Englishman Percy Fawcett was obsessed with finding the lost city "Z". In 1925, the indefatigable traveler and his son disappeared into the Brazilian jungle without receiving evidence of Atlantis. The disappeared civilization was assigned different "addresses", including the capital in Sweden. How is the island related to the story of the global flood, and why did Francis Bacon not enroll Atlantologists as insane?
"Explosion" Santorini
The search for Atlantis was inspired by Plato. They took apart his work bit by bit, calculating the coordinates of the island. Whether the ancient Greek philosopher suggested such a development of events is unknown. In Dialogues, he spoke about the confrontation between Athens and the mighty Atlantean state during the Bronze Age. Plato located Atlantis near the coast of Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. From Dialogues, the reader learned about the majestic palaces, sculptures made of gold and other attributes of the luxurious life of the Atlanteans. Atlantis unleashed a war against Athens, after which an angry Zeus caused an earthquake. The island went under water. The story of the virtuous Athenians and the Atlanteans corrupted by luxury could fulfill an educational function, researchers believe. Plato strove to bring the reader closer to the image of a citizen of an ideal state. The author also introduced a harmonious mythological concept: he named Poseidon the patron saint of the Atlanteans. The thinker also cited data on the area of the island state: "larger than Asia."
The disappeared civilization excited the minds of scientists. In the 17th century, botanist and anatomist Olof Rudbeck moved the capital of Atlantis to Sweden. He argued that European culture originated here, and wrote an extensive essay on this topic. According to the atlantologist, the name "Hercules", which in ancient Greek mythology was borne by the son of Zeus and Alcmene, came from the Swedish words här and kulle (translated as "army" and "head"). Rudbek's projects were financed by the Queen herself. Christina Shvedskaya encouraged thinkers who were looking for symbols of national identity.
The epic of different peoples tells about the geological catastrophe. For example, Scandinavian texts tell about the death of the servants of the supreme god Odin in a natural disaster. Africa, Japan, Cuba - wherever they were looking for a mythical island! The sunken Atlantis for many artists, thinkers and poets symbolized an unattainable ideal.
This is how she seemed to Francis Bacon. The scientist who owns the saying "Knowledge is power" believed: the ruins of the cities of Atlantis should be sought in South America. At the same time, he considered Plato's Dialogues to be an artistic fiction: “(Plato) described a magnificent temple, palace, city and hill, numerous navigable rivers that girded the city like rings; Although all this is poetic fiction, one thing is at least true: this Atlantis, like Peru (then called Coya) and Mexico (called Tirambel), were powerful and proud powers, famous for their army, navy and wealth. Great Atlantis was razed to the ground - not by an earthquake, but by a partial deluge or flood. The flood was not, however, deep, in many places covering the earth no more than forty feet; so although people and animals were destroyed,some wild forest dwellers managed to escape. The birds also survived, flying to the tops of trees and hills. Do not be surprised, therefore, by the rare population of America, and by the rudeness of its manners; for the present inhabitants of America should be considered a young people, no less than a millennium younger than the rest of the peoples of the world."
Almost three centuries after the death of Francis Bacon, his compatriot Percy Fawcett resumed the search for Atlantis in Brazil. He relied on "Manuscript 512" of the mid-18th century. This document tells about the ancient city of a highly developed civilization; here are the ruins of a temple with a "magnificent facade", and portraits inlaid in stone, and gold deposits. Fawcett disappeared without ever finding City Z. According to one version, the Indians killed him, according to the other, the man voluntarily remained to live off the coast of the Amazon.
Promotional video:
Scientists drew attention to the following detail: in the writings of Plato, Atlantis resembles a caldera, the island is separated from the sea by volcanic mountains. This prompted researchers to believe that the legend reflects real events. According to one version, it is associated with the eruption of the Santorini volcano on the island of the same name, 120 kilometers from Crete. As a result of the eruption, most of the island sank under water. Many Minoans fell victim to the tsunami. Perhaps it was about these events that Plato told. In addition, from the "Dialogues" it follows that information about Atlantis was received from the Egyptian priests. The survivors of the disaster may have traveled to Egypt, hence the information about the disaster. As a result of archaeological excavations, it was possible to find out that the city on the island of Santorini partially corresponded to the description of Plato. The philosopher also said,that the Atlanteans knew how to work with iron. Meanwhile, the processing of metals was known to the Minoans, which could serve as indirect evidence of the version of the "explosion" in Santorini.
In 2016, Greek and French scientists returned to this hypothesis. The researchers found that the eruption happened very quickly. In one century, magma filled the voids under the island of Santorini. The molten rock was able to expand to such an extent that it literally ripped the island apart. Magma burst to the surface in a lagoon located in central Santorini, where it mixed with seawater. After that, an explosion occurred, as a result of which the island was instantly flooded with water. Then the top of the volcano collapsed and turned into a caldera filled with the waters of the Aegean Sea - a funnel covering several tens of square kilometers.
Occult hobbies on the political Olympus
Valery Bryusov also believed in the existence of Atlantis. “Plato had materials (Egyptian) at his disposal that came from ancient times,” the poet emphasized. Nicholas Roerich, an artist, philosopher, archaeologist and writer, wrote about Atlantis. Ignatius Donnelly, a public figure and occultist, had an extraordinary view of the events of the past. He put forward a hypothesis about the death of Atlantis as a result of a collision with a comet.
It is worth noting that Donnelly was a prominent figure in American politics. Occult work remained a pleasant hobby for him. In 1860, Ignatius became Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, 14 years later became a member of the US Senate. He had a talent for presenting incredible theories in a neat literary form, and his books sold well. Donnelly had a wide range of interests: one of the collections was devoted to the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Ignatius argued that the masterpieces belong to the pen of Francis Bacon. Archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt also wrote about Atlantis, who discovered a bust of Nefertiti at the beginning of the 20th century. He indicated another "address" of the lost civilization - Tunisia.
Noah and his ark
According to scientists, the legend of Atlantis may also be associated with the theory of the Black Sea Flood. In accordance with it, the level of the Black Sea rose significantly after the breakthrough of waters from the Mediterranean. This theory was formulated in 1996 by the American geologists Ryan and Pitman. In 2011, Swiss scientists reconstructed the history of the Black Sea by examining stalactites. Oxygen isotopes allowed them to obtain information about rainwater at different times. The experts came to the conclusion: water was poured from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea at least 12 times. They do not exclude that the Flood story could reflect these events.
Supporters of the Black Sea flood theory provide various evidence. For example, iron rings are mentioned in the coastal rocks in the Crimea (boats could be tied to them). It is alleged that over time, the old rings were replaced with new ones in memory of the tragedy.
In the Soviet Union, the word "atlantology" was introduced into everyday life by the chemist Nikolai Feodosyevich Zhirov. He was published not only in domestic but also in foreign editions. Zhirov strove to make Atlantology recognized as a science. "It can be considered one of the sections of biogeography of the modern, Quaternary period of the geological history of the Earth, moreover, that part of it that chronologically refers to the time of the formation of a reasonable person." Zhirov assumed that Plato somewhat embellished the life of the Atlanteans and the level of development of their state, but there is a healthy grain in the Dialogues.
In 1984, a Soviet expedition explored the Horseshoe mountain system at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, several hundred kilometers from the Strait of Gibraltar. A member of the expedition, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Alexander Gorodnitsky spoke about the underwater structures that resemble the ruins of a city. He suggested that the island was located here. Gorodnitsky is one of the leading Russian geologists.
In 2003, the Russian Society for the Study of Atlantis Problems (ROIPA) was established. In an interview, the head of the ROIPA Georgy Nefediev said: “There are two problems. One is related to the need to fund research at the highest national and international level. The second is the skepticism of traditional science. Even if we presented now a huge number of artifacts, it would not affect the wall of misunderstanding, since many scientists consider Atlantology to be a pseudoscience."
Elena Bukhteeva