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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 »
Lake Izabal
Lake Izabal
Lake Izabal is the largest lake in Guatemala and nominated by at least two ‘researchers’ as the location of Atlantis. Duane K. McCullough has been a supporter of the Guatemalan site for a number of years(a). His views(b) are contained in his book, Spirit of Atlantis.
An even more colourful advocate is the retired German schoolteacher, Joachim Rittstieg. On March 1st 2011 it was reported(c) that an expedition, sponsored by the German tabloid newspaper, Bild, and led by Rittstieg headed for Guatemala in search of the gold. Unfortunately all they found was a pot(e), following which Rittstieg managed to declare the expedition a ‘success’(d). Rittstieg has combined information he has gleaned from the Icelandic Eddas, Plato, Mayan calendars as well as oral sources and concluded that the capital of Atlan can be found submerged in Lake Izabal in Guatemala along with over 2,000 gold tablets(f).
The indefatigable Erich von Däniken(g) has added some support for Rittsteig’s claim of a sunken city in Lake Izabal although commenting that the treasure there is not gold, “just engraved messages from the past”!
(a) https://03a9ef9.netsolhost.com/duanemcc/index.htm
(b) See: (a)
(c) https://haecceities.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/atlantis-is-located-in-lake-izabal-guatemala-not/
(d) https://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2011/03/30/search-mayan-gold-bild-findsa-pot-stirs-outrage/ (offline April 2015)
(e) https://tcmam.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/bild-found-something-and-these-numbers-are-odd-thig-7/
(f) https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/cracked-mayan-code-may-pave-way-to-lost-gold
(g) https://tcmam.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/short-update-and-erich-von-daniken-thig-4/
Rittstieg, Joachim *
Joachim Rittstieg (1937-2014) was born in Berlin and was a retired schoolmaster, although that bastion of truth and accuracy, Fox News Latino, describe him as a professor emeritus at Dresden University.
He spent six years with his family in Central America and after decades of study, he claimd to have decoded 
all the Mayan calendars and published the results in 1999 in ABC der Maya[717]. Rittstieg combined information he has gleaned from The Icelandic Eddas, Plato, Mayan calendars as well as oral sources and concluded that the capital of Atlan, which he equates with Atlantis, can be found submerged in Lake Izabal in Guatemala. He also reveals that the sinking of the city took place on 30th October 666 BC. But there is more(a) the sunken city also has a cache of over 2,000 gold tablets on which the ‘Laws of Atlan’ are inscribed. Rittstieg wants someone to invest €3,000,000 in the recovery of this booty! I would expect the Guatemalan government would have something to say about such an operation.
He also claimed that the Maya and the Vikings had contact for nearly 500 years (754-1224 AD)(f).
A rather critical review of Rittsteig’s ideas by Swedish commentator can be read online(d) as well as another that is slightly more technical(e).
Coincidentally, Duane McCullough has also identified Lake Izabal as the location of Atlantis.
On March 1st 2011 it was reported(b) that an expedition, sponsored by the German tabloid newspaper Bild, led by Rittstieg had headed for Guatemala in search of the gold. Unfortunately, all they found was a pot, following which Rittstieg managed to declare the expedition a ‘success’(c)!
(a) Joachim Rittstieg – Wikipedia *
(c) https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/expeditions-quest-for-mayan-gold-finds-a-pot-stirs-outrage
(d) https://haecceities.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/atlantis-is-located-in-lake-izabal-guatemala-not/
(f) https://tcmam.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/the-zuyua-than-language/
(f) https://atlantisforschung.de/index.php?title=Joachim_Rittstieg
McCullough, Duane Kent
Duane Kent McCullough is the author of Spirit of Atlantis, which places the seaport of Atlantis at the western end of Lake Izabal in Guatemala. The first version of his work is available on the Internet. His rambling website includes references to the Star of Bethlehem, The Golden Fleece, Biblical genealogies and Native American traditions. To add further confusion he has included support for the controversial views of A. T. Fomenko regarding the falsification of history and in that spirit places the end of the Atlantean Age to just prior to the first Olympiad (circa 776 BC). Incidentally, McCullough claims that the Games were held annually and consequently Graeco-Roman history is exaggerated in length by a factor of four! He further claims that the Atlantean seaport mentioned above probably existed less than a thousand years ago!
In 2014 he sought to regenerate interest in his theories(b).
To conclude this poorly focused magnum opus McCullough delights us with recollections of his carefree sailing experiences off Key Largo in Florida. If that were not enough we are treated to Duane’s poetry in which he daringly rhymes ‘paradise’ with ‘Christ’.
For those that require further enlightenment, his website(a) will reveal all.
Guatemala
Guatemala in Central America is claimed by Duane K. McCullough as the site of the main city of Atlantis. He states on his website(a) that ‘new scientific research now suggests that the lost Atlantean capital seaport once existed in Central America near a Guatemalan lake named Izabal’ but fails to source the ‘new scientific research’. In his book Spirit of Atlantis, he argues his case, matching Plato’s text with the topography of the area. McCullough points out that west of the modern capital, Guatemala City, lies Lake Atitlán whose name has faint echoes of Atlantis.
Lake Izabal has also been identified as the location of Atlantis by Joachim Rittstieg based on his interpretation of the Icelandic Eddas, Plato and oral traditions of local Maya.
>Guatemala was also home to a giant carved head supposedly nearly 30 feet in height and known principally from a grainy 1950s black & white photo. The features shown in the photo are completely different to those of the Negroid characteristics on the giant Olmec heads found in neighbouring Mexico. It is claimed that the remains of the Guatemalan head were tracked down by Dr Oscar Rafael Padilla Lara and David Hatcher Childress in the 1980s(b). They report that the head had been damaged almost beyond recognition by being extensively used for target practice by revolutionaries.<
A.R.E. is also seeking Edgar Cayce’s third Hall of Records at Piedras Negras in the north of Guatemala.
(a) https://03a9ef9.netsolhost.com/duanemcc/index.htm
