Introduction

Plato (Greek philosopher 380BC) writing in his works Timaeus and Critias described a atlantisisland large continent with a wonderful civilisation which he said existed at one time at "a distant point in the Atlantic Ocean" opposite the Strait of Gibraltar. He called the continent Atlantis and said it sank into the sea in the space of a single day and night. Thus arose the legend of the lost continent of Atlantis.

The Problem: Modern geology says a continent cannot sink beneath the sea in the space of a single day and no such continent has sunk into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Solution: The continent of Atlantis is still there opposite the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar) only now it has been re-named South America.The part which sank was a small volcanic island which sank into a large inland sea in the centre of the continent.

Background: Plato description exactly fits South America because he describes a level rectangular-shaped plain which he said lay in the centre of the continent, next to the sea and midway along the longest side of the continent.. He also described the capital city of Atlantis which was built on a small volcanic island and also called Atlantis. The city lay on the level rectangular plain, five miles from the sea and according to Plato the whole region was high above the level of the Ocean sea, rising sheer out of the ocean sea to a great height on that side of the continent. Thus we have both a lost city of Atlantis as well as a lost continent of Atlantis.

Left: A model of the whole island with the rectangular level plain arrowed. The translation from Plato by Desmond Lee tells us

"in the centre of the island near the sea was a plain which was enclosed by mountains, and the region as a whole was high above the level of the sea. The plain was uniformly flat, rectangular in shape and lay midway along the longest side of the continent."

It was not the continent of Atlantis which sank into the sea, but the island capital of the same name, built around a volcanic island which sank into the inland sea of Lake Poopo which exists on the edge of the rectangular plain presently called the Bolivian Altiplano. This plain is in the centre of the continent exactly as Plato described it.

Modern satellite mapping shows it to be of rectangular configuration, perfectly level, enclosed on all sides by mountains and these mountains contained the metals gold, silver, copper, tin and the mysterious Orichalcum (an alloy of gold and copper which occurs only in the Andes) which Plato said were used to plate the walls of the circular city. The words "Atl" and "Antis" are themselves of native America origins meaning "water" and "copper" respectively and the plain is subject to earthquakes and floods such as Plato said sank the city in a single day and night of rainfall.

Sinking into the Sea

People sometimes say; "How can Atlantis be in the Andes when it is supposed to have sunk into the sea?" We must remember that Atlantis according to Plato was on a level plain "high above the level of the sea and surrounded by mountains". In fact the entire plain has been periodically submerged beneath the sea ie it became a giant inland sea at various dates going back thousands of years succeeded by dry periods.

It took five expeditions on site following The Atlantis Trail to find a location which matched Plato's mountain which was low on all sides and in the centre of the plain next to the sea. This site is presently called Pampa Aullagas at the southern end of Lake Poopo.

Above left, traditional drawing of the plain and canal system with Atlantis at its centre.
Above right, Drawing of the Altiplano showing the location of Pampa Aullagas where the city should be.

Above left, traditional drawing of the city with rings of land and sea.
Above right, Illustration of Pampa Aullagas showing remains of rings of land and sandy canals when filled with water..

Above: Aerial photograph coloured to show sandy canals when filled with water

Left: Aerial photograph overlaid with Platos original geometry. The inner central island is five stades of 600ft in diameter and the rings of water and land are in the correct proportions using a "stade" of 300ft.

As to the perfectly circular canals we had imagined based on popular drawngs, I looked up Platos words again and he said in the beginning..... "Near the plain at a distance of 50 stades (from the sea) there stood a mountain that was low on all sides. And Poseidon, to make the hill impregnable broke it off all round about; and he made circular of sea and land enclosing one another alternately, some greater, some smaller, two being of land and three of sea, which he carved as it were out of the midst of the island." Critias 108E-121C (the Jowett translation reads "Poseidon ....breaking the ground enclosed the hill all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another") And that was what we found, except that the sea had dropped and the "zones of sea" were now sandy bottomed depressions.

Two views of the former "belts of sea"

Above: Sandy deposits in canal-like depressions show former inner and middle belts of sea on western side.

"There were three rings of water and two of land"

Above: The middle canal on south east side

But most remarkable of all, the site has been sunk by earthquakes and a Bolivian legend called "The Legend of the Desaguadero" tells of a city on the edge of a lake, punished by the gods and submerged by the sea, in exactly the same manner as Plato抯. Furthermore, Poseidon the Greek name for the god of the sea who created the rings of water and land in Atlantis was the equilavent of Tunapa, in Aymara or Pachacamac also known as Viracocha in Quechua, the Bolivian name for the god of the waterways who created the ringed formation at Pampa Aullagas. In the Inca legend, Pachamama, wife of Pachacamac had twin offspring, just like the wife of Poseidon who Plato said had five pairs of twin sons. The Aymara kingdoms which existed on the Altiplano also existed in pairs, so there can be no doubt that the story of Atlantis had it's origins in in a Bolivian legend.

The recent discovery by the Akakor expedition of ancient constructions submerged under Lake Titicaca is a wonderful achievement, but should it come as a surprise? After all the legends speak of ruins under the lake and the history of Man is littered with civilisations which have come and gone, cities which have flourished and disappeared, many due to climate change or natural disasters examples of which might be Pompei buried by the volcano Vesuvius, Akrotiri buried under volcanic ash when the island of Thera erupted, Troy, lost through aeons of time and only remembered as a legend until located by Heinrich Schliemann, Knossos on Crete, Ur, Bablylon, Nineveh and then there are the famous cities of Sodom and Gomorroh mentioned in the Bible but swept away by earthquakes and never located.

Above: Looking into a section of the giant canal one stade wide, which Plato said ran right around the plain. The canal is fed by an underground spring and has a ribbon of water even in height of the dry season.

Author J.M Allen with one of the stone blocks showing fossilised lake sediment at Pampa Allugas.

For further details on Jims research, please visit his website:  http://www.geocities.com/webatlantis/

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Published on: 15 December, 2005 (2420 reads)