by Silvia Dekumbis

Created on: March 10, 2010   Last Updated: March 13, 2010

The legend of Atlantis is shrouded in myths and dreams of various eras and cultures.  It was a technically sophisticated paradise, its people peaceful and happy.  Greek philosopher Plato’s stories of Atlantis’ existence and destructions have been passed from generation to generation, still leaving many links missing to a mystery that has yet to be solved. 

Plato claimed that he had learned of Atlantis by one of his ancestors, the Greek statesman Solon, who had read the history about the sunken continent on a journey through Egypt.  Plato referred to a war between Atlantis and Ancient Athens that took place 9000 years ago.  He indicated that Ancient Athenians lived within the pillars of Hercules, today known as Gibraltar, while the Atlanteans lived on different islands.   This has of course led to intense speculations about the location of Atlantis.    Some researchers believe that the sunken island can be located in the territory of present-day Azores.  Others suggest its location to be closer to the United States, an island group near Florida known as Bimini, where evidence of a lost culture is present. 

Plato’s Atlantic Ocean doesn’t necessarily describe our Atlantic.  It becomes clear when one considers that the word Atlantis was just a synonym for the Greeks, describing a world-embracing ocean.  This would mean that Atlantis could be anywhere, in Troy, on Santorini, or even in India.

According to Plato Atlantis was a normal continent.   It extended from the north to the south with mountains, rivers, lakes and farmland.  The capital of Atlantis was built using precise geometry, perfectly fitting the city inside a circle.  The intellectual center of the city was a temple of Poseidon, a magnificent building surrounded by palaces. 

Plato described the coexistence on Atlantis as the ideal democratic society, a form of government, which he recommended to his contemporaries over and over again.  Critics suggest that Atlantis was possibly only an ideological make-belief city for Plato to better support his philosophical and political views.

Plato’s stories and American visionary Edgar Cayce’s statements are the only sources of everyday life in Atlantis.  We have learned of a magnificent architecture.  A natural stone in the colors white, black and red served as their building stone.  In Atlantis there were two natural

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>