Atlantean people of legend. Mysterious Atlantis

Egyptian priests, based on ancient records, said that once in the "Atlantic Sea" (as the ocean was called then) there was a huge island - "more Libya (that is, Africa) and Asia taken together." On this island "a great and formidable power of kings was formed, whose power extended to the entire island and many other islands. In addition, they (. Ruled Libya to Egypt and Europe to Tyrrenia" (as Italy was called at that time). The legend of Atlantis tells that in the original times, when the gods divided the land among themselves, this island went into the possession of the god of the seas.Poseidon settled there ten of his sons, born of the earthly woman Clito.

The eldest of them was named, after his name the island was called Atlantis, and the sea - Atlantic. From Atlanta came the powerful and noble family of the kings of Atlantis. This genus "has collected such enormous riches, which had not yet happened in the possession of the kings, and even later it would be difficult for such to form." minerals were mined in its depths, including "one rock, which is now known only by name, (...) - the orichalcum rock, which was extracted from the ground in many places on the island and, after gold, was of the greatest value among the people of that time." erected on their island beautiful cities with fortified 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 with "kakmastika", copper, tin and orichalcum, "emitting a fiery shine," and the houses were built of red, white and black stone. In the center of the city, a temple was erected to Poseidon and Clito. The walls of the temple were faced with silver, the roof was covered with gold, and inside "an ivory ceiling, colored with gold, silver and orichalcum, was presented to the eye. They also erected golden idols inside the temple - a god who, standing in a chariot, ruled six winged horses, and himself, according to enormous size, touching the crown of the ceiling. "The Atlanteans carried on a lively trade, the harbors of Atlantis" swarmed with ships and merchants who came from everywhere, which in their mass day and night deafened the area with shouts, knocks and mixed noise. " two hundred warships. The code of laws that Poseidon himself gave the Atlanteans was inscribed on a high orichalcum pillar set 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 matters, or tried to find out if anyone had committed any wrongdoing, and performed judgment." with disdain, they valued little that they had a lot of gold and other acquisitions, were indifferent to wealth as a burden, and did not fall to the ground in the intoxication of luxury, losing power over themselves. "But time passed - and the Atlanteans changed, were filled." the wrong spirit of self-interest and strength. " They began to use their knowledge and the 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

G. ALEXANDROVSKY.

In the dialogues of the ancient thinker Plato, there is still a grain that speaks of the reality of the legendary island. The legend of Atlantis has been living for more than two thousand years. But only a few decades ago, people desperate to find traces of a once prosperous state, ranked Plato's works as utopias. And here's a sensational turn: today, some historians and archaeologists have recognized that Plato's dialogues still contain a grain of real facts. We present three newest hypotheses suggesting where and when Atlantis died.

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Tradition of the Egyptian priests

In 421 BC. e. the Greek philosopher Plato in his two works - "Timaeus" and "Critias" - outlined the history and the sad end island nation Atlantis. The story in the form of a dialogue is led by Plato's great-grandfather, Critias: he conveys the content of the conversation with his grandfather, he heard a story about Atlantis from a contemporary, Solon, an Athenian legislator and poet, who, in turn, learned about Atlantis from an Egyptian priest. And Plato in his texts repeatedly emphasizes that this is not a myth, but a true story about historical events.

Atlantis, according to Plato, is a huge island lying in the ocean behind the Pillars of Hercules, that is, beyond Gibraltar. In the center of the island there was a hill on which there were temples and the royal palace. The Acropolis, the upper city, was protected by two rows of earthen embankments and three water ring canals. The outer ring was connected to the sea by a 500-meter canal through which ships entered the inner port. The life of Atlantis appears to be full of prosperity.

The temple of the main deity of the islanders - Poseidon, the lord of the seas, was, says Plato, laid out with gold, silver and Orhilak (recently solved word means an alloy of copper with zinc). Another temple dedicated to Poseidon and his wife Kleito, the progenitor of all Atlanteans, is surrounded by a golden wall. There were also a golden statue of Poseidon and golden statues of the Nereids - the numerous daughters of the sea deity. The Atlanteans had bronze weapons and thousands of war chariots. The bowels gave copper and silver.

The people had fun with horse races, thermal baths were at their service: there were two springs on the island - cold and hot water. Ships hurried to the harbor of Atlantis with pottery, spices, rare ores. To supply the port with fresh water, the river bed was turned.

The island belonged to a powerful alliance of kings. And then the moment came when he decided to subjugate other countries, including Greece. However, Athens, showing valor and strength in the war, won. But, as Plato says, the Olympic gods, dissatisfied with the warring nations, decided to punish them for greed and violence. A monstrous earthquake and flood "in one terrible day and one night" destroyed the Athenian army and the whole of Atlantis. The waters of the ocean swallowed up the island.

47 years after the death of Plato, a resident of Athens, Krantor, went to Egypt to find out whether the sources of the information used by the philosopher were really there. And he found, according to him, in the temple of Neith hieroglyphs with the text about the events described.

Search

The search for Atlantis began at the very beginning of the new era - in the 50th year from the birth of Christ. For almost two thousand years since that time, many hypotheses have appeared about the location of Atlantis. Many were attracted by the riches mentioned by Plato. Just think: take possession of the golden walls and statues! Most of the interpreters of "Cretia" and "Timaeus" pointed to the existing islands of the Atlantic Ocean. But there were other landmarks as well. Among the 50 points on Earth, identified by enthusiasts for the search for Atlantis, there are also quite fantastic ones, for example, Brazil or Siberia, the existence of which the ancient philosopher did not even suspect.

A new rise in interest in the search for the legendary island emerged after the First World War. Underwater technology, advanced during the war, prompted adventurous businessmen to organize companies in several countries to search mysterious Atlantis... For example, in the French newspaper "Figaro" there was such a note: "A society for the study and exploitation of Atlantis has been created in Paris." The companies, of course, burst one after another, but the Russian writer Alexander Belyaev found in a newspaper publication a plot for his fantastic story "The Last Man from Atlantis".

More than 50 thousand publications are devoted to the problem of the sunken island. Film and television also contributed to this story. Over 20 expeditions surveyed the places where, according to the ideas of their organizers, the people of Atlantis once prospered. But they all returned empty-handed.

To the two main questions - where? and when? - already in our century, the objections of archaeologists were added, who considered it a fantasy the story of the abundance of gold and silver on the island. They also attributed the network of canals - circular and leading to the sea, an inland port and other hydraulic structures to Plato's inventions: they were not capable of such large-scale affairs in those days. Researchers of the philosophical and literary heritage of Plato believed that, telling about a prosperous Atlantis, the ancient idealist thinker called on his contemporaries to build an exemplary state without dictatorship and tyranny. And in this sense, Plato is called the creator of the genre of utopia. (Plato, indeed, in some of his writings called for the construction of an ideal state based on goodness and justice. He traveled from Athens to Syracuse three times, the last time as a deep old man, hoping in vain to instill humane ideas into the tyrants there.) As for the time of the death of the island in ocean abyss, then Plato called a date that contradicts all the data of modern science: according to his information, the catastrophe occurred 11,500 years ago to the present day, or 9,000 years, counting to the time of Plato himself. 12-10 thousand years ago, humanity was just emerging from the Paleolithic, the ancient Stone Age, and it is difficult to imagine that somewhere there lived a people who, in their development, outstripped the human race for many thousands of years. The primary source of such an error could be the incorrect determination of the age of the Egyptian state, carried out in ancient times. For example, Herodotus counted Egypt as 11,340 years old.

Is it Atlantis?

"The Russians have found Atlantis!" - such sensational sold-out newspapers Western Europe accompanied in 1979 with photographs of the seabed. In the photographs, under the layer of sand, vertical ridges were clearly visible, reminiscent of the walls of a destroyed city. The impression of the ancient city ruins was enhanced by the fact that other ridges passed along the bottom at right angles to the first.

The underwater images were taken by the Moscow University research vessel "Akademik Petrovsky". Actions took place where Plato pointed out - "behind the Pillars of Hercules." Out into the Atlantic Ocean, the ship stopped over a sandbank to test its underwater equipment. Pure chance helped to choose a parking spot just above the underwater volcano Ampere. It was possible to establish that the Amper volcano once protruded from the water and was an island.

In 1982, the Soviet ship "Rift" here lowered the underwater vehicle "Argus" into the ocean. “A panorama of the city's ruins opened up to us, since the walls very similarly imitated the remains of rooms, streets, squares,” the commander of the Argus V. Bulyga reported to the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, the next expedition of the Vityaz, which took place in the summer of 1984, did not confirm such encouraging impressions of the aquanaut. Two stones of a fairly regular shape were raised from one of the walls, but their analysis showed that this was not the creation of human hands, but volcanic rock. The commander of the "Argus" crew, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A. Gorodnitsky writes: "Most likely, the stone is solidified lava that once poured out through the cracks of the volcano." Another seamount, Josephine, was also explored, also an ancient volcano, and in the past - an island.

A. Gorodnitsky proposed his own model of a grandiose geological catastrophe of the distant past. It arose due to a sharp northerly displacement of the African tectonic plate. Its collision with the European plate caused the eruption of the Santorini volcano in the east, and in the west, the mentioned volcanic islands... This hypothesis does not contradict the geological and geophysical data of modern science. However, once again Atlantis turned out to be not a fascinating hypothesis, but just a myth: scientists did not find any traces of the remnants of the material culture of the Atlanteans.

The legend of Atlantis has haunted humanity for the third millennium, more than 6 thousand volumes have been written about it. But did this mysterious civilization exist? If so, when and where? How to interpret the testimony of the ancients? Atlantis is a mystery both for geologists, geophysicists, seismologists, oceanologists, and for historians, archaeologists, art historians and people who study ancient cultures. There is no hope of finding golden statues of goddesses, a temple of Poseidon or anything like that in the depths of the ocean. The processes of erosion, sedimentation and other natural processes are ruthlessly destroying the traces of ancient civilizations, but indirect evidence of their existence still reaches us.

Legend of Atlantis. The mythical continent, or the island of Atlantis, was first described Plato(427–347 BC) in dialogues Timaeus and Critias referring to one of the seven wise men Ancient Greece – Solona... Plato allegedly learned about Atlantis from his grandfather Solon, who traveled to Egypt and met there with local priests - experts in ancient secrets, who, according to historians and archaeologists-Egyptologists, relied on written evidence left by the ancients more than 30 thousand years ago on those who have not reached before us papyri. It was they who told him the story of Atlantis. According to them, she was somewhere in the Atlantic - west of the Strait of Gibraltar and was named after Atlas, the brother of one of the Titans. Greek mythology- Prometheus. According to Plato, the mysterious continent was inhabited by the Atlanteans - a fearless and powerful people who reached the highest level civilization and fought with a certain pre-Athenian state. It was located in Atlantic Ocean beyond Gibraltar and died about 12 thousand years ago (between 9750 and 8570 BC), plunging into the depths of the ocean "in one day and a disastrous night" as a result of a grandiose natural disaster.

Where to look for Atlantis? If you collect and publish all the data about where Atlantis could be, you would get a fascinating book in which you would have to talk about South America with which Atlantis was identified by the famous philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in utopia New atlantis; and about the North Sea, where near the island of Helgoland, according to the German pastor Jurgen Spanut, there was a mysterious continent, and about the search at the beginning of the 19th century from Yucatan to Mongolia and from Spitsbergen to St. Helena. Atlantis was "prescribed" in Brazil, Scandinavia, Palestine, in the Pas-de-Calais, etc. Among the active supporters of its existence were the artist and philosopher Nicholas Roerich and the geologist, academician Vladimir Obruchev. Recently, the views of researchers are increasingly turning to the islands of Crete and Thira (Strongle), in antiquity, the island of Fera. The Minoan culture of these islands perished as a result of a major catastrophe for one and a half thousand years BC. Among the supporters of the latter hypothesis are Anagelos Galanopoulos, Bacon, the tectonist Evgeny Milanovsky, famous researcher sea depths, the French oceanologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who discovered on the periphery underwater island Tira is the ruins of structures, indicating that the city really died there. But was it Atlantis?

How they searched for Atlantis. At the beginning of the 20th century, three expeditions were equipped and sent in search of Atlantis, one of which (the second) was led by Pavel Schliemann, the grandson of the famous discoverer of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann. According to Pavel Schliemann, his famous grandfather left a sealed envelope so that it could be opened by one of the family members who would make a solemn promise to devote their whole life to research, the indications of which will be found in this envelope. Pavel Schliemann took such an oath, opened the envelope and read the letter that was there. In a letter, Heinrich Schliemann reported that he had undertaken research on the remnants of Atlantis, the existence of which he does not doubt and which he considers the cradle of our entire civilization. In the summer of 1873, Heinrich Schliemann allegedly found (during excavations in Troy) a large bronze vessel containing smaller earthenware vessels, small figurines made of a special metal, money from the same metal, and objects "made from fossil bones." On some of these objects and on a bronze vessel was written in Phoenician hieroglyphs: "From the king of Atlantis Chronos." But for many researchers, Russian and foreign, this story causes distrust.

The search for Atlantis was and is being carried out everywhere - around the globe. Foreign researchers Renata and Yaroslav Malina in their works about natural disasters and aliens from space, they write that the Atlanteans-seafarers explored the Earth. They say that they traveled by air and under water, photographed objects at great distances, used X-rays, recorded images and sounds on video tape, used a crystal laser, invented a terrible weapon using cosmic rays, and also used antimatter energy. However, the use of the dark forces of nature by ambitious priests and the increasing frequency of earthquakes led to the disintegration of the mainland into many islands, which later also disappeared into the sea. And ten thousand years BC underground explosion also destroyed the island of Poseidonis. The radiation emitted by a large crystal lying at the site of the death of Atlantis leads to the sudden disappearance of ships and aircraft in the famous Bermuda Triangle.

In 1981 and 1984 the Institute of Oceanology equipped two expeditions for test dives of the underwater diving bell and testing other equipment of the research vessel "Vityaz". The research was carried out in the area of the Ampere seamount, located in the Atlantic Ocean about 500 km west of the Strait of Gibraltar and part of the Hosshu seamount system. On the flat top of the mountain, formations were discovered that resembled the ruins of a city. The members of the expedition managed to photograph something similar to the masonry of the wall and make a number of drawings from nature, which gave rise to sensational reports in the newspapers. What they saw was surprisingly reminiscent of ancient dwellings in Chersonesos: firstly, cells ranging in size from 5 to 10 m, very similar to the rooms of houses, and secondly, scientists saw many straight parallelepipeds, structures resembling stairs and even something like an arch. Divers chipped off fragments of weathered basalt from one of the alleged masonry, and experts checked them for traces of processing with tools. It was not possible to find an unambiguous answer, however, experts were inclined to conclude that the "walls" are still miraculous and there are no "ruins ancient city" does not exist. Further careful examination revealed that the mountain is an old volcano, broken by deep cracks, stretching almost at right angles to each other and giving the impression of "rooms". Another thing was more important: when the basalt was subjected to chemical analysis, it became clear that it was formed not under water, but in air, i.e. at the time when Ampere towered above the surface of the ocean.

How did Atlantis die? Turning to Plato's Dialogue Critias, where it is about the reasons for the death of Atlantis: “And here Zeus ... thinking about a glorious family that fell into such a pitiful depravity, and decided to impose punishment on him, so that he, having sobered from trouble, learned goodness. Therefore, he summoned all the gods ... and addressed those gathered with these words ... ". It is at this point that the narrative ends. What kind of punishment did Zeus prepare for Atlantis?

Where the myth ends, the painstaking work of scientists begins. Now more and more researchers are inclined to believe that Atlantis could have died as a result of a strong earthquake or volcanic eruption, and most likely both at the same time. Some scientists believe that Atlantis was destroyed by giant waves - tsunamis, which often occur as a result of earthquakes. But there are also more exotic options. The Polish astronomer L. Seidler believes that the destruction of the continent is associated with the fall of a comet or an asteroid on our planet. Astronomer O. Mook put forward a hypothesis about the fall of a huge meteorite in the Florida Peninsula on the Atlantic coast, which, according to his calculations, occurred on June 5, 8499 BC. (according to the Gregorian calendar) and caused the disaster. Hans Schindler Bellamy suggested that Atlantis was wiped off the face of the Earth by giant waves that resulted from the impact of the Moon in the Earth's gravitational field. But, perhaps, the most probable from a geological point of view is the version according to which deep tectonic processes and mutual collisions of continental plates gave rise to both earthquakes and tsunamis that destroyed this civilization.
Testimonies of the Ancients. What did Plato know about Atlantis? In his dialogues, he reports that Atlantis disappeared in one day and one tragic night - "in one terrible day." Russian poet - symbolist V.Ya. Bryusov in his work Atlantis notes that "Plato describes Atlantis already in the state that it reached after several millennia of cultural life, when there were already many separate kingdoms on the island, many rich cities and a huge population of millions." And the history of the island itself began with the division of the land between three gods-brothers: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. Poseidon, by lot, got the island of Atlantis and, in addition, he became the ruler of the seas. When Poseidon received Atlantis, only three people lived on the island - "one of the husbands, at the very beginning, was brought into the world by the Earth, named Eunor with his wife Livkippa and the beautiful daughter Kleito." Poseidon fell in love with Kleito, she became his wife and gave birth to five pairs of twins - the first ten kings of Atlantis.

Poseidon was the first to strengthen the island to make it inaccessible to enemies. Around a low hill, gradually turning into a plain, three water and two earthen rings were dug in a circle alternately one after the other. In the very center of the hill (acropolis), on a dais, Poseidon built a small temple for Kleito and himself, surrounding it with a wall of pure gold. A palace was built on the acropolis, which was expanded and decorated by each king, and the new one was determined to surpass its predecessor. "So it was impossible to see this building without being amazed at the size and beauty of the works." The kings - children of Poseidon, of course, could not do without bathing, and therefore they built numerous baths on the acropolis. “There were open reservoirs for swimming, and closed for the winter; there were special ones - for the royal family and for individuals; still others - separately for women, and also for horses and pack animals; each one was positioned and decorated according to its purpose. The water coming out of these bodies of water was directed to irrigate the Poseidon forest, where the trees produced soil fertility. amazing height and beauty ". The largest and most magnificent building of the acropolis was a temple dedicated to the god Poseidon. It was truly gigantic in size: 185 meters long, 96 meters wide and "appropriate" height. Outside, the large temple was entirely clad in silver, except for the "extremities" made of pure gold. There were many statues of gold inside the temple. The largest of them depicted the god Poseidon, who, standing on a chariot, ruled six winged horses. The statue of Poseidon was so high that its head almost touched the ceiling, which was trimmed with ivory and all adorned with gold and silver. The walls, pillars and floors inside the temple were completely lined with precious stones. Everything literally sparkled and "lit up", as soon as the sunbeam penetrated the interior of the sanctuary.

Many wonderful things are reported by Plato about the capital of the Atlanteans, and then he goes on to describe the whole country. “The island of Atlantis was very high above sea level, and the coast rose in an inaccessible cliff. Around the capital stretched a plain, surrounded by mountains that reached the sea. " Everyone said about this plain that it is the most beautiful on earth and very fertile. It was densely dotted with flourishing villages, separated by lakes, rivers, meadows, where many wild domestic animals grazed. Much came to the Atlanteans from outside, in view of the vastness of their power; but the island itself produced almost everything necessary for life. “Firstly, all metals are hard and low-melting, suitable for processing, including the one that we now know only by name: orichalcum: it was found in many places on the island; after gold, it was the most precious of metals. The island provided all the necessary materials for crafts. A large number of domestic animals and wild animals lived on the island, among other things, many elephants. The island gave abundant food to all kinds of animals, both those living in swamps, lakes and rivers or on the mountains and in the plains, and these (elephants), although they are huge and gluttonous. Produced and delivered to the island all the flavors now growing in different countries, roots, herbs, juice flowing from fruits and flowers. There was also a fruit that gives wine (grapes), and one that serves as food (cereals), along with those that we also eat, calling by a common word - vegetables; there were also fruits that simultaneously give drink, food and incense (coconuts?). Such were the divine and wonderful riches, such, in innumerable quantities, this island produced. " Further, Plato describes the political structure of the capital and itself, because "with such bounties of the soil, the inhabitants built temples, palaces, ports and harbors for ships and tried to decorate their island." On the happy island, each of the ten brothers - kings had absolute power in their kingdom, but general government the state of Atlantis was ruled by the kings with a Council, which they met in 5-6 years, alternating between even and odd numbers. The supreme power always remained with the direct heir of the Atlantean, but even the main king could not sentence any of his relatives to death without the consent of the majority of the kings "as long as the Atlanteans followed the principles of virtue during the reign and as long as the divine principle dominated them, they succeeded in everything." But when the "human disposition" triumphed - a base beginning, when they lost all decency and unrestrained greed began to boil in them, when people began to show themselves a "shameful sight", then the God of the Gods - Zeus, seeing the depravity of the Atlanteans, once so virtuous, decided to punish them. "He gathered all the gods in the heavenly sanctuary and addressed them with these words ..."

As mentioned above, this is where Plato's dialogue "Critias" abruptly breaks off and the history of Atlantis and its search, two thousand years long, begins. The priests mourned the spiritual wisdom of Atlantis, which had defiled itself. Philosophers talked about the divine rulers of this island, poets sang the fabulous perfection of its structure. However, some researchers believe that Plato needed dialogues about Atlantis in order to express his thoughts about the ideal structure of the state. The story of Atlantis, as Valery Bryusov notes, is not something exceptional in Plato's works. He also has other descriptions of fantastic countries, clothed in the form of myths. But none of these stories is supplied, like the description of Atlantis, with references to sources. Plato, as if anticipating future doubts and objections, takes care to indicate the origin of his information with the greatest accuracy that ancient authors knew.

Probably, the Greek Plato seriously thought about it if he knew what excitement would surround his two works, in which he mentions Ancient Atlantis... Some consider them almost the main books - the revelations of mankind, others - false fabrications, a kind of ancient Greek yellow press, desperately distorting the facts. His "Dialogues" - "Timaeus" and "Critias" - by today's standards are two thin brochures, the content of which could easily fit, for example, on the pages of a newspaper. But after Plato mentioned the superstate Atlantis, more than 300 thousand articles have already been written on this topic.
In addition to the philosopher Plato, who described Atlantis in 360 - 370. BC e., other ancient writers also mentioned it. For example, a century earlier the famous historian Herodotus wrote: “There is Mount Atlas by the salt lake. Narrow and high so that its top all year round shrouded in clouds. From her got the name and locals who are called Atlanteans. " However, skeptics say that these people have nothing to do with Plato's Atlantis. Another ancient Greek philosopher Theopompus, who, like Plato, lived in the IV century, described a kind of giant island - a state with many cities. Once they sent an army of 10 million people across the ocean in order to conquer Hyperborea. But when the conquerors saw how the Hyperboreans live, they considered them unhappy and returned home across the ocean. " True, Hyperborea is also a mythical state, and Theopompus did not mention the name Atlantis. These are the main literary sources where you can get information about the mythical state. There were other authors, but they all worked much later and we can assume that they used the works of the ancient Greek trinity. Valery Bryusov at work Teacher teachers defends the veracity of Plato's story of Atlantis. In his opinion, if we assume that Plato's description is fiction, we will have to recognize him as a superhuman genius who foresaw the development of science for millennia and foresaw the discovery by historians of the world of Aegea, Columbus's voyage to America, the discovery of the Mayan civilization, etc. With all due respect to the great philosopher, such insight is impossible, so a more plausible explanation arises: Plato referred to Egyptian manuscripts that came from the depths of centuries.

The only way to prove that Atlantis existed is to find it. But in 10 thousand years from the moment of the catastrophe at the bottom of the sea, little would have remained from it. If the Atlanteans used iron, then no trace of it in sea water long gone. Salt water is too aggressive. Only gold has a chance to survive to this day. But it is unlikely that the Atlanteans erected golden statues tens of meters high. It is impossible to find smaller objects at the bottom. Another question: what did the aborigines of Atlantis build their houses from? If from granite, basalt and shell rock - building materials the ancient world, then they all have already turned into sand. For ten thousand years nothing will remain of both wooden buildings and those built of fired clay bricks. Only marble buildings could have survived.

Numerous artifacts found in all corners the globe, suggest the existence of pracivilization in the past. And it doesn't matter what it was called: Hyperborea, Lemuria or Atlantis. 2500 years have passed since Plato. Was the civilization of the Atlanteans really, is their fate so tragic, and why has not a single material evidence of their existence been found so far? Almost all the peoples of the world have legends about a certain mysterious land that once went under water. Scientific research in recent years shows that it is too early to put an end to this problem. And many serious scientists and researchers are sure: the next ten years of exploration of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean will give us irrefutable facts of existence legendary Atlantis... The search for Atlantis can be a unique interdisciplinary exploration using the methods of geology, oceanology, history, analysis of ancient manuscripts and documents. But the biggest difficulty faced researchers, it is data interpretation and date correlation. Fabulous Atlantis, a powerful and mysterious land of wonders, still keeps its secrets and awaits discoverers.

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 him in their works.

Ancient writers on the sunken island of Atlantis

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

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

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

Big cities were distinguished by amazing architectural structures and beautiful sculptures: temples lined with gold and silver, golden statues and sculptures. The island was very fertile, with varied natural world; in the bowels of the earth, people mined copper and silver.

Atlanteans were a warlike people: the army of the state included a navy of 1000 ships, while the number of crews was equal to 240 thousand people; the land force numbered 700 thousand people. The descendants of Poseidon fought successfully for many years, conquering new territories and wealth; so it was 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 liberated 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 following 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, 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 writings. At first glance, it is simple beautiful legend, an 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 this time, many disputes and theories regarding the lost state arose.

Plato's disciple Aristotle, who listened to the speeches of the Platonist philosophers for about 20 years, ultimately categorically rejected the existence of Atlantis, stating that the dialogues Timaeus and Critias were just fiction, the delirium of an old man.

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

So why was Aristotle so sure that Atlantis was fiction, because he did not have 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 the authority of Plato in the eyes of his admirers and admirers.

Mentions of the Atlanteans in the writings of other ancient authors

Other ancient authors wrote very little about Atlantis: Herodotus argued 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 reasons for land subsidence, believed that Plato's story was plausible.

Proclus in his writings reports on one follower of the ancient thinker: the inhabitant of Athens Krantor.

Allegedly, he deliberately went to 47 years after the death of the philosopher to find evidence in favor of the existence of an island state; returning from a trip, Krantor said that in one of the ancient temples he saw columns with inscriptions retelling the historical events set out 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 flooded state may be.

Plato wrote that a huge island was once in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules (i.e., beyond Gibraltar). But his searches in the area of the Canary, Balearic, Azores and British Isles have led nowhere.

Some researchers suggest looking 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 millennia 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 a 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 tried to be found in South America or Brazil. But most interpreters of Plato's dialogues are sure: the lost island should be looked for only in the Atlantic Ocean.

In recent decades, the fallen state has sought out many expeditions, most of which returned empty-handed. True, from time to time the whole world is agitated by news about the found traces of the flooded island.

Have the Russians found Atlantis?

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

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

Three years later, the Soviet ship "Rift" went to the same place to study the ocean floor with the help of the underwater vehicle "Argus". The Aquanauts were amazed at what they saw; in their words, they saw a panorama of city ruins: the remains of rooms, squares, streets.

But the expedition, which took place in 1984, did not meet the expectations of the researchers: the analysis of two stones raised from the ocean floor showed that this is just volcanic rock, frozen lava, and not the creation of human hands.

The opinion of modern scientists about Atlantis

Atlantis is fiction

Most modern historians and philologists are convinced that 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 an internal port, but such large-scale projects in ancient times were beyond the power of people.

Plato indicated the approximate date of the immersion of the island into the ocean abyss: 9000 years before he wrote the dialogues (that is, 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 days there lived a people who outstripped the entire human race in their development by thousands of years.

Many scholars are convinced that Plato, when writing his works, took as a basis some events that occurred during his lifetime: for example, the defeat of the Greeks when they tried to conquer the island of Sicily and the flooding of the town of Gelika as a result of an earthquake, followed by a flood.

Other researchers believe that the basis for the works of the philosopher was the eruption of a volcano on the island of Santorini, which subsequently collapsed on 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 really 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 idealist-utopian, with his writings only wanted to call on his contemporaries to build an ideal exemplary humane state in which there will be no place for dictatorship, violence and tyranny.

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

Plato is not lying

Some researchers nevertheless admit: there is a grain of truth in the works of the ancient thinker. Excavations carried out in last years archaeologists, helped scientists to obtain new information about the life and technical achievements of our ancestors living 5-10 millennia 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 operated long before the birth of Plato.

Consequently, the philosopher's dialogues cannot be attributed to fiction only on the basis that humanity 11 millennia ago was unable to build a network of canals and bridges: the latter archaeological excavations prove otherwise.

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

The fact is that in the system of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the number "9000" is denoted by lotus flowers, and the number "900" - by rope knots; supporters of the existence of Atlantis believe that later scribes of dialogues could easily confuse symbols so similar to each other, thus pushing the historical event back several thousand years.

On top of that, Plato, who belongs to one highly revered family in Ancient Greece, refers in his dialogues to his ancestor: the wisest of the "seven wise men" legislator Solon. And the ancient Greeks were very sensitive to their roots, trying to preserve the sacred memory of relatives. Would Plato, given his moral qualities, refer to Solon in his works, because if this whole story with Atlantis was just a fiction, he would tarnish 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 - just out of curiosity.

In the 50s of the last century, even a doctrine called "Atlantology" appeared, its main task is to reveal truthful information about Atlantis in historical sources and mythical legends.

Disputes about whether a mysterious land once existed or whether the ancient Greek thinker simply invented it continues to this day. Various theories are born and die, conjectures 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 turn out that another two thousand years will pass, and the mystery lost island it will remain undisclosed, and our descendants, as well as we today will be tormented by conjectures and assumptions.

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

For the first time Atlantis is mentioned in Plato's treatises as a state with an ideal political system, a country of demigods and prosperity. Among the ancient myths and legends, the legend of Atlantis is the most colorful and viable. Until now, attempts are 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. In this regard, modern scientists determine the location of the continent in the Mediterranean Sea, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar.

Plato also mentions that Atlantis was on a plain, and exactly in the center there was 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 were black-haired and brown-eyed, of an athletic build.

Atlanteans lived in harmony with nature, and possessed knowledge lost today: telepathy, hypnosis, could heal 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 greedy and greedy, they strove for material well-being, ignoring spiritual development. The gods were angry with Atlantis and destroyed it within 24 hours. forever hid the continent in the depths of the sea.

The death of a great civilization

Atlantis is swallowed up by the waters of the Atlantic ocean about 10-12 thousand years ago, although traces of a disappeared civilization are still looking for today. Indeed, in all the ancient myths and legends of the world, a worldwide flood is mentioned, as a result of which almost all of humanity perished. Scientists suggest that Atlantis perished as a result of falling to Earth, which caused a tsunami of a universal scale and caused a displacement of the earth's axis, and, consequently, climate change on the planet.

Interesting is the fact that has entered all the myths and legends of the world that the founders of all civilizations that arose after the flood appeared suddenly, sailing 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, Maya, and Aztecs ... That is why the historical heritage of these great civilizations is so similar - they all built pyramids, worshiped the Gods, and the priests were the highest caste and mediators between Gods and people.

Atlantis today attracts people and scientists with a magnet, bewitches with mysticism and obscurity. Wherever they have not looked for this continent in the Atlantic Ocean - on Bahamas, in, in Mexico, in Crete, in Cuba, even in the waters of the Antarctic!

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

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

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

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

And the last, relatively recent hypothesis that Atlantis is Antarctica! This idea was led by the fact that on ancient maps Antarctica is marked free of ice, 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 the old map of 1665, completely coincide with the outlines of Antarctica!

For a long time in the hearts of people there will be a glimmer of hope that to find " earthly paradise"And it is possible to 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 in general, or it is the fruit of Plato's fantasies about an unrealizable, but so desired world.