People,
Here are some snippets from Timaeus, some comments that He made about Atlantis.
“The most famous of them all was the overthrow of the island of Atlantis. This great island lay over against the Pillars of Heracles, “
We don’t truly know where the pillars were. It is said that they were between Gibraltar and Morroco, but there is no evidence at all. But they were supposed to be at the exit of Atlantis towards the Atlantic Ocean, and the exit from Atlantis can easily be identified at the southern end of the Richart structure in Mauritania. And the wash lines of the Sahara “Ocean” can be seen reaching towards the Atlantic, formed when Atlantis experienced subsidence and the Sahara Ocean/Triton Sea drained out on top of Atlantis, like a bottleneck. I imagine that the Pillars of Hercules got buried beneath the sand as the Pillars washed away.
“in extent greater than Libya and Asia put together, and was the passage to other islands and to a great ocean of which the Mediterranean sea was only the harbour; and within the Pillars the empire of Atlantis reached in Europe to Tyrrhenia and in Libya to Egypt.”
Well, Libya used to refer to all of northern Africa, and I believe Asia was the Middle East, believe it or not. The Mediterranean hadn’t cracked open as wide as it is now, and must have been quite a bit smaller than the Triton Sea, which extended all the way over to the back part of Ethiopia. Tyrrhenia is in the eastern part of modern Turkey. Libya to Egypt means that Atlantis extended from the Canary Islands, all across northern Africa up to the border with Egypt.
“Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end.”
“Your state” means Athens, Greece, and “to which your city put an end” means that the Atlanteans were rampaging through lower Europe and the Athenians stopped them butt cold.
“This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable;”
Ok, right here you can surmise that this name Atlantic Ocean didn’t refer to the Atlantic that we know, because it never really stopped being navigable. The Sahara Ocean must have had the name of Atlas/Atlantean back then because the island city states stretched across the Sahara as far as Ethiopia.
“and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent.”
In this part, Plato is saying that there was an island chain across the “true ocean” to the continent on the other side. This part stumps me.
“Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars.”
I think that we already went over the size and extension of the Atlantean empire, and how the Athenians blunted the Atlanteans when they made it to Greece.
“But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth,”
Greece used to extend out along the floor of the Aegean Sea, but the Atlantean Flood also afflicted the Mediterranean and it cracked apart, and let in the Atlantic Ocean, and the whole area got filled up. There are towns scattered all along the Aegean seafloor. What we know as Greece was just the rocky highlands, not the main part.
“ and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.”
Actually, it was like this between Mauritania and the Canary Islands, and it is still muddy and shallow on the seafloor along the African side of the Canaries.
Timaeus: THE UNDER PEOPLE Eric Norman : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
There are cavern worlds in the Atlas Mountains, David Hatcher Childress mentions them; and in the Haggar Mountains. I’m sure that’s where the Atlanteans went.
Cheers for now!