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

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  • NEWS September 2023

    NEWS September 2023

    September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we move to Sicily and Malta. The trip is purely vacational. Unfortunately, I am writing this in a dreadful apartment, sitting on a bed, with access to just one useable socket and a small Notebook. Consequently, I possibly will not […]Read More »
  • Joining The Dots

    Joining The Dots

    I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
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Nile

Malkowski, Edward F.

Edward F. Malkowski is an American writer who coined the phrase ‘Civilisation X’ to describe a prehistoric ‘Greater Mediterranean civilisation’(i)* exemplified by pre-dynastic Egypt. His earlier Before the malkowskiPharaohs [657] was soon followed by Ancient Egypt 39,000 BCE [921]. Although he refers to Atlantis(a), he is somewhat ambivalent regarding its existence [657.284].

However, Malkowski is thoroughly fascinated by the Giza monuments, particularly the Great Pyramid(c), regarding which, he follows the ideas of Edward Kunkel(d) and John Cadman(e), who proposed that the Great Pyramid functioned as a water pump. However, Malkowski believes that such a pump had an additional function, namely, to generate compression waves that in turn would cause the pyramid’s granite beams to vibrate. Then, “with shafts leading to the Great Pyramid’s exterior, the ‘singing’ granite would project its sound into the atmosphere. This, in turn, would create an electrical field in the atmosphere according to physics research.” (f)  This gentle electrical field would have been used to generate plant growth in the surrounding land. Why it would be necessary to build such a huge ‘machine’ to promote growth on land that is renowned for its annually renewed fertility with the flooding of the Nile, completely eludes me.

>Nevertheless, the idea that the ancient Egyptians had some degree of electrical knowledge has been put forward from time to time a recent example of which has been proposed by an engineer, Andrew Hall, who offers his evidence for claiming that the ancient Egyptians had used electricity in an illustrated article(j) and a YouTube video (h). However interesting his ideas are, they are still based on speculation and a subjective interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphs and wall paintings.<

Malkowski’s theory that the pyramids were used to promote agricultural fertility brings to mind the ideas expressed by the American scientist Philip Callahan, who has suggested that the electromagnetic properties of the round towers of Ireland “provide large-scale benefits for agriculture just as the small scale round towers have been demonstrated to be beneficial for potted plants”! However, Callahan’s claims go much further with his belief that “the pyramids, both Egyptian and Central American, were huge antigravity structures for levitating the priests. The pyramid acted like a huge “enlarger-type” condensing lens which concentrated the cosmic energy into the hollow resonant stone tower, which in turn was filled with the IR-paramagnetic, organic breath of chanting priests.” (g)

Malkowski has also written an interesting paper on Ice Age theories, which ends on a note of personal scepticism regarding currently accepted ideas(b).

(a) https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/was-there-a-civilisation-x-evidence-indicates-there-was

(b) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_iceage.htm

(c) https://nexusilluminati.blogspot.ie/2012/01/new-theory-for-great-pyramid.html

(d) https://web.archive.org/web/20200117105919/https://www.linux-host.org/energy/ebuilt.html

(e) Great Pyramid Hydraulic Pulse Generator and Water Pump (archive.org)

(f) https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/a-new-theory-for-the-great-pyramid-how-science-is-changing-our-view-of-the-past

(g) https://ayda.net/healthy-living-research-and-development/philip-callahan-an-entomologist/philip-callahan-and-round-towers/ 

(h) Andrew Hall: Electricity in Ancient Egypt | Thunderbolts – YouTube *

(i) https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/was-there-a-civilisation-x-evidence-indicates-there-was *

(j) Egyptian Hieroglyphs – Are we missing something? – The Daily Plasma *

Abydos

Abydos, known locally as Umm el-Qa’ab, is a site in Upper Egypt that contains a variety of structures including the Osirion, which is alleged to be the burial-place of Osiris, the Egyptian deity who was the father of Horus and the brother and husband of Isis. It was discovered in 1901/2 by Sir William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) and Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963)(c).

>An illustrated tour of the Abydos Temple of Seti I and the Osirion is offered by Jimmy Dunn, writing as Peter Rome(t).<

The Osirion (Osireion) has several unusual features that have led some, such as John Anthony West(a) to reasonably conclude that it is from a much earlier period than the adjacent Temple of Seti I.

This view is based on at least three observations.

Osirion-map(i) The foundations of the Osirion are much lower than those of the Temple of Seti, a feature that would have been unprecedented. It is more likely that the structure was originally designed to be built at ground level in a conventional manner. However, after construction, the ground level rose over succeeding years with the deposits of silt from the annual inundation by the Nile. Consequently, when the adjacent Temple of Seti was built, a considerable number of years later, it was erected on the much higher ground beside a buried Osirion.

(ii) The Temple of Seti has an unusual unique outline being ‘L’ shaped instead of having the usual rectangular form. This would seem to suggest that during the construction of the temple, the builders discovered the buried Osirion and had to alter the original design.

(iii) For some, the most compelling reason for dating the Osirion differently to Seti’s Temple is that stylistically the structure is totally at variance with anything else from Seti’s era.

>In response to the last point, conventional archaeologists have proposed that the Osireion was purposely archaized by New Kingdom architects to make it appear to be ancient. Such a design would be appropriate for the tomb of an ancient god. Any resemblance to Khafre’s Valley Temple, then, would be purely intentional.”

A 2006 article pointed out that “the Osirion is the only temple known from Ancient Egypt to be built below ground level!(o)<

In 1995, Graham Hancock drew attention[275] to this difference in style and a 2019 article, Freddy Silva also commented on this incongruity(h)(k), but notes that while the Osirion at first sight, does not appear to have any obvious astronomical alignment, “only in the epoch of 10,000 BC do connections begin to emerge, for the constellation Cygnus appears in full upright ascent over the horizon in conjunction with the axis of the temple, the entrance framing its brightest star, Deneb.”

 Silva added that the Osirion “represents a complete departure from standard temple design. However, a geological appraisal contradicts this opinion. In ancient times the level of the Nile was fifty feet lower than today, its course seven miles closer to and beside the Osirion. When North Africa was subjected to major flooding between 10,500-8000 BC, layers of Nile silt gradually compacted and rose inch by inch until they surrounded and covered the Osirion. In other words, the temple was originally a freestanding feature on the floodplain.”

 On cue(i), Jason Colavito attacked Silva, pointing out a bad mistake where Silva incorrectly quoted Diodorus Siculus, subtly implying that everything else that he wrote was also erroneous.

As noted above, it is argued(d). that the apparently archaic architecture of the Osirion is just an example of how the Egyptians had a recurring tendency to build in a ‘pseudo-archaic’ style”, noting that the style of the temple of Khafre in Giza resembles the Osirion. If so, which was copying which? While Khafre’s temple is adorned with hieroglyphics the apparent absence of any contemporary hieroglyphics in the Osirion seems to suggest a preliterate period for its construction!

The Valley Temple and the Sphinx Temple at Giza show similar construction techniques and are also devoid of inscriptions. As I see it, there is no unequivocal evidence on offer to demonstrate that the Osirion could not be much earlier than the nearby Seti Temple. Therefore, I would urge caution before hastily dismissing Hancock, Silva and others regarding this matter.

The conventional view that Seti I was responsible for the building of both the Temple and the Osireion is expressed in a well-illustrated paper by Keith Hamilton on the Academia.edu website(j).

This suggestion of an earlier date, such as in Ralph EllisThoth, the Architect of the Universe [0517], has added weight to the more general claim that other Egyptian monuments such as the Sphinx and some of the lower courses of the Great Pyramid are also from a predynastic era. This is interpreted by some as evidence of an early civilisation that might be more in keeping with the 9600 BC date in the story of Atlantis told to Solon by the Egyptian priests at SaisBrien Foerester has also advocated an early date for the Osirion(n).

>Another feature that appears to be unique to the Osirion is drawings of the ‘flower of life’ on one of its pillars! Gary Fletcher touched on this in a 2009 paper(s). However, it is impossible to say when they were placed there.<

A sceptic’s view of the claimed early date for the Osirion can be read online(d).

It is also worth noting that Abydos was also the site of a remarkable discovery of 14 buried boats that have been dated to at least Abydos3000BC and again possibly even pre-dynastic.

Klaus H. Aschenbrenner has produced an Internet article, Giza and Abydos: The Keys to Atlantis, unfortunately in German only, which bravely promotes the idea of an 11th millennium BC date for parts of both Giza and Abydos.

Hieroglyphics in the Temple of Seti at Abydos have also been seized upon by proponents of ancient technology existing in prehistoric times and possible links to a hi-tech Atlantis. These carvings suggest the outline of a helicopter and a submarine! A refutation of this interpretation, by Margaret Morris(b) and others(e)(f), has demonstrated that the carvings have been reworked and that some of the plaster infills had deteriorated.>This helicopter claim has been successfully debunked on a number of sites(q), including a December 2022 posting on The Archaeologist website(r), which is particularly graphic.<Furthermore, there is clear evidence that images of the hieroglyphics circulating on the internet were digitally ‘tidied up’.

Wayne James Howson offers some radical ideas concerning the Osireion in a 400-page book available on the Academia.edu website(l). Howson was influenced by the work of Jim Westerman(m).

In November 2016, it was announced that a city was unearthed not far from the Abydos temples, where “it is believed the city was home to important officials and tomb builders and would have flourished during early-era ancient Egyptian times.(g)

(a) http://www.jawest.net/hall_of_maat.htm 

(b) See Archive 2727

(c) https://ascendingpassage.com/Osirion-at-Abydos.htm

(d) https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Osireion,

(e) https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Abydos_helicopter

(f) http://www.catchpenny.org/abydos.html

(g) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38084391

(h) https://grahamhancock.com/silvaf4/

(i) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/the-antediluvian-osirion-at-abydos-a-century-of-deceptively-copied-claims

(j) https://www.academia.edu/37568156/The_Osireion_A_Laymans_Guide

(k) https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/osirion-abydos-0012397

(l) https://www.academia.edu/38260074/Osireion_-_One_nights_thoughts_four_years_work..pdf

(m) https://jameswesterman.org/?p=home

(n) Ancient Egypt: The Osirion And The “Mystery ” of the “Flower Of Life” Symbols – Hidden Inca Tours

(o) http://egyptiansecrets.blogspot.com/2006/02/mysterious-osirion-at-abydos.html *

(p) Who built the Osireion? (catchpenny.org)  *

(q) http://www.fineart.be/UfocomHQ/usabydos.htm  (link broken) *

(r) https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/the-abydos-helicopter-hieroglyphics *

(s) http://web.archive.org/web/20070703201034/http://www.users.bigpond.com/MSN/gary_fletcher/osireion.html  *

(t) http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/setiabydos.htm *

Ocean or Sea

Ocean and Sea are words employed by classical writers in a manner different to our present usage. Originally the Greek word Oceanos referred to the ‘Great River’ that was assumed to flow around the then known world.

>That great resource Theoi.com notes(j)  In the ancient Greek cosmogony the RIVER OKEANOS (Oceanus) was a great, fresh-water stream which encircled the flat disc of the earth. It was the source of all of the earth’s fresh-water–from the rivers and springs which drew their waters from it through subterranean aquifers to the clouds which dipped below the horizon to collect their moisture from its stream.”<

Livio Stecchini wrote that “the existence of a river Oceanus as an extension of the Nile along the Equator was considered a serious reality in Greek times” (e)

Anton Mifsud has pointed out[209] that Homer used the word ocean for the sea and in fact used the same word for the Tyrrhenian ‘Sea’ (a). Both Seneca and Cicero referred to the Mediterranean Sea as the Atlantic Ocean(b)(c)Diodorus Siculus notes further that the word for ocean has even been applied to the Nile(d) by Homer. Herodotus also recorded that Homer called the Nile ‘Okeanòs’, as it was generally believed at the time that it began the Atlantic Ocean and flowed across the equator to Egypt(f)and ended in an ‘ocean’, the Mediterranean. (quoted by J.H. Agnew) [1232.123]

Georgeos Diaz-Montexano made a similar point when he offered the simplistic explanation that the classical writers had three words for bodies of saltwater; pontos (small), pelagos (medium) and okeanos (large). Plato always referred to Atlantis as being in a pelagos.

Alfred C. Moorhouse, among others, has pointed out(a) that ‘pontos’ is seemingly derived from words meaning ‘path’ or ‘bridge’, which in turn gave us the Latin ‘pons’ for bridge. Understandably, early sailors preferred shore-hugging and the use of trusted sea routes. ‘Pelagos’ refers to open seas, probably when out of sight of land. Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pospiech suggested that the words were used to distinguish “between the familiar and the foreign”.(h)

George Sarantitis suggested that ‘Pelagos’ “usually denotes a small sea in the shape of an embrace and contains islands, bays, peninsulas”, while ‘Pontos’ “denotes a sea with strong currents that require extra effort to navigate.”(i)

Carlos Bisceglia in his Atlantis 2021, made an important observation – “If Plato had thought that Atlantis was an island located in what we today call the Atlantic Ocean, he would have written that his Atlantis was ‘in the Middle of Okeanos’.” For the Greeks, Okeanos referred specifically to the great river that encircled the known world. Instead. he placed Atlantis in the Atlantic Sea, which in my opinion brings us back to the Mediterranean.

We can conclude therefore that since Plato never used the term ‘ocean’ in connection with Atlantis there is no proof that he was referring to our present-day Atlantic, while in all likelihood he was indicating the western basin of the Mediterranean or the reported large inland sea where the chotts of Tunisia and Algeria are all that remains of it today.

(a)  Odysseus x. 508,

(b)  Quaestiones Naturales,

(c) Somnium Scipioni

(d) Biblioteca Storica i.

(e) Ancient Cosmology (archive.org) 

(f) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_r5s5KZGIH0C&pg=PR1&lpg=PR1&dq=J.+Holmes+Agnew+1844+the+eclectic+magazine+of+foreign+literature&source=bl&ots=GXxJhZsft4&sig=l0-AzCjGpgBElfoDxt468yRjptQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKu7vBuPzNAhUkBMAKHZocC3YQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=J.%20Holmes%20Agnew%201844%20the%20eclectic%20magazine%20of%20foreign%20literature&f=false

(g) https://www.jstor.org/stable/636658

(h) See Archive 6248 

(i) The Atlantis Hypothesis (2nd Conference)(Heliotopos, Athens, 2010) p.400

(j) OCEANUS – Earth-Encircling River of Greek Mythology (theoi.com) *