Plato\u00b4s Atlantis was in a River Delta
\nUlf Richter
\nSchwabenheim. Germany
\nABSTRACT
\nReading Plato\u00b4s two books about Atlantis
\nand comparing the described facts with
\nmodern knowledge about geology, tectonics,
\narchaeology and technology gives us new
\ninsights about how Atlantis looked. This is
\nnecessary before we can seek its proper
\nlocation.
\nWe know that around the Royal City of
\nAtlantis lay an absolutely flat and even
\nplain, irrigated by a widely-branched system
\nof canals that drain into the sea. This plain
\nwas formed by alluvial land in a large river
\ndelta. To feed such a delta, the area of the
\nwhole country must have been at least 10
\ntimes as large as the plain. There must have
\nbeen a chain of high sand dunes along the
\nshore.
\nThe\u00a0 hill\u00a0 with\u00a0 the\u00a0 central\u00a0 temple\u00a0 was
\nformed by tectonic forces during the
\nuplifting of a salt dome. The 3 circular
\nditches were formed bynatural erosion, and
\nthe two springs on the central island brought
\nwater from the distant mountains.
\nFor the irrigation of the fertile alluvial plain
\na central organisation was necessary, which
\nled to the formation of the high culture of
\nAtlantis, as was the case in most of the
\nworlds\u00b4 other early cultures.
\nThe canals in the alluvial plain were Vshaped. The excavated silt was used to build
\ndams on both sides to protect the fields
\nagainst flooding by the tides and from the
\nmountains. The reported depth of the canals
\nshows that Plato\u00b4s \u201cstades\u201d must be
\ntranslated as Egyptian length units \u201cKhet\u201d
\n(1 khet = 52,4 m), and so we get realistic
\ndimensions for the plain (length 157 km,
\nwidth 105 km) and the Royal City (diameter
\n6,6 km). Tables show the dimensions of
\nAtlantis in comparison with buildings and
\ncanals in ancient and modern times.
\n1. INTRODUCTION
\nAtlantis has been written about for over
\n2000 years. The main source is: Plato\u00b4s
\ndialogues \u201c Timaeus\u201d and \u201cCritias\u201d. There
\nhave been many attempts to locate Atlantis,
\nbut no one has really been successful. Here
\nis a new attempt to describe how Atlantis
\nmust have looked, using Plato\u00b4s descriptions
\nand the knowledge of our times. This
\ndescription of Atlantis will be a useful
\ncondition for determining its location.
\n2. THE HILL IN A FLAT PLAIN
\nWhat do we know from Plato\u00b4s
\ndescriptions? (I used Bury\u00b4s translation \/1\/;
\nthe numbers show the references
\n(Stephanus-Pagination) in Timaeus and
\nCritias;)
\n1. The residence of Atlas and his royal
\npalace was situated not far from the sea on a
\nhill, low on all sides (Crit.113C), in the
\ncentre of the city, which was laid out in a
\ncircle (Crit.116A).
\n2.\u00a0 The\u00a0 circular\u00a0 central\u00a0 island\u00a0 was
\nsurrounded by 3 rings of water and 2 rings
\nof land, alternatively (Crit.113D; 115E). The
\nwater rings were used as harbours and had
\naccess to the sea by a canal (Crit.115D)and
\nby passages connecting the water rings
\n(Crit.115E).
\n3.\u00a0 \u201cThe\u00a0 part\u00a0 about\u00a0 the\u00a0 city\u00a0 was\u00a0 all\u00a0 a
\nsmooth plain\u201d\u00a0 (Crit.118A),\u00a0 highly fertile
\n(Crit.113C), stretching along the sea. Its
\nwidth from the sea inland was 1,5 times
\nsmaller than its extension along the sea
\n(Crit.118A).
\n4.\u00a0 The\u00a0 plain\u00a0 was\u00a0 \u201crectilinear\u00a0 for\u00a0 the
\nmost part and elongated\u201d (Crit.118C).
\n5. The plain was surrounded on all sides
\n(save towards the ocean) by mountains that
\nstretched toward the sea (Crit.118A). They
\nsheltered the plain, which faced South, from
\nthe Northern blasts (Crit.118B).
\n6. The mountain streams drained into a
\nring canal round the whole plain
\n(Crit.118C), discharging from both sides into
\nthe sea near the city (Crit.118D).
\n7. There were parallel canals at regular
\nintervals, as well as connecting canals
\nthroughout the plain (Crit.118E), forming a
\ncanal grid. The canals were used by boats to
\ncarry wood from the mountains to the city.
\nWhat\u00a0 can\u00a0 we\u00a0 deduce\u00a0 from\u00a0 all\u00a0 this
\ninformation?
\nSince the canals flow out into the sea
\nand ships could enter from the sea into the
\ncanal system, the plain could not be far
\nabove sea-level, and was only slightly
\ninclined from the mountain side to the sea
\nside.
\nA\u00a0\u00a0 regular,\u00a0 level\u00a0 plain,\u00a0 surrounded\u00a0 on
\nall sides by a ring canal and covered by a
\ngrid of smaller canals for irrigation and
\ndraining, can only mean an alluvial plain.
\nEither it must have been a big lagoon,
\nwhich was filled with washed-up matter, or,
\nmost probably, it was the delta of a great
\nriver. When looking at an atlas, one will
\nfind that such large and even plains exist
\nonly in the delta regions of great rivers, and
\nwere formed by sedimentation from these
\nrivers over thousands or millions of years.
\nThis\u00a0 idea\u00a0 is\u00a0 further\u00a0 confirmed\u00a0 by\u00a0 the
\nfact that, after Atlantis was flooded, the
\nresulting mud was a hindrance to ship
\ntraffic (Tim.25D).
\nA great river \u2013 and there is mention of
\nrivers that flow\u00a0 from the mountains
\n(Crit.118D-E)\u2013 must be fed from a large
\narea. One must therefore contradict those
\nwho say that Atlantis was only slightly
\nlarger that the plain itself. If it were an
\nisland, it would have tohave been 10 times
\nbigger than the plain, if not more.
\nIn an alluvial plain, the soil would have
\nbeen very rich and fertile, as it is described
\nin (Crit.113C).
\nThe\u00a0 construction\u00a0 and\u00a0 upkeep\u00a0 of\u00a0 the
\ncanals would be an enormous task, which
\nPlato has mentioned as being almost
\nunbelievable (Crit.118C). Managing this
\ntask was probably the reason for the
\ndevelopment of a central organization and
\nthus the starting point of the state of
\nAtlantis. At least, that is what we believe
\nabout other early highly-developed cultures
\nthat began in big river oases or deltas in
\norder to organize of the necessary drainage
\nand irrigation, e.g. in Mesopotamia, in the
\nIndus Valley, the great river region of
\nChina, and the Nile Valley. One could
\nalmost surmise that the culture of Atlantis
\nhad its origins in roughly the same time
\nperiod as these other archaeologicallystudied high cultures, although I will not
\nspeculate about the time-frame here.
\nPlato described the plain as a rectangle
\n(Crit.118C), see Fig.1.\u00a0 But a perfect
\nrectangular plain, surrounded by mountain
\nchains on three sides, exists nowhere on the
\nglobe. It seems that Plato, who never saw
\nthe site himself, imagined from Solon\u00b4s
\ndescription that the whole plain was a
\nrectangle, and therefore calculated the
\n\u201cconsequent length\u201d of the circumferential
\ncanal to be 2 x 3000 + 2 x 2000 (for the 4
\nsides) = 10000 stades (Crit.118D).
\nMOUNTAINS
\nDUNES DUNES CITY
\nPLAIN
\nFigure 1: The Plain round the Royal City
\nBut in some translations of (Crit.118A)is
\nnot spoken of a \u201crectangular shape\u201d, as
\nBury and Lee write, but of an \u201coblong
\nshape\u201d (Jowett) or of an \u201coblong triangular
\nshape\u201d (Spanuth). In (Crit 118C)we read
\nthat the plain was \u201crectilinear for the most
\npart\u201d, that can mean that only a great part of
\nthe plain was rectangular and enclosed by
\nthe circumferential canal, but not all. And
\nwhen Plato says in (Crit.118A)that the plain
\nmeasured \u201c3000 stades in length and at its
\nmidpoint 2000 stades in breath from the
\ncoast\u201d (transl. Lee), then this seems to be
\nthe description of the normal Delta form of
\nthe plain, namely 2000 stades wide from the
\nsea only in the middle, and smaller towards
\nboth ends.
\n3. SAND DUNES
\nWe saw that the whole irrigated plain could
\nnot be much elevated above the sea level.
\nOn the other hand, in (Crit.118A) we read
\nthat \u201cthe whole region rose sheer out of the
\nsea to a great height, but the part about the
\ncity was all a smooth plain, encircling it all
\nabout\u201d. Mountain chains were only on three
\nsides of the plain, not at the sea side.
\nOn the other hand, if the circular canal
\n\u201creceived the streams which came down
\nfrom the mountains, and after circling round
\nthe plain, and coming towards the city on
\nthis side and on that, it discharged them
\nthereabouts into the sea.\u201d (Crit.118D), this
\nwould mean that the seaside branch of the
\ncanal runs all its length parallel to the
\nseashore. In the case of a flat seashore it
\nwould be most probable that the water
\nstreams in the canals on both sides of the
\nplain would discharge immediately when
\nreaching the sea shore, especially when
\nseasonal high floods were occurring, and
\nnot bend in an angle of 90 degrees toward
\nthe central water exit near the city.
\nOnly a chain of high sand dunes along
\nthe coast could prevent the described
\nbehaviour of the water streams and lead
\nthem parallel to the coast (Fig1).
\nWe know those dunes from many parts
\nof the world, for example at the Atlantic
\ncoast of France near Arcachon (dune height
\n114 m), at the eastern coast of the Baltic
\nSea (dune walls 80 m high) or at the eastern
\ncoast of Lake Michigan\/USA (Sleeping
\nBear Dunes, 120 m high).
\nThe\u00a0 condition\u00a0 for\u00a0 the\u00a0 formation\u00a0 of
\nthese high sand dunes is a steady strong
\nwest wind vertical or ina small angle to the
\ncoast. Behind the dune wall is usually a
\nchain of lagoons, and these lagoons could
\nhave been used by the Atlanteans to
\nconstruct their canal along the seaside.
\nSuch a high dune wall, seen from a boat
\nnear the coast, can look as if \u201cthe whole
\nregion rose sheer out of the sea\u201d. (Fig.2)
\nFigure 2: Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan
\n4. POSEIDON\u00b4S CIRCLES
\nPlato describes in (Crit.113D),\u00a0 that
\nPoseidon married Cleito \u201cand to make the
\nhill whereon she dwelt impregnable he
\nbroke it off all round about, and he made
\ncircular belts of sea and land enclosing one
\nanother alternatively, . . , two being of land
\nand three of sea, which he carved as it were
\nout of the midst of the island, and these
\nbelts were at even distances on all sides, so
\nas to be impassable for man, for at this time
\nneither ship nor sailing was yet in
\nexistence.\u201d
\nIt\u00a0 is\u00a0 said\u00a0 clearly\u00a0 that\u00a0 these\u00a0 circular
\ncanals were not made by man, but by a god
\nor, alternatively, by natural forces, in very
\nold times.
\nWhich\u00a0 natural\u00a0 forces\u00a0 are\u00a0 able\u00a0 to\u00a0 form
\nthose regular structures?
\nWe come nearer to a solution of this
\nproblem when we lookat satellite photos
\nof the \u201cGuelb er Richat\u201d in Mauretania :
\nFigure 3: Satellite photo from \u201cGuelb er
\nRichat\u201d, Mauretania.\u00a0 https:\/\/www.imagecontrails.de\/mauritania\/mauritania-metrichat-1.html
\nThis\u00a0 link\u00a0 shows\u00a0 fascinating\u00a0 pictures\u00a0 of
\nregular circular structures, alternating
\nbetween higher and deeper level, the deeper
\nrings partially filled with water. The height
\ndifference is about 100 m, the diameter of
\nthe structure 35 km. The erosion resistant
\nhigher rings are of quartzite, while the
\ncentral circle is of flat layers of limestone
\nIt is clear that, in spite of the obvious
\nsimilarity of this structure to Plato\u00b4s
\ndescription of the Royal City, this cannot
\nhave been Atlantis. The \u201cGuelb er Richat\u201d
\nis too great, too high above sea level (400
\nm), and 500 km distant from the sea coast.
\nBut\u00a0 it\u00a0 is\u00a0 possible\u00a0 that\u00a0 the\u00a0 circular
\nstructure of the Royal City of Atlantis was
\nformed by the same process: first the
\nuplifting of formerly flat rock layers by
\nendogenic forces to a dome-like hill,
\nafterwards the erosion of the softer layers,
\nso that the circles of the harder layers
\nremain. (Erosion by water is a work
\nadequate to a god like Poseidon)
\n\u201cSalt\u00a0 Domes\u201d\u00a0 can\u00a0 be\u00a0 found\u00a0 frequently,
\nwhen internal tectonic forces press on salt
\nlayers (which behave plastically under high
\npressure), and therefore move upwards
\nalong an existing crack, thus shaping the
\noverlaying sediment layers to a \u201cdome\u201d
\n(Fig.4). The erosion of the sediment dome
\nmay be accelerated relative to its
\nsurroundings due to the many cracks
\nformed during the uplifting and reshaping
\nprocess.
\n2
\n1
\nh
\ns
\ns
\nh
\ns
\nh
\nSALT
\nDOME
\ni
\nEROSION
\n3 1
\nh
\nFigure 4: Formation of a salt dome and
\nsubsequent erosion of the previously
\nreshaped, alternating harder (h)and softer
\n(s)\u00a0 sediment layers. By this process the
\nthree circular water canals\u00a0 (1,2,3)\u00a0 were
\ncreated. On top of water-impermeable
\nlayers = =, ground water from far distant
\nmountains is led to the \u201cdome\u201d; the cracks
\nbring it to the surface as springs.
\nThe\u00a0 \u201cSemsiyat\u00a0 dome\u201d,\u00a0 50\u00a0 km\u00a0 westsouthwest of \u201cRichat\u201d, is a second similar
\nring structure and\u00a0 has only a 5000 m
\ndiameter, which is nearer to Plato\u00b4s figures.
\nProbably those multi-ring dome structures
\nare not so rare and canalso be found in
\nother places on the globe.
\nBut\u00a0 in\u00a0 the\u00a0 case\u00a0 of\u00a0 Atlantis,\u00a0 the
\noverlaying silt from the deluge may have
\nhidden the ring structures under the surface
\n(The antique Greek city of Helike,
\ndestroyed by a great flood in Plato\u00b4s times,
\nwas found just recently under a layer of 4 –
\n15 m of silt \/2\/). Detection would only be
\npossible, if it were on land now, by the use
\nof magnetometer equipment.
\n5. THE SPRINGS
\n\u201cAnd Poseidon himself set in order with
\nease, as a god would, the central island,
\nbringing up from beneath the earth two
\nsprings of water, the one flowing warm
\nfrom its source, the other cold,\u201d (Crit.113E).
\nThese\u00a0 springs\u00a0 produced\u00a0 an\u00a0 \u201cabundant
\nvolume\u201d of water (Crit.117A-B),supplying
\nmany different baths for men and horses,
\nwatering the sacred grove of Poseidon, and
\ndelivering water also for the people living
\non the outer circles of the city.
\nIt is impossible that the springs were fed
\nonly by the rain water obtained on the small
\ncentral island of only 5 stades in diameter.
\nBut as described in fig.4, due to the
\nunderground structure of different parallel
\nrock layers, the ground water can flow over
\ngreat distances on a water-impermeable
\nlayer from the mountains enclosing the
\nplain to the central island on top of the
\nuplifted dome, surfacing there through
\ncracks in the overlaying rocks. It is the
\nsame phenomenon as with the \u201cArtesian
\nWells\u201d in the desert regions of the Sahara.
\nPossibly, the warm water comes from a
\ngreater depth.
\nIn\u00a0 this\u00a0 way,\u00a0 the\u00a0 existence\u00a0 of\u00a0 two\u00a0 great
\nwater springs on the relatively small central
\nisland of Atlantis confirms the above
\nintroduced model for the natural generation
\nof the circular structure of the Royal City of
\nAtlantis.
\n6. CHANNELS IN TUNNELS?
\nThe most outstanding characteristics in
\nPlato\u00b4s description of Atlantis are the many
\nchannels distributed round the city and all
\nover the surrounding plain.
\nWhile Poseidon has created the 3 water
\nrings round the central hill only to provide
\nprotection for Cleito\u00b4s home (Crit.113D),
\ntheir son Atlas and his heirs connected these
\nwater rings and dug a canal from the
\noutermost water circle to the nearby sea
\ncoast (Crit.115D-E):
\n\u201cThey bored a channel right through the
\noutermost circle, .. and thus they made the
\nentrance to it from the sea like that to a
\nharbour by opening a mouth large enough
\nfor the greatest ships to sail through.\u201d
\nThe connections are described as
\nfollows: \u201cthey opened out a channel leading
\nfrom circle to circle, large enough to give
\npassage to a single trireme, and this they
\nroofed over above so that the sea-way was
\nsubterranean; for the lips of the landcircles
\nwere raised a sufficient height above the
\nlevel of the sea.\u201d
\nThe land circles were not made of earth,
\nbut of rock, as is obvious from the above
\nmentioned generation model, and also
\nbecause Plato states that \u201cthe stone they
\nquarried beneath the central island all
\nround, and from beneath the outer and inner
\ncircles, some of it being white, some black,
\nand some red; and while quarrying it they
\nconstructed two inner docks, hollowed out
\nand roofed over by the native rock.\u201d
\n(Crit.116A-B)
\nIf\u00a0 the\u00a0 Atlanteans\u00a0 could\u00a0 construct
\nunderground docks for their ships, they
\ncould as well make the connections
\nbetween the water rings in the form of
\ntunnels! Plato, who did not see the place
\nand was not an engineer, imagined that they
\ndug out an open canal of the whole depth of
\nthe rocky rim (similar to the modern canal
\nthrough the \u201cIsthmus of Corinth\u201d in
\nGreece), and afterwards roofed it again by
\nbridges to provide a subterranean passage.
\nThis would have been a most illogical
\nexpense of effort. Much quarrying could be
\navoided by boring a tunnel for the ships!
\nShip\u00a0 tunnels\u00a0 were\u00a0 known\u00a0 in\u00a0 antique
\ntimes. Near Naples\/Italy a ship tunnel can
\nbe visited, 3,8 m wide and of a height
\nbetween 4 and 21 m, which connected the
\nRoman military harbour in the volcanic
\n\u201cLago d\u00b4Averno\u201d with the sea coast near
\nCuma. The ships were not rowed in the
\ntunnel, but punted or sailed (in the tunnel
\nthere is always a natural wind movement
\ndue to temperature differences between the
\nentrances).
\n7. DEPTH OF THE CANALS
\nBack to the canal between the outermost
\nwater ring and the sea: According to
\n(Crit.115D), it was \u201cthree plethra in breadth,
\none plethron in depth,and fifty stades in
\nlength\u201d; it had the same depth as the
\ncircumferential canal round the whole plain
\n(Crit.118C), which was one stadion wide.
\nThe\u00a0 length\u00a0 of\u00a0 one\u00a0 Greek\u00a0 stadion\u00a0 was
\n(depending on time and region) between
\n165 m and 213 m, the most used value
\nbeing 185 m. One stadion contains 6
\nplethra or 600 feet.
\nThese\u00a0 figures\u00a0 for\u00a0 length\u00a0 and\u00a0 breadth
\nmay be reasonable, but a canal depth of 1
\nplethron = 100 feet = 30,8 m seems not
\ncredible. We must remember: the canal had
\ndo be dug into an alluvial plain near the sea.
\nIn the wet soil the canalflanks would have
\nslipped down continuously.
\nA canal dug in the soil cannot have
\nvertical sides. This observation was already
\nmade by the Persian king Xerxes in 480 BC
\n(described by Herodotus \/3\/) during the
\ndigging of a canal in northern Greece :
\n\u201cI will now describe how the canal was
\ncut. A line was drawn across the isthmus
\nfrom Sane and the ground divided into
\nsections for the men of the various
\nnationalities to work on. When the trench
\nreached a certain depth, the laborers at the
\nbottom carried on with the digging and
\npassed the soil up to others above them, who
\nstood on ladders and passed it on to another
\nlot, still higher up, until it reached the men at
\nthe top, who carried it away and dumped it.
\nMost of the men engaged in the work made
\nthe cutting the same width at the top as it
\nwas intended to be at the bottom, with the
\ninevitable result that the sides kept falling in,
\nand so doubled their labor. Indeed they all
\nmade this mistake except the Phoenicians,
\nwho in this -as in all practical matters- gave
\na signal example of their skill. They, in the
\nsection allotted to them, took out a trench
\ndouble the width prescribed for the actual
\nfinished canal, and by digging at a slope
\ngradually contracted it as they got further
\ndown, until at the bottom their section was
\nthe same width as the rest.\u201d
\nXerxes\u00b4 canal, which was found again
\n1991-2001 by a British-Greek team with
\ngeophysical survey methods \/4\/ , was 35 m
\nwide to let two battle ship pass, but only 4 m
\ndeep. It lies now under a 15 m thick alluvial
\nlayer.
\nFor what purpose would the Atlanteans
\nmake their canals so much deeper? Their
\nships – triremes or comparable ships with
\n200 seamen \u2013 with a draught of 1 \u2013 2 m,
\ncould very well navigate on canals of 3-4
\nm depth! (compare the trireme in Fig.5):
\nFigure 5: Cross Section of a Canal
\n185 m wide, 30,7 m deep
\nwith one trireme
\n(5,5 m wide, 4 m high)
\nThe cargo ships in ancient times were not as
\nbig as battle ships. A relatively big cargo
\nship from Roman times was recently found
\nin the Netherlands. It was 25 m long and 2,7
\nm wide, with a draught of 0,7 m. These
\ncargo ships used on rivers and canals were
\nnot rowed, but had sails and were also
\npunted or towed.
\nTable 1 shows the dimensions of some
\nancient and modern canals.
\nTable 1 Canals\u00a0 depth width length
\nm m km
\nXerxes-Canal 480BC 4 35 2
\nNecho-Darius Canal 5,5 45 180
\nModern Suez-Canal 12 45\/120 160
\nPanama-Canal 1887 12,8 100 81
\nNot until 10 years ago, in 1995, was it
\npossible with modern excavators to make the
\nPanama-Canal 1,5 m deeper! Each meter
\nmore of depth increases tremendously the
\ndifficulties for the engineers, especially if
\nthe soil is alluvial.
\nAnd the Atlanteans are supposed to have
\ndug canals more than twice as deep as the
\nmodern Panama-Canal? Moreover, the
\ncircumferential canal round the plain, 1850
\nkm long, would have been nearly 23 times
\nthe length of the Panama-Canal!
\nThis is indeed unbelievable, even if the
\nAtlanteans had our technology instead of the
\ntechnology of their age (the time of horsedriven war chariots, of stone-shooters and
\nslingers) ! Plato was right when he doubted
\nthis information (Crit.118c), but he knew
\nnothing about the construction of canals and
\ntherefore did not know that the reported
\ndimensions were not only incredible, but
\nimpossible from a technical point of view.
\n8. DIMENSIONS IN ATLANTIS
\nIf we doubt the correctness of Plato\u00b4s
\ninformation about the dimensions of the
\ncanals, we should have also a look to the
\nother dimensions cited in the \u201cCritias\u201d.
\nTable 2 shows a synopsis of all these data
\ngiven in stades (column 1), together with
\ntheir translation into the metric system ,
\nusing 1 stadion = 185 m (column 2).
\nIf the plain of Atlantis had a size of 555
\nx 370 km, it would not be possible to
\nrecognize from its centre that it is encircled
\nby mountain chains, due to their great
\ndistance.
\nThe total area of the royal city of
\nAtlantis (443 sq.km) would have been so
\ngreat that it exceeded that of today\u00b4s
\nLondon with 303 sq.km and 3,2 millions of
\ninhabitants. Atlantis – a city greater than
\ntoday\u00b4s London?
\nThe racecourse for horses (185 meters
\nwide and 10,5 kilometers long) is
\nextraordinarily large, compared with our
\ncourses for horse races with lengths between
\n1 and 3,2 kilometers.
\nThe bridges over the canals have an \u2013
\nunnessecary- breadth of 30,7 m. (The
\nfamous \u201cCarolus Bridge\u201d, built 1375 in
\nPrague, the then capital of the German
\nEmpire under Carolus IV, to connect the two
\nparts of the city, is 516 m long and 9,5 m
\nwide).
\nTo come to terms with these incredible
\nfigures, some authors have made different
\nproposals to divide Plato\u00b4s figures by 2
\n(McCullough \/5\/) or by 10 (Galanopoulos
\nand Bacon \/6\/). Does Plato or Solon have
\nsomething mixed up?
\n9. \u201cKHET\u201d INSTEAD OF STADE
\nWe have, indeed, an example that a famous
\nGreek author gave wrong information by
\ntransforming Egyptian length units into
\nGreek “stades”. This was Herodotus, the
\n“father of history” , who gave all distances in
\nEgypt (in stades) much longer as they are in
\nreality, while he reported all the distances in
\nGreece correctly. The usual explanation for
\nthis error is that he has mixed up the
\nEgyptian units of measurement, obviously
\ntaken from an Egyptian itinerary, before he
\ntransformed them into stades.
\nA similar error could have taken place
\nwhile the Egyptian priest narrated the
\nAtlantis story to Solon. It is self-evident
\nthat the priest gave all the distances in
\nEgyptian units of measurement, as they
\nwere written in the ancient texts, and Solon
\nwrote them down as he heard them for later
\ntransformation into Greek stades. When he
\nreturned to Greece he had no opportunity
\nfor this calculation or forgot it. His heirs
\n(Dropides, Critias the Elder and Critias the
\nYounger) found in Solon\u00b4s notes only the
\nfigures without the units of measurement
\nand obviously thought it
\n+
\nTable 2 Dimensions in Atlantis according to Plato\u00b4s \u201cCritias\u201d
\nStades 1 std. = 185 m 1 std. = 52,4 m
\nm\u00a0 m
\nDiameter Central Island with Royal Palace 5 925 262
\nOuter Diameter of Inner Water Ring\u00a0 7 1295 367
\n\u201c \u201c \u201c Inner Land Ring 11 2035 577
\n\u201c \u201c \u201c Middle Water Ring 15 2775 786
\n\u201c \u201c \u201c Outer Land Ring 21 3885 1100
\n\u201c \u201c \u201c Outer Water Ring 27 4995 1415
\nOuter City Wall bordering the Sea Diameter\u00a0 127 24400 6655
\nLength 400 74000 20960
\nCanal from Outer Water Ring to the Sea, Length 50 9600 2620
\nWidth 0,5 93\u00a0 26,2
\nDepth 0,17 30,8\u00a0 8,7
\nCircumferential Canal round the Plain Length 10000 1850000 524000
\nWidth 1 185\u00a0 52,4
\nDepth 0,17 30,8\u00a0 8,7
\nParallel Canals across the Plain Width 0,17 30,8 8,7
\nDistance from Each Other 100 18500 5240
\nBridge over Outer Water Ring Length 3 555 157
\nWidth 0,17 30,8\u00a0 8,7
\nRace Course on Outer Land Ring Length 57 10545 2987
\nWidth 1 185\u00a0 52,4
\nTemple of Poseidon Length 1 185 52.4
\nWidth 0,5 92,5\u00a0 26,2
\nPlain Length along the Sea 3000 555000 157200
\nWidth across its Centre 2000 370000 104800
\nSq.stades Sq.km\u00a0 Sq.km
\nPlain Area 6 Millions 205350 16475
\nCity within the Outer Wall Area 12668 443 35
\nAllotments in the Plain Area 100 3,42 0,275
\nmust be stades (especially since in their
\ntime, due to the busy trade with the
\nGreeks, even the Egyptian people were
\nusing Greek stades in addition to their own
\nunits), and Critias passed this (erroneous)
\ninformation on to Plato.
\nI feel that this is a very probable error
\nin the long chain of tradition between the
\nSaitic priest and Plato.
\nWhich unit of measurement was
\ncommonly used by the ancient Egyptians?
\nIt was the “Royal Cubit” or “Meh” (0,524
\nm) and for longer distances the “Khet” =
\n100 “Royal Cubits”
\n(1 khet = 52,4 meters = 172 feet) \/7\/
\nWhen we take this “khet” for what
\nPlato called “stade”, we get much more
\nprobable dimensions for Atlantis than
\nthose mentioned before. (See table 2,
\ncolumn 3):
\na) The size of the level plain is 105 x
\n157 km (16475 sq.km, a little smaller than
\nthe Peloponesos-peninsula in Greece).
\nb) The diameter of the central city of
\nAtlantis is 6,7 km (The city of Rome in the
\nlate times of the Roman empire (Aurelian
\nwall) had a diameter of 6 km and about one
\nmillion inhabitants).
\nc) The racecourse for horses is 52 m
\nwide and 3 kilometers long, like one of the
\nlarger modern racecourses.
\nd) The canal round the plain is 524 km
\nlong, 52 m wide and 8,7 m deep. (The
\nforerunner of the Suez canal, built by
\npharaoh Necho and king Dareios of Persia
\nabout 500 BC, was 180 km long, 45 m
\nwide and had a depth of 5.5 m; see
\ntable 1)
\ne) The bridges over the circular canals
\nare 8,7 m wide, comparable with the
\nbreadth of medieval bridges.
\nf) The temple of Poseidon has a size of
\n26 x 52 m, a very reasonable size
\ncompared with the famous Poseidon
\ntemple in Paestum\/Italy (24 x 60 m).
\nBut couldn\u00b4t it be the case that with the
\nintroduction of the \u201cKhet\u201d-dimensions
\nsome measures were too small to be
\ncredible?
\nWas it possible that on the canal from
\nthe sea to the harbour with a width of 26,2
\nm two triremes could meet?
\nA Greek trireme from classical times
\nwas 37 m long, had an overall beam of 5,5
\nm and a height of about 4 m \/8\/. The oars
\nhad a length of 4,2 m, but due to their
\noblique position relative to the surface of
\nthe sea, and one third of their length being
\ninside the ship, the horizontal space needed
\nfor using one oar is only 2,7 m .
\nFig.6 ; Oars on a trireme, from \/8\/
\nA rowed trireme needed therefore a space
\nof 2 x 2,7 + 5,5 = 10,9 m. In a canal of
\n26,2 m width two triremes could easily
\npass (see fig.8).
\nWas the central island at 262 m
\ndiameter big enough to contain all the
\nreported buildings: temple of Poseidon and
\nCleito, Royal Palace (Crit.116C), separate
\nbaths for the kings, for private citizens and
\nfor horses, the guard-house for the most
\ntrustworthy spearmen (Crit.117C) and the
\nsacred grove of Poseidon (Crit.117B) ?
\nFig.7 shows a true to scale sketch of
\nthe central island. It is obvious that all
\nthese cited items could be placed there:
\nFig: 7 : Central Island with Poseidon
\ntemple (centre), Royal Palace, barracks of
\nthe guards, baths (circles) and sacred grove
\n(trees).
\nThe Acropolis in Athens (120 x 280 m)
\nhas an area of about 30000 sq.m compared
\nwith 54000 sq.m for the central island of
\nAtlantis.
\nWe can conclude that it makes sense to
\ntake Egyptian \u201cKhets\u201d instead of Greek
\n\u201cStades\u201d for getting a better interpretation
\nof the dimensions of Atlantis in Plato\u00b4s
\n\u201cCritias\u201d.
\n10. DAMS ALONG THE CANALS
\nAs the canals in the plain of Atlantis lead
\nto the sea, and the sea outside the \u201cPillars
\nof Heracles\u201d (Crit.24E) is the Atlantic
\nOcean, we must take into consideration the
\ntides. The average turn of tides
\ncan be 2 \u2013 4 m, and the canals , at least
\nnear the estuary, had to be provided with
\ndams on both sides. The material to build
\nthe dams could be taken from the
\nexcavated material, and from the crosssection of the canal we can therefore also
\ncalculate the height of these dams.
\nFig. 8 : Canal with dams and two
\npassing Triremes
\nThe triangular cross-section of a canal with
\n8,7 m depth and 26,2m breadth is 114
\nsq.m . Each dam has a cross-section of 57
\nsq.m ; and with a side angle of 45\u00b0 its
\nbreadth could then be calculated at 12,7 m
\nand its height 9 m. With a side angle of
\n30\u00b0 the breadth of the dams is 15,2 m and
\ntheir height 7,5 m.
\nThis dam height would be sufficient
\nalso in the case of a spring tide. When due
\nto heavy rains in the surrounding
\nmountains the rivers were in flood, the
\nheight of the canal dams would perhaps not
\nbe enough, but in case of flooding the great
\nplain could serve as a reservoir to
\naccomodate the abundance of water. It is
\ntherefore probable that the houses of the
\nfarmers in the plain were situated on
\nartificial hills (wharfs).
\nThe parallel irrigation canals in the
\nplain had a width of 8,7 m; their depth is
\nnot mentioned, but could be 2,5 m.
\nTheir cross section would then be 10,9
\nsq.m . The dams on both sides with 30\u00b0
\nside angles would have a breadth of 6,6 m
\nand a height of 3,3 m.
\n11. MOUNTAINS IN ATLANTIS
\n\u201cAnd the mountains which surrounded it
\n(the plain) were at that time celebrated as
\nsurpassing all that now exist in number,
\nmagnitude and beauty; for they had upon
\nthem many rich villages of country folk,
\nand streams and lakes and meadows which
\nfurnished ample nutriment to all the
\nanimals both tame and wild, and timber of
\nvarious sizes and descriptions, abundantly
\nsufficient for the needs of all and every
\ncraft.\u201d (Crit.118B).
\n\u201cThey conveyed to the city the timber
\nfrom the mountains and transported also on
\nboats the season\u00b4s products ..\u201d (Crit.118E).
\n\u201cAnd the number of the men in the
\nmountains and in the rest of the country
\nwas countless ..\u201d (Crit.119A).
\nThe first citation is normally
\ninterpreted as if the mountains of Atlantis
\nmust have been higher than the highest
\nmountains now existing. But I wonder how
\nthese Himalaya-like mountains could have
\nhad many villages with much country folk,
\nforests, meadows, lakes, food supply etc..
\nThe Cuban linguist Diaz-Montexano wrote
\nthat the Greek word \u201cmegathos\u201d had not
\nonly the meaning of \u201cheight\u201d, but in the
\nabove context can also mean \u201cgreatness\u201d
\nor \u201cextension\u201d, and only this interpretation
\nmakes the whole story logical.
\nIn high mountains like the Himalayas
\nrich villages with \u201ccountless inhabitants\u201d
\ncouldn\u00b4t have existed, producing \u201cample
\nnutriment for every animal and timber
\nabundantly sufficient for the needs of
\nevery craft\u201d.
\nThe rich supply of timber would rather
\nspeak for mountains of medium height.
\nNot only high mountains, but also
\nhighlands are able to shelter the bordering
\nregions from the Northern blasts
\n(Crit.118B), as we can see it in the case of
\n\u201cRheingau\u201d, one of the warmest regions of
\nGermany with its famous \u201cRiesling\u201d
\nvineyards, which lies near Frankfurt
\nAirport on the Southern slopes of the
\nwooded Taunus hills (maximal elevation
\n880 m above sea level),.
\nIt seems that (Crit.118B) means:
\nthe whole mountainous landscape was
\npraised for its versatility and its rich
\nsettlements and was not surpassed by any
\nother for its scenic beauty.
\nHere mining in the mountains is not
\nmentioned as a source of wealth of the
\ncountry folk, but Plato writes about
\n\u201cmetals, to begin with, both the hard kind
\nand the fusible kind, which are extracted
\nby mining, and also that kind which is now
\nknown only by name but was more than a
\nname then, there being mines of it in many
\nplaces of the island \u2013 I mean orichalcum,
\nwhich was the most precious of the metals
\nthen known, except gold.\u201d (Crit.114E).
\nMines are mostly situated in
\nmountainous regions, and the rich deposits
\nof a metal nearly as precious as gold must
\nhave made the inhabitants of these regions
\nnearly as important as those living in the
\nRoyal City of Atlantis.
\nIt cannot be ruled out that in greater
\ndistance from the plain there were also
\nhigh mountains with perpetual snow on
\ntheir peaks. It was already mentioned in
\nchapter 2\u00a0 that the catchment area of the
\nrivers arriving at the plain must have been at
\nleast 10 times as large as the plain itself.
\nAnd Plato\u00b4s note in (Crit.118E) that\u00a0 the
\nAtlanteans \u201ccropped the land twice a year,
\nmaking use of the rains from Heaven in the
\nwinter, and the waters that issue from the
\nearth in summer, by conducting the
\nstreams from the trenches\u201d, suggests, that
\nthe rivers feeding the irrigation canals got
\ntheir water in summer from the perpetual
\nsnow of the high mountains.
\nWhat about the opinion of some
\nauthors that all the high mountains sunk
\ncompletely under sea level during the
\ndestruction of Atlantis, without remainder?
\nIt is disproved by the statement in
\n(Tim.25D), that \u201cAtlantis in like manner
\nwas swallowed up by the sea and vanished,
\nwherefore also the ocean at that spot has
\nnow become unpassable and unsearchable,
\nbeing blocked up by the shoal mud which
\nthe island created as it settled down\u201d. The
\nreported \u201cportentous earthquakes and
\nfloods\u201d (Tim.25C), greater than the
\nTsunami of Dec.26
\nth
\n, 2004 in Indonesia,
\nflooded the Royal City together with the
\nwhole plain, leaving behind a shallow sea
\nregion, where the plain had sunken for
\nsome meters. But the mountains could not
\nsink during a catastrophe like this more
\nthan the same number of meters! They
\nmust still exist today.
\n12. IRRIGATION SYSTEM
\nColonization of Atlantis began first on the
\nhill, \u201clow on all sides\u201d, near the sea coast.
\n(Crit.113C-D): \u201cThereon dwelt one of the
\nnatives originally sprung from the earth,
\nEvenor by name, with his wife Leucippe\u201d
\nThere were two springs, used for
\nirrigation the fertile soil , \u201cproducing out of
\nthe earth all food in plenty\u201d (Crit.113E).
\nAnd they led them to the \u201cplantations of
\ntrees such as suited the waters\u201d (Crit.117A).
\nIt is very probable that the first Atlanteans
\nsoon began to cultivate vegetables and
\ncereals in gardens and fields.
\nRound the hill stretched the plain,
\nhighly fertile as well (Crit.113C), but
\nnaturally first without any installations for
\ndraining or irrigation. So, when the
\npopulation increased, it became necessary
\nto use also this land for agriculture, by
\ndigging trenches.
\nThis was practically the same situation
\nas in the beginning of most of the known
\nhigh cultures:\u00a0 People began to build
\nirrigation canals in suitable places and that
\nway increased tremendously the
\nproductivity of their agriculture. Because
\nfor this task a well-planned team-work was
\nnecessary, a central authority became
\nindispersable. In this way, the hereditary
\nkingdom was settled. Plato indicates this in
\n(Crit.118C): \u201cNow as a result of natural
\nforces, together with the labours of many
\nkings which extended over many ages, the
\ncondition of the plain was this:\u201d
\nBut where did the many people come
\nfrom, who were necessary for the first
\ncreation of the sweeping canal system
\ndescribed by Plato?
\nWhen the plain was a river delta (see
\nchapter 2), and originally marshy for the
\nmost part, not many people could have
\ndwelt there except some fishermen. But in
\nthe surrounding hills and mountains there
\nwere certainly settlements of men living
\nthere as hunters and gatherers or farmers,
\nperhaps also as miners.
\nThe king, intending to begin the great
\nproject of the irrigation of the plain, could
\nhave prompted them with the chance of
\nrich farmland and greater wealth to
\nparticipate in this task. Each village in the
\nhighlands could then have a claim to a
\ncertain area in the fertile plain, and the
\nrespective leader ofthe works and the
\nmost hard working participants could
\nsettle on the newly created ground,
\ntogether with their families.
\nThis order of events is suggested by
\nthe quote in (Crit.118E-119A):
\n\u201cAs regards their manpower, it was
\nordained that each allotment should
\nfurnish one man as leader of all the men in
\nthe plain who were fit to bear arms;
\nand the size of the allotment was about ten
\ntimes ten stades, and the total number of
\nall the allotments was 60,000; and the
\nnumber of the men in the mountains and
\nin the rest of the country was countless,
\naccording to the report, and according to
\ntheir districts and villages they were all
\nassigned to these allotments under their
\nleaders.\u201d
\nThis shows clearly that in later times
\nas well there existed a close connection
\nbetween a certain village in the mountains
\nand a certain allotment on the plain, and
\none leader was responsible for both places
\nand had to recruit 20 warriors alltogether
\nfrom these two geographically separate
\nsites.
\nThis means that the supposed 200
\npeople being able tocall up 20 warriors
\nwould not all have to live on the allotment
\nin the plain having 0,275 sq.km (=68
\nacres) in size. If only half of this
\npopulation lived on the allotment in the
\nplain, and the other half in the mountain
\nvillage assigned to it, we get a population
\ndensity for the plain of 363 per sq.km, the
\nsame as in the Netherlands, a likewise
\nlevel country near the sea, famous for its
\nirrigation system.
\n13. CONCLUSIONS
\nIt is fascinating how detailed a picture of
\nAtlantis can be found by thoroughfully
\nreading the texts in Plato\u00b4s \u201cTimaeus\u201d and
\n\u201cCritias\u201d, considering what they really
\ncould mean, and comparing the results
\nwith well-known examples from our time.
\nIn this way we have acquired a nearly
\ncomplete description of the general
\ngeography of Atlantis, which can now be
\nused to locate the sunken city.
\nA new and amazing result is that we
\nhave to divide all measures given by Plato
\nby the factor 3,5, or in other words to
\nreplace the Greek \u201cStade\u201d in his narration
\nby the Egyptian \u201cKhet\u201d. All the newly
\ncalculated dimensions are credible and
\nprobable.
\nIn a similar way it should be possible
\nto find out the exact location of the sunken
\nAtlantis, and the time of the catastrophe
\nthat destroyed it.
\nREFERENCES
\n\/1\/ Plato: Timaeus and Critias, transl. by Bury,
\nR.G., in: Galanopoulos and Bacon: Atlantis
\n(1969) London, Nelson
\n\/2\/ Katsonopoulou, D.and Soter,S.: Discoveries at
\nancient Helike (2003)
\nhttps:\/\/www.helike.org\/paper.shtml
\n\/3\/ Herodotus: History book 7\/23
\nhttps:\/\/www.parstimes.com\/history\/herodotus\/persi
\nan_wars\/polymnia.html
\n\/4\/ Bhattacharjee,Y.: Persian Canal Discovery
\n(2001, Nov.13) New York Times.
\nhttps:\/\/www.geocities.com\/derafsh\/english\/khashay
\nar.html
\n\/5\/ McCullough, Duanne: The Atlantean Glossary:
\nStadia Measurement
\nhttps:\/\/ourworld.compuserve.com\/homepages\/Duan
\neMcCullough\/glossary.html
\n\/6\/ Galanopoulos,A. and Bacon, E.: Atlantis
\n(1969) London, Nelson
\nhttps:\/\/www.decadevolcano.net\/santorini\/atlantis.ht
\nm
\n\/7\/ Proot,J. : Measures from Antiquity (1997)
\nhttps:\/\/members.aol.com\/jackproot\/met\/antbible.htm
\nl
\n\/8\/ Lahanas, M.: The Triremes
\nhttps:\/\/www.mlahanas.de\/Greeks\/war\/Trireme.htm
\n\/9\/ Diaz-Montexano, Georgeos: Atlantis entre
\nIberia y Afrika (2000) Madrid
\nhttps:\/\/www.internetencyclopedia.org\/wiki.php?title=Atlantis
\nDr .Ulf Richter, Mainzer Str.25, D55270
\nSchwabenheim richter-ulf@t-online.de
\n,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plato\u00b4s Atlantis was in a River Delta Ulf Richter Schwabenheim. Germany ABSTRACT Reading Plato\u00b4s two books about Atlantis and comparing the described facts with modern knowledge about geology, tectonics, archaeology and technology gives us new insights about how Atlantis looked. This is necessary before we can seek its proper location. We know that around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5322],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}