The philosopher Plato, born in Athens in 427 BC e., as a giant of the spirit stands at the origins of human thought. Aristotle was his student, Hegel considered him a "world-historical personality", Schopenhauer called him "divine." And this bearded sage in leather sandals, who praised reason in his 35 dialogues, who hated poets for the vagueness and untruth of their language, falls under the shadow of suspicion as the greatest liar in world literature.
From Plato, and only from him, comes a fantastic story about the island of Atlantis, where everything was "beautiful, amazing and in inexhaustible abundance." The people enjoyed "an abundance of unrighteous wealth." In the end, the country "degraded" and suddenly disappeared into the ocean.
Many generations of researchers have been searching for this earthly paradise. The disappeared land was sought in Helgoland and the Bahamas, in East Prussia and Mongolia. Jacques Cousteau tried to find her at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, Erich von Deniken even placed her in space.
Like a ghost, this mysterious continent floats through the millennia. Amateur researchers even determined the exact date and time of day for the collapse of the mythical kingdom: 13:00 on June 5, 8498 BC. e.
But none of the search enthusiasts managed to go beyond vague assumptions about how Atlantis died. For serious science, it has been an indisputable fact until now: Atlantis is nothing more than a figment of Plato's fantasy.
His version appears in a recently published book by 33-year-old geoarchaeologist Eberhard Tsangger. He studied at Cambridge and Oxford and currently oversees several archaeological projects in Cyprus, Crete and Egypt. He admits that for archaeologists Atlantis has long been a "contrived topic" as if zoologists were looking for the skeleton of Mickey Mouse.
However, his new work is not a collection of fairy tales. At 300 pages, Tsangger attempts to isolate the historical core of the legend. Colleagues call his book "brilliant, exciting and extremely believable." American archaeologist Curtis Runnells is even confident that the book "will have the same impact on the academic world as Schliemann's discovery 100 years ago."
Tsangger points out where to look for Atlantis, and at the same time dispels its secret. In his opinion, Plato's story is nothing more than a "distorted memory" about the great Troy, that very ancient city near the Hellespont, which, according to Homer, in the XIII century BC. e. fell victim to the cunning of Odysseus and the shock power of 100 thousand Greek soldiers.
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Against the fact that Atlantis is fiction, it speaks primarily of the abundance of details in the story about it.
Already at the first selection of "confused pieces of the puzzle", there is a lot of evidence of this identity:
1. The sea power of Platonov's miracle city is based on “twelve hundred ships”. The fleet of Troy (according to Homer) consisted of 1185 ships.
2. A strong "north wind" is blowing in Atlantis. Similar weather conditions (by the way, atypical for the Mediterranean) are typical for the entrance to the Black Sea blown by storm winds.
3. In Atlantis there are two sources - warm and cold. The same sources, according to Homer, hit in Troy.
4. Brass was known in Atlantis. In ancient times, this alloy was made in only one place - in Edremit, 80 kilometers southeast of Troy.
5. Plato estimates the dimensions of the central part of the city of Atlantis at “five stages” (900 meters). The palace complex of Troy has exactly the same dimensions.
In general, Plato confirms the veracity of his story four times. In addition, he refers to a very high authority: according to him, the first narrator of this story was the commander and legislator Solon (640-560 BC). This "wisest of the seven wise men" allegedly copied this information from one of the temple columns in Egypt.
"The original manuscript", Tsangger believes, did exist and was in the possession of the Plato family. Thus, the great thinker only used a historical document. Tsangger is ready to confirm this assumption with a number of evidence:
1. Solon actually visited the land of the pharaohs. Shortly before his death, he probably visited the residence of the kings - Sais.
2. Solon was a "relative and close friend" of Plato's great-great-great-grandfather. So the transmission of the manuscript described by Plato through six generations is not excluded.
3. Computer stylistic analysis showed that Plato's story of Atlantis is very different from other works of the philosopher, giving the impression of a text belonging to another author.
In the temple, says Plato, the priests led Solon to a column with hieroglyphs. It was embossed with a strange story that "9 thousand years ago" the ancient Greeks defeated some well-armed "power", whose name is Atlantis.
Until now, historians have stumbled about the indicated date of the battle - "9 thousand years ago", trying to isolate a grain of truth from all this. For a developed civilization, which already in the Stone Age would have had tablets for writing and iron axes, has no place in modern science.
Tsangger finds a startling way out of this temporary puzzle. In Egypt, from the middle of the third millennium, one state solar calendar and two religious lunar ones were in use. And if the temple column in Sais calculates history in lunar cycles (which is quite likely), then this period of time should be divided by 12.37. Tsangger determines a new date for the described battle 1207 BC. e.
At that time, the Greeks really experienced a great battle. Only the enemy did not attack them "from the Atlantic Sea", but sat outside the walls of the fortress in Asia Minor. The Greek chronicle "Marmor parium" gives the date of the conquest of Troy: 1209 BC. e.
However, the chronicle from the Egyptian temple contains more surprises. In the "subsequent time", the priests report, the Greek cities were destroyed by natural disasters. All management structures fell apart, even the art of writing was lost. And the defeated Atlantis sank in the end "as a result of an earthquake."
The list of catastrophes given in the temple, surprisingly exactly coincides with the real events of that period - the Late Bronze Age. The Mycenaean palace culture (1600-1100 BC) with its flourishing centers (Midea, Pylos, Mycenae and Tiryns) was destroyed almost instantly: in 1204 BC. e. the fortress of Tiryns is shaken by the blows of the underground elements and sinks under the mud avalanche. Pylos flares up almost simultaneously. Mycenae and Midea fall prey to fires or earthquakes. Severe floods hit Troy.
At the same time, the trading system of the Eastern Mediterranean, ramified around the world, is collapsing. By 1000 BC. e. the once glorious world of the Achaeans (one of the main ancient Greek tribes. - Ed.) with their heroes Agamemnon, Odysseus, Nestor, Achilles turns into an almost deserted heap of ruins.
After 400 years of this "dark age", Homer's voice is the first to be heard. His Iliad was written with the help of a recently compiled new alphabet.
And yet the archaeological formula "Atlantis = Troy" seems extremely daring. But Tsangger gives food for thought. According to his version, 80-year-old Solon approaches one of the columns in the Sais temple complex with a certain priest, and together they try to translate ancient hieroglyphs into Greek. According to Tsangger, the result of this work was a grandiose translation lapse. Solon misinterprets the geographical meaning of the temple record and takes with him to Europe a completely distorted picture of ancient events.
The first blunder was made in relation to the word "island". The corresponding hieroglyph stands for a coast or strip of sand and is "widely accepted as a symbol for foreign lands on the other side of the Nile Delta" (Egyptologist Rhys Carpenter). From this point of view, the word "island" is also true of Troy.
The translator makes a gross mistake in the following indication of the place of events (Atlantis lies at the sea strait). He starts looking for a huge island on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules. In the time of Solon, this was the name of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The Achaeans, as you know, did not swim to the Atlantic. Their world was limited to another sea strait, which they also called the "Pillars of Hercules", the Dardanelles.
This misunderstanding led all previous searches in the wrong direction to the west.
Tsangger, on the other hand, turns his gaze to the east to the northern coast of Asia Minor, to Mount Hisarlik, "which determined the fate of archeology," where Heinrich Schliemann in 1871, with the Iliad in his hands, excavated Troy.
The size and significance of this legendary city is still controversial. Schliemann estimated the number of its inhabitants at 100 thousand. But the archaeologist Manfred Korfman from Tübingen, who in 1988, after a 50-year hiatus, resumed excavations, speaks only of a “pirate nest” of 5 thousand people.
But more and more researchers of antiquity come to the conclusion that Homeric Troy was the focal point of the Bronze Age trade. It is assumed that she, like an octopus, covered the passage to the Black Sea and became rich due to the tribute collected from merchants. Schliemann unearthed in Troy countless jewels - gold dishes, silver vases, luxurious earrings, brooches, tiaras. He was so blinded by the luxury of finds that, secretly from the Turkish customs, he took out precious jewelry from the country and presented them to his wife Sophia.
Apparently, one meteorological peculiarity gave considerable benefit to the Trojan treasury. It was impossible for sailors of that time to enter the Dardanelles against the raging north wind. Only in spring and autumn does it blow from the south for a short time, allowing a dangerous maneuver to be made even then. Archaeologist Michael Siebler explains the extraordinary wealth of the city by the "forced anchorage of ships." The Trojans probably provided pilotage services and provided housing and recreation to merchants. But where, then, are the port facilities? Even 120 years after the discovery of Troy, the city remains a white spot. All previous excavations focused on the palace complex. And the 20 square kilometers plain in front of the hill remains almost untouched. It is not known how and where ordinary city people lived. The picture of Atlantis that has come down to us looks all the more detailed (in comparison). Plato portrays it as a staging post for goods and a shipping center. The city is bathed in gold, jewelry, "overflowing with ships and merchants who came from all directions."
The topographical parallels are also worthy of surprise. Like the royal fortress of Troy, the main palace of Atlantis is located on a hill. The plain lying behind the hill is surrounded by mountains and faces the sea.
In particular, Plato describes Atlantis' striking port facilities in detail. The royal residence stands in a ring of canals. The plain is cut by canals, raids and ship docks. To fill this water labyrinth, according to Plato, the inhabitants of Atlantis cut passages in the coastal rocks into the sea.
The plain where Troy stands is also dotted with canals. As in Atlantis, the coastal cliffs are cut through in two places. But today traces of this grandiose hydraulic engineering work are hidden from view. For millennia, the plain where Troy stood was drowned under a multi-meter layer of sand. Archaeologist Korfman, who works with funds from the Daimler-Benz concern, considers these ditches to be part of a kind of "drainage system." Tsangger disagrees. In his opinion, the remains of a giant port are hidden under the alluvial soil.
Once again, the author of the book is ready to present detailed analogies:
1. In Atlantis there is a 30-meter break in the rock towards the sea. In Troy, a gaping hole in the coastal cliffs, according to researcher Peter Wilhelm Forhammer, is the same size.
2. In Atlantis, the main channel from the sea to the royal fortress is "30 stadia" long. And in Troy the distance from the bay to the palace hill is the same.
3. The inhabitants of Atlantis pierced deep grottoes in the rocks, flooding them with water and turning them into “docks for ships” (Plato). Troy explorer Heinrich Schliemann encountered similar stone grottoes.
The dispute between scientists would not be difficult to resolve. The Atlantis canals were navigable, up to 30 meters deep. And for the "drainage ditches" required a depth of no more than a few meters. "One single measurement of the depth of the channels, says Tsangger," would have been enough for my hypothesis to either triumph or be rejected."
Korfman is "very restrained" about the new theory and opposes its practical verification. You can understand him: while he himself is digging in the ground in the sweat of his brow, some kind of "skygazer" appears and requires excavation.
And yet, one should not refuse to check Zangger's formula: too convincing proofs are collected in his book. British archaeologist Snodgrass from Cambridge is already predicting new discussions on Troy. "Zangger's version is so well substantiated," he believes, "that there will be work here for specialists in various fields of science."
If Zangger's hypothesis is confirmed, humanity will lose one more fairy tale, the legend of the lost land will melt without a trace.