The Lost Continent of Atlantis – Plato’s Timaeus
The discovery of the underwater world
Atlantis has been the topic of debate for over 2,500 years among philosophers, historians, and archaeologists. In 360 B.C., Plato narrates in his Timaeus that Kritias tells an account of Atlantis based on the witness of a priest during the visit of his ancestor Solon to Egypt. According to Plato, Atlantis was protected by the god #Poseidon who made his son Atlas king of this land. The Atlanteans grew powerful but suffered ethically; their great armies were able to conquer Africa as far as Egypt and Europe going as far as Italy. According to one theory, it was by a divine punishment that the “continent-island” sank; in one day and one night. Plato’s characters refer to the story of Atlantis as “genuine history” and it being within “the realm of fact.” On the other hand, the historian Strabo reports Plato’s student Aristotle opinion of Atlantis as a creation to illustrate a point.
The true location of the Atlantis city and its disappearance remain a suggestive mystery, but advances in ocean floor mapping in past decades and the plate tectonics demonstrate that the Atlantis’ sunk is a myth. However, from time to time a new hypothesis is advanced.
For instance, research led by Professor Richard Freund of the University of Hartford, suggests that the city may be buried along the coast of Spain. Indeed, there is evidence of a number of tsunamis in this area that may have destroyed a city located there. Other scientists, instead, contrast that such city was Tartessos and not Atlantis. Instead, research of the history’s professor K.T. Frost from the Queen’s University in Belfast, of the archeologist Spyridon Marinatos, and of the seismologist A.G. Galanopoulos suggests that Atlantis was located in the island of Crete where the Minoan Empire was established since 1500 B.C. and from where the eastern Mediterranean was dominated with a powerful navy. Geological studies have shown that twenty-five hundred years ago the island of Santorinas was a single large island with a volcano in the center. The volcano exploded around 1500 B.C. generating a tsunami destroying any coastal towns in Crete.
Notwithstanding the suggestive narration of Plato, the search for Atlantis during my travels had not produced any results; however, by looking at the depth of the sea I have discovered an entirely new universe, from microscopic plankton to the largest animals on earth, the blue whales, of which I’ll give account in the next Atlantis’ posts:
References.
Lost city of Atlantis. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/23217-lost-city-of-atlantis.html