An ideal country in which there are neither poor nor rich, there are no diseases and senile infirmities, life is carefree and happy... Each of the 6 billion people living on Earth would like to look at such a miracle at least for a minute, at least with one eye. That’s why the history and magic of Atlantis, a country steeped in mystery and mysticism, so attracts people’s attention.

Atlantis was first mentioned in Plato's treatises as a state with an ideal political system, the land of demigods and prosperity. Among ancient myths and legends, the legend of Atlantis is the most colorful and viable. Attempts are still being made to decipher the treatises in a new way and find the place where Atlantis was located in ancient times.

According to Plato's descriptions, Atlantis is an island of enormous size, located behind the Pillars of Hercules. Modern scientists in this regard determine the location of the continent in the Mediterranean Sea, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar.

Plato also mentions that Atlantis was located on a plain, and exactly in the center rose a hill on which the temples of the Gods were located. The city was surrounded by several spiraling rows of canals filled with water and earth mounds. The inhabitants of the legendary country resembled those of today - they had black hair and brown eyes, and an athletic build.

The Atlanteans lived in harmony with nature, and possessed knowledge that is lost today: telepathy, hypnosis, they could cure diseases and slow down the heartbeat. The legend of the magic of Atlantis, due to which this continent was flooded, is based on these natural abilities.

According to legend, over time, the Atlanteans became more selfish and greedy, striving for material well-being, ignoring spiritual development. The gods were angry with Atlantis and destroyed it within 24 hours. forever hid the mainland in the depths of the sea.

The death of a great civilization

Atlantis was swallowed up by the waters of the Atlantic ocean about 10-12 thousand years ago, although traces of the disappeared civilization are still being sought today. After all, all the ancient myths and legends of the world mention a global flood, as a result of which almost all of humanity died. Scientists suggest that Atlantis perished as a result of its fall to Earth, which caused a tsunami on a universal scale and caused a shift in the earth's axis, and, consequently, climate change on the planet.

Another interesting fact, which has become part of all the myths and legends of the world, is that the founders of all the civilizations that arose after the flood suddenly appeared, having sailed from some other, disappeared continent. It is believed that the Atlanteans, who survived the cataclysm, scattered all over the world and passed on their knowledge to the Egyptians, Mayans, and Aztecs... That’s why it’s so similar historical heritage of these great civilizations - they all built pyramids, worshiped the Gods, and the priests were the highest caste and intermediaries between the Gods and people.

Even today, Atlantis attracts people and scientists like a magnet, bewitching it with mysticism and the unknown. Where have you looked for this continent? Atlantic Ocean- in the Bahamas, in Mexico, in Crete, in Cuba, even in the waters of the Antarctic!

IN Bermuda Triangle deep under the ocean, a pyramid of unknown origin was discovered at the bottom - the first version has appeared.

On the island of Thera, one of the islands of the Greek archipelago, ancient ruins of temples and buildings were discovered - the second hypothesis.

On the Altiplano plateau South America a plateau with a hill in the middle, surrounded by rings, was discovered - the third possible hypothesis.

Off the coast of Cuba, with the help of sonar, during scientific research of the bottom, ruins were accidentally discovered, possibly of a city that sank in ancient times - hypothesis 4.

And the last hypothesis, which appeared relatively recently, is that Atlantis is Antarctica! This idea was led by the fact that on ancient maps Antarctica is indicated as ice-free, near the equator, between Africa and America. Over time, having shifted to the south, under the influence of deep processes, Antarctica ended up at the South Pole. The mysticism of this fact also lies in the fact that the outlines of Atlantis, presented on old map 1665, completely coincide with the contours of Antarctica!

For a long time, the hope will linger in the hearts of people that it is possible to find an “earthly paradise” and unravel the mystery of the fabulous Atlantis. The attractiveness and magic of Atlantis lies precisely in the fact that it is not known for certain whether a beautiful country existed at all, or is it the fruit of Plato’s fantasies about an unrealistic, but so desired world.

Chapter 1. The Legend of Atlantis

“Atlantis Supposed to have been Discovered, Not in the Atlantic, but in the Aegean Sea,” was the headline of an article in the Norfolk Ledger-Star for July 19, 1967. The same article, headlined “Minoan City Found After 3,400 Years, connected with Atlantis” appeared in the New York Times on the same day. The articles are devoted to the discovery of the city of Minoa, buried under a 9-meter thick layer of volcanic ash on the island of Thira in the Aegean Sea. The excavations were carried out under the supervision of Dr. James W. Mavor of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Emily Vermeuli, professor of art and Greek at Wellesley College. Mavor and Vermeuli connected their discovery with Atlantis, since evidence of the existence of a highly developed civilization was discovered on the island, as well as its sudden and violent death... Pay attention to both headings. The value of these messages was seen not only in the discovery of a practically preserved city that flourished around 1500 BC, but in its possible connection with the mythical Atlantis. This was the latest attempt to make the legend of Atlantis a reality by changing its location and time of existence.

The most ancient and known references to Atlantis are contained in Timaeus and Critias, two dialogues by Plato that date back to the 5th century. BC Plato introduces information about Atlantis into a conversation between Solon and a certain Egyptian priest in Sais. It is spoken of as a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, which sank into the water as a result of a volcanic eruption about nine thousand years earlier.

Since Plato's time, mostly in the last two hundred years, hundreds of books and articles have been written about Atlantis. Some have tried to prove that Plato's story of Atlantis is not only possible, but also probable. Others argued that Atlantis was just a myth or viewed it as historical fact, but were not correlated with the Atlantic Ocean, but with other places and with a later time.

A significant portion of the literature about Atlantis consists of numerous works by esotericists of various kinds, as well as the chaotic production of eccentric personalities. The attention that pseudoscientists and adherents of various cults paid to the legend of Atlantis was the reason why representatives of official science avoid even discussing this issue.

Several medieval authors mention this legendary land, probably the best known and most popular is Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: The World Before the Flood. First published in 1882, it was revised and edited by Egerton Sykes in 1949. No book published before or since contains such a volume of geological, archaeological material, information from legends, or presents so many simple, artless and eloquent arguments , confirming the legend of Atlantis.

Donnelly's arguments are based largely on the evidence of similarities between cultures ancient egypt and Indian cultures of Central and South America. On both sides of the Atlantic, a 365-day calendar was used, embalming of the dead was practiced, pyramids were erected, legends about the flood were preserved, etc. Donnelly argues that both ancient cultures - Egyptian and American Indians - were the product of Atlantis, and when it was destroyed, they spread west and east. According to Donnelly, the legacy of Atlantis can explain the fact that the Basques of the Spanish Pyrenees differ in appearance and language from all their neighbors. (“The Basque language is the only non-Aryan language in Western Europe" Lincoln Library, vol. 1, p. 516). Also, the inhabitants of the Canary Islands bear little resemblance to any African people and had the custom of mummifying the dead. Donnelly says Spain, Portugal and Canary Islands could have been a possible refuge for immigrants from the dying Atlantis. He compared the names of the cities of Asia Minor and those cities of Central America that already had names by the time the first European explorers appeared:

ASIA MINOR CENTRAL AMERICA

Chol Chol-ula

Colua Colua-kan

Zuivana Zuivan

Cholina Colina

Zalissa Gzalisko

According to Donelly, it would be too bold to attribute such similarities to coincidence. He provided 626 references to sources. Despite the weaknesses that critics found in his argument - he was accused of "building a mountain of conjectures on the molecules of facts" - the work was an astonishing achievement. Donnelly's arguments are still interesting to read today, so it would make sense, using modern methods, to do the work of separating fact from speculation in his intriguing book.

Egerton Sykes, an Atlantean scholar who has probably the world's richest collection of Atlantean literature, claims that thousands of books and articles have been written on the subject since Plato. However, only a few authors have added anything substantive to Donnelly's arguments. For example, an article supporting the possibility of Atlantis appeared in November 1948 in Science Digest. Originally published in MIT's Technical Engineering News in June 1948, it revisits Donnelly's strongest arguments regarding the possibility of existence and sinking. island country. The article discusses the presence on the ocean floor of a relief close to the continental one, namely mountains, valleys, plains with trenches and basins similar to the beds of rivers and lakes. Interestingly, a relatively small deformation of the Earth's crust (amounting to 1/8000 of the Earth's diameter) can lead to the raising of a large area of ​​​​the ocean floor above the water level and the submergence of other parts of the land. Confirmations of such phenomena that occurred in the past are discussed in detail in the article. In 1898, the crew of a ship that was laying an underwater cable in the Azores area tried to use “cats” to locate this cable, which was lost at a depth of about 3.7 km. The rugged, rocky ocean bottom made the task difficult, and the instrument had to be frequently cleared of stuck pieces of soil. I further quote the article: “It was determined by microscopic examination that these pieces of soil were lava, which had a glassy structure and, therefore, must have hardened under atmospheric conditions. (Lava that solidifies underwater has a crystalline structure.) Since the lava has weathered significantly over the past 15 thousand years, we can assume that at that time the surface covered by it was located above sea level.” This is another recent confirmation of the existence of land in the Atlantic. An article by R. W. Kolbe in 1957 (Science, vol. 126) reports on studies of a deep-sea core raised from a depth of 3.7 km in one of the sections of the underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Findings of exclusively freshwater diatoms in sediment samples confirm that the studied section of the ridge was above sea level.

The mystery of Atlantis is described in many works, both adventure novels and serious scientific research. To date, scientists and enthusiastic researchers have put forward more than 1,700 hypotheses about the location of this mysterious continent and the reasons for its disappearance without a trace. However, not so completely without a trace.

One of the most outstanding scientists Ancient Greece, Plato, in his works Critias and Timaeus, mentions Atlantis, citing data from the diaries of his great-grandfather, the equally famous Athenian poet and statesman Solon. About existence big country the Atlanteans, who fought with the Greeks for 9000 years, was told to him by an Egyptian priest. According to this fragmentary information, the land of the Atlanteans was somewhere on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules. According to Plato, according to Solon, Atlantis was a large and rich country with big cities and a very developed economy at that time. Picturesque territory of the country, covered dense forests, was cut by numerous irrigation canals. Atlantis was a federation of ten kingdoms. The Atlanteans hoped to expand their territory and tried to enslave Athens and Egypt, however, they suffered a crushing defeat in the fight against the Athenian army. According to the same data, as a result of a terrible earthquake within 24 hours, the mighty Atlantis disappeared forever under water.

Scientists to this day have not reached a consensus regarding Plato's story about this mysterious country. Perhaps Atlantis was just the product of one of the ancient Greek legends? This assumption is supported by the fact that not all of Plato’s stories were believed even by his contemporaries. According to these scientists, in such ancient times, 9000 years before the birth of Plato, such a highly developed culture could not have existed. She couldn’t for the simple reason that at that time the end of the Ice Age had just happened. Many scientists agree that cavemen and highly developed Atlanteans could have lived at the same time. And can it really be that an entire country disappears without a trace overnight? However, most scientists argue that Atlantis could well have existed in reality, because the legends must have had at least some basis, and most of the myths reflected events that took place in reality.

After all, archaeologists found the ruins of the once mythical ancient Troy, which was also considered a figment of the imagination of blind Homer. And not so long ago, the fact was scientifically proven that the ancient Greeks could make quite long long journeys on their ships, and, like Odysseus, reach the shores of Colchis, the land of the Golden Fleece. As for the enormous and destructive power of earthquakes, then, according to geologists, it is really capable of burying a vast territory in a short time.

However, if we assume that Atlantis really existed, another rather important question arises. Where should researchers go, where should they look for this mythical land? Scientists from different times and countries could never come to a common opinion. Some of them believed that the mysterious Atlantis sank to the bottom of the central part of the Atlantic Ocean - somewhere between two continents, Europe and North America. This statement is based on the words of Plato, who noted that the mysterious land was located in front of a strait called the Pillars of Hercules (framed by the rocks Abilik and Kalpa), which was located at the Strait of Gibraltar. In addition, these lands are home to many of the same species of animals and plants. In addition, not so long ago the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, located in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, was discovered. Adjacent to the ridge is a vast plateau with a number of ridges, the peaks of which form the Azores.

It is likely that this area was once dry land and sank to the ocean floor about 12 thousand years ago during a geological disaster. This period exactly coincides with the estimated time of the existence of Atlantis. After this, the warm Gulf Stream finally reached the shores of Northern Europe, and as a result, the Ice Age ended in our part of the world. This version of warming in Europe was put forward by the Russian scientist N.F. Zhirov, as well as some other researchers. It is likely that Azores and the island of Madeira, and there are the very remnants of the lost continent. According to some scientists, not all the inhabitants of Atlantis died during the collapse of their continent - some survivors reached coast of America, while others made it to Europe. It was they who laid the foundation for the greatest civilizations of Mexico and Peru, as well as Egypt and Mesopotamia. This explains the striking similarities in their architecture, traditions and religions, all the more surprising because the countries were far from each other.

Indeed, the inhabitants of both shores of the Atlantic equally worshiped the Sun, and believed in the myth of the global flood, widespread both in Mesopotamia and among the Indian tribes that inhabited the South and North America. It is amazing that the language of the Basques living in northern Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains is completely different from other European languages, but at the same time is very similar to the languages ​​of some Indian tribes. And the ancient pyramids created by our ancestors in Mexico and Egypt have a lot in common.

In addition, in both countries there is a custom of mummifying the dead, moreover, the same objects are placed in their graves. But the main thing is that in places where Mayan burials are located, archaeologists find jewelry made from green jade, the deposits of which simply do not exist in America. Maybe he got there from Atlantis?

According to a legend widespread among the Indians of Peru and Mexico, which tells about the white god Quetzacoatl, he arrived on the mainland on a sailboat from the edge of the early sun - that is, from the east. God taught the Indian tribes construction and crafts, revealed laws and religion to them, and then mysteriously disappeared. The Peruvians, who did not know about the existence of the Aztecs, believed in the same legend, except with one amendment - their god was called Viracocha. Perhaps these people came from Atlantis? It is believed that their images are found on the walls of the cities of Chichen Itza and Tiguanaku.

Scientists include the ruins of ancient Indian cities, the remains of which are located in the Peruvian Andes and the impenetrable jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula, as evidence of the existence of Atlantis.

In the fall of 1970, while inspecting the coastal waters of the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean from a seaplane, D. Rebikov, a French archaeologist and aquanaut, noticed strange ruins of some buildings on the ocean floor near the island of North Bimini. Divers who went underwater discovered giant walls more than a hundred meters long. They were made of giant blocks, each of which weighed about 25 tons. Who were they built by? Perhaps Atlanteans? True, it was soon discovered that these “walls” arose as a result of cracking of coastal rocks that sank under water due to gradual sinking to the bottom Bahamas.

They are also looking for Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea. The most plausible is the opinion of the Russian scientist A.S. Norov, who considered the island of Crete and many small Greek islands to the north of it to be the remnants of a continent that had sunk into oblivion. The famous Soviet geographer L. S. Berg agreed with this opinion. Today, the vast majority of scientists adhere to this theory. This version is supported by recent studies in this area and in the Atlantic Ocean.

When studying the area of ​​the supposed death of Atlantis at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists found that the average thickness of sedimentary rocks in this zone is about 4 meters. Moreover, at the current rate of accumulation of such rocks, amounting to 10-15 mm per thousand years, this will require at least 300 thousand years, and certainly not 12 thousand, as claimed by supporters of the Atlantean origin of the mysterious Atlantis.

Moreover, according to evidence oceanographic research Recently, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the result of a geological event, during which the continents of Africa and South America “teared apart” to form. Scientists separately noted the features of the drawing coastlines: the western line of the African continent and the eastern line of the South American continent.

Accordingly, there is simply no room for Atlantis to be located in the Atlantic Ocean. But what then to do with Plato’s message about the location of the disappeared country, supposedly located in front of the Pillars of Hercules, that is, the Strait of Gibraltar? Before Plato, the name “Pillars of Hercules” could have meant a completely different place. Which one? The debate among researchers has not subsided to this day.

Regarding the Mediterranean location of Atlantis, assumed by most scientists, they provide a number of quite significant evidence.

For example, it has been established that on the island of Thira (Santorini), located in the Aegean Sea, about 3.5 thousand years ago there was a volcanic explosion of destructive force, similar to the one that was noted in 1883 on the island of Krakatoa in South-East Asia, among the islands of Indonesia. Apparently, this was the greatest geological disaster in the entire history of our planet.

The force of the explosion of the Santorini volcano was equal to the explosion of about 200 thousand atomic bombs, identical to those that were dropped on Hiroshima at one time.

Scientist Harun Taziev gives the approximate date of the explosion - 1470 BC and claims that as a result, about 80 billion cubic meters rose into the air. m of crushed rock, and the waves that arose in the process reached 260 m. Danish scientists reasonably believe that the explosion took place in 1645 BC. e., almost 150 years earlier.

Just at that time, the islands located in this part of the Aegean Sea were ruled by the Minoans, who achieved enormous success in science and craftsmanship. As a result of a powerful volcanic explosion, it was established that one of the developed cities on the island of Thira and the center of Minoan civilization, located on Crete - Knossos, perished.

Most of the state's territory was absorbed by the Aegean Sea. It was probably this event, the echo of which reached Plato through the centuries, and was reflected in his story about the country of the Atlanteans. True, in Plato’s interpretation, the size of the sunken continent is much larger, and the time of the catastrophe has been shifted many thousands of years ago.

In other words, according to fans of this hypothesis, in Plato’s descriptions we are talking specifically about the state of the Minoans. After all, according to his data, Atlantis was a developed maritime power, and the same could be said about the country of the Minoans, which had an impressive navy. Plato said that on the island of the Atlanteans, fat herds of sacred bulls grazed, of which the Minoans had a lot, and they were also considered sacred. On the seabed near Thira, a ditch was discovered similar to the one with which, according to Plato, the fortress in the capital of Atlantis was protected. Now the island of Thira is a fragment left after the explosion of a giant volcano. The ruins of the Minoan city, excavated in 1967, lay under a thick layer of volcanic ash and, like Pompeii, are perfectly preserved. Archaeologists have found many colored frescoes and even wooden objects here.

In 1976, the famous French scientist and aquanaut Jacques Cousteau at the bottom Aegean Sea The remains of the ancient Minoan civilization were discovered near the island of Crete. According to his calculations, it was destroyed during the devastating eruption of the Santorini volcano that occurred in 1450 BC. e. However, Cousteau always considered Atlantis a beautiful fairy tale by Plato.

The authority of Cousteau's opinion forced many scientists to “return” to the hypothesis of the Atlantean Atlantis. The impetus for this decision was the discovery west of Gibraltar of a group of seamounts with table-like peaks located only 100-200 meters below ocean level. Many scientists consider these mountains to be the remains of a vast archipelago that sank in ancient times.

The photographs taken by a researcher at the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1973 became a sensation. At that time, he took part in an expedition on the ship "Akademik Kurchatov". Looking at the eight underwater photographs he took, you can see the ruins of a fortress wall and other buildings on top of one of the seamounts.

As a result of those carried out in 1983-1984. research, scientists from the research vessels "Akademik Vernadsky" and "Vityaz" with the help of the underwater vehicles "Pysis" and "Argus", confirmed that Mount Amper is dormant volcano, which once sank to the ocean floor. Well, the notorious ruins are far from being the creations of human hands, but ordinary natural formations.

This means that the fruitless search for Atlantis in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean only confirms the conclusions of scientists looking for traces of its presence in the Aegean Sea. True, some disagreements arose within their orderly ranks. The reason for this in 1987 was the Russian scientist I. Mashnikov. He logically rethought the works of Plato and put forward a new hypothesis.

First of all, he disputes the time of the destruction of Atlantis, as well as some other data of Plato. For example, the number of Atlantean ground and naval forces. Judging by Plato's words, the Atlanteans had a huge armada - 1200 ships, as well as an army, which, according to experts, amounted to more than a million soldiers. Accordingly, the army of the Greeks that defeated the Atlanteans should have been no less numerous. According to Mashnikov’s quite logical reasoning, during the Ice Age there was simply nowhere for such a huge army to come from, taking into account the fact that at that time the number of inhabitants of the entire planet was no more than 3-4 million people, and at the same time they were at a fairly low level of development.

Accordingly, we are most likely talking about another, much later time. Mashnikov says that ancient people wrote down nine thousand as ten thousand minus a thousand, and, accordingly, nine hundred as a thousand minus one hundred. In the Egyptian number system, a thousand was denoted by the sign "M", and in the ancient Greek system, "M" meant ten thousand. Apparently, Solon simply rewrote Egyptian signs from ancient Egyptian documents, and Plato understood them in ancient Greek. This is how 9000 appeared instead of 900."

If we take into account the fact that Solon “stayed” in Egypt (560 BC) 900 years after the death of Atlantis, the approximate date of the disaster is 1460 BC. e. plus a possible error of 100-150 years.

Scientists, looking for Atlantis in the Atlantic, according to Mashnikov, took a false trail, because they had no doubt that Plato’s Pillars of Hercules, behind which this land was located, was the Strait of Gibraltar. But, under the Pillars of Hercules, apparently, some other place was meant. At the same time, Plato has direct instructions that allow us to determine the location of Atlantis. Plato says that the pillars of Hercules were laid sea ​​border between the country of the Atlanteans and the Athenian state. This means that these pillars could only be located in the Aegean Sea. In another place in his story, Plato directly indicates that Athens opposed the state of the Atlanteans, which can be interpreted not only as a war, but also as a geographical one, that is, they were on the other side - on the peninsula Asia Minor. At this time, the land of the Hittites was there. In addition, according to the author, only here cities were built on a circular plan, creating canals as if outlined by a compass.

But Plato talked about Atlantis as a large island that sank to the bottom of the sea. It can be assumed that part of this state was indeed located on an island, although not as large as Plato claimed. Probably, it was this island, and not the whole country, that perished as a result of a volcanic eruption or earthquake, as a result of which only a chain of islands remained, which is now called the Sporades. It turns out that Atlantis is actually Hettia or its island part. In addition, Plato, when retelling Solon, argued that Atlantis was at war with Athens. And from sources it is known that in the XIV century. BC e. Egypt waged war with Hettia, and after some time Athens entered the war, according to the historian Herodotus, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Hittites and captured 13 of their cities. Subsequently, the Hittite empire collapsed.

According to I. Mashnikov, the war between Hettia and Athens is the key to solving another mystery. Obviously, “Atlanteans” is not a nationality, but a contemptuous name for an enslaved people. The sculpture of the enemy, who became a slave and propped up the cornice, was a symbol of the courage of the victors and the humility of the vanquished. The defeated Hittites were turned into slaves and became Atlanteans, their fallen state began to be called Atlantis." Perhaps these arguments are not far from the truth.

An unusual version of the origin of Atlantis was put forward in 1992 by the German scientist Zangger. Some researchers consider his book about the secrets of Atlantis simply brilliant. According to Zangger, Plato's narrative is a distorted memory of the once fallen Troy. This antique city, which was located near the Dardanelles Strait and was described by Homer in the 12th century. BC e. as having fallen under the onslaught of the Greeks, was considered a myth. But, in 1871, the ruins of Troy were found by the German scientist G. Schliemann. At the same time, Zangger provides quite a lot of significant evidence of this hypothesis, especially if we take into account the coincidences in the descriptions of Homer and Plato of the area in which Troy was located.

But what about the fact that Plato speaks not about the plain, but about the large island? Zangger believes that Solon is to blame for this. When reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the pillar when visiting the main temple in the residence Egyptian pharaohs, located in Saisi, he made a mistake. Allegedly, these hieroglyphs denoted a sandy strip or coast. A serious mistake was made in the designation of the place where Atlantis was located on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules. It is possible that the Dardanelles bore this name.

According to the author of this version, another serious mistake crept into Plato’s story, which was the incorrect determination of the time of the disaster. After all, on the column of an Egyptian temple is written the story that nine thousand years ago the Greeks overthrew a powerful power - Atlantis. This hypothesis also has weak side– discrepancies that the author explains by the mistakes of the ancient sages. In addition, the rationale for determining the date of the war is rather unconvincing.

In general, each of the hypotheses has a certain rational grain, and which of them will ultimately turn out to be true, only time will tell. Or a new hypothesis - after all, the mystery of Atlantis has not yet been solved.

42. ATLANTIS

The legend of Atlantis - a sunken island on which a highly developed civilization once existed, where a strong, enlightened and happy people lived - the Atlanteans - has been exciting humanity for more than two thousand years.

The only source of information about Atlantis is the writings of the ancient Greek scientist Plato, who lived in the 4th century BC. e., written in the form of conversation-dialogues. In two such dialogues - “Timaeus” and “Critius” - Plato cites the story of his contemporary, writer and political figure Critias about Atlantis - “a legend, although very strange, but completely reliable”, which Critias heard in childhood from his grandfather, who - from the “wisest of the seven wise” Athenian legislator Solon, and Solon from the Egyptian priests.

Egyptian priests, based on ancient records, said that once in the “Atlantic Sea” (as the ocean was then called) there lay a huge island - “larger than Libya (that is, Africa) and Asia taken together.” On this island “a great and formidable power of kings arose, whose power extended over the entire island and many other islands (...). In addition, they (...) controlled Libya to Egypt and Europe to Tyrrhenia” (as Italy was called at that time). The legend of Atlantis tells that in primordial times, when the gods divided the earth among themselves, this island came into the possession of Poseidon, the god of the seas. Poseidon settled there with ten of his sons, born from the earthly woman Clito. The eldest of them was called Atlas, after his name the island was called Atlantis, and the sea was called Atlantic.

From Atlas came a powerful and noble family of kings of Atlantis. This clan “collected such enormous wealth as had never before been seen in the possession of kings, and it would not be easy to form such a family in the future.”

On the island, earthly fruits grew in abundance, various animals were found - “both tame and wild”, minerals were mined in its depths, including “one rock, which is now known only by name, (...) - the orichalcum breed, extracted from the earth in many places on the island and after gold, which had the greatest value among the people of that time.”

The inhabitants of Atlantis built on their island beautiful cities with fortress walls, temples and palaces, harbors and shipyards were built.

Main city Atlantis was surrounded by several rows of earthen ramparts and canals - “rings of the sea.” The city walls were covered “like mastic” with copper, tin and orichalcum, “giving off a fiery shine,” and the houses were built of red, white and black stone.

A temple to Poseidon and Clito was erected in the center of the city. The walls of the temple were lined with silver, the roof was covered with gold, and inside “one could see an ivory ceiling, colored with gold, silver and orichalcum. They also erected golden idols inside the temple - a god who, standing in a chariot, ruled six winged horses, and himself, due to his enormous size, touched the ceiling with his crown.”

The Atlanteans conducted brisk trade, the harbors of Atlantis “teemed with ships and merchants from everywhere, who in their mass deafened the area day and night with shouting, knocking and mixed noise.”

Atlantis had strong army and a fleet consisting of one thousand two hundred warships.

The code of laws that Poseidon himself gave to the Atlanteans was inscribed on a high orichalcum pillar installed in the middle of the island. Atlantis was ruled by ten kings - each with their own part of the island. Once every five or six years they gathered in front of this pillar and “consulted about common affairs, or examined whether anyone had committed any offense, and held court.”

The Atlanteans were distinguished by their nobility and exalted way of thinking, “looking at everything except virtue with disdain, they valued little the fact that they had a lot of gold and other acquisitions, they were indifferent to wealth as a burden, and did not fall to the ground in the intoxication of luxury, losing power over oneself."

But time passed - and the Atlanteans changed, they were filled with “the wrong spirit of self-interest and power.” They began to use their knowledge and achievements of their culture for evil. In the end, Zeus became angry with them and “in one day and a disastrous night (...) the island of Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the sea.” According to Plato, this happened in the 10th millennium BC. e. Modern scientists express the opinion that the death of the island was caused by a catastrophe, the cause of which was one of the man-made achievements of the ancient Atlanteans.

Disputes about whether Atlantis really existed or was invented by Plato began as early as ancient times. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, a friend and student of Plato, argued that Atlantis was completely fictional (according to legend, it was on this occasion that Aristotle uttered the famous saying: “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer”). However, many believed that Atlantis really existed and traces of it could be found.

Over the course of subsequent centuries, interest in Atlantis faded and then awakened again, but never disappeared completely.

It is estimated that to date about 3,600 scientific works have been written about Atlantis (not to mention numerous works of fiction). Atlantology has become an independent branch of science. Atlantean scientists have made many guesses regarding the location of Atlantis and the reasons for its destruction, and have put forward a hypothesis about the influence of the Atlantean civilization on the development of world civilization.

Poet V.Ya. Bryusov, who was professionally involved in Atlantology and taught a scientific course on this topic, wrote at the beginning of the 20th century: “We do not yet have the right to assert (...) that “Atlantis has been proven.” But there is no doubt that science must accept Atlantis as a necessary “working hypothesis.” Without the assumption of Atlantis, much in early antiquity will remain unclear, inexplicable (...). Atlantis is necessary for history and therefore must be discovered!”

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book 100 Great Mysteries of History author

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In the works of some ancient Greek historians, geographers, mythographers, mathematicians, theologians and astronomers, there is mention of one state that has sunk into eternity: the legendary island of Atlantis. About two thousand years ago, Plato, Herodotus, Diodorus and other respected authors wrote about it in their works.

Ancient authors about the sunken island of Atlantis

Basic information about the lost Atlantis is contained in the writings of Plato. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he talks about an island state that existed about 11,500 years ago.

According to Plato, the ancestor of the Atlanteans was the god Poseidon. He connected his life with a mortal girl, who bore him ten sons. When the children grew up, the father divided the island between them. The best part sushi went to Poseidon's eldest son: Atlan.

Atlantis was a powerful, rich and populous state. Its inhabitants erected a serious defense system against external enemies and built a network of circular canals leading to the sea, as well as an internal port.

Large cities were distinguished by amazing architectural structures and beautiful sculptures: temples made of gold and silver, golden statues and sculptures. The island was very fertile, with a variety of natural world; people mined copper and silver in the depths of the earth.

The Atlanteans were a warlike people: the army of the state included a navy of 1000 ships, the number of crews was 240 thousand people; The ground army numbered 700 thousand people. The descendants of Poseidon successfully fought for many years, conquering new territories and wealth; This was the case until Athens stood in their way.

To defeat the Atlanteans, the Athenians created a military alliance with the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. But on the day of the battle, the allies refused to fight, and the Athenians were left alone with the enemy. Fearless, courageous Greeks defeated the aggressor and freed the peoples previously enslaved by him.

But early on, the Greek warriors rejoiced at their achievements: they decided to intervene in the affairs of people, who had been monitoring the inhabitants of Atlantis for the last centuries. Zeus considered that the Atlanteans had become greedy, greedy, depraved and decided to punish them to the fullest extent by flooding the island along with its inhabitants and the Athenians who did not have time to celebrate the victory.

This is what Plato writes about Atlantis in his two works. At first glance, it's simple beautiful legend, interesting tale. There is no direct evidence of the existence of Atlantis in ancient times, nor any references to authoritative sources.

But these two dialogues survived not only Plato himself, but also two more millennia - during which time many disputes and theories arose regarding the lost state.

Plato’s student Aristotle, who listened to the speeches of Platonist philosophers for about 20 years, eventually categorically rejected the existence of Atlantis, declaring that the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias” were simply fiction, the ravings of an old man.

It was because of Aristotle that Atlantis was talked about reluctantly, in a low voice, until the end of the 18th century. After all, this venerable philosopher enjoyed unquestioned authority in Europe, especially in the Middle Ages. All of Aristotle's statements were perceived by Europeans as the ultimate truth.

So why was Aristotle so sure that Atlantis was a fiction, because he had no irrefutable evidence of this? Why was he so harsh in his judgments? Some sources claim that the philosopher simply did not like his mentor, so he decided in this way to spoil Plato’s authority in the eyes of his fans and admirers.

Mentions of the Atlanteans in the works of other ancient authors

Other ancient authors wrote very little about Atlantis: Herodotus claimed that the Atlanteans had no names, did not see and were defeated by troglodytes - cavemen; According to the stories of Diodorus, the inhabitants of Atlantis fought with the Amazons. Posidonius, interested in the causes of land subsidence, believed that Plato’s story was plausible.

Proclus in his writings talks about one follower of the ancient thinker: a resident of Athens, Krantor.

Allegedly, he specially went to 47 years after the death of the philosopher to find evidence in favor of the existence island state; Having returned from his trip, Krantor said that in one of the ancient temples he saw columns with inscriptions retelling the historical events described by Plato.

Search for Atlantis

It is quite difficult to indicate the exact location of the lost Atlantis: there are many hypotheses about where the sunken state could be located.

Plato wrote that a huge island was once located in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules (i.e., beyond Gibraltar). But his search in the Canary, Balearic, Azores and British Isles came to nothing.

Some researchers propose to look for the remains of the material culture of the Atlanteans in the Black Sea, linking the flooding of the island with the “Black Sea flood” that occurred 7-8 thousand years ago - then the sea level rose in less than a year, according to various estimates, from 10 to 80 meters.

There is a hypothesis according to which Antarctica is lost atlantis. Scientists who adhere to this theory believe that Antarctica in ancient times was shifted to the south pole due to lithospheric shift, or a sharp displacement of the earth's axis as a result of the collision of our planet with a large cosmic body.

There is also an opinion that traces of Atlantis can be found in South America or Brazil. But most interpreters of Plato’s dialogues are sure: the lost island must be looked for only in the Atlantic Ocean.

In recent decades, the lost state has sought many expeditions, most of which returned empty-handed. True, from time to time the whole world is excited by news about the found traces of a submerged island.

Did the Russians find Atlantis?

In 1979, a Soviet expedition, while testing a diving bell, accidentally discovered some objects in the Atlantic Ocean that looked like the ruins of an ancient city.

The action took place just behind the “Pillars of Hercules” indicated by Plato, 500 km from Gibraltar, above the Ampere seamount, which many thousands of years ago protruded above the surface of the ocean, but then for some reason went under water.

Three years later, the Soviet ship Rift set off to the same place to explore the ocean floor using the Argus submersible. The aquanauts were amazed by what they saw; from their words, a panorama of city ruins opened up to them: the remains of rooms, squares, streets.

But the expedition that took place in 1984 did not live up to the hopes of the researchers: an analysis of two stones raised from the ocean floor showed that it was just volcanic rock, frozen lava, and not the creation of human hands.

The opinion of modern scientists about Atlantis

Atlantis is a fiction

Most modern historians and philologists are convinced: Plato’s dialogues are just a beautiful legend, of which the philosopher has many. There are no traces of this state either in Greece, or in western Europe, or in Africa - this is confirmed by archaeological excavations.

The opinion of scientists that Atlantis is only a figment of the imagination is also based on the following: the philosopher writes about a network of canals built on the island, about domestic port, but such large-scale projects in ancient times were beyond the capabilities of people.

Plato indicated approximate date the immersion of the island into the ocean depths: 9000 years before he wrote the dialogues (i.e. approximately 9500 BC). But this contradicts the data of modern science: at that time humanity was just emerging from the Paleolithic era. It is not easy to believe that somewhere in those times there lived a people who were thousands of years ahead of the entire human race in their development.

Many scientists are convinced that Plato, when writing his works, took as a basis some events that occurred during his life: for example, the defeat of the Greeks during their attempt to conquer the island of Sicily and the flooding of the town of Gelica as a result of an earthquake followed by flooding.

Other researchers believe that the basis for the philosopher’s works was the eruption of a volcano on the island of Santorini, which subsequently hit the coast of Crete and other islands. Mediterranean Sea tsunami - this disaster led to the decline of the developed Minoan civilization.

The version is supported by the following fact: the Minoans actually fought with the Archeans who inhabited Greece in ancient times and were even defeated by them (just as the Atlanteans were defeated by the Greeks in the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias”).

In general, many researchers of the thinker’s works believe that Plato, being an idealistic utopian, with his writings only wanted to call on his contemporaries to build an ideal exemplary humane state in which there would be no place for dictatorship, violence and tyranny.

However, the philosopher himself constantly emphasizes in his dialogues that Atlantis is not just a legend, but a real island state that once existed.

Plato doesn't lie

Some researchers still admit: there is a grain of truth in the works of the ancient thinker. Excavations carried out by archaeologists in recent years have helped scientists obtain new information about the life and technical achievements of our ancestors living 5-10 thousand years ago.

Modern archaeologists find the remains of grandiose structures created by ancient people everywhere: in Egypt, Sumer, Babylon. Tunnels for collecting groundwater, many kilometers of adits, stone dams, man-made lakes- all these structures were in operation long before the birth of Plato.

Consequently, the philosopher’s dialogues cannot be attributed to fiction only on the grounds that humanity 11 thousand years ago was unable to build a network of canals and bridges: recent archaeological excavations prove the opposite.

In addition, since Plato’s works have come down to us, rewritten more than once, there is a possibility that over two millennia there has been confusion with the dates.

The fact is that in the system of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the number “9000” is indicated by lotus flowers, and the number “900” by rope knots; supporters of the existence of Atlantis believe that later copyists of dialogues could easily confuse symbols that were so similar to each other, thus pushing aside historical event several thousand years ago.

On top of that, Plato, who belongs to a highly revered family in Ancient Greece, refers in his dialogues to his ancestor: the wisest of the “seven wise men,” the legislator Solon. And the ancient Greeks were very sensitive to their roots and tried to preserve the sacred memory of their relatives. Would Plato, given his moral qualities, have referred to Solon in his works, because if this whole story with Atlantis was just a fiction, he would have tarnished the name of the wisest representative of the family?

Afterword

Atlantis has been shrouded in an aura of mystery for many centuries. People have been trying to find the suddenly disappeared state for almost two thousand years: some wanting to take possession of the treasures described by Plato, others out of scientific interest, others simply out of curiosity.

In the 50s of the last century, a doctrine called “Atlantology” even appeared; its main task is to identify true information about Atlantis in historical sources and mythical legends.

Disputes about whether there once existed mysterious land or the ancient Greek thinker simply made it up, continues to this day. Various theories are born and die, guesses appear and disappear. Some of them are supported by science, while others are more like a beautiful fairy tale.

Perhaps our children or grandchildren will solve the riddle of Atlantis. But it may happen that another two thousand years will pass, and the mystery lost island it will remain unsolved, and our descendants, just like us today, will be tormented by guesses and assumptions.

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