. The title was later changed to The Lost Empire of Atlantis [780].
He argued that the Minoans discovered America 4,000 years ago and that an ancient trading empire had stretched from the North American Great Lakes to Kerala in India.
I should point out that Roger Jewell had previously identified a Minoan connection with the Michigan copper mines in a 2000 book[243].
Menzies bases his thesis on metallurgy, ancient shipbuilding and navigation techniques as well as DNA evidence. He focuses on the cargo found on the Uluburun shipwreck(c) found off the coast of Turkey and which is dated to the 14th century BC.
In 2008, Bill Poser, found weaknesses as well as downright errors in the linguistic evidence offered by Menzies to support his thesis, commenting – “The linguistic ‘evidence’ in 1421 is a joke. It’s sad that a major publisher obviously didn’t do even the most elementary fact-checking or have the manuscript read by people competent to evaluate it, but it is worse than such nonsense has become a best-seller and is soon to be made into a documentary. What I want to know is, are the purveyors of this tripe incompetent? Or do they simply not care about the truth of their ‘non-fiction’?”(n)
My principal reaction to his book was that he seemed to studiously avoid Plato’s text as a source of information. Perhaps, because much of what Plato said does not conform to Menzies’ imaginative theories. He identifies Thera as the location of the capital of Atlantis but he does not attempt to explain why Plato did not simply say so, since Thera was less than 150 miles from Athens and well known to the Athenians. Furthermore, Menzies places the ‘Pillars of Heracles’ at Gibraltar but then fails to explain how the Atlanteans could have attacked them from BEYOND the ‘Pillars’ if Atlantis was virtually on their doorstep on Crete.
He contends that the Minoans (Atlanteans) discovered America, exported vast quantities of copper from Michigan(g) via the Mississippi and after processing it at Poverty Point sent it to the Mediterranean to feed the needs of the Bronze industries there. He attributes the building of astronomical stone circles in the Mediterranean as well as Spain, Brittany and the British Isles to the Minoan influence. However, none are found on Crete! It is understandable therefore that his book has received some very bad reviews(e)(f).
This is a speculative book about the Minoan civilisation and has little to do with Atlantis apart from the cynical use of its name on the cover. However, Menzies does have many followers(g), but Jason Colavito’s seven-part critique(h) of his book that should be compulsory reading for those fans.
In October 2013 Menzies returned to the subject of ancient sea voyages and in particular the very early visitors to the Americas in Who Discovered America? [940] Judging by the first customer reviews(i) this offering promises to be as controversial as his previous books. Two of his specific claims are that transoceanic travel began 100,000 years ago and that the Chinese regularly began visiting America from 2200 BC!
Recently, in 2015, new evidence of early Chinese in America was found by John A. Ruskamp Jnr. in Albuquerque’s Petroglyph National Monument(j). Ruskamp has already identified 82 archaic Chinese petroglyphs, many dated to the Shang dynasty circa 1042 BC.
Despite his death in 2020, Menzies’ studies have been continued by the 1421 Foundation(m).
(a) https://web.archive.org/web/20180220094431/https://www.1421exposed.com/html/library_of_congress.html
(b) https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-3396/
(e) https://wordsutteredinhaste.blogspot.ie/2011/12/lost-empire-of-atlantis-by-gavin.html
(f) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Empire-Atlantis-Historys-Greatest/dp/0857820052
(g) https://chapelboro.com/columns/common-science/bronze-age-part-ii-the-case-of-the-missing-copper/
(h) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post/2012/08/reviewing-gavin-menzies-atlantis-pt-1.html (just change part number)
(i) https://www.amazon.com/Who-Discovered-America-Peopling-Americas/dp/006223675X
(j) New Evidence Ancient Chinese Explorers Landed in America Excites Experts (archive.org)
(m) https://www.1421foundation.org
(n) https://www.hallofmaat.com/precolumbian/1421/
(o) https://archive.org/details/cu31924023242054
(p) https://www.hallofmaat.com/languages/gavin-menzies-mis-use-of-linguistics/ *
(q) https://www.aske-skeptics.org.uk/Newbrook.html *
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