They Found Atlantis lw-1 Read online

  'While in Egypt, Solon visited the city of Sais which lies in the Delta. There he conversed with an Egyptian priest and recounted to him something of Greek beliefs and what we now term their mythology; upon which, to quote if you permit, the Egyptian replied:

  ' "Oh Solon, Solon, you Greeks are but children . . . in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, or science which is

  hoary with age."

  The priest then went on to say that the reason for this

  was that there had been many partial destructions of mankind both by fire and Hood, which had wiped out whole races and their histories with them; leaving nothing to prove that they had ever existed except vague legends among the distant peoples who had escaped these calamities. He instanced the story of Phaeton who, unable to manage the steeds of his father's chariot, the Sun, was said to have burnt up all that was upon the earth, and explained that this Gieek myth was really a memory of distant time when a declination of the bodies moving round the earth and in the heavens had caused a great conflagration.'

  'What's all that got to do with Atlantis though?' Nicky asked.

  'Be patient please,' the Doctor reproved him gruffly. 'This Egyptian Priest then gave Solon an account of the last great natural occurrence which had decimated a large portion of the human race, the Atlanteans, nine thousand years before; and I shall now give you the salient facts which emerge from Plato's written version of the story which came to him from Solon.

  'There was once an island situated in front of the Straits of Gibraltar. It was larger than Lybia and Asia Minor put together and was the way to other islands from which one could pass through the whole of the opposite continent surrounding the true ocean. By that he meant America of

  course and he actually refers to the Mediterranean as being

  no more than an inland sea.

  'In this island there was a great and wonderful Empire, founded, so legend relates, by the god Poseidon—or Neptune if you prefer— who begat children by a mortal woman. The centre of the island was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of ail places and very fertile. Near the plain was a small mountain and this was enclosed with alternate zones of water and land equidistant every way and turned, as with a lathe, out of the centre of the land. This district the god gave to his eldest son named Atlas; and to his twin brother, Gadeirus, who was born after him he gave the extremity of the island nearest the Straits of Gibraltar, and to others of his children other regions were given.

  'Atlas was made King over them all, giving his name to the whole island continent and the surrounding ocean; and the royal line descended from him direct for many generations. The wealth or these kings and their kingdom is stated to have been greater than that of any known before or since —that is, to Plato's time. The Atlanteans were great miners and dug out of the earth every kind of mineral including orichalcuin, of which there were large deposits, and this they considered more valuable than any other metal except gold. There were great forests which supplied them with all sorts of woods and sheltered many species of wild animals including elephants which furnished them with ivory. Flowers, cereals and fruits both wild and cultivated grew in great abundance and variety including one fruit which is spoken of as having a hard rind and providing drink, flesh and ointment.

  'They employed themselves in building temples, palaces, and docks and bridged over the zones of water which surrounded the ancient metropolis; also they dug a canal three hundred feet in width and a hundred feet deep which they carried about six miles in order to link up the capital with the open sea, thus making the circular zones of water into a great inland harbour.

  The central island upon which the Palaces and Temples stood was surrounded by a high stone wall with towers flanking its approach across the bridges, and the two zones of land also had stone walls protecting the whole length of their outer circuits. The stone which was used in the work was of three colours, white, black and red. It was quarried from underneath the outer as well as the inner sides of the land zones and they removed it in such a fashion as to hollow out covered docks having roofs formed out of the native rock. The wall which went round the outermost canal they covered with a coating of brass; the next wall they coated with tin, and the third which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum.

  'Within the citadel was the great temple of Poseidon and this was ornamented with increasing splendour by many generations until the whole of the outside, with the exception of the pinnacles, had been plated with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory adorned everywhere with precious metals, and the temple contained many solid golden statues, together with that of the god himself which was of such a size that it touched the roof of the building with its head. This huge statue of Poseidon represented him standing in a chariot drawn by six winged horses and surrounded by a hundred nereids riding on dolphins.

  'Between the buildings of the capital there were pleasure gardens containing fountains of both hot and cold water supplied from underground springs; also cisterns, some open to the heavens and others roofed over which were used in winter as warm baths. In the grove of Poseidon, which appears to have been a very beautiful park, many rare trees flourished owing to the excellence of the soil. The surplus water was carried off by means of aqueducts passing over the bridges to the outer canal. There were many places set apart for exercise and in the centre of the larger land zone there was a race course a stadium in width which circled the whole island.

  'The country outside the capital is described as a level plain surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea. Those to the north were very lofty and precipitous, but to the south the plain spread out through the centre of the land measuring at its broadest 3,000 stadia in one direction and 2,000 in the other, which is about 345 miles by 230. The whole region of the island was said to lie towards the south and be sheltered from the north.

  'There were many villages in the mountains with rivers, lakes and meadows which supported them independently of the towns, and the great plain had been scientifically cultivated during many ages by many kings. The plain was entirely surrounded by a circular ditch and Plato says of this:

  ' "The length and width of this ditch was incredible, and gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so many other works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I must say what I have heard."

  'It was 100 feet deep, 220 feet wide and about 1,150 miles in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, wound round the plain, and was then let off into the sea. Smaller canals a hundred feet in width intersected the plain at intervals of a hundred stadia, roughly eleven and a half miles, and by these wood was brought down from the mountains to the city and the fruits of the earth were conveyed in ships from one place to another. Twice a year the crops were gathered since in winter they had the benefit of the rains and in the summer they were able to irrigate the whole plain by means of their canals.

  'Plato goes on to say that for countless generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, the Atlanteans were obedient to the law, rejoicing in all the blessings that sacred island, lying beneath the sun, brought forth in such abundance, and that their wealth did not deprive them of their self control; but that the divine portion of their nature began to fade away by becoming diluted too often, so that human nature got the upper hand. They became base, corrupt and evil. Then the father of the gods wished to inflict punishment upon them that they might be chastened---

  'Here to our great loss Plato's story abruptly ends and it is believed that he died before the completion of his manuscript.'

  'It sounds almost too wonderful to have been true,' said Camilla doubtfully. 'Is all that you've told us in Plato's book?'

  'Every point that I have touched upon,' the Doctor assured her with his little bow. 'Also many other marvellous descriptions. I have a copy here if you would care to verify.'
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  'No, no, Doctor, we'll take your word. Go on please do.'

  'Very well then.' He sat forward with his pudgy hands 47

  planted firmly on his fat knees. 'Consider please the following facts.

  'How could Plato have invented a story correctly describing the opposite continent of America which he speaks of as surrounding the true ocean, meaning of course its semicircle from the Cape of St. John's, Newfoundland to the north eastern point of Brazil.

  'Atlas's brother Gadeirus was given the extremity of the island towards the Straits of Gibraltar, which in Plato's time was still called the region of Gades. We still have a memory of this in the Spanish city of Cadiz. Moreover, it is a curious fact that the Basque people differ from all other European races. Their language, which has preserved its identity in this western corner of Europe between two mighty kingdoms, resembles in its grammatical structure no other language of the old world in any respect, but it has incontestable affinities with the aboriginal languages of America and those alone.

  'The fruit, having a hard rind, affording drinks, flesh and ointment, which Plato speaks of, is obviously the cocoanut, and the existence of Atlantis and other islands could alone account for the migration of it, and countless other examples of semi-tropical flora from one continent to the other.

  'In all the hundreds of systems of writing which have been evolved by different races all are based upon picture drawings with two exceptions only, these are the Phoenician alphabet and the Maya alphabet of Central America. Both of these are based upon the expression of vocal sounds by written signs. These correspond to such a remarkable degree that it is impossible to doubt their common origin.

  'In view of that it is particularly interesting to note that when the Phoenicians founded their great colony at Carthage they constructed their harbour upon precisely the same principle as that which Plato tells us was the Atlantean plan used many thousands of years before. Both were inland and circular in formation, both had islands in their centre containing the most important buildings of the city. Moreover, we find that both peoples used covered docks for their shipping so that each harbour must have presented the appearance of a great ring of airship hangars right down on the waterline.

  'Plato speaks of three kinds of stone being used in the construction of the Atlantean fortifications. In the Azores we find rocks red and white in colour and also great lumps of black lava. He also mentions hot springs and these too are abundant in the Azores.

  'The metal termed by Plato "orichalcum" is undoubtedly pure red copper. The importance of the stress which is laid upon this metal is enormous. In both hemispheres we have ample evidence of a Bronze Age and in both, weapons end utensils formed from this compound of approximately nine parts copper and one part tin are almost identical in appearance. The tin is added to give hardness and durability, but it is inconceivable that this fact should have been discovered in both continents simultaneously The Bronze Age must have been preceded by a Copper Age of several thousand years during which men worked copper alone without the addition of tin.

  'Where are the traces of this Copper Age? There is no evidence to be found of its existence in any portion of the known world. The explanation therefore is that it developed in Atlantis, and the barbarous peoples of the outer continents passed straight from Stone to Bronze upon the arrival of the cultured survivors from the Atlantean disaster.

  'Just as the Arab countries today are passing straight from the horse to the aeroplane having entirely missed the era of roads and motor cars.' put in Count Axel.

  'Exactly—you make my point Count,' the Doctor agreed with a throaty chuckle. 'Now, to proceed:

  'In Plato's description of Poseidon's temple he tells us that the god was represented as standing in a chsrlot with six winged horses. In every representation of Neptune we see him thus. Why should the god of the sea always be pictured driving a chariot or mounted upon horseback? Because he was not, in fact, a sea king but a landsman, who ruled the great island in the centre of the ocean, the survivors of which filled all other peoples with awe because, when they came up out of the ocean, they had already achieved the domestication of the horse.

  'Further, in connection with this domestication of wild animals. In all our history we have no evidence of fresh species of animals being tamed and made to serve human convenience. Such a development would take many thousands of years experiment and practice. Atlantis, safe in its island security from invasion by barbarians, alone supplies a satisfactory territory in which their tremendous work for humanity could have taken place.

  'This also applies to the conversion of wild plants and grasses into cultivated flowers, orchards, and reapable crops. It is a singular fact, that despite their great range of species, we owe hardly a dozen useful plants to Australia, South Africa, America north of Mexico, New Zealand, or America, south of the River Plate. What is even more strange is, that of more than one third of our cultivated species we have no trace whatever of the wild originals. All our great cereals—wheat, oats, barley, rye and maize—must have been first domesticated in a vast antiquity or in some portion of the globe which has disappeared carrying many of their parent wild plants with it.

  'Where could such a place have been. Have we a pointer to it? Yes, for we find the homes of many others which we can trace to be in the mainland regions bordering on the central Atlantic. Innumerable trees and plants are common to Europe and the Atlantic states of America yet are not to be found west of the Rocky mountains. Upon the Pacific coast there are no hollys, burr-woods, lindens, gums, elms, mulberrys, hickorys or beeches. How, if they could not cross the comparatively narrow mountain barriers could they have passed from one side of the great ocean to the other unless, at one time, there had been fertile land and chains of islands, between.'

  'Seeds are carried by the sea and by birds,' suggested the McKay.

  The Doctor stared at him. 'That is true and it might have happened in a few rare cases, but not more—over such a great distance, and why please did not the sea and the birds carry the same seeds to the fertile sunny shores of South Africa? No. A central Atlantic continent is the only practical solution to the problem. That was the nursery where, through countless generations, from a state of primitive husbandry up to that of trained horticulturists, men must have laboured to produce and perfect practically every cereal, fruit and vegetable which we eat today.'

  'All right, I'll give you that,' grinned the McKay.

  'Good. We go on then,' the Doctor leaned forward again:

  'The description of the wealth and magnificence of Poseidon's temple may at first seem overstrained in Plato's account, but we have its parallel in the great temple of the Sun god of the Incas at Chuzco in Peru. When this was first visited by Pizarro thirty years after Columbus discovered America he states that it was a veritable mine of gold. Images, pillars, cornices, and even the flowers in the sacred garden being fashioned from the precious metal. The gold from that astounding temple was shipped home in the Spanish treasure fleets and, although it has been reminted many times in various currencies, its bulk was so great that it still represents a considerable portion of the gold currency in circulation in the world today.

  'To leave Plato now and note various other correspondences. Our biblical legend states that Noah was the hero of the Flood. The ancient Mexicans had a similar story and a similar hero, they called him Nata, or Noe. In yet another aboriginal American tongue he is known as Hurakan, which has a strange resemblance to our own word hurricane, and they may well have christened him that on account of his coming up out of the great tempestuous waters.

  'The Mandan Indians, although an inland people, preserve amongst them as the central focus of their religion an Ark, which they term the Big Canoe. Each year one of their witch doctors is painted white all over and comes among them as the white man who arrived from the waters bringing them peace, civilisation and prosperity.

  'Our Bible story tells us that Noah caulked the seams of the Ark with asphalt and we find th
e greatest pitch lakes in the West Indies. Further we are told that God gave the rainbow as His sign that He would never again destroy the earth by a deluge. This is also the belief of the Peruvians.

  'The Mexicans, like ourselves, baptised children with a view to cleansing them from original sin. They mummified their dead as did the Egyptians; and many curious unnatural customs with regard to childbirth are common to both hemispheres.

  'Even the place names of Central America and the earliest civilised regions of the Mediterranean bear a resemblance which it is almost impossible to explain except by the

  Atlantean theory. Choi Zuivana, Colua and Cholitna are four ancient Armenian towns. In Centra) America we have Chol-ula, Zuivan, Colua-can and Colima. The gods Pan and Mais of the Greeks are to be found as Pan and Maya in Central American mythology. The god of the Welsh, Hu the Mighty is found in Hu-natu, the hero god of the American Quiche Indians. Bel or Baal, the Phoenician deity whose cult is to be found in all parts of Europe, is represented almost as strongly by Balam among many tribes of American aborigines. And perhaps more important than any of these the great Sun god Ra of Egypt is identical with the Peruvian .Sun god Ra-mi.

  'Examine resemblances between the Chiapenee American Indian and Hebrew. "Son" in one is Been, in the other Ben, "daughter" Batz in the first and Bath in the second, "father" Abagh in one, Abba in the other. "King" is Molo--'

  'Hi stop!' exclaimed Nicky. This is getting too much for me. Let's get on to something else.'

  'I regret Herr Costello if I bore you,' the Doctor said frigidity, but these explanations are necessary to prove my case. I shall not detain you much longer.'

  'I'm sorry,' Nicky apologised, 'forget it please and go right on with what you want to say.'

  'I thank you. The very word Atlantis speaks for itself. Atlas, we are told, was the first King of Atlantis and gave his name to the Atlantic ocean, the Mexican word All means water. There is an Atlas Mountain in Morocco, a town called Atlan on the shores of Central America. The Atlantes were a people well known to the Greeks and Romans who lived on the North West coast of Africa. In Central America we have the Aztecs, whose history states they originally came from a country called Azland. What can be clearer than the association between these two opposite points in the Atlantic ocean.