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Did the city of Atlantis exist?

  • 4 votes
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  • 7 votes
ipdg77 8 May 20
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24 comments

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12

Yes, but you can only reach it via stargate. ?

LOL

9

Sure Atlanta exists... It is the largest city in the state of Georgia in the USA.

6

It's an entertaining story, to be sure. Unless and until it's "found", I'm going to continue to believe it's just another story.

I agree. No evidence, facts or data, no existence.

@jlynn37 Gee, might as well be god.

4

The Greek city of Helike, submerged by an earthquake and tsunami in Plato's youth was likely the inspiration for the Atlantis story. Since no reference to Atlantis that doesn't trace back to Plato has ever been found, we can safely assume he made it up.

Plato did not made it up. He got it from Solon who visited with the high priests in Egypt around 250BC. Plato was not known for making things up. I believe that he wrote about it to preserve this history for the future. I do not think it was political allegory either. For this Plato did not have to come up with details on how people lived, the geography and other subjects just to show the political allegory.

@KashFigueroa Pretty sure if a pre-Plato reference to Atlantis had been found, it would have been huge news both in history and archeology. Please cite your source.

@Druvius I do not have pre Plato literature that I can cite. I do not have a library. When I read the book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly it sparked my interest in the subject but I do not devote time which I don't have to study this further. I think you proved Plato's thoughts when stating that there was nothing before him that documented Atlantis so Plato decided to do it to preserve the history for the future. That is my opinion and not the complete truth which I do not have.

@Druvius All I had is the book by Ignatius Donelly(Atlantis, The Antediluvian World) which is free on the Internet. It was what brought my interest in Atlantis. No one else would want to touch that, I do not have that book anymore. My ex-wife has it so you know how that goes. Donelly was the only person to bring the subject afloat after many centuries. He studied the flora& fauna, legends, geology, and may other areas of study. You will have to search for the book on your Internet. I Googled it, and presto, found it right away.

Same thing happened with Pompeii and Herculanium and those cities were totally forgotten and their demise happened much later than Atlantis. They were just legends until they were discovered. The legend was gone and it became reality.

3
3

Possibly, but probably as a fairly typical Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern town or city sometime during the Neolithic/Bronze Age/Iron Age eras, rather than the mid-Atlantic super-advanced city-state of myth.

A town or city "vanishing beneath the waves" would, very obviously, be ripe material for story-telling, both by those who told stories to entertain and by those who wished to convince their subjects that Atlantis had been struck by a cataclysm because its population were immoral (ie; did not live in the way the story-teller, or the leader that paid the story-teller, wanted his/her population to live). Like many stories, it grew over time as later story-tellers added their own details.

Jnei Level 8 May 20, 2018
2

I suggest to read "Atlantis, the Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donelly . The book is free on the Internet and was written around 1878. Donelly was a Congressman which was used as an excuse for not taking his book seriously. The book is very interesting and Donelly tries to prove that what Plato (250 BC) wrote about Atlantis. You will see how this man spoke of plate tectonics way before it was accepted by current science. He also explored the flora and fauna between America and Europe as well as comparing the histories of the native American tribes both in North and South America. In fact, this is a very goood book to read.

2

I have met many people who claim to be reincarnations of citizens (usually royal) of Atlantis. They tended to be fond of sheep because sheep were important in Atlantis. The ones I met were creative, imaginative people of a mostly "live and let live" mindset.

Funny, you never meet reincarnation of sheephards?

@GipsyOfNewSpain Exactly!

2

Love the legend.Is it true? They found possible site in islands.

1

The civilization on Thera was destroyed in a volcanic explosion about 3600 years ago. The island is now called Santorini. This would have triggered the fall of societies all around that area, and probably formed the basis of the myths thousands of years later.

1

The aliens built it.

JimG Level 8 May 20, 2018
1

If it was in Crete it probably did...

1

I voted 'possibly', though that needs to be expanded a bit. Many things are possible, but their probability needs to be addressed. Is it possible that a city may have been submerged in the past? Of course it is. Is it possible that such a city might have been named Atlantis? Yes. The likelihood of the first posit is 100% because we have found such places. The second posit is a little less likely, but certainly possible. The stories of Atlantis being a highly advanced civilization are another thing altogether. Technology such as what is described by various stories test the limits of credulity. Some of the stories are just patently false. It helps to understand that Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias were both allegories on the hubris of nations created to support his concept of the ideal state. In Critias we have Atlantis losing its war against Athens, falling out of favor with the gods, and sinking into the sea.

1

I agree that there probably was a city that ended up under water and history became legend and legend became myth, etc. Though I'll admit a fondness for theories about Antediluvian/Hyperborean civilisations.

The Egyptian priests preserved history to 10,000yrs before them. Unfortunately the Romans later burned everything down in Alexandria so we lost tons of historical documents preserved by the Egyptians. It gives me the goose bumps how Plato describes the Atlantic Ocean's geography all the way to undersea mountains. Read the book Atlantis, the Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly (circa 1878).

@KashFigueroa ooo, will do. Thanks! ?

1

An advanced culture in antiquity that was previously unknown - possibly. I hope I live to see the discovery of the culture that is the basis of the myth!

I believe that Plato wanted to preserve this history as it was apprx 10,000 years before his time. He never wrote fantasy or political allegory. No one believed him in the same way that people forgot about Mt Vesuvius blowing up its stack and destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. Those cities were buried under over 100 feet below ground and had become myths until they were discovered and the archeologists were having a feast.

@KashFigueroa I think the city Troy has a similar story

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I saw a documentary recently about this with people who were archaeologists from all over the globe they found something that could have been where it actually was sited and had all the answers about why it couldnt be precisely located.

1

Possibly, but probably not in the way that it's depicted.

0

Possibly....&....and don't care. (Until we find proof...then I will be all over that shit. )

0

Too bad the bloody Romans, had to destroy the Alexandria library, or we might know more about it. I understand they had a good Fiction section, too!

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But, it was probably Crete or something similar. Not at all what myth has made it out to be.

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Just like "Troy" which was fictional until it was discovered, Atlantis did exist in some form and is under water now.

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The field of underwater archeology is still in its infancy. Most of the work centers around shipwrecks, particularly treasure ships which is something I know a little bit about as someone who has done some underwater metal detecting. Certainly there have been changes in sea levels over the course of history and in prehistory, there have also been subsidences in land masses that are quite normal from a geological perspective. So did Atlantis exist? possibly
Was Atlantis the way Homer described it? possibly Time will tell.

I am in agreement with your views. I believe that something big happened 11,500BC. It is too bad that the Romans had to burn Alexandria and all its recorded history. The old Egyptians claimed to have historical records dating 10,000 yrs before them. Remember how Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths. After a long time passed after Mt Vesuvius deadly eruption, Pompeii and Herculaneum were regarded as myths until archaelogists found the two cities.

0

Seems unlikely. Humans seem good at making up and telling stories as if they were true. Seems nothing extraordinary points to the existence of Atlantis.

0

Don't many think it might have been the Greek island of Santorini?

Plato's description of the location of the island and even the geography of the bottom of the Atlantic points Atlantis to have been on the Atlantic ocean. Is it coincidence that we have the Atlas mountains, the Mayas said they came from Aztlan. BTW the prefix atl refers to water in the language of the Mayas & Aztecs.

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