The only real Atlantis’s around today are the 5 star Atlantis hotels, ‘Atlantis Paradise Island’ in The Bahamas and ‘Atlantis The Palm’ in Dubai.
Written by Chris White
‘Atlantis Paradise Island’ which was originally opened in 1998 as ‘The Trump Plaza’ changed its name to ‘Atlantis Paradise Island’ after its primary feature ‘The Royal Towers’ were completed some years later. In 2007 another hotel called ‘Atlantis The Cove’ was opened on the same island.
The aquarium complex of ‘Atlantis Paradise Island’ is meant to create the experience of touring the ruined remains of the legendary lost city, featuring ruined temples, palaces and other stereotypically bronze age urban constructions.
‘Atlantis The Palm’ was constructed on a reclaimed artificial island off the coast of Dubai and opened in 2008. The hotel’s children’s water park attempts to recreate an authentic Atlantis myth setting, with a distinctly Arabic flavour to it.
The Atlantis legend originates from in the two works of Plato, ‘Timeas’ and ‘Critias’.
In the works Plato describes how Egyptian priests relayed to some Greek scholars the story of Atlantis, claiming that Atlantis lay beyond the Straights of Gibraltar on an “island continent”, which was divided up between 10 kings and reached the peak of its political power around about 11,000 BC.
Plato also describes of how the account details Atlantis’ initial settlement by people from the sea, saying that the first person to have settled in Atlantis was the god Poseidon.
Plato’s account of Atlantis claims that an Atlantean Empire had once existed with territories on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and that this Empire had at some point in the past launched at least one Atlantean invasion force to capture territories in both Egypt and the Middle East.
Scholars who believe the Atlantis myth to be credible such as Graham Hancock, insist that evidence of an advanced prehistoric, global civilization leaving its cultural footprint on every continent is simply too great to be ignored.
Over the past two centuries such scholars have suggested various locations for the mythical metropolitan centre of Atlantis, the most popular of them being, The Aegean, The Azores, Antarctica, The Canary Islands and Central or South America.
Some scholars choose The Aegean because this is where a city called ‘Aquitiri’ was destroyed around 3,000 years ago following a supervolcanic eruption.
Those who choose Antarctica do so because they believe that the continent was in fact ice-free in prehistoric human times, citing such articles as the Perry Reece maps which show Antarctica free from ice before it was even meant to have been discovered.
Those who choose Atlantic Ocean islands such as The Azores or Canary Islands do so because they believe that the ancient buildings found there in archaeological excavations correspond too well with similar ancient buildings found in The Americas, such as the step pyramids.
Whereas those who choose Central or South America usually do so because they rule out the possibility of an entire continent having sunken into the Atlantic Ocean within the span of human history, as being without and even contrary to geological evidence and conclude that the most likely geographical location for Atlantis is therefore some place in The Americas.
If Atlantis ever did exist then this last choice is the most likely candidate. – Not only does the geography match the accounts given in Plato’s works, but the linguistic and genetic similarities between native groups in The Americas and Old World cultures are too consist to be a coincident.
For example, the Narhautl (Aztec) word for water is “atl”, whereas the Quchua (Inca) word for copper is “antis”, thereby spelling out the name ‘Atlantis’. There are also genetic and physiological characteristics among native American populations which point towards a non-Asiatic origin and these characteristics become more prominent towards the northeast, where the ice caps would have once acted as a bridge linking Europe with what is now the central seaboard of the United States.
This theory is confirmed by the recent discovery of a wave of Early European colonization, which pre-dates the Asiatic settlement of North America via the Pacific Northwest in approximately 9000 BC.
The new theory is largely based on so called ‘Clovis’ spearhead points and other artefacts dating from the Solutrean Period, demonstrating early human settlement from what is now Southern France and the Iberian Peninsular. – The artefacts prove that early European settlement most likely occurred from 20,000 BC to 11,000 BC, due to the striking similarity between these artefacts and a range of contemporary artefacts found in Southwest Europe.
It is therefore entirely likely that an Ice Age Atlantis did exist at some point in The Americas, most likely in what is now the Caribbean since it matches the descriptions of Atlantis “conquering” other islands in close proximity to it, before expanding outwards and since the Caribbean region, not being covered by an ice cap, is the area which would have received most flooding at the end of the ice age, submerging in excess of 60% of the region’s land mass.
This would also explain why Atlantis has been very difficult to locate, since marine archaeology is far more difficult to undertake than land archaeology.
Plato’s accounts also talk of a “vast mountain range” in the middle of the continent, which would correspond with the Andes Mountains and perhaps even imply that the western half of South America is now underwater!
DailySun Reader Tips: Businesses using old antiquated technology are finding themselves on a losing battle with up and coming solutions. Take a look here at cc merchant and their new cloud based technology and see how they can grow your business.
