Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries

water, separated by strips of land on which defensive walls were constructed. Each of these walls was encased in different metals, the outer wall in bronze, the next in tin, and the inner wall "flashed with the red light of orichalcum," an unknown metal. The Atlanteans dug a huge subterranean channel through the circular moats, which connected the central palace with the sea. They also carved a harbor from the rock walls of the outer moat. The main Temple of Poseidon, on the central citadel, was three times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, and was covered entirely in silver (with the exception of the pinnacles, which were coated in gold). Inside the temple, the roof was covered with ivory and decorated with gold, silver, and orichalcum; this strange metal also covered the walls, pillars, and floor of the temple. The temple interior also contained numerous gold statues, including one of Poseidon in a chariot driving six winged horses, which was of such a colossal size that the god's head touched the roof of the 381 foot high ceiling.
All other ancient sources for the lost continent of Atlantis are subsequent to Plato, and at best provide tantalizing glimpses of what the people antiquity really believed about Atlantis. In the fourth century B.C. the Greek Philosopher and student of Aristotle, Theophrastus of Lesbos, mentioned colonies of Atlantis, but unfortunately the bulk of his work has been lost. In his commentaries on Plato's dialogues, Proclus, writing in the fifth century A.D., commented on the reality of Atlantis, stating that the Atlanteans "for many ages had reigned over all islands in the Atlantic sea." Proclus also tells us that Crantor, the first commentator on the works of Plato in the fourth century B.C., had visited Sais in Egypt and had seen a golden pillar with hieroglyphs recording the history of Atlantis. Claudius Aelianus, a second century A.D. Roman writer, mentions Atlantis in his work On the Nature of Animals, describing a huge island out in the Atlantic Ocean, which was known in the traditions of the Phoenicians (and sebsequently the Carthaginians of Cadiz), as an ancient city on the coast of southwest Spain.
American congressman and author Ignatius Donnelly.
For the most part, the legend of Atlantis lay dormant for many centuries before its revival in the 19th century. The modern quest for the fabled
island began in ernest in 1882, with the publication of Atlantis: the Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly, an American congressman and writer. Donnelly took Plato's account of Atlantis literally, and attempted to establish that all known ancient civilizations were descended from the lost continent. Around the same time, Madame Helena Blavatsky (the cofounder of the Theosophical Society, and a leader in the growing occult movement) began to take an interest in the idea of lost continents such as Atlantis and Lemuria. Blavatsky mentions Atlantis numerous times in her first work Isis Unveiled, written in 1877. Madame Blavatsky's massive opus The Secret Doctine (1888), was apparently based on a mystical work called The Book of Dzyan, allegedly written in Atlantis. In it she gives a detailed description of Atlantis and its inhabitants, which includes advanced technology, ancient flying machines, giants, and supernormal powers. Some of these wilder aspects of Blavatsky's descriptions were to have a significant influence on a number of Atlantis theorists, though her lost continent seems to exist on another, more spiritual, level-altogether different from the physical continent proposed by Donelly.
In the early 20th century, worldrenowned psychic Edgar Cayce gave many readings that involved Atlantis. He believed that Atlantis was a highly evolved civilization that possessed ships and aircraft (which echoes Blavatsky) and were powered by a mysterious energy crystal. Cayce predicted that part of Atlantis would be discovered in 1968 or 1969 in the region of Bimini, near the Bahamas. In September of 1968, a half-mile stretch of precisely aligned limestone blocks, now known as the Bimini Road, was discovered off the coast of North Bimini, suggesting to many that this was the remains of lost Atlantis.
However, in 1980, Eugene Shinn of the U.S. Geological Survey published the conclusions of his examination of the underwater stones at Bimini. The results of his tests indicated that the blocks must have been laid there by natural means. The radiocarbon dates obtained from the shells embedded in the stones gave dates in the range of 1200 B.C. to 300 B.C., for the laying down of the so-called road. This is generally a lot later than the proposed dates for Atlantis.
Taking the ancient writers at their word, many researchers have searched for Atlantis in the mid-Atlantic, identifying the Mid-Atlantic Ridge-a long chain of undersea volcanoes running along the center of the ocean, as the remains of the lost continent. With the modern understanding of continental drift (which is due to the action of plate tectonics) geologists have ruled out the possibility of a sizeable continent existing in the Atlantic. However, plate tectonics is still only a theory, so until it is proven as fact, believers in a lost continent in the Atlantic will continue their search. If the island is in the mid-Atlantic, researchers reason (echoing Ignatius Donnelly back in the 1880s) that the Azores, a cluster of nine islands amid a chain of underwater mountains, may be its remnants. Others add Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde to its remains, though as yet not a shred of proof exists in these areas for a vanished ancient civilization.
Almost every year, without fail, the headline "Atlantis Found!" screams out from the newspapers. In fact, the range of hypothetical locations for Atlantis is staggering. The Minoan civilization of Late Bronze Age Crete, supposedly destroyed by a colossal earthquake on the neighboring island of Thera (modern day Santorini), was long thought to have been an indirect influence on Plato's Atlantis. However, research into Late Bronze Age Crete has shown that the Minoan civilization continued to flourish long after the Theran quake. Other suggested locations within Europe and the Mediterranean include Ireland, England, Finland,