How do we know atlantis existed

All available evidence indicates that the philosopher Plato, sometime around BCE, invented the island nation in order to illustrate a point about the dangers of aggressive imperialism.

Plato laid out the details for what such a state would look like in his famous work, The Republic. According to Gentzler, it should be small and virtuous, and reject ostentation. It was situated in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere outward from the Strait of Gibraltar. So how did Atlantis come to represent a lost utopic civilization? For that, you can mostly blame or thank Ignatius Donnelly. In , the former U. Congressman published Atlantis: The Antediluvian World.

That is like saying the legendary King Arthur is 'really' Cleopatra; all you have to do is to change Cleopatra's sex, nationality, period, temperament, moral character, and other details, and the resemblance becomes obvious. The most obvious sign that Atlantis is a myth is that no trace of it has ever been found despite advances in oceanography and ocean floor mapping in past decades.

For nearly two millennia readers could be forgiven for suspecting that the vast depths might somehow hide a sunken city or continent. Though there remains much mystery at the bottom of the world's oceans, it is inconceivable that the world's oceanographers, submariners, and deep-sea probes have some how missed a landmass "larger than Libya and Asia together. Furthermore plate tectonics demonstrate that Atlantis is impossible; as the continents have drifted, the seafloor has spread over time, not contracted.

There would simply be no place for Atlantis to sink into. As Ken Feder notes, "The geology is clear; there could have been no large land surface that then sank in the area where Plato places Atlantis. Together, modern archaeology and geology provide an unambiguous verdict: There was no Atlantic continent; there was no great civilization called Atlantis. Ignatius Donnelly was certain of his theory, predicting that hard evidence of the sunken city would soon be found, and that museums around the world would one day be filled with artifacts from Atlantis.

Yet over years have passed without a trace of evidence. The Atlantis legend has been kept alive, fueled by the public's imagination and fascination with the idea of a hidden, long-lost utopia. The fable tells that Cleito had five pairs of twin sons with Poseidon, the eldest of which was named Atlas.

The ten sons inherited the great city and the first child, Atlas, became the first ruler of Atlantis. However, it is believed they also built a huge temple for their father with a giant statue of Poseidon riding a chariot carried by winged horses.

The statue was completely built-in gold and placed in a temple with its spiral roof so high up that the clouds drifted through the spirals of the temple. The fertile and beautiful city of Atlantis, where half-god and half-human beings lived, is believed to have been a self-sufficient region where people grew their own food and reared animals. Farmers in the city used to grow the crops in the fertile plains on the outskirts with the help of a well-maintained irrigation system.

They also built beautiful buildings and other architectures from materials like black and red stone. They also had access to rare metals and even alloys like brass made and used crystals extensively for leisure and experimental purposes and had a lot of free time to even play with volcanoes.

Other than the legend of the lost city of Atlantis and other fables, the fact about the city still remains unknown. Among historians and other researchers, the findings of Edgar Caycehad something different to tell.

He predicted a new land would appear off the east coast of North America. He also suggested that the souls of a number of people lived in Atlantis had been incarnating to America in order to usher in a new era of enlightened human consciousness.

Stories also claim that the original inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis are believed to be of extra-terrestrial origin who reached there about 50, years ago from the Lyrian star system.

As some claim that the Lost City of Atlantis was on Mars, or was just a colony of an alien civilization, the inhabitants of the Atlantis city are believed to have the possessors of exceptional powers such as the ability to control the weather, modify volcanic eruptions. Some accounts also mention their possession of some sort of device that allowed them to channel energy from time and space.

Even though the myth says that the inhabitants of Atlantis City were superior beings, there are some of the opinions that it is just a mythical representation of a barbaric fashion of life. While many still consider the Lost City of Atlantis is just a legend, there are many conspiracy theories doing the rounds suggesting that the fable is actually based on real events. Ocean explorer Robert Ballard finds logic in the story as it has similarities with a massive volcanic eruption in the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea near Greece.

Ballard says a highly advanced society that lived there disappeared suddenly as happened with the Atlantis. Similarly, Ignatius Donnelly also confirms the existence and disappearance of a mid-Atlantic continent that was in the exact location that Plato mentioned. As the debate goes on, few researchers claimed that this utopian kingdom was a real continent located off the Bahamas and it was swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle later, while another group suggested current Antarctica is the newer version of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, James Romm, a professor at Bard College in Annandale in New York, says Plato himself created the story in order to convey some of his philosophical theories, mostly about his vision of an ideal civilization. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same.

The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course of action to be followed by the reader. The article or images cannot be reproduced, copied, shared or used in any form without the permission of the author and Marine Insight.

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