DONE BYSHAHARBANU

CLASS:IX

THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS

INTRODUCTION:Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written in c. 360 BC. According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "across the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon, i.e. in the 10th millennium BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune."The possible existence of Atlantis was discussed throughout classical antiquity, but it was usually rejected and occasionally parodied by later authors. Alan Cameron wrote: "It is only in modern times that people have taken the Atlantis story seriously; no one did so in antiquity". The Timaeus remained known in a Latin rendition by Calcidius through the Middle Ages, and the allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up by Humanists in utopian works of several Renaissance writers, such as Bacon's New Atlantis and More's Utopia.

In the United States, Donnelly's 1882 publication Atlantis: the Antediluvian World unleashed widespread interests from pseudo-scientists. As a theme, Atlantis inspires today's light fiction, from science fiction to comic books to films. Its name has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations.

In the mysterious world of urbex and abandoned cities, none are more iconic – or debated – than the lost city of Atlantis. Described by Plato in 360BC as an island lying in front of the Pillars of Hercules, thousands of years of searching historically found nothing despite promising archeological discoveries. But now, researchers claim to have located Atlantis in the wetlands of southern Spain, despite the feeling among many scholars that the city was nothing more than a Greek myth or fantastical urban legend.

Some say it's in the Caribbean, some say at the South Pole, while others say it never existed at all. But an astonishing recent discovery off the coast of Cuba just might solve the mystery of the great sunken civilization.

Around 350 BC, Plato wrote about a beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean that went under the ocean waves in one day and one night. It took two books to describe the history and details of this almost magical island. For years people have been looking for this mysterious lost city, Atlantis.

HISTORY:

PLATO =>

ABOUT ATLANTIS:

The most believable theory about Atlantis came from the Greek archaeologist Angelos Galanopoulos in the late '60s. He theorized that around 1500 BCE, a massive eruption from a volcano ripped apart the island of Santorini in the Mediterranean and probably wiped out most of the civilization on the Greek islands and regions of Greece. Angelos suggested this disaster is the one that sank Atlantis. If this is so, then he must have his dates wrong - or does he? He reasons that when the story was being translated, the Egyptian symbol for 100 (a coiled rope) was mistaken for the symbol for 1000 (a lotus flower). This changes the date from 9000 years ago to 900 years ago. The only thing wrong with this explanation is that Plato specifically said the city was near the Pillars of Hercules, which are thought to be nowhere near Greece.

WHERE IS ATLANTIS ?The exact location of the lost city of Atlantis has been questioned by many people, like British Royal Air Force photo interpreter J.M. Allen. He is convinced Atlantis is in Altiplano, near the Andes Mountains, in Bolivia. The famous psychic channeler Edgar Cayce believed the remains would be found off the coast of Florida near Bimini Island. Other people think it's lost somewhere in Central America, the China Sea or Africa. Others believe that Atlantis is nothing more than a myth.

Atlantis - Just A Story?For over two thousand years the story of Atlantis was just a story. Then, in the late 1800s, an American named Ignatius Donnelly became fascinated with the story and wrote a book called Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, which became a bestseller. Ignatius studied flood history from Egypt to Mexico and believed that Plato was recording an actual natural disaster. Since then, several books have been written about the lost city.

ABOUT PLATO :

Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece. He was also a mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics. Plato is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

Over 11000 years ago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean there was an island inhabited by great and wealthy people. Then greed started to take over them and they were obsessed with money.Poseidon, the god of water, got mad at them for being obsessed with money. So he made the ocean cover the city of Atlantis and it was gone with the sea.info from the book Unsolved Mysteries Atlantis.

THE POSEIDON THEORY:

Freund’s theory hinges on Plato’s assertion that Atlantis was destroyed by a “natural disaster”, believed to be a tsunami, in 9,000BC: “This is the power of tsunamis,” Freund told the Daily Telegraph. “It is so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that’s pretty much what we’re talking about.” Freund also claimed that refugees fleeing the tsunami established “memorial cities” in central Spain.

THE FRUEND’S THEORU:

MAP OF ATLANTIS:

When the theories of Continental drift became popular during the 1960's, it was at this time that the "Lost City" became the "Lost Continent". A Plato scholar, Dr Julian Annas, who is a Regent Professor at the University of Arizona said that:-"The continuity of discovering Atlantis illustrates the dangers of reading Plato. For he is clearly using what has become a standard device of fiction - stressing the histocity of an event as an indication of what follows is fiction."Other quotes of Atlantis being a fictional city is mentioned by A.E Taylor who stated that:-"We could not be told much more plainly that the whole narrative of Solon's conversations with the priests and his intention of writing the poem about Atlantis are an invention of Plato's fancy."

FICTION:

Atlantis in Greek means the "island of Atlas". It is supposedly a legendary island which was first mentioned in Plato's Timaeus and Critias.According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval island which was located "in front of the Pilars of Hercules" which is now the Straits of Gibraltar. The timeline given by Plato was 9000 years before Solon which would date Atlantis to 9600 BC.For decades, there have been scores of people who believed that the Lost City of Atlantis was a fact and that there was indeed at island as mentioned as per Plato's account. Other's believed that the story was a mere fiction just to complete Plato's dialogues.In Plato's dialogues introduced Atlantis in Timaeus, his accounts of Atlantis is explained below:-"For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles', there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the other islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean."

FACTS:

Over the years, there have been numerous hypotheses as to the exact location of the lost city of Atlantis. The areas mentioned:-1) In or near the Mediterranean SeaSome historical possibly of the locations of the lost city is that it could be the islands of Sardinia, Crete, Santorini, Sicily, Cyprus and Malta.2) In the Atlantic OceanThe Canary islands and Madeira islands have been identified as being the potential lost city. Several other islands such as the Azores islands and the submerged island of Spartel have been thought to be the lost city as well.3) Other possible locationsSeveral other locations have been thought to be the lost city of Atlantis. These are the Batabano Bay which is South of Cuba, the Bahamas, the Bermuda Triangle, Sundaland in Indonesia. The lost continent of "Kumari Kandam" has also been suggested to be the lost city.

HYPOTHETICAL LOCATIONS:

The only account of Atlantis destruction is found in Plato's writings which describe Atlantis as sinking into the ocean "in a single day and night of misforturne."Recent findings have concluded that the Lost City of Atlantis could have met its untimely end in an earthquake and tsunami which was similar to the one that hit Japan recently.Marc Andre Gutscher reported in Geology in 2002 that the Gulf of Cadiz, which is west to the Straits of Gibraltar, which Plato described as being the plausible location for the lost city of Atlantis, showed a subduction zone and a wedge of sediment. Gutscher also wrote that it was "possible for a magnitude 8.5 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Lisbon in 1755".However, in a contradiction to Gutscher's finding, it has been shown that no advance civilation lived in that region 12,000 years ago. This is because the first city which has been recorded in human history is Catalhoyuk which is 6300 BC old, while monumental architecture only came about in 5,000 BC. In an archeological perspective, based on evidence gathered has clearly stated that humans at that time were hunter-gatherers.

EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS:

This civilization was the Bronze Age civilization which began in 2700 BC. It is believed that these people had trade relationsips with Egypt and Crete. The people were mostly merchants with who had trade relationships overseas. This trade is the possible link which make the Minoan people to be that of the lost city of Atlantis. However, in 1450 BC, the Thera volcano erupted and it was this eruption which caused damaged to their city and culture.

MINOAN CULTURE AND PEOPLE:

Professor Richard Freund and his team claimed to have found the Lost City of Atlantis. They are said to have found the lost city just off Cadiz, Spain in a swampy marshland of the Dona Ana Park. They used satellite photographs, ground-penetrating radar as well as underwater technology.However, what intrigued Freund to investigate the Dona Ana Park further was the discovery of "memorial cities" which he claims were built by the survivors of Atlantis. The exact location is known as the Spartel Bank which sank 11,600 years ago. However, it seems that Plato could have messed up his timing as 9,000 years ago, there was no known advance civilization anywhere in the world. The facts presented by Gutscher seem to fit the geological time and place of Atlantis.The four key data used by Gutscher is:-1) 11,600 years ago;2) island about 15 kilometres across;3) a location in the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules; and4) sinking of the city leaving a muddy shoal behind.Now, based on the four points listed above, it could seem likely that there was in fact land in which is now swampland and the land could he higher and larger as well.

FOUND AT LAST!!

CONCLUSION:

Until time memorial, we will never know what the Lost City of Atlantis was to Plato. We do not know if it was indeed a real city or if it was just a figment of his imagination. But, one thing is for sure, Plato left us with the greatest unsolved mystery of mankind.

STILL THE LOST CITY

OF ATLANTIS REMAINS

A MYSTERY…