Nicolai Zhirov

Seven Cities of Antilia, The

Published January 11, 2018

The Seven Cities of Antilia are legendary cities reputed to have existed on the island of Antilia situated somewhere in the Atlantic. Medieval cartographers show Antilia (with a variety of spellings) at different locations in that ocean. Belief in its existence was firmly established by the time of Christopher Columbus. His son, Ferdinand, wrote of the many attempts to find it^[1536].

For a time it had been thought by some that the Azores was location of Antilia, while Zhirov who believed the Island of the Seven Cities had some association with the North Atlantic Ridge^[p.257].

In the early 20th century geographer, W. H. Babcock, identified Cuba as Antilia, while later in 2000, Andrew Collins, in his Gateway to Atlantis^[072] devoted two chapters to the subject of the Seven Cities and also concluded that Cuba was its most likely location and by extension was also the home of Atlantis.

Tagged Andrew Collins, Antilia, Azores, Christopher Columbus, Cuba, Ferdinand Columbus, Mid Atlantic Ridge, Nicolai Zhirov, Seven Cities, W.H. Babcock

Mazarovich, A.N.

Published July 10, 2013

Aleksandr Nikolaevich Mazarovich (1886-1950) was Russian geologist who according to Zhirov^[458.317]believed that Atlantis had existed in the Atlantic west of Gibraltar.

Tagged A.N.Mazarovich, Nicolai Zhirov

Hanno, The Voyage of *

Published October 3, 2012

The Voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian navigator, was undertaken around 500 BC. The general consensus is that his journey took him through the Strait of Gibraltar and along part of the west coast of Africa. A record, or periplus, of the voyage was inscribed on tablets and displayed in the Temple of Baal at Carthage. Richard Hennig speculated that the contents of the periplus were copied by the Greek historian, Polybius, after the Romans captured Carthage. It did not surface again until the 10^th century when a copy, in Greek, was discovered (Codex Heildelbergensis 398) and was not widely published until the 16^th century.

The 1797 English translation of the periplus by Thomas Falconer along with the original Greek text can be downloaded or read online^(h).

Edmund Marsden Goldsmid (1849-?) published a translation of A Treatise On Foreign Languages and Unknown Islands^[1348] by Peter Albinus. In footnotes on page 39 he describes Hanno’s periplus as ‘apocryphal’. A number of other commentators^(c)(d) have also cast doubts on the authenticity of the Hanno text.

Three years after Ignatius Donnelly published Atlantis, Lord Arundell of Wardour published The Secret of Plato’s Atlantis^[0648] intended as a rebuttal of Donnelly’s groundbreaking book. The ‘secret’ referred to in the title is that Plato’s Atlantis story is based on the account we have of the Voyage of Hanno.

Nicolai Zhirov speculated that Hanno may have witnessed ‘the destruction of the southern remnants of Atlantis’, based on some of his descriptions.

Rhys Carpenter dedicated nearly twenty pages to the matter of Hanno commented that ”The modern literature about his (Hanno’s) voyage is unexpectedly large. But it is so filled with disagreement that to summarize it with any thoroughness would be to annul its effectiveness, as the variant opinions would cancel each other out”^[^221.86]. Carpenter included what he describes as ‘a retranslation of a translation’ of the text.

Further discussion of the text and topography encountered by Hanno can be read in a paper^[1483] by Duane W. Roller.

What I find interesting is that so much attention was given to Hanno’s voyage as if it was unique and not what you would expect if Atlantic travel was as commonplace at that time, as many ‘alternative’ history writers claim.

However, even more questionable, is the description of Hanno sailing off “with a fleet of sixty fifty-oared ships, and a large number of men and women to the number of thirty thousand, and with wheat and other provisions.” The problem with this is that the 50-oared ships would have been penteconters, which had limited room for much more than the oarsmen. If we include the crew, an additional 450 persons per ship would have been impossible, in fact, it is unlikely that even the provisions for 500 hundred people could have been accommodated!

Lionel Casson, the author of The Ancient Mariners^[¹¹⁹³^]commented that “if the whole expedition had been put aboard sixty penteconters, the ships would have quietly settled on the harbour bottom instead of leaving Carthage: a penteconter barely had room to carry a few days’ provisions for its crew, to say nothing of a load of passengers with all the equipment they needed to start a life in a colony.“

The American writer, William H. Russeth, commented^(f) on the various interpretations of Hanno’s route, noting that “It is hard for modern scholars to figure out exactly where Hanno travelled, because descriptions changed with each version of the original document and place names change as different cultures exert their influence over the various regions. Even Pliny the Elder, the famous Roman Historian, complained of writers committing errors and adding their own descriptions concerning Hanno’s journey, a bit ironic considering that Romans levelled the temple of Ba’al losing the famous plaque forever.”

George Sarantitis has a more radical interpretation of the Voyage of Hanno, proposing that instead of taking a route along the North African coast and then out into the Atlantic, he proposes that Hanno travelled inland along waterways that no longer exist^(e). A 2013 report in New Scientist magazine⁽ⁿ⁾ revealed that 100,000 years ago the Sahara had been home to three large rivers that flowed northward, which probably provided migration routes for our ancestors. Furthermore, if these rivers lasted into the African Humid Period they may be interpreted as support for Sarantitis’ contention regarding Hanno!

He insists that the location of the Pillars of Heracles, as referred to in the narrative, matches the Gulf of Gabes ^[1470].

The most recent commentary on Hanno’s voyage is on offer by Antonio Usai in his 2014 book, The Pillars of Hercules in Aristotle’s Ecumene^[⁹⁸⁰^]. He also has a controversial view of Hanno’s account, claiming that in the “second part, Hanno makes up everything because he does not want to continue that voyage.” (p.24) However, the main objective of Usai’s essays is to demonstrate that the Pillars of Hercules were originally situated in the Central Mediterranean between eastern Tunisia and its Kerkennah Islands.

A 1912 English translation of the text can be read online^(a), as well as a modern English translation by Jason Colavito^(k).

Another Carthaginian voyager, Himilco, is also thought to have travelled northward in the Atlantic and possibly reached Ireland, referred to as ‘isola sacra’. Unfortunately, his account is no longer available^(g).

The controversial epigrapher Barry Fell went so far as to propose that Hanno visited America, citing the Bourne Stone as evidence!^(m)*

The livius.org website offers three articles⁽ⁱ⁾ on the text, history and credibility of the surviving periplus together with a commentary.

Another excellent overview of the document is available on the World History Encyclopedia website.^(l)

^(a) https://web.archive.org/web/20040615213109/https://www.jate.u-szeged.hu/~gnovak/f99htHanno.htm

^(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_the_Navigator

^(d) https://annoyzview.wordpress.com/2012/04/

^(e) https://platoproject.gr/voyage-hanno-Carthaginian/

^(f)https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1033187.William_H_Russeth/blog?page=2 *

^(g) https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/high-north-carthaginian-exploration-of-ireland/

^(h) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qbMBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=Hanno+THomas+Falconer&source=bl&ots=jNnOy0QPyI&sig=xWps907X_R-1Q4kHMGaHI55Ckgs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSysGPsLvMAhXpF5oKHRFvDCEQ6AEIMjAE#v=onepage&q=Hanno%20THomas%20Falconer&f=false

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://web.archive.org/web/20180323080221/https://www.livius.org/articles/person/hanno-1-the-navigator/

^(j) BSMQg oYS QY FJ90bRJIhQ&hl=mt&ei=–tuS fNEIaqnAOo_NjHBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=&ved=CBgQ https://archive.org/details/cu31924031441847

^{^(k)} http://www.jasoncolavito.com/periplus-of-hanno.html#:~:text=The%20Periplus%20of%20Hanno%20the%20Carthaginian%20is%20an,to%20the%20sixth%20century%20before%20the%20Christian%20era.

^(l) Hanno: Carthaginian Explorer – World History Encyclopedia

^(m) Bourne stone – Wikipedia

⁽ⁿ⁾ NewScientist.com, 16 September 2013, https://tinyurl.com/mg9vcoz

& https://zeenews.india.com/news/science/lost-river-helped-lead-early-ancestors-out-of-africa_877125.html

Tagged Antonio Usai, Baal, Barry Fell, Carthage, Codex Heildelbergensis 398, Duane W. Roller, Edmund Marsden, George Sarantitis, Gulf of Gabes, Hanno II, Himilco, Ignatius Donnelly, Ireland, isola sacra, Jason Colavito, John Francis Arundell, Kerkennah, Nicolai Zhirov, penteconter, periplus, Peter Albinus, Pillars of Heracles, Pliny the Elder, Polybius, Rhys Carpenter, Richard Hennig, Strait of Gibraltar, Thomas Falconer, Tunisia, William H. Russeth

Expanding Earth Hypothesis *

Published April 27, 2012

The Expanding Earth Hypothesis.

For thousands of years, it was accepted that the surface of the earth was in a static state. This belief persisted until the rediscovery of America in 1492 and the cartographic improvements during the following century before Abraham Ortelius in his 1596 Thesaurus Geographicus^[1225] proposed that the Americas had once been joined to Europe and Africa. It is often claimed that in 1620 Francis Bacon commented on the close fit of eastern South America with the west coast of Africa, however, this, according to G.L. Herries Davies, is an exaggerated interpretation of what he actually said^(o).

A number of others concurred with the jig-saw suggestion until 1858 when the French geographer Antonio Snider-Pellegrini offered^[0555] a theory of crustal movement that was more fully developed in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, which he came to label ‘continental drift’^(e). Snider-Pellegrini also thought that the Earth had been much smaller at the time of the biblical Genesis^(ac)! The big objection to the theory was a lack of a convincing mechanism to explain it^(f).

A number of writers have attempted to bring the theory of Continental Drift (CD) into the Atlantis debate. They seem to overlook the fact CD was proposed as a very very slow process, while Plato describes the demise of Atlantis as occurring in a single day and a night.

Wegener’s theory was debated until the late 1950’s when it morphed into the theory of Plate Tectonics (PT) following new developments in earth sciences in particular the recognition of seafloor spreading at mid-ocean ridges. However, PT as we know it demands subduction^(z), which in itself has created new problems^(aa)(ab).

The theory divides the lithosphere into a number of plates that are constantly moving in various directions at rates of a few centimetres a year. Competing with PT in the early years was the theory of Earth Crustal Displacement advocated by Charles Hapgood which claims that the entire crust of the earth moved as a unit. Endorsed by Albert Einstein it is fundamental to the theory of an Antarctic location for Atlantis proposed by Rose & Rand Flem-Ath.

Unfortunately, Plate Tectonics does not explain everything and ever since it gained the pre-eminence it currently enjoys, various writers have questioned what they perceive as its shortcomings^(g)(h)(i).

A totally different proposal is that the earth is expanding. Although the concept did not get much attention until the 1980’s there are antecedents stretching back to 1888^(a), when the earliest suggestion was made by the Russian, Ivan Yarkovsky (1844-1902). A year later the Italian geologist (and violinist) Roberto Montovani (1854-1933) proposed^(I) a similar mechanism. In 1933, Ott Christoph

Hilgenberg

Hilgenberg^(t) published Vom wachsenden Erdbal (The Expanding Earth) ^[1328].

In 1963, a Russian lady, Kamilla Abaturova, wrote to Egerton Sykes expressing the view that although her theory of an expanding Earth involved a ‘slow’ process, she proposed that at the time of Atlantis’ the radius of the Earth was 600 km shorter^(af). In geological terms, this is far from ‘slow’!

The leading proponent of the theory today is arguably the, now retired, geologist Dr James Maxlow^(b). A detailed outline of the theory is also offered on his website^(c). For laymen like myself, a series of YouTube clips^(d) are probably more informative. I have stated elsewhere that I am sympathetic towards the idea of earth expansion finding it somewhat more credible than plate tectonics. The truth of the matter is that since Ortelius first suggested that the continents of our planet had moved, all that has emerged since is a refinement of that basic idea leading to CD which became PT and as the latter still does not answer all the questions it raises, it is clear that further modification will be required. In December 2021, Maxlow published an overview of his current thinking on Expansion Tectonics^(ag).

The Expanding Earth Hypothesis may, as its proponents claim, supply all those answers. Others do not think so, which brings me to J. Marvin Herndon who has ‘married’ the theory of an expanding earth with the idea of crustal plates^(j), naming his 2005 concept Whole-Earth Decompression Dynamics (WEDD).

The Thunderbolts.info website has a three-part article seeking to offer “an alternative to plate and extension tectonics”. The anonymous author suggests that an electrical element is involved in the development of our planet. An extensive look at mountain building is also included^(y).

A 1998 paper^(ah). by Bill Mundy an American Professor of Physics is still relevant. In it, he discusses the pros and cons of both plate tectonics and the expanding earth hypothesis and concluded that “Despite the success that standard plate-tectonics theory has enjoyed, there are phenomena that it currently is not able to model. Perhaps the most adequate model would incorporate Owens’ suggestion that there is both subduction and expansion. This would allow the earth to expand at a modest rate with reasonable changes in surface gravitation and also require some subduction for which the evidence seems convincing. But such a model presents the difficulty of finding suitable mechanisms for expansion, plate motion and subduction!”

In October 2022 Doug Fisher published a paper on Graham Hancock’s website highlighting weaknesses in the generally accepted theory of plate tectonics and seeking a review of the expanding earth hypothesis^(ai).

Keith Wilson, an American researcher, has also developed a website^(k) devoted to the EEH and linked it to Pole Shift. However, he goes further and introduces Mayan prophecies into the subject, which in my view is unwise in the light of recent events or rather non-events!

In the meanwhile, a number of Atlantis researchers have endorsed the EEH including, Stan Deyo, Georg Lohle and Rosario Vieni. Nicolai Zhirov referred to the growing support both in Russia and elsewhere for the EEH citing a number of its supporters, adding that “the idea of the Earth expanding (within reasonable limits) cannot be ruled out altogether as absurd.”^[458.126]

A number of websites have dismissed the EEH as pseudoscience, which is confirmed by satellite measurements^(m)(n).

There is also a variation of the standard expansion theory which proposes^(q) that expansion may have occurred in fits and starts. There also seems to be evidence that the Earth is not alone with Venus expanding^(r) and Mercury contracting^(s).

Another matter that may be related to the claim of an expanding Earth is the question of the size of dinosaurs and other creatures and plants millions of years ago, which is claimed to have been impossible if gravity then was the same as today. A book^[^1218] by Stephen Hurrell has expanded on this idea. There is an interesting website^(p) that deals with the enormous size of the dinosaurs as well as other creatures at the same period and the support it may offer the EEH.

Neal Adams, a respected graphic artist^(u), is a vocal supporter of the EEH^(v), but, he has gone further and has also proposed a growing Moon as well^(w). Not content with that, he has extended his expansion investigations to other bodies in our Solar System, such as, Mars, Ganymede & Europa^(x). Adams considers the term “Expanding Earth” a misnomer and has named his proposed expansion process ‘pair production’.^(ad)

A December 2018 paper by Degezelle Marvin offers some new support for the EEH^(ae). The author includes an interesting comparison of the problems of the currently accepted paradigm of plate tectonics with possible solutions offered by EEH. The author concludes with;

“The problems with plate tectonics were presented in this paper. Earth scientists dogmatically follow the plate tectonics theory that is falsified by geological data while Earth expansion is clearly a viable candidate to replace plate tectonics. Analysis map of the age of the oceanic lithosphere showed that the isochrons only ft on a smaller Earth with a calculated radius. Mountain formation has even been presented as a logical result of the Earth’s expansion. The average rate of the growth of the Earth’s radius is 1.22cm/year, obtained by geological methods.”

Finally, I cannot help thinking about those Victorians who thought that they had reached the pinnacle of scientific understanding. They were wrong and, I believe, that so are we, although we are slowly, very slowly, edging towards the truth, which may or may not involve the vindication of the Expanding Earth Hypothesis.

^(a) https://www.checktheevidence.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=394&Itemid=59

^(b) https://www.expansiontectonics.com/page2.html

^(c) https://www.expansiontectonics.com/page3.html

^(d) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkEu6YYR3s

^(e) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift

^(f) https://www.scientus.org/Wegener-Continental-Drift.html

^(g) https://davidpratt.info/ncgt-jse.htm

^(h) https://davidpratt.info/lowman.htm

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.newgeology.us/presentation21.html

^(j)https://web.archive.org/web/20200926204322/http://nuclearplanet.com/

^(k) https://www.eearthk.com/

^(l) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Mantovani

^(m) https://web.archive.org/web/20200928171034/https://www.xearththeory.com/expanding-earth-theory-debunked/

⁽ⁿ⁾ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2014/05/12/the-expanding-earth/

^(o) Francis Bacon and Continental Drift (archive.org) *

^(p)The Inflating Earth: 4 – Gravity | MalagaBay (archive.org)

^(q) https://web.archive.org/web/20161203151134/http://www.xearththeory.com/expansion/

^(r)https://web.archive.org/web/20200808000231/https://www.xearththeory.com/expanding-venus/

^(s)https://web.archive.org/web/20200807234839/https://www.xearththeory.com/mercury/

^(t) https://web.archive.org/web/20200206154438/http://wachsende-erde.de/web-content/bilder/hilgenb/hilgenberg1933.pdf

^(u) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Adams

^(v) https://www.naturalphilosophy.org/site/dehilster/2014/09/22/is-the-earth-expanding-and-even-growing/

^(w)Neal Adams: 02 – The Growing Moon | MalagaBay (archive.org)

^(x) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy3_sWF7tv4

^(y) https://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16534 (link broken Oct. 2019) See: https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-3326/

^(z) https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-subduction-3892831

^(aa) https://www.newgeology.us/presentation8.html

^(ab) https://web.archive.org/web/20190715191800/http://areopagusletters.com/10-problems-with-plate-tectonics

^(ac) https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu/index.php/annals/article/view/4622

^(ad) https://malagabay.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/neal-adams-01-the-growing-earth/

^(ae) https://www.gsjournal.net/Science-Journals/Research%20Papers-Astrophysics/Download/7531

^(af) Atlantis, Volume 16, No. 1, February 1963.

^(ag) NCGTJV9N4_Pub.pdf (registeredsite.com)

^(ah) https://www.grisda.org/assets/public/publications/origins/15053.pdf

^(ai)Maps, Myths & Paradigms – Graham Hancock Official Website

Tagged Abraham Ortelius, Albert Einstein, Alfred Wegener, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, Bill Mundy, Charles Hapgood, Continental Drift, Degezelle Marvin, dinosaurs, Doug Fisher, EEH, Egerton Sykes, Europa, Expanding Earth Hypothesis, G.L. Herries Davies, Ganymede, Georg Lohle, Ivan Yarkovsky, J. Marvin Herndon, James Maxlow, Kamilla Abaturova, Keith P. Wilson, Mars, Mercury, Neal Adams, Nicolai Zhirov, Ott Christoph Hilgenberg, Plate tectonics, Rand & Rose Flem-Ath, Roberto Montovani, Rosario Vieni, Sir Francis Bacon, Stan Deyo, Stephen Hurrell, Venus

Zajdler, Ludwik

Published February 10, 2011

Ludwik Zajdler (1905-1985) was a Polish astronomer who published Atlantyda in Warsaw in 1963. In 1966 it was translated into Russian by leading atlantologist Nicolai Zhirov. It is widely quoted on the Internet that the 3^rd Polish 1972 edition had a print run of 30,000 copies, which is unbelievably spectacular. However, this report goes on to claim that this number equals the total number of all books on Atlantis published in the USA and UK during the previous twenty years, which also seems questionable.

Zajdler divided his book into three sections, Atlantis in myth, Atlantis in history and the date and cause of its destruction. The author believed that there was evidence of a collision between the Earth and Halley’s Comet in 9570 BC and that this caused a 30° alteration to the axis of the earth resulting in the sudden freezing of the Siberian mammoths.

Zhirov noted^[458.378]Zajdler had identified some remarkable similarities between the ancient Egyptian and Mayan calendars, which led him to conclude that they had to have a common origin that he assumed to have been Atlantis.

Zajdler also had a fascination with sundials and timekeeping, which led to him write Dzieje zegara (The History of the Clock).

Tagged Atlantis, atlantyda, Halley's Comet, Ludwik Zajdler, mammoths, Maya, Nicolai Zhirov

Kolosimo, Peter

Published June 9, 2010

Peter Kolosimo (1922-1984) was the nom de plume of Pier Domenico Colosimo, an Italian writer who can be said to have paved the way for the better-known Erich von Däniken and their promotion of ‘ancient astronaut’ theories. Kolosimo won a literary prize for his Non è terrestre, published in English as Not of This World. In the same book, which can be borrowed online ^[⁴²⁷^]+, he supported the idea of an Atlantic location for Atlantis drawing heavily on the work of Nicolai Zhirov.

Jason Colavito has written a highly critical review^(a) of Kolosimo’s book in four parts.

^[⁴²⁷^]+https://archive.org/details/notofthisworld00kolo *

^(a) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post/2014/02/review-of-peter-kolosimos-not-of-this-world-pt-1.html

^(b) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-peter-kolosimos-not-of-this-world-pt-2-in-which-the-cthulhu-mythos-is-taken-as-real

^(c) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-peter-kolosimos-not-of-this-world-pt-3

^(d) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-peter-kolosimos-not-of-this-world-last-part

Tagged Erich von Daniken, Jason Colavito, Nicolai Zhirov, Peter Kolosimo, Pier Domenico Colosimo

Azores

Published June 3, 2010

The Azores (Açores) is a group of Portuguese islands in the Atlantic, situated 1,500 km from the mainland. The first recorded instance of their discovery is in 1427 by the Portuguese, although there is some evidence to suggest that the Norse reached the islands 700 years earlier^(z). However, they were not the first as recent discoveries have shown clearly that megalith builders and others had occupied the archipelago’s island of Terceira long enough to construct a number of megalithic monuments^(aa). Professor Felix Rodrigues has claimed that these structures were stylistically related to European megaliths. The island also has a number of cart ruts, a subject about which Rodrigues et al have published a paper^(ad). The significance of the megaliths on Terceira is far greater than might be first thought. Received wisdom has it that apart from coastal hugging, ocean-going vessels were not available until the time of the Phoenicians. The Azorean megaliths suggest otherwise. Furthermore, it throws new light on the possibility of Neolithic and/or Bronze Age visits to America from the Old World. A BBC video^(ab) has some interesting images, while for Portuguese speakers a RTP video^(ac) has an interview with Professor Rodrigues, who has also written a paper on early Atlantic navigation^(ae).

The earliest association of the Azores with Atlantis dates from 1499 when Maximillian I of the Holy Roman Empire (1459-1519) appointed Lukas Fugger vom Reh as the ‘titular’ king of Atlantis. The certificate of appointment nominated the Azores as the remnants of Atlantis. Markus Fugger a descendant of Lukas has published a 2013 paper defending this identification of the Azores with Atlantis^(x).

In 2012, the president of the Portuguese Association of Archeological Research (APIA), Nuno Ribeiro, revealed^(c) that rock art had been found on the island of Terceira, supporting his belief that human occupation of the Azores predates the arrival of the Portuguese by many thousands of years. A further article^(a) in October 2016 expanded on this matter. Ribeiro’s research was trotted out in a more recent documentary from Amazon Prime with the tabloid title of New Atlantis Documentary – Proof that Left Historians Speechless^(u), which explores the claim that the Azores are the mountain tops of sunken Atlantis!

However, the Portuguese authorities set up a commission to look into Ribeiro’s contentions and concluded^(q) that any perceived remnants of an ancient civilization were either natural rock formations or structures of more modern origin. Nevertheless, as the Epoch Times reports^(r) that “Antonieta Costa, a post-doctoral student at the University of Porto in Portugal, remained unconvinced and continued research into the hypothesis that the Azores were inhabited in antiquity and even in prehistory.” In 2013, Costa, published, in English, The Mound of Stones ^[¹⁹⁶⁷^] about the megaliths of the Azores.

It seems to me that the research of Rodrigues, Ribeiro and Costa should be looked at again as a combined study so that the ancient history of the Azores can be more clearly understood and its mysteries resolved.

It is thought that the Phoenicians and Etruscans competed for control of the Azores in later years. In 2011, APIA archaeologists reported that they had discovered on Terceira island, a significant number of fourth-century BC Carthaginian temples. They believe the temples were dedicated to the ancient Phoenician/Carthaginian goddess Tanit^(c). The Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, in his 1665 book Mundus Subterraneus, was the first to propose that these islands were the mountain peaks of sunken Atlantis. This view was adopted by Ignatius Donnelly and developed by successive writers and is still supported by many today. The latest recruit is Carl Martin, who is currently working on a book locating Atlantis in the Azores and destroyed around 9620 BC. The late Christian O’Brien was a long-time proponent of the Atlantis in Azores theory. A bathymetric study of the area suggested to O’Brien that the archipelago had been a mid-Atlantic island 480 x 720 km before the end of the last Ice Age. Apart from the inundation caused by the melting of the glaciers, he found evidence that seismic activity caused the southern part of this island to sink to a greater degree than the north. O’Brien pointed out that six areas of hot spring fields (associated with volcanic disturbances) are known in the mid-Atlantic ridge area, and four of them lie in the Kane-Atlantis area close to the Azores.

Klaus Aschenbrenner was originally happy to consider the Azores as a possible location for Atlantis, but further research led him to conclude that this was unlikely^(ag).

In 1982 Peter Warlow suggested ^[¹³⁵^]that a sea-level drop of 200 metres would have created an island as large as England and Wales with the present islands of the Azores as its mountains. However, Rodney Castleden contradicts that idea^[225.187] saying that if the sea level was lowered by 200m “the Azores would remain separate islands.” Bathymetric maps of the archipelago, above and on the Internet^(g), verify Castleden’s contention. This together with a 1982 paper from P.J.C. Ryall et al, demonstrates more clearly that the Azores are just the summits of volcanic seamounts that rise from an underwater plateau that is 1000 metres below sea level. Professor Ryall and his associates were dealing objectively with the geology of the area and were not promoting any view regarding Atlantis. The geological evidence supporting an Azorean Atlantis is therefore very weak, verging on non-existent.

Andrew Collins, the leading proponent of a Cuban Atlantis, has written a short review of the Azorean Hypothesis^(h).

Frank Joseph has offered his views on Atlantis in the Azores in a YouTube video^(l).

Nikolai Zhirov recounts in his book^[458.363] how Réne Malaise wrote to him regarding a Danish engineer named Frandsen who identified a plateau, 2/3rds the size of Finland, south of the Azores, whose summits were 4,000-5,000m metres higher than it. Adding canals gave Frandsen a configuration that closely matched Plato’s description of Atlantis. Zhirov also noted^[p403] that in 1957 a journal entitled Atlantida was published in the Azores.

In 1976, Jürgen Spanuth pointed out^[015.249] that the Azores are not the mountain peaks of a sunken continent but are instead volcanic rock created through an eruption. He quotes similar sentiments expressed by Hans Pettersson. A 2003 paper^(b) by four French scientists demonstrated that the Azores had been greatly enlarged during the last Ice Age. However, showing that the Azores were more extensive is not disputed, but it in no way demonstrates that it was the location of Atlantis. In fact, Plato’s description of the magnificent mountains to the north and the mud shoals that were still a hazard in Plato’s day do not match the Azores. The geologist, Darby South, strongly denied that the Azores could have been the location of Atlantis according to a couple of articles posted on the internet some years ago^(a). However, natives of the archipelago are quite happy to assert a link with Atlantis, as travel writer David Yeadon found on a visit there^(d).

Nevertheless, advocates of Atlantis in the Azores must accept that when the Portuguese arrived on the island in the 15th century they were found to be uninhabited and without any evidence of an earlier advanced civilisation there, such as described by Plato. Initially, the only hint of earlier visitors was some 3rd-century BC coins from Carthage discovered on the island of Corvo. However, in recent years Bronze Age rock art^(f) and what is described as a Carthaginian temple^(e) have both been discovered on the island of Terceira.

Otto Muck among others was certain that the enlarged Azores had deflected the Gulf Stream during the Ice Age, contributing to the extent of the Western European glaciation. However, a 2016 report^(m) from the Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and Environment (CAGE) offered evidence that the Gulf Stream was not interrupted during the last Ice Age, which would seem to undermine one of Muck’s principal claims.

Nevertheless, it is still far from clear what caused the ending of the last Ice Age. A number of writers including Muck speculated that an asteroidal impact in the Atlantic was responsible. When the Azores were discovered in the 15th century they were uninhabited and without any evidence of an earlier civilisation. It can be reasonably argued that since the Azores today are just the mountain peaks of a larger mainly submerged island, any remains would be more likely to be found on the plains and estuaries that are now underwater. One undeveloped theory is that the name ‘Azores’ might be linked to the ninth king of Atlantis, Azaes, listed by Plato. This idea is supported by the linguist Dr Vamos-Toth Bator. However, a Portuguese correspondent has pointed out that the Azores is named after a goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) commonly found on the islands and portrayed on the regional flag. The renowned writer, Dennis Wheatley, used the possibility of Atlantis being located in the Azores as a backdrop to his 1936 thriller, They Found Atlantis.

In August 2013 Portuguese American Journal reported that the many pyramidal structures on Pico are clear evidence of extensive human activity in the archipelago long before the arrival of the Portuguese^(o). A YouTube video^(p) offers some interesting views of the pyramids. If these pyramid builders were capable of sailing from mainland Europe as far as the Azores, understandably, it has prompted some to question whether the same people were able to complete the journey to the Americas! In 2014, Dominique Görlitz gave a lecture on the pyramids^(ai) and the Atlantisforschung website has an article on the debate between Nuno Ribeiro and Portuguese archaeologists regarding the authenticity of the pyramids^(aj).

The following month the same journal announced the discovery of a pyramidal structure 60 metres high at a depth of 40 metres off the coast of the Azorean island of Terceira⁽ⁱ⁾. Shortly afterwards the Portuguese Navy denied the existence of any such structure^(j). Not exactly a surprise! Nevertheless, an Italian website has attempted to breathe new life into the story by linking this underwater pyramid report with pyramidal structures found on the island of Pico^(k).

Atlantisforschung published an article that included critical comments about the ‘pyramid’ from both Greg Little and Andrew Collins.“A Portuguese Navy commander states that there is a read error of the sonar data and that the alleged pyramid was a volcanic mound. Afterwards, the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute [also] stated that the “ Pyramid ” was a known volcanic mound and posted actual underwater bottom contours of the site obtained from a hydrographic survey.

For the Portuguese Navy and its officials (who were originally said to be excited and involved), that was the end of the matter. But allegations arose almost immediately that this was a cover-up. Apparently, there was a Pyramid of Atlantis there, some claimed, and for obscure reasons, the government didn’t want anyone to know about it. At least that’s what is claimed. But of course, none of the people claiming a cover-up will ever go there and dive or lower a camera themselves. It’s probably [from their point of view; much better to keep it alive as a mystery. At the end of the day, no one wants to admit the truth — or know the truth.”^(z).

The Wikiversity website has an extensive article^(s) on the location of Atlantis, which is focused on the Azores and the bathymetric evidence for that archipelago having been a large single landmass at the end of the last Ice Age when sea levels were much lower. However, it is based on the literal acceptance of Plato’s 9,000 years before Solon for the date of the Atlantean War.

April 2018, saw British tabloid interest in Atlantis revived with further speculation on the Azores as the location of Plato’s submerged island^(t). However, the details of the claim were rejected by Dr Richard Waller a lecturer at Keele University. Not content with recycling the old Azores theory, The Star also throws in the even more nonsensical idea of an Antarctican Atlantis.

A paper by Gerard Janssen of Leiden University places Homer’s Ogygia in the Azores^(v).

In 2019, Fehmi Krasniqi published a three-and-a-half-hour video on the building of the Egyptian pyramids. For Krasniqi, the Ancient Black Egyptians travelled to the Americas and many other parts of the world^(af). He claims that these ancient Egyptians travelled to America using Atlantis, now the Azores as a stepping-stone. This is offered as an explanation for the huge Olmec stone heads with African features!

A recent (2021) advocate of Atlantis in the region of the Azores is Victor Staner^(w). In the same year, I was made aware of the work of Matthew Chinn who also pinpointed a location (38° 32′ 06″ N, 29° 24′ 09″ W) in the Azores region as the site of Atlantis, using satellite imagery and bathymetric data.>>Chinn’s claim has been strongly endorsed by Keith M. Hunter^(ak).<<

Support for the Azores continued with a book from Michael le Flem, Visions of Atlantis ^[1958] in 2022, an excerpt from which was published on the Ancient Origins website in January 2023^(ah).

My leading questions regarding the proposed Azorean location for Atlantis are (a) why and (b) how would Atlanteans situated in the middle of the Atlantic launch an attack on Athens or Egypt that were over 4,200 km away? Unless those two questions are satisfactorily answered the Azores fails as the home of Atlantis.

^(a) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/controversy-surrounds-artifacts-azores-islands-evidence-advanced-ancient-021028?nopaging=1

^(c) https://portuguese-american-journal.com/archeology-prehistoric-rock-art-found-in-caves-on-terceira-island-azores/

^(d) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/travel/1988/08/14/sao-miguel-the-azores-misty-fragments-of-atlantis/f0f754aa-3961-451b-8fb5-4563debafdde/

^(e) https://portuguese-american-journal.com/archeological-findings-in-the-azores-spark-controversy-%e2%80%93-update/

^(f) https://portuguese-american-journal.com/archeology-prehistoric-rock-art-found-in-caves-on-terceira-island-azores/

^(g) https://www.internalwaveatlas.com/Atlas2_PDF/IWAtlas2_Pg049_Azores.pdf

^(h) https://www.andrewcollins.com/page/interactive/midatlan.htm

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://portuguese-american-journal.com/terceira-subaquatic-pyramidal-shaped-structure-found-azores/

^(j) https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=255178&st=75

^(k)https://www.stampalibera.com/?a=28020#sthash.EUkbmusn.dpuf (Site now offline)

^(l) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRABMVIV0pQ

^(m) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160219134816.htm

^(o) https://portuguese-american-journal.com/pico-new-archeological-evidence-reveals-human-presence-before-portuguese-occupation-azores/

^(p) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmd89nPH4WM

^(q) https://www.scribd.com/document/327357287/Relatorio-Comissao (Portuguese)

^(r) https://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2171870-controversy-surrounds-artifacts-on-azores-islands-evidence-of-advanced-ancient-seafarers/

^(s) https://web.archive.org/web/20190322095652/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_hypotheses_of_Atlantis

^(t)https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/695548/Google-Earth-sighting-Atlantis-cover-up-conspiracy-solved-expert-video

^(u) https://www.amazon.com/New-Atlantis-Documentary-Historians-Speechless/dp/B07F2Z1272

^(v) http://homerusodyssee.nl/id27.htm

^(w) Atlantis | Captainvic (wixsite.com)

^(x) Eine These zur Lokalisierung von Atlantis im Atlantik – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)

^(y) Sobering news about the ‘underwater pyramid’ near the Azores – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)

^(z) Viking mice: Norse discovered Azores 700 years before Portuguese | CALS (cornell.edu)

^(aa) Megalithic Constructions Discovered in the Azores, Portugal (scirp.org)

^(ab) (57) Were the Azores home to an ancient civilisation? – BBC REEL – YouTube (Eng)

^(ac) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBPyCYo97VQ (Port)

^(ad) (99+) Dating the Cart-Ruts of Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal | Félix Rodrigues – Academia.edu

^(ae) (99+) Early Atlantic Navigation: Pre-Portuguese Presence in the Azores Islands | Félix Rodrigues and Scientific Research Publishing – Academia.edu

^(af) Solving The Mystery Behind the Building of the Great Pyramid – Rising Tide Foundation

^(ag) Was Atlantis in the Azores? – Klaus-Aschenbrenner (archive.org)

^(ah) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/azores-atlantis-0017844

^(ai) https://www.5-sterne-redner.de/en/news/6582-the-pyramids-on-the-azores-lecutre-by-keynotes-speaker-dr-goerlitz/

^(aj) Who built the stepped structures on Pico? (Part 3) – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)

^(ak) https://www.lostagesecrets.com/the-lost-city-of-Atlantis.html *

Tagged Andrew Collins, Antonieta Costa, Athanasius Kircher, Azaes, Azores, Carl Martin, Carthaginians, Christian O'Brien, Corvo, Darby South, Dennis Wheatley, Dominique Gorlitz, Dr. Vamon-Toth Bator, Etruscans, Fehmi Krasniqi, Félix Rodrigues, Frank Joseph, Gerard Janssen, glaciation, goshawk, Greg Little, Hans Pettersson, Ice Age, Ignatius Donnelly, Jürgen Spanuth, Keith M. Hunter, Klaud Aschenbrenner, Lukas Fugger von Reh, Markus Fugger, Matthew Chinn, Maximillian I, Nicolai Zhirov, Nuno Ribeiro, Ogygia, Otto Muck, P.J.C.Ryall, Peter Warlow, Phoenicians, Pico, Portuguese American Journal, pyramid, René Malaise, Richard Waller, rock art, Rodney Castleden, Tanit, Terceira, Victor Staner, Wikiversity

America *

Published May 31, 2010

America as the home of Atlantis took off as an idea shortly after its discovery (or perhaps more correctly, rediscovery) by Columbus. Initially, reports sent back to Europe designated America as ‘Paradise’

until its identification as Atlantis quickly took hold. John Dee in the time of Elizabeth I was convinced that the newly discovered Americas were in fact, Atlantis, an idea endorsed by Francis Bacon. The first time that America was so named on a map was on the 1507^(c) Waldseemüller map, sometimes referred to as “America’s birth certificate.” A rare copy of this map was recently found in Germany^(e).

Nevertheless, from the early 1600’s dissenting voices were raised, such as those of José de Acosta, and Michel de Montaigne.

As late as 1700, a map of the world by Edward Wells was published in Oxford that highlights the paucity of information regarding the Americas at that time. However, in this instance the accompanying text notes that “this continent with the adjoining islands is generally supposed to have been anciently unknown though there are not wanting some, who will have even the continent itself to be no other than the Insula Atlantis of the ancients.”

For over five centuries a variety of commentators have associated Atlantis with America and many of its ancient cultures together with a range of location theories that stretch from Maine through the Caribbean and Central America to Argentina.

Although most proponents of an American Atlantis, particularly following the continent’s discovery, did not specify a location but were happy to consider the Americas in their entirety as Plato’s lost land. In 2019, Reinoud de Jonge published a paper declaring that from 2500-1200 BC America had been an Egyptian colony. He expanded on this in 2912^(l), when he claimed that the American colonies, North and South had supplied the copper and tin for the Bronze Age of the Mediterranean. For good measure, he threw in a wildly speculative translation of the Phaistos Disk to support these contentions.

Over time attention was more focused on Mesoamerica and the northern region of South America, where the impressive remains of the Maya and Incas led many to consider them to be Atlantean.

North America received minimal attention until the 19th century when an 1873 newspaper report⁽ⁱ⁾ claimed that there was support from unnamed scientists for locating remnants of Atlantis in the Adirondacks and some of the mountains of Maine! More recently Dennis Brooks has advocated Tampa Bay, Florida, while John Saxer supports Tarpon Springs, also in Florida as Atlantean. To confuse matters further, Mary Sutherland locates Atlantis in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and for good measure suggests that King Solomon’s mines are to be found in the same region!

For example, the discovery of the remains of the remarkable cultures of Mesoamerica generated speculation on the possibility of an Atlantean connection there. This view gained further support with the publication of Ignatius Donnelly’s groundbreaking work on Atlantis.

Some have seen an Atlantic location for Atlantis as a conduit between the culture of ancient Egypt and that of Meso-America^(d).

Half a century ago Nicolai Zhirov claimed that Plato had knowledge of America ^[458.22] indicated by his statement that Atlantis was in a sea with a continent encompassing it. He thought that this was the earliest record of a continent beyond the Atlantic.

However, Plato also said that Atlantis was surrounded ‘on all sides’ by this continent, which is not compatible with the Azores, advocated by Zhirov as the location of Plato’s sunken island. In an effort to strengthen this claim Zhirov also claims that there is evidence that King Sargon of Akkad travelled to America in the middle of the third millennium BC, an idea that has gained little traction.

The idea of Sumerians in America was promoted by A.H. Verrill and his wife Ruth, who claimed ^[838]that King Sargon travelled to Peru, where he was known as Viracocha. The Verrills support their contention with a range of cultural, linguistic and architectural similarities between the Sumerians and the Peruvians.

More recently, Andrew Collins has promoted the idea of Atlantis in the Caribbean, specifically Cuba. Followers of Edgar Cayce are still expecting the Bahamas to yield evidence of Plato’s island. Gene Matlock supports the idea of a Mexican location with an Indian connection, while Duane McCullough opts for Guatemala. Ivar Zapp and George Erikson have also chosen Central America for investigation. Further south Jim Allen has argued strongly for Atlantis having been located on the Altiplano of Bolivia. A website entitled American Atlantis Research from Edward Alexander , now offline, was rather weak on content and irritatingly referred to the ‘Andies’.

Although much of what has been written about an American location for Atlantis is the result of serious research, it all falls far short of convincing me that the Atlantis of which Plato wrote is to be found there. No evidence has been produced to even hint that any American culture had control of the Mediterranean as far Tyrrhenia in the north and Libya in the south. No remains or carvings of triremes or chariots have been found in the Americas. How could an ancient civilisation from America launch an attack across the Atlantic and at the furthest end of the Mediterranean 9,000 or even 900 years before Solon? An even more important question is, why would they bother? There is no evidence of either motive, means or opportunity for an attack from that direction.

A number of Plato’s descriptions of Atlantis would seem to rule out America as its location.

(a) As mentioned above, the ‘opposite continent’ referred to by Plato (Timaeus 25a) is described as encompassing the sea in which Atlantis lay. America cannot be described as enclosing the Atlantic. Around 550 AD, Procopius noted that when viewed from the southern side of the Strait of Gibraltar “the whole continent opposite this was named Europe”(m) (not America)!

(b) The Greeks only knew of three continents, Europe, Asia and Libya. Armin Wolf, the German historian, when writing about Scheria relates^(f) that “Even today, when people from Sicily go to Calabria (southern Italy) they say they are going to the “continente.” I suggest that Plato used the term in a similar fashion and was quite possibly referring to that same part of Italy which later became known as ‘Magna Graecia’. Robert Fox in The Inner Sea^[¹¹⁶⁸^.141]confirms that this long-standing usage of ‘continent’ refers to Italy.

(c) Herodotus described Sardinia as “the biggest island in the world” (Hist.6.2). In fact Sicily is marginally larger but as islands were measured in those days (Felice Vinci) ^[⁰¹⁹^] by the length of their coastal perimeter Herodotus was correct. Consequently, it can be argued that since Cuba and Hispaniola are much more extensive than Sardinia, the Greeks had no knowledge of the Caribbean.

(d) Plato makes frequent references to horses in Atlantis. The city itself had a track for horseracing (Critias 117c). The Atlanteans had thousands of chariots (Critias 119a). The Atlanteans even had horse baths (Critias 117b). All these references make no sense if Plato was describing an American Atlantis as there were no horses there for over 12,000 years, when they died out, until brought back by the Spaniards millennia later. Furthermore, it makes even less sense if you subscribe to the early date (9600 BC) for Atlantis as it is thousands of years before we have any evidence for the domestication of the horse, anywhere.

A recent study of worldwide DNA patterns suggests that “no more than 70 people inhabited North America 14,000 years ago.”^(b)But a more important claim has been offered by Professors Jennifer Raff and Deborah Bolnick who have co-authored a paper offering evidence^(j) that the genetic data only supports a migration from Siberia to America. This certainly runs counter to any suggestion of transatlantic migration from Europe.In 1900,

Peter de Roo put forward the idea that the ancient Greeks had knowledge of America, despite the fact that Herodotus clearly said that only three continents were known to them [Histories 4.42]. A 2013 book, L’America dimenticata ^[¹⁰⁶⁰^], by Italian physicist and philologist Lucio Russo, also claims that the ancient Greeks had knowledge of America and it was gradually forgotten because of mistakes made by Ptolemy including a 15-degree error for the latitude of the Canaries^(g).

However, the idea that the Greeks had an awareness of America persists, with some claiming that they had colonies in Canada. Among these are Lucio Russo, Ioannis Liritzis⁽ⁿ⁾ and Minas Tsikritsis^(p). Manolis Koutlis has gone one further and claims that not only were there Greek Colonies in Canada but that Atlantis had been situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence^(o).

The late Professor Antonis Kontaratos placed the capital of Atlantis at Poverty Point in Louisiana or it at least inspired some of Plato’s description since “there is also solid evidence that the Greeks were travelling to America in prehistoric times too and could have witnessed firsthand the impressive earthworks at Poverty Point, information which could have reached Plato independently as a fading legend ^[0750].” Kontaratos cited Plutarch to support his contention of Greek transatlantic travel in prehistory.

I note that there is a suspiciously disproportionate number of Greeks supporting the idea of pre-Columbian Hellenic visitors to America!

While there is extensive debate regarding the Americas being visited by ancient Greeks (Minoans), Phoenicians and even Sumerians, there seems little doubt that America had been visited by various other peoples prior to Columbus such as Welsh, Vikings or Irish. The case for the latter is strengthened by a 500-year-old report^(h) of a long-established Irish colony in North America called Duhare.

America as Atlantis and the source of freemasonry knowledge was recently repackaged in a brief article on the Odyssey website^(k) quoting Manly P. Hall who in turn cited Plato and Sir Francis Bacon. It then proceeds to speculate on what lessons the story of this original American Atlantis offers the America of today!

^(b) https://www.sott.net/articles/show/228315-North-America-Was-Populated-by-no-More-Than-70-People-14-000-Years-Ago-Claims-Stunning-New-DNA-Research

^(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldseem%C3%BCller_map

^(d) https://www.africaspeaks.com/reasoning/index.php?topic=5106.0

^(e) Librarians find lost copy of Waldseemuller map, ‘America’s birth certificate’ | GlobalPost (archive.org) *

^(f) Wayback Machine (archive.org)

^(g) Reconsidering History: Ancient Greeks Discovered America Thousands of Years Ago (archive.org) *

^(h)https://web.archive.org/web/20161203182356/https://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.ie/2014/03/490-year-old-spanish-documents-describe.html

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=PRP18730215.2.8.2&srpos=11&e=——-en–20–1-byDA-txt-txIN-Plato+Atlantis——-1

^(j) https://phys.org/news/2016-01-genetic-ancient-trans-atlantic-migration-professor.html

^(k) https://www.theodysseyonline.com/america-as-atlantis

^(l) https://www.academia.edu/3894415/COPPER_AND_TIN_FROM_AMERICA_c.2500-1200_BC_

^(m)Vandal Wars 1.1.7

⁽ⁿ⁾ https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/did-ancient-greeks-sail-to-canada/

^(o) ENSKIA (archive.org)

^(p) http://canada.greekreporter.com/2012/04/21/researcher-claims-ancient-greeks-made-it-to-america-before-columbus/

Tagged A.H. Verrill, Adirondacks, America, Andrew Collins, Antonis Kontaratos, Appalachians, Armin Wolf, Azores, Bahamas, Calabria, Canaries, Caribbean, chariots, Columbus, Cuba, Deborah Bolnick, Dennis Brooks, DNA, Duane McCullough, Duhare, Duharew, Edgar Cayce, Edward Wells, Egypt, Felice Vinci, Florida, Francis Bacon, Gene Matlock, George Erikson, Guatemala, Herodotus, Hispaniola, horses, Ignatius Donnelly, Ioannis Liritzis, Irish, Ivar Zapp, Jennifer Raff, Jim Allen, John Dee, John Saxer, José de Acosta, King Solomon's Mines, Lucio Russo, Magna Graecia, Maine, Manly P. Hall, Manolis Koutlis, Meso-America, Michel de Montaine, Minas Tsikritsis, Minoans, Nicolai Zhirov, Peter de Roo, Phoenicians, Plutarch, Poverty Point, Procopius, Ptolemy, Reinoud de Jong, Robert Fox, Sardinia, Sargon, Scheria, Sicily, St. Lawrence River, Sumerians, triremes, Viracocha, Waldseemüller map, Welsh

Aegean Sea

Published May 26, 2010

The Aegean Sea is located in the eastern Mediterranean, bounded by the Greek mainland in the north and west, Turkey in the east and extending to Crete in the south. In 1899, R.F. Scharff claimed that it was commonly accepted that the Aegean had been dry land until after the appearance of man^(c). Zhirov wrote of this landmass being referred to as ‘Aegeida’ before it subsided to form the Aegean Sea ^[0458^.96], but he doubted that it occurred before ‘thinking man’ arrived there.

The 15th-century map of Ibn Ben Zara appears to show the islands of Aegean as larger and more numerous than today!

The importance of the Aegean to the ancient Greeks is highlighted by Plato when he described their relationship as one where the Greeks “are like frogs around a pond.” (Phaedo 109a-b)

However, it has been noted⁽ⁱ⁾ that the Homeric poems (and the works attributed to Hesiod) studiously avoid any reference to the Aegean Sea, an avoidance that appears all the more striking when juxtaposed with the fact that there are other named seas in the poems.

A 280-page overview of the Aegean civilisations from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic period^(f) is worth a look.

It can be reasonably argued that initially, the Greeks had little knowledge of the world beyond the Aegean, which might explain why Plato did not seem to know the exact identity of the Atlanteans. In this regard, a quote from an AtlantisOnline forum seems relevant – “There is evidence, moreover, that the Greeks were restricted by the Phoenicians to the Aegean Sea for a period of many centuries from 1200 BC onwards, and Naval Historians attribute this to the availability exclusively to the Phoenicians of two elements in ship construction, namely long straight cedar timbers (compared to short sinuous olive timbers available to the Greeks) and Bronze for fixings, claddings and battering rams, which were used in battle to perforate hulls, sinking the enemy.”^(e)

Many researchers have suggested the Aegean as a possible location for Atlantis with Thera and Crete as the leading contenders. In fact, it is Thera, with its dramatic volcanic eruption, in the middle of the second millennium BC that still manages to command considerable support after nearly one hundred years since it was first mooted. Its advocates view it as the most likely source of inspiration for Plato’s tale, in spite of the fact that it conflicts with many of the details described by him.

One regular blogger, ‘mapmistress’, proposed (2010) that the Pillars of Heracles were situated at Rhodes with Atlantis situated north of the island in the Aegean. This suggestion is based on the claim that all English translations of Timaeus 24e are ‘botched’ and that the original does not say “larger than Libya and Asia together” but instead should read “north of Libya and west of Asia”! In fact, she goes further with the claim that the very word ‘Atlantis’ was invented by Benjamin Jowett!^(d)

Three Italian linguists, Facchetti, Negri, and Notti, presented a paper to the Atlantis conference on Melos outlining their reasons for supporting an Aegean backdrop to the Atlantis story. Another paper was presented by four members of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research which demonstrates how three-quarters of the Cyclades Plateau was submerged between 16000 BC and 6000 BC as the sea levels rose after the last Ice Age. Kurt Lambeck and Anthony Purcell also presented a paper along similar lines.

>However, not everyone is happy with Atlantis being placed in the Aegean. About 20 years ago an anonymous contributor to the now-defunct geocities website wrote the following piece regarding the matching of Atlantis with the eruption of Thera^(o).

“To arrive at this conclusion is simple enough – take the numbers Plato uses for the dimensions and antiquity of Atlantis, divide them by ten, then keep all the fabulous details about the architecture and pretend it applies to the structures and artifacts recovered by archaeology – then throw out all the details about its conquering armies, its location, and its complete disappearance. No wonder there’s such an exact match!”<

Paulino Zamarro has offered a very radical theory, outlined in his book ^[⁰²⁴^], which claims that Atlantis was located in the Aegean, with its capital on Melos, at a time when sea levels were lower and the islands more extensive in area, with some of them joined together. He postulates an isthmus or land bridge between Gibraltar and Morocco, which he believes was breached around 5500 BC. An idea supported by Strato and Seneca. He contends that this breach not only flooded the Aegean but also was also responsible for the subsequent inundation of the Black Sea, which until then was a smaller freshwater lake.

Diamantis Pastras, a Greek-Australian confectioner presented to the Atlantis Conference in 2005 ^[0629.295] his theory that Atlantis had been situated in the Aegean Cyclades along with nearby Astipalea in the Dodecanese, which he maintains constituted a single larger landmass 3,500 years ago.

Recent studies have revealed^(b) the extent of very early seafaring in the Aegean can be pushed back to around 10,000 BC with evidence of obsidian trading at that period. However, the lower sea level at that time would have meant that the Aegean islands would have been much larger with shorter distances, if any, between them, so it may be unwise to read too much into the obsidian evidence.

A 2018 article pushes back Mediterranean seagoing even further^(h). Consider how this evidence may relate to Plato’s comment that when Atlantis was established “at that time neither ships nor sailing were as yet in existence” (Crit.113e). However, December 2022 brought a claim of even earlier seafaring in the Aegean, possibly as far back as 450,000 years ago, according to a team from the University of Patras in Greece led by George Ferentinos⁽ⁿ⁾.

In 1998 William Ryan and Walter Pitman published^[⁰²⁵^] their evidence for the enlargement of the Black Sea with seawater. The book received widespread attention that led to a subsequent expedition to the area by Robert Ballard, the famous discoverer of the Titanic.

However, Zamarro’s ideas have received very little notice, probably because he has only been published in Spanish. His theory regarding the silting and closure of the mouth of the Mediterranean deserves further consideration, as its confirmation would have a profound effect on the course of future studies of the prehistory of the region and in particular Atlantology.

C.C.M. Hardy was a regular contributor to Sykes‘ Atlantis journal, in which he suggested that remnants of Atlantis would be found in the seas around Greece. Hans-Henning Klein favours the island of Samothrace in the northern Aegean as the home of Atlantis^(l).

A half-hearted attempt to link the Greek island of Thasos with Atlantis is to be found on the German de.pluspedia.org website^(j).

A recent recruit to the ‘Atlantis in the Aegean’ camp is Christos A, Djonis with his theory^[935]that Atlantis lay in the Aegean Sea, to the north of Thera, which itself contained the capital city of the Atlantean confederation. He makes no reference to Zamarro, who proposed a similar location fifteen years ago and consequently, considers Djonis’ work as a form of plagiarism! Apart from that, my gripe is that Djonis wastes over half his book discussing UFOs and ancient astronauts. Another proponent of a Theran Atlantis is Elias Stergakos, who also published his short book^[1035] on the Minoan Hypothesis in 2014.

In the same year, the Italian architect Costa Kyrki published a paper entitled Lost Atlantis in which he proposed that the sunken Atlantis was situated between the island of Samos and Miletus on mainland Turkey^(k).

J.P. Rambling on his Redefining Atlantis website^(g) has now added his support to the concept of an Aegean Atlantis, situated on a large landmass, now mostly submerged, and which included what is now Santorini.

It is worth noting that Jürgen Spanuth In defending his North Sea location for Atlantis scornfully denounced the possibility of an Aegean Atlantis in Atlantis of the North ^[015.247]. “Neither Thera nor Crete lie in the ‘Atlantic sea’ but in the sea of Crete, which is clearly referred to in Crit.111a and is obviously not the Atlantic sea of Tim.24. Neither island lies at the mouth of a great river; neither was ‘swallowed up by the sea and vanished’ (Tim.25d): the Aegean never became ‘impassable to navigation’ (ibid.) Solon and Plato could never have said of the Aegean that passage there was hindered by ‘impenetrable mud’ (Crit.108e) for both had sailed through it – their contemporaries would have laughed at them if they had made such an absurd assertion.” Spanuth failed to highlight that Plato referred to the shoal of mud in the present tense indicating that it was still a hazard in his day!

What I cannot understand is that if Atlantis had existed in the Aegean, why did Plato not simply say so?

The Atlantisforschung website offers a selection of articles dealing with many aspects of the Aegean and its possible connection with Atlantis^(m).

^(a)https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/document-250811/

^(b)https://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004698.html

^(c) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33236/33236-h/33236-h.htm#Page_61

^(d) https://pseudoastro.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/planet-x-and-2012-the-pole-shift-geographic-spin-axis-explained-and-debunked/ (about half way down page)

^(e) https://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php?topic=3238.1260

^(f) https://www.slideshare.net/darkyla/greeks-9775861

^(g) https://redefiningatlantis.blogspot.ie/

^(h) https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/neandertals-stone-age-people-may-have-voyaged-mediterranean

⁽ⁱ⁾https://www.academia.edu/2921202/Naming_the_Aegean_Sea_in_Water_and_Identity_in_the_ancient_Mediterranean_special_issue_of_MHR?email_work_card=interaction-paper

^(j) Atlantis Verortung in der Ägäis (Thasos) – PlusPedia