Artikel

Facts about Atlantis

Here are some facts we gathered from the web about Atlantis.

Atlantis was first described by the Greek  philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago.

While many believe the story is a myth  created by Plato to illustrate his theories about politics, others insist it is  based on a real historical disaster.

According to Plato’s account, written around  360BC, Atlantis was a major sea power located in the Atlantic.

It was larger than ancient Libya and Asia  Minor (modern Turkey) put together, and was ‘the way to the other islands, and  from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent’.

His account included detailed descriptions of  the island – with mountains in the north and along the coast, and a plain in the  south.

Its kings were descended from Poseidon – the  god of sea – but their divine lineage became diluted as they mixed with  mortals.

By around 9600BC the island had conquered  much of Western Europe and Africa and enslaved its enemies.

This date would make the city nearly as old  as the end of the last ice age and pre-dates the earliest recorded city states,  found in what is now Iraq, so seems rather unlikely.

After a failed attempt to invade Athens, the  entire island sank into the sea ‘in a single day and night of  misfortune’.

Over the centuries, scholars have attempted  to locate the real Atlantis – believing the account was based on a real ancient  superpower.

One of the most plausible theories is that  Plato was describing the Minoan civilisation on Crete and the neighbouring  island of Santorini which was devastated by a massive volcanic eruption around  1600BC.

Some believe the Atlantis myth was inspired  by the Black Sea floods of around 5000BC – an event that may have also generated  the flood stories which appeared in the Old Testament.

 

image26-e1421524637828.jpg