The "fatal" mistake of Plato (Cretius or Solon) was revealed, which led to confusion with the location of Atlantis.

Atlantis has not disappeared, it exists and lies in the depths of the sea. Much has been said about Atlantis, thousands of research materials have been written. Historians, archaeologists, searchers have proposed fifty versions of a possible location around the world (in Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea, Greenland, North and South America, Africa, the Black, Aegean, Caspian Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and so on), but the exact location was not named. Why is there such confusion?

Starting to understand, you discover one regularity, that all assumptions are initially tied to some kind of similarity, a find of antiquity, a single description, under which (which) materials were subsequently “fitted”. As a result, nothing happened. There is a similarity, but they cannot find Atlantis.

We'll take a different path

Let's look for Atlantis in a different way, which in this case (judging by the well-known proposals) has not been used by anyone before. First, let's take the method of elimination, where Atlantis could not exist. As the circle narrows, we will use all the "reference points" proposed by the ancient Greek scientist, sage (428-347 BC) Plato (Aristocles) in his works - "Timaeus" and "Critias". In these documents, the only and fairly detailed description of Atlantis, its inhabitants and historical events associated with the life of the legendary island is given.

“Aristotle taught me to satisfy my mind only with what reasoning convinces me, and not just the authority of teachers. Such is the power of truth: you try to refute it, but your very attacks elevate it and give it great value, ”said the Italian philosopher, physicist, mathematician Galileo Galilei in the 16th century.

Below is a map of the world as it was represented in Greece at the time of Plato, Herodotus (IV-V century BC).

Mediterranean Sea

So, let's start cutting the ends. Atlantis could not be in any distant corner of the world, and even it was not in the Atlantic Ocean. You will ask why? Because the war (according to the story of the story) between Athens and Atlantis could not be anywhere except in the Mediterranean Sea on this "patch of civilization" due to the limited development of mankind. The world is great - but the developed is small. Nearby neighbors are at war more often and constantly than distant ones. Athens simply could not have reached the limits of Atlantis with its army and navy if it were somewhere far away. Water and vast distances were an insurmountable obstacle.

“This obstacle was insurmountable for people, for ships and shipping did not exist then,” says Plato in his work “Critias”.

In ancient Greek mythology, which arose many thousands of years after the death of Atlantis, the only (!) Hero Hercules (according to Homer in the XII century BC) accomplished a feat according to legend, traveling to the farthest western point of the world - to the edge Mediterranean Sea.

“When the Atlas Mountains appeared on the way of Hercules, he did not climb them, but cut his way through, thus paving the Strait of Gibraltar and connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic. This point served as a border for sailors in the ancient era, therefore, in figuratively"Pillars of Hercules (Hercules)" - this is the end of the world, the end of the world. And the expression to reach the pillars of Hercules ”means“ to reach the limit ”.

See the picture The Strait of Gibraltar today - the place that the historical hero Hercules reached.

In the foreground is the Rock of Gibraltar at the edge of the continent of Europe, while in the background Jebel Musa in Morocco is visible on the African coast.

What the western limit of the earth reached Hercules ("the end of the world") - was unattainable to other mortals. Thus, Atlantis was closer to the center of an ancient civilization - it was in the Mediterranean. But where exactly?

There were seven pairs of Heracles Pillars (according to the story of Plato, behind which the island of Atlantis lay) in the Mediterranean Sea at that time (Gibraltar, Dardanelles, Bosphorus, Kerch Strait, Mouth of the Nile, etc.). The pillars were located at the entrances to the straits, and all had the same name - Hercules (later Latin name - Hercules). The pillars served as landmarks and lighthouses for ancient sailors.

“First of all, let us briefly recall that, according to legend, nine thousand years ago there was a war between those peoples who lived on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules, and all those who lived on this side: we have to tell about this war ... we have already mentioned, it was once an island that exceeded the size of Libya and Asia (not their entire geographical territory, but rather areas inhabited in antiquity), but now it collapsed due to earthquakes and turned into impassable silt, blocking the way for sailors who would try to sail from us into the open sea, and making sailing unthinkable. " (Plato, "Critias").

This information about Atlantis, which dates back to the 6th century BC. came from the Egyptian priest Timaeus from the city of Sais, located on the coast of Africa, in the western delta of the Nile. The current name of this village is Sa el-Hagar (see below the picture of the Nile River delta).

When Timaeus said that the barrier from the remnants of the sunken Atlantis was blocking the way "from us to the open sea," then speaking about us (about himself and about Egypt), this clearly testified to the finding of Atlantis. That is, it lies in the direction of following from the Egyptian mouth of the Nile to the wide waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Pillars of Hercules in ancient times was also called the entrance to the main navigable (western) mouth of the Nile, called the mouth of Irakles, that is, Hercules, where the city of Irakleum was located and there was a temple in honor of Hercules. Over time, silt and floating material from the sunken Atlantis was carried across the sea, and the island itself went deeper into the abyss.

"Since many great floods happened in nine thousand years (and that is how many years have passed since those times before Plato), the earth did not accumulate in the form of any significant shallows, as in other places, but was washed away by waves and then disappeared into the abyss." (Plato, "Critias").

The island of Crete

Further, we exclude other, impossible locations. Atlantis could not be in the Mediterranean north of the island Crete. Today, in that area there are countless small islands scattered over the water area, which does not correspond to the story of flooding (!), And by this very fact excludes the entire territory. But even this is not the main thing. The area for the placement of Atlantis (according to the description of its size) in the sea north of Crete would not be enough.

The expedition of the famous explorer of the sea depths of the French scientist-oceanographer to the area north of Crete on the periphery of the islands of Thira (Strongle), Fera discovered the remains of an ancient sunken city, but from the above it follows that it rather belongs to a different civilization than Atlantis.

In the archipelago of islands Aegean earthquakes are known, catastrophes associated with volcanic activity, which led to a local subsidence of the earth, and according to new evidence they occur in our time. For example, the recently sunken medieval fortress in the Aegean Sea near the city of Marmaris in a bay on the Turkish coast.

Between Cyprus, Crete and Africa

Narrowing the circle of search, we come to the conclusion that there is only one thing left - Atlantis could only be in one place opposite the Mouth of the Nile - between the islands of Crete, Cyprus and the northern coast of Africa. She is there today at a depth and lies, falling into a deep basin of the sea.

The failure of an almost oval water area with influxes from the coast, horizontal rugosity (from sliding) of sedimentary rocks to the center of the "funnel" is clearly visible from the Internet survey of the seabed from space. The bottom in this place resembles a pit sprinkled on top with soft sedimentary rock; there is no hard "crust of the continental mantle" under it. Only visible on the body of the Earth is a depression not overgrown with solidity inward.

The Egyptian priest Timaeus, in his story about the location of the silt from the flooded Atlantis, gives a link to the Pillars of Hercules (it was logical for him to say - the closest to him), located at the mouth of the western Nile.

In another case (later already being in Greece), when Plato's description of the power of Atlantis, we are already talking about other pillars, as mentioned above, in the Mediterranean there were then seven of them. When Plato expounded the text of the work (according to the retelling of Solon and Cretius), the Egyptian priest Timaeus (the primary source of the narrative) by that time was not already 200 years old, and there was no one to clarify the information about which pillars the conversation was going on. Therefore, there was a subsequent confusion with the location of Atlantis.

“Indeed, according to the evidence of our records, your state (Athens) put an end to the insolence of the innumerable military forces that set off to conquer all of Europe and Asia, and kept their way from the Atlantic Sea. [...] On this island, called Atlantis, a kingdom, amazing in size and power, arose, whose power extended to the entire island, to many other islands and part of the mainland, and in addition, on this side of the strait, they took possession of Libya (North Africa ) up to Egypt and Europe up to Tyrrhenia ( West Coast Italy). (Plato, Timaeus).

The sea that washed the island of Atlantis (between Crete, Cyprus and Egypt) was called the Atlantic in antiquity, it was located in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the modern seas: Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian.

Subsequently, due to an error in linking Atlantis not to the Nile, but to the Gibraltar pillars, the name "Atlantic" sea automatically spread to the ocean beyond the strait. The once inner Atlantic Sea, due to the inaccuracy of the interpretation of Timaeus's story and description (Plato, Critius or Solon), became the Atlantic Ocean. As the Russian proverb says: “Lost in three pines” (more precisely, in seven pairs of pillars). When Atlantis went into the abyss of the sea, the Atlantic Sea disappeared with it.

Timaeus, narrating the history of Atlantis, noted that the victory of Athens brought freedom from slavery to all other peoples (including the Egyptians) who had not yet been enslaved by the Atlanteans - “on this side of the Pillars of Hercules”, speaking about himself - about Egypt.

“It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its valor and strength: surpassing everyone in its firmness of spirit and experience in military affairs, it first stood at the head of the Hellenes, but due to the betrayal of its allies it turned out to be left to itself, met alone with extreme dangers and yet overcame the conquerors and erected victorious trophies. It saved those who had not yet been enslaved from the threat of slavery; all the rest, no matter how much we lived on this side of the Pillars of Hercules, it generously made free. But later, when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods, in one terrible day all your military power was absorbed by the opened earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, sinking into the abyss. After that, the sea in those places has become to this day unnavigable and inaccessible due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind. " (Plato, Timaeus).

Description of the island

It is even more possible to clarify the place of Atlantis from the description of the island itself.

"Poseidon, having received the island of Atlantis ..., approximately in the following place: from the sea to the middle of the island, a plain stretched, according to legend, more beautiful than all other plains and very fertile." (Plato, Timaeus).

“This whole region lay very high and fell abruptly to the sea, but the whole plain that surrounded the city (capital) and itself surrounded by mountains that stretched to the sea itself was a flat surface, three thousand stades long (580 km.), And in the direction from the sea to the middle - two thousand (390 km.). This whole part of the island was facing the south wind, and from the north it was covered by mountains. These mountains are praised by the legend for the fact that they surpassed all the present ones in terms of multitude, size and beauty. The plain ... was an oblong quadrangle, mostly rectilinear. " (Plato, "Critias").

So, following the description - approximately to the middle of the island of Atlantis, a rectangular plain with dimensions of 580 by 390 kilometers extended, open to the south and closed from the north by large and high mountains... Fitting these dimensions into a geographical map north of the mouth of the Nile, we find that the southern part of Atlantis could well adjoin Africa (near the Libyan cities of Tobruk, Derna and Egyptian cities on the coast west of Alexandria), and its northern mountainous part could be (but not a fact) - the island of Crete (in the west), and Cyprus (in the east).

In favor of the fact that Atlantis in earlier times (than its mention in the ancient Egyptian papyri), namely tens of thousands of years ago, was united with Africa - says the story of the island's fauna.

“Even elephants were in great numbers on the island, for there was enough food not only for all other living creatures inhabiting swamps, lakes and rivers, mountains or plains, but also for this beast, of all animals, the largest and most voracious.” (Plato, "Critias").

It should be taken into account that with the end of the ice age with the beginning of the melting of the northern glaciers, the level of the world ocean rose by 100-150 meters and probably part of the land that once connected Atlantis and the mainland was gradually flooded. Elephants and the inhabitants of the Atlantean island (named after their king Atlanta), who came here earlier from the depths of Africa, remained on big island surrounded by the sea.

Atlanteans were ordinary people of a modern kind, and not four-meter giants, otherwise the Hellenes from Athens would not have been able to defeat them. The insular, isolated position of the inhabitants prompted civilization to a separate, active, ahead of the external warring barbarians, development (fortunately, everything needed was on the island).

On Atlantis (in its capital, similar to the hill of an extinct volcano), hot springs of mineral water flowed from the ground. This indicates a high seismic activity of the territory located on the "thin" mantle of the earth's crust ... "A spring of cold and a spring of hot water, which gave water in abundance, and, moreover, amazing both in taste and in healing power." (Plato, "Critias").

Diving

I will not now assume what caused the Earth's internal "hiccups", as a result of which Atlantis sank into the Mediterranean basin in a day, and then even deeper. But it should be noted that exactly in that place along the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea is the border of the fault between the African and European continental tectonic plates.

The sea depth there is very deep - about 3000-4000 meters. It is possible that the powerful impact of a giant meteorite in North America in Mexico, which, according to the US National Academy of Sciences, occurred 13 thousand years ago (about the same time) and caused an inertial wave and plate movement in the Mediterranean.

Just as continental plates, crawling on top of each other, breaking edges, heave mountains - the same process, but in the opposite direction, when diverging, forms subsidence and deep depressions. The African plate slightly moved away from the European one, and this was quite enough to lower Atlantis into the abyss of the sea.

The fact that Africa in the history of the Earth had already moved away from Europe and Asia is clearly evidenced by the huge intercontinental rift running through the Mediterranean Sea. The rift is clearly visible at geographic map along the lines (seas) of split in the earth's crust, which go in the directions - the Dead Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea, the Gulfs of Aden, Persian and Oman.

See the picture below, as the continent of Africa moves away from Asia, forming the above seas and bays in the places of rupture.

Crete - Atlantis

It is possible that the current island of Crete was earlier that very northern, high mountainous part of Atlantis, which did not fall into the abyss of the sea, but, having broken away, remained on the "European continental cornice." On the other hand, if you look at Crete on a geographical map, then it is not on the very edge of the mantle of the European continent, but about 100 kilometers from the basin of the Mediterranean (Atlantic) Sea. This means that there was no catastrophic rift of Atlantis along the current coastline of Crete.

But here it is necessary to take into account the fact that since those times the sea level from the melting of glaciers has risen by 100-150 meters (or more). It is possible that Crete and Cyprus, as independent units, were part of the archipelago of island Atlantis.

Historians and archaeologists write: “Excavations in Crete show that even four to five millennia after the alleged death of Atlantis, the inhabitants of this Mediterranean island sought to settle further from the coast. (Memory of ancestors?). An unknown fear drove them to the mountains. The first centers of agriculture and culture are also located at some distance from the sea "...

The former proximity of the location of Atlantis to Africa and to the mouth of the Nile is indirectly evidenced by the vast Qattara depression in North Africa in the Libyan desert, 50 km from the Mediterranean coast, west of the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The Qattara Depression, minus 133 meters below sea level.

See the picture above - the huge Qattara depression near the Mediterranean coast in Egypt.

There is also another lowland on the tectonic fault line - this is the Dead Sea (minus 395 meters) in Israel. They testify to the once accomplished territorial catastrophe common to all, associated with the subsidence of large areas of land from the divergence in different directions of the European and African continental plates.

What gives the establishment of the exact location of Atlantis

The depression of the Mediterranean on the site of the former Atlantis is too deep. At first, the raised, and then settled to the bottom of the silt and subsequent sedimentary deposits somewhat covered Atlantis. The golden capital with its innumerable treasures in the temple of Poseidon was at great depths.

The search for the capital of Atlantis in the southern part of the Mediterranean Sea in the "triangle" between the islands of Crete, Cyprus, the mouth of the Nile will bring a useful result to the "piggy bank" of the world history of mankind, but this requires research by deep-sea vehicles.

For the attentive reader, there are landmarks to search for the capital ... In Russia there are two underwater stations "Mir", which would be able to survey and study the bottom.

For example, Italian oceanographers in the summer of 2015 on the shelf of Pantelleria Island, located approximately in the middle between Sicily and Africa, at a depth of 40 meters at the bottom of the sea, found a giant man-made column of 12 meters long, weighing 15 tons, broken in half. Traces of drilling holes are visible on the column. Its age is estimated at about 10 thousand years (comparable to the Atlantean era). Divers also found the remains of a breakwater - a ridge of stones half a meter in size, laid out in a straight line, protecting the entrance to the ancient ship harbor.
These findings suggest that the search for the capital of Atlantis is not hopeless.

It is also inspiring that the confusion with the Pillars of Hercules has been successfully resolved, and the whereabouts of Atlantis have finally been established.

Already today, for the sake of historical truth, the Mediterranean basin, at the bottom of which lies legendary island in memory of Atlantis and its inhabitants, one can and must return its ancient name - the Atlantic Sea. This will be the first important world event in the search and discovery of Atlantis.

Briefly about the article: A country that thousands of years ago could have conquered all of Europe. Huge marble palaces, multi-decked ships, tall strong people, unprecedented weapons, mysterious magic of priests, nobility and ambition - all this could become a reality of our history, if not for ...

Lost civilization

Atlantis - Reality or Dream?

All that is hidden now, time will reveal.

Quintus Horace Flaccus, Epistles, 6:20

A country that thousands of years ago could have conquered all of Europe. Huge marble palaces, multi-decked ships, tall strong people, unprecedented weapons, mysterious magic of priests, nobility and ambition - all this could become a reality of our history with you, if not ...

Thousands of books and articles have been written about the ancient land of Atlantis, buried in the deep ocean. What was Atlantis? An ancient and powerful human civilization? Or maybe a refuge for aliens from distant worlds? Why did Atlantis die? Was she the victim of a natural disaster or a destructive war with the use of mysterious weapons?

Other ancient authors also wrote about Atlantis and its inhabitants. True, almost all of them lived after Plato, and therefore, most likely, relied on the data provided by him.

An exception is the “father of history” Herodotus (485-425 BC), who mentioned the Atlanteans who lived in North Africa. However, this tribe got its name from the Atlas mountain range.

The surge of interest in the problem of Atlantis occurs at the end of the 19th century. In 1882, the American Ignatius Donnelly published the book Atlantis - antediluvian world”, Where he claimed that this legendary land- the ancestral home of all mankind. To prove the theory, he used the data of archeology, biology and mythology, compared the legends, languages ​​and customs of peoples on both sides Atlantic Ocean... Donnelly's work initiated the modern view of the Atlantis problem and became a source of inspiration for other authors. The result is more than 5000 titles of scientific, popular science and fiction books.

Broken phone

As you can see, atlantology is based on a shaky foundation. You are especially convinced of this when you analyze Plato's texts soberly. The philosopher learned about Atlantis by hearsay, and the whole story resembles a child's game of "spoiled phone".

So what does Plato say? His great-grandfather Kritias, being a 10-year-old boy, heard about Atlantis from his then already 90-year-old grandfather, also Kritias. And he, in turn, learned the tragic story of the Atlanteans from a distant relative, the great Athenian sage Solon (640 - 558 BC). Solon, on the other hand, received a "baton" from the Egyptian priests from the temple of the goddess Neith in the city of Sais (it has not survived to this day), who from time immemorial allegedly kept historical records in the form of hieroglyphs on temple columns. It turns out to be a rather long chain of intermediaries ...

Assuming that Plato did not invent anything, there is still plenty of room for error. Critias Jr. claimed that the history of Atlantis shocked him, so he remembered it in detail. However, there are direct contradictions in the dialogue. For example, in one place Critias says that: "... the story is indelibly imprinted in my memory," and in another - that: "... after such a long time, I did not remember the content of the story enough." Further, it turns out that he had some kind of notes. Memorable notes from grandfather or Solon? Yes, and grandfather Critius in his 90s could easily confuse a lot of everything, not to mention the fact that many of the details of the legend about the sunken earth, possibly the fruit of old age bragging. “And I’ll tell you, granddaughter, a great-a-dviv fairy tale!”.

So perhaps Aristotle was fully or partially right. Plato could indeed have invented the history of Atlantis to illustrate his views (remember Thomas More's Utopia). Or, for all his honesty, the philosopher compiled dialogues from some other sources about Atlantis that have not come down to us, historical and geographical works of various authors, legends, myths and his own speculations. Well, Plato simply could have come up with a chain of storytellers for greater reliability.

True, the ending of "Kritia" is most likely lost. Perhaps the "lost files" contained all the answers?

"Pros and cons"

Plato describes the land of the ancestors of the Hellenes as follows: "It stretches from the mainland far into the sea ... and is immersed on all sides in a deep vessel of the abyss." But the ancient Greeks did not know about the presence of depths of more than several tens of meters! Atlantologists believe that Plato's words about the “deep vessel of the abyss” are evidence of the knowledge that has survived since the time of the Atlanteans. However, Plato could use this phrase as a poetic comparison. Or, based on the presence of steep shores of Attica, independently conclude that if the rocks abruptly break off into the sea, it must be very deep there.

On the other hand, the war of the ancient Hellenes with Atlantis is very similar to the war between the Greeks and the Persians. The thought involuntarily creeps in that the philosopher projected the events of real history onto the distant past. The description of Atlantis in relief and natural data resembles the island of Crete. The Temple of Poseidon, the main religious building of the Atlanteans, is very similar to the sanctuary of Aphrodite in Cyprus. The sculpture of the god of the seas on a chariot drawn by six winged horses resembles a very real statue of Poseidon by Scopas (4th century BC). Coincidence or fraud?

Where is this street, where is this house?

Atlantologists also argue about the whereabouts of the legendary land, although it would seem very clear from Plato's dialogues that the island was located in the Atlantic.

Plato says that to the west of the Pillars of Hercules (the ancient name of the Strait of Gibraltar) there was a huge island, larger than Libya and Asia combined, from which it was easy to cross other islands to the “opposite continent” (America?).

Therefore, many of the atlantologists believe that traces of Atlantis should be sought somewhere at the bottom of the ocean of the same name. Possibly next to existing islands that could have been high mountain peaks sunken land.

At the same time, atlantologists stubbornly ignore the simplest fact - if an asteroid capable of flooding a hefty island crashed to Earth, it would cause such an increase in atmospheric temperature that almost all life on the planet would be destroyed.

Myths of the peoples of the world

The "father" of Atlantology Donnelly and his followers consider mythology to be the key proof of the existence of Atlantis, or rather, several legends that coincide among many peoples.

Firstly, these are the flood legends that are found in almost all of humanity. The gods, tired of human mischief, flood the entire earth with water, adding a number of weighty means of re-educating sinners - in the form of a rain of fire, for example.

Secondly, legends about aliens from distant lands (not to be confused with aliens!). An unknown person arrives from somewhere far away, speaking in an incomprehensible language and teaching the natives various useful things.

Thirdly, legends about cosmic cataclysms. Something hefty is falling from the sky - a stone, the moon, the sun, the dragon. It does not bring anything good to people. The people left out of business scatter, who where ...

Atlantis in the Mediterranean?

In addition to the Atlantic Ocean, the sunken island is also placed in other parts of the world. The Mediterranean Sea enjoys special love.

On closer inspection, this theory does not seem to be nonsense. Plato wrote that after Atlantis sank, "the sea in those places became ... unnavigable and inaccessible due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind." It is unlikely that shallow muddy waters in the Atlantic Ocean, with its significant depths, would serve as a serious obstacle to navigation. But in the Mediterranean there are plenty of such places. And the nature of Atlantis may well be correlated with almost any Mediterranean island.

The god of the seas Poseidon fell in love with a simple girl Kleito, who bore him 5 pairs of twins, who laid the foundation for the Atlantean people.

The Atlantean state was similar to the Earthsea of ​​Ursula Le Guin - an archipelago of several islands, the length of the main of which was 1110 km, width - 400 km. The climate is presumably tropical, as elephants were found on the island. On the southern side of Atlantis was its capital - the city of Poseidonis with a diameter of about 7 km. In the center of the city there was a lake, in the middle of which lay an islet with a diameter of 965 meters, pierced by canals, with the palace complex Acropolis, surrounded by two earthen ramparts. The outer shaft was covered with copper, the inner one - with tin, the walls of the acropolis were faced with orichalcum (a metal unknown to us). The Acropolis included the joint temple of Kleito and Poseidon, surrounded by a golden wall, and the temple of Poseidon himself with a huge statue of the sea god inside. Outside, around the temple, there were images of wives and relatives of the kings of Atlantis, offerings from their vassals.

The population of Atlantis was about 6 million. State system - monarchy: 10 kings-archons, the highest of which bore the title "Atlas" and lived in Poseidonis. Every 5-6 years, councils-meetings were held - "courts" of kings, before which were organized "sacrifices of the bull" (a similar custom existed in Crete).

The Atlantean army numbered 660 thousand people and 10 thousand war chariots. Fleet - 1200 combat triremes with a crew of 240 thousand people.

Atlanteans - the ancestors of the Russians?

Some scientists go their own way, placing the legendary land in the most exotic places. In 1638, the English scientist and politician Francis Bacon in his book "Nova Atlantis" placed Atlantis in Brazil, where, as you know, there are many wild monkeys. In 1675 the Swede Rudbeck argued that Atlantis was in Sweden and Uppsala was its capital.

Recently, for the lack of virgin settlements, they turned to our endless expanses - the Azov, Black and Caspian Seas, too, were honored to embrace the completely lost Atlantis. There is also a charming theory that the Atlanteans are the ancestors of the ancient Russians, and the legendary land of Plato ... the sunken city of Kitezh! True, after the stories that Adam and Eve were from somewhere in the Moscow region, the Russian-Atlantic version does not look sensational enough anymore.

R. Silverberg in "Letters from Atlantis" shows the events of a thousand years ago through the eyes of a modern man, whose mind moved into the body of an Atlantean prince (an obvious remake of Hamilton's "Star Kings"!).

A time traveler can also become a witness to the events of the past ("Dancer from Atlantis" by P. Anderson, "Atlantis Endgame" by A. Norton and S. Smith).

Sometimes the Atlanteans became aliens from space (A. Shalimov, “The Return of the Last Atlantean”), or were the first earthlings who came into contact with alien intelligence (V. Kernbach, “A Boat Over Atlantis”; G. Martynov, “The Spiral of Time”) ... Perhaps it was the dastardly aliens who destroyed Atlantis? Here is the hero of the cycle "Atlantis" by G. Donnegan, the tough special forces soldier Eric, together with his comrades from the squad of "navy seals", is trying to stop the insidious aliens-shads, who once treacherously drowned the unfortunate Atlanteans.

Many books tell about the adventures of outcasts who survived the disaster. Some have preserved the remnants of civilization under water (“Atlantis under water” by R. Kadu, “Maracot's abyss” by A. Conan Doyle, “End of Atlantis” by K. Bulychev). Others have slipped away. To America (“The Temple. Manuscript Found on the Yucatan Coast” by H. F. Lovecraft), to Africa (“Tarzan and the Treasures of Opar” by E. R. Burrows); to Spain (“This distant Tartess” by E. Voiskunsky and I. Lukodyanov); even to Britain ("The Stones of Power" by D. Gemmel). For some Atlanteans, the shock of the death of their homeland turned out to be so strong that other planets seemed to be their best refuge (A. Tolstoy, “Aelita”; A. Shcherbakov, “Cup of Storms”).

In the recent novel by V. Panov, "The Department of Wanderers", the catalyst of powerful forces is ancient artifact Atlanteans Throne of Poseidon. Even Batman ("The Black Egg of Atlantis" by N. Barrett) joins the battle for the legacy of the Atlantis, when the Penguin Man tries to take possession of an ancient object that gives dark power.

Why did Atlantis die?

There is also no agreement when clarifying the reasons for the death of the island.

In addition to the basic, albeit completely unrealistic, version of the fall of a giant meteorite, the hypothesis of a powerful earthquake is very popular. In history, there are cases of a sharp subsidence of the earth by several meters as a result of such a natural disaster. For example, the death of the pirate capital of Port Royal in Jamaica in 1692, when the city plunged 15 meters into the sea. Strong earthquakes, especially with the epicenter on seabed, can cause a tsunami. A typical example of such a disaster is the tsunami resulting from the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia in 1883, when the wave height was about 40 meters. Such waves are quite capable of burrowing under themselves the coastal zone of the mainland or even an entire island.

In addition to more or less scientific explanations, there are also occult-fantastic theories about Atlantis, sometimes very specific. For example, members of the Rising Atlanteans sect, founded in the 70s of the last century, believe that the Atlanteans are the descendants of aliens who then laid the foundation for Egyptian civilization.

The bestsellers of the ophthalmologist Ernst Muldashev, terribly popular among some Russians, also contain amazing discoveries. It turns out that the Atlanteans possessed extrasensory perception, and 75,000 years ago, with the help of psychokinetic energy, they erected Egyptian pyramids... A number of great personalities - Krishna, Buddha, Christ - were also Atlanteans. And somewhere in the depths of Tibet in caves, the surviving Atlanteans still sleep in a special form of suspended animation - samadhi.

Is Atlantis a myth?

For all the many controversies, the only thing that cements the discordant ranks of Atlantologists is the idea that Atlantis did exist. However, there are also many who declare: Atlantis is a myth!

Their main arguments are as follows. First, apart from Plato's dialogues, there are no other reliable references to Atlantis. Secondly, the island had to be too large, and it is not easy to stick it somewhere in terms of geography. Thirdly, modern geological and oceanographic studies do not confirm the sinking of a large part of the land to the ocean floor. Fourth, there was no developed human civilization 10 thousand years ago. But for any of these arguments, if desired (and many have it!), No less logical counter-arguments can easily be found.

The most impartial scientists nevertheless admit that Plato's dialogues contain a rational grain and they describe real natural disasters that befell the Mediterranean - for example Crete.

The only thing that can draw a line under long-term discussions, undoubtedly proving the truth of the legend, is the discovery of the remains of Atlantis on the sea or ocean floor. But is it possible?

Remnants of former luxury

Scientists from many countries are constantly exploring the seas and oceans, making from time to time the most valuable archaeological discoveries. True, so far nothing has been found that would prove the existence of a sunken mainland or a huge island. Considering the constant improvement of the technical equipment of such expeditions, epoch-making discoveries may not be far off. Another question - what can scientists find at the bottom?

The main building materials of antiquity were marble, granite, basalt and sandstones. For thousands of years in sea water, most buildings will completely dissolve, except for some of the marble structures. In addition, sunken buildings can be destructively affected by some types of molluscs and the presence of strong undercurrents.

In salty seawater, metals undergo accelerated corrosion. Iron oxidizes after 200 years at sea, copper and copper alloys disappear in 400 years. True, if copper items are large (bells, cannons, anchors), a layer of carbonates forms on their surface that can protect the item. But high-grade gold can stay in water for a very long time.

Wooden objects perish in a couple of centuries, and high-quality ceramics have been lying at the bottom for thousands of years. At the same time, many objects, if they quickly become overgrown with corals, can also be stored for a long time - however, it is difficult to detect them in this case. In general, some of the heritage of the Atlanteans is theoretically capable of surviving to this day.

Perhaps a miracle will happen, and humanity will take a fresh look at its history? Schliemann was also once laughed at, and he, in spite of everything, discovered the legendary Troy ...

Do not assume that only seas and lakes disappear and appear. Likewise, islands arise and disappear. The best example of this is history of Atlantis, an island that was larger than Libya and Asia combined.

History of the island of Atlantis

Atlantis island

Of course, at the time of Plato, (more:) they represented the size of both Libya and Asia in a different way, but all the same Atlantis island was not small.

The Atlantis hypothesis begins with Plato's Timaeus and Critias dialogues. In them, the great ancient Greek scientist talks about the once existing large island in the Atlantic Ocean, which was swallowed up by the abyss of waters.

But what does Plato expound? An ancient legend or your own fiction about a mythical island? Or maybe he reports real facts of the existence of an ancient civilization, information about which came to him by chance? So what is this Plato's story - legend, hypothesis, reality? Since the first half of the 4th century BC, attempts have been made to answer this question. But there is still no definitive answer.

Legends about Atlantis

Legends about Atlantis more than once inspired writers and poets.

• Think of Julesvern's Captain Nemo, who, with his arms crossed over his chest, looks at a beautiful city illuminated by an underwater volcanic eruption. Before him is the dead Atlantis ...
• From the golden top of the giant pyramid, space-like eggs fly up aircrafts to carry the last Atlanteans from the raging elements to the distant Mars. And the waves of the ocean are already licking its foot, and the tremors of a raging earthquake are engulfing the legendary “City of the Hundred Golden Gates”. You probably remember this picture as well, it was painted in "Aelita" by Alexey Tolstoy.
• And here's another: Aksa Guam, a priest who rebelled against the omnipotent priests on the pages of Alexander Belyaev's story "The Last Man from Atlantis", steps on the rocky coast of Europe.

And this list could be continued almost endlessly, a list of wonderful fictions generated by an ancient legend.

Atlantis in scientific literature

There is about Atlantis literature and other kinds. The content is no less fantastic, but claiming the right to be called scientific literature.

One of these books was quite self-confidently titled The History of Atlantis.

Another author was Schliemann, the grandson of a man who discovered the stones of the legendary Troy from under the layers of many centuries. Shamelessly speculating on the name of his famous grandfather, he titled the book with a rather pretentious title: "How I Found the Lost Atlantis." Both of these books are from the stream of the so-called "occult literature", which shrouded the problem of Atlantis in such a thick mystical fog that for some scientists it even today obscures the scientific significance of this problem.
At the same time actual science is interested in the problem of Atlantis, since there are countless questions connected with it, waiting to be solved:

• Here, it would seem, is a science very far from the problem of Atlantis - botany. Where is the birthplace of the banana - a plant cultivated so long ago that it can now reproduce only by cuttings? How did bananas end up among cultivated plants in America and Africa?
• Where is the birthplace of maize - a plant that is now included in the famous "three" of the main loaves of mankind, along with wheat and rice? Modern corn is completely incapable of self-sowing propagation, and no plants have been found that could be considered its ancestors. Meanwhile, corn has long been known not only in America, but also in Africa. So where did this plant come from in the cultivated grains of the two continents?
• Here is comparative linguistics. How did the roots of Greek words get into the composition of the Maya language - one of the Indian peoples who inhabited Central America?
• How did the word "atlas" get from America to Europe? From North Africa, this word passed into the name of the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, it has nothing in common with European languages, but in the Pagua language, which has long lived in Mexico, words with the same root mean "water", "sea", "death".
• Why in the myths of the American continent have been preserved stories about the death of the land located overseas in the east, and in the legends of European peoples about the drowned land overseas in the west?
• The history of culture. Why are ancient sculptures of lions and other animals that do not live in America found in Peru, and in Europe no less ancient images of saber-toothed tigers that died out here about 300 thousand years ago?
• Why was the custom of making mummies widespread not only in Egypt, but also among the Mayans in Central America?
• Ethnography. Why do Cro-Magnons, the ancient ancestors of Europeans, and some Indian tribes have close anthropological similarities?
• Zoology. Why do eels from the rivers of Western Europe go to spawn in the Sargasso Sea, whose algae are related to the Mediterranean?
• Wild horses were known in Europe in the Paleolithic era, they were used as a hunting object by cavemen. Then their traces disappear, and in the Bronze Age a domestic horse appears. Who brought about this domestication?

It seems that these and many other questions do not give the right to unconditionally deny the existence of Atlantis, although they do not give the right to assert that Atlantis existed. Therefore, again and again, researchers turn to the primary source of information about the sunken continent, to two dialogues of Plato.

History of Atlantis in Bryusov's poem

One of the first in modern times to make an attempt to study the history of Atlantis was a remarkable Russian poet.

He was an amazing person, poet, writer, mathematician, a great connoisseur of ancient history, an expert in research in various fields of natural sciences. The problem of Atlantis interested him literally from childhood. In his youth, he worked on the poem "Atlantis".

In the years of his creative maturity, he wrote a cycle of poems devoted to the same problem. He published a great scientific work "Teachers of Teachers". The poet-scientist called teachers teachers the ancient inhabitants of Atlantis, in which

all knowledge has arisen

and in which

everything that was possible was comprehended by the first children of the Earth.

(lines from the "Atlantic" cycle of Bryusov's poems are taken in quotation marks). He made an attempt to trace their influence on the most ancient peoples of the world, and first of all on the Cretan-Mycenaean culture.

Having analyzed the stages of development of ancient cultures, including Egyptian and Aegean, Bryusov comes to the conclusion that their initial stages are strange and incomprehensible.

Egyptian culture begins mysteriously: the oldest pyramids are also the tallest. The origins of their arts are unclear, they suddenly appear before the amazed world, like Pallas Athena, who appeared in dress and weapons from the head of Zeus.

Bryusov sees something similar in the culture of the Cretan-Mycenaean. The legendary labyrinth appears as if suddenly. Before him, only the remains of people who had not yet emerged from the Stone Age could be found on the island. Shouldn't this leap be explained by someone's influence that spread to the culture of peoples living on different continents? Does all this not testify to the existence in ancient times of a people who became a universal mentor,

teacher of teachers?

It was after these considerations that the poet-scientist moved on to that culture that could claim the honor of being called

teachers teachers.

Tradition gave him the right name - Atlantis. And in search of an answer, Bryusov turns to Plato's Dialogues.

Based on the data about Atlantis contemporary to him, analyzing the messages of Plato, Bryusov comes to the conclusion (lines from the work "Teachers of Teachers"):

If we assume that Plato's description is fiction, it will be necessary to recognize for Plato a superhuman genius who was able to predict the development of science for millennia ahead, to envisage that someday scientists historians will discover the world of Aegea and establish its relations with Egypt, that Columbus will discover America, and archaeologists will restore the civilization of the ancient Mayans, etc.

Needless to say, with all our respect for the genius of the great Greek philosopher, such insight seems impossible to us and that we consider another explanation to be simpler and more plausible: Plato had materials (Egyptian) at his disposal that came from ancient times.

The method adopted by Valery Bryusov is simple and logical: he read Plato's dialogues and compared them with the objective level of knowledge of the ancient philosopher as a person of his time. Based on this, the poet comes to the conclusion that most of the information contained in the Dialogues, Plato could only get from people who knew about the existence of Atlantis. Well, for example,

Plato, like all Greeks, did not know anything about the Aegean kingdoms, which, on the basis of Greece, preceded the Hellenic ones. Therefore, Plato could not have any reason to invent a strong state in Attica many centuries before the beginning of Greek history.

Plato writes that Atlantis was located on the islands beyond the Pillars of Hercules (ie, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar) and from it it was possible, sailing further west, to get to another "opposite" continent. But the ancient Greeks knew nothing about America! Doesn't this indicate that these data also reached Plato from some competent source?

Having thus established that on the very first pages of his dialogues, Plato makes two brilliant discoveries in different fields of science - in history and geography, Bryusov is convinced that even in seemingly insignificant details, Plato is surprisingly close to the truth. This applies, say, to the unknown metal orichalcum. After there was no place for him in the periodic table, his very existence became doubtful.

Bryusov believed, however, that this unknown metal could be aluminum. True, to obtain it, an electric current is used, which the Atlanteans did not know about. Or maybe they knew another method for producing aluminum?

To this we can add historical fact, reported by the ancient historian Pliny: in the early years of our era, an unknown master brought a metal bowl to the Roman emperor Tiberius, shining like silver, but extremely light. The master said that he got this metal from clay earth. Tiberius, fearing that the new metal would devalue his reserves of gold and silver, ordered the master's head to be cut off. Quite possibly, we are also talking about aluminum.

Scientists believe that orichalcum could have been a natural alloy of copper and zinc, or brass in the modern world. Occasionally there are ores containing both of these metals at once. This alloy also corresponds to the color of the orichalcum - "red, which has the color of fire." In Plato's Dialogues, we learn about the flora and fauna of Atlantis. They are described in a surprisingly realistic way.

Apparently, elephants and horses can be considered the most fantastic in the fauna of Atlantis. According to Plato, the Atlanteans had horses and elephants in their colonies in Africa and America. But this does not in the least contradict the truth: both horses and elephants in America have become extinct relatively recently.

In "Teachers of teachers" Bryusov, getting acquainted with the description of the capital of Atlantis - the City of the Golden Gate, believes that he

also does not go beyond the framework of the possible ... Huge was the statue of Poseidon, described by Plato, but it is close in size to the statue of Olympian Zeus sculpted by Phidias ... And in general, in the entire description there is not a single feature that would denounce deliberate fiction ...

By Bryusov. Does Plato's description of Atlantis match new scientific evidence? After Bryusov, scientists returned to this question more than once and found new amazing coincidences. Well, for example, two springs feeding Plato's Atlantis - hot and cold water - could really be on an island associated with the active activity of volcanoes. Scientists have found a mysterious, maybe even for Plato himself, a tree,

which gives drink, food, and ointment.

It could have been coconut palm, which really gives both "drink" - coconut milk, and "food" - the pulp of a nut, and "ointment" - semi-liquid coconut oil. Even Plato's remark that the walls and towers of the City of the Golden Gate were built of stone of three colors: white, black, red - found an interesting confirmation: it is from such stones that the cities in the Azores are built; they are sometimes considered the mountain peaks of the sunken Atlantis.

Research carried out in recent years has confirmed the date of the tragic catastrophe indicated by Plato, when the remnants of a giant transatlantic island that once connected two great continents sank to the bottom of the ocean. What does not confirm such an ancient date? Changing currents?

Ocean currents to one degree or another determine the climate of the continents. Perhaps their appearance and disappearance is the rocket, at the signal of which the glaciers begin to move? As the glaciers melt, they reveal the earth's surface, leaving gigantic boulders as if they were abandoned retreats in panic. Well, why do sea currents arise and disappear?

Atlantologist E. F. Hagemeister put forward the assumption that the end of the last ice age was caused by the breakthrough of the warm Gulf Stream into the cold Arctic Ocean. And what happened, she believes, is because

Atlantis sank to the bottom of the ocean and opened the way for the Gulf Stream.

Academician V. A. Obruchev... He wrote:

The sinking of Atlantis again cleared the way for the Gulf Stream, and in the north its warm waters gradually stopped the glaciation around the North Pole.

The remains of living creatures found in sediments at the bottom of the ocean can tell a lot. For example, this is what the foraminifera testify to. The spirals of foraminiferal shells are twisted to the left in thermophilic forms, and to the right in cold-loving ones. Studying the columns of soils taken in the North Atlantic, scientists came to the conclusion that about 10-13 thousand years ago, the waters of the North Atlantic warmed sharply. This is also associated with the breakthrough of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

But when did this happen? Russian hydrogeologist , examining soil samples from the bottom of the polar seas, found that the first hot stream of the Gulf Stream penetrated into the northern seas about 12 thousand years ago. This was shown by radioisotope analysis.

American scientists obtained similar results. They examined volcanic ash that occurs in sediments at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. And it turned out that he appeared here about 12 thousand years ago. This once again confirmed the legendary date of the death of Atlantis: the island sank to the bottom of the ocean under the thunderous fireworks of volcanic eruptions.

Most of Bryusov's work is devoted to the connections between the most ancient civilizations of our planet. The poet-scientist pays special attention to the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. His book was published when excavations in Crete were not yet completed. This gave her additional interest, which the author could not but take into account. But today, does science confirm the existence of such connections?

The oldest civilizations on our planet

It is the question the most ancient civilizations of our the planet is dedicated to the book by A. A. Gorbovsky "Riddles ancient history". Some of Gorbovsky's conclusions can be questioned, but the facts he cites are, as a rule, accurate. And they most often concern the most ancient ideas about the structure. Well, for example:

1. The thought of the plurality of inhabited worlds, for which Giordano Bruno was burned. It turns out that Egyptian texts, sacred books ancient India and Tibet. Gorbovsky quotes the ancient Sanskrit book Vishnu Purana:
   

   Our Earth is only one of the thousands of millions of similar inhabited worlds in the Universe.

   The idea that creatures like people live on distant stars was also common in ancient Peru.

2. Another example - The ancient Egyptians knew about it.
   

   "The earth was in front of me like a round ball"

   This quote is from the Leiden Demotic Papyrus. The Aztecs depicted the planets as small circles or balls, which were played by the gods.

3. In the Middle East, Ancient Egypt and India, the year was subdivided into 12 months. But why did the same division exist in South America? Why was the year of the ancient Maya, which had 360 days, used in Ancient Egypt, Babylon and India?
4. The ancient Greeks, Indians, Celts, Maya divided the history of mankind into four periods, and each of them was considered to be painted with a special paint. It is surprising that the last, fourth, period they all considered painted with black paint.
5. Another example. Well-known biblical myth of construction Tower of babel and the subsequent confusion of languages. It is not surprising that the Babylonians have a similar story: the creators of the Bible simply kidnapped him. But where did this legend come from Ancient Mexico? But there they tell about it with the following words:

They built a high tower ... But their languages ​​suddenly mixed, they could no longer understand each other and went to live in different parts of the Earth.

And more, and more ... You can often read that the legends about the "global flood" are widespread only among coastal peoples and that these are memories of previous floods. In reality, there is no such ancient people who did not have this legend.

Everyone knows the Bible story. Many people know that it is borrowed from the ancient Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. But the English ethnologist reports that of the 130 Indian tribes of the North, Central and South America, there is not a single one that does not have a myth of a great catastrophe.

Over the fifty post-Brusov years, this list has lengthened almost indefinitely.

It would be fair to assume that Valery Bryusov's work "Teachers of Teachers" summed up the first period of studying the problem of Atlantis, turning the tradition set forth in Plato's dialogues into a scientific document. Approximately the same assessed the result of his work and the author himself: "From now on, the" problem of Atlantis "leaves the realm of fortune-telling, becomes a definite historical hypothesis and must share the usual fate of scientific hypotheses, depending on whether the newly discovered facts will refute or confirm it."

And yet it will not be entirely fair if we, having paid tribute to the merits of Bryusov's work, keep silent about its fatal flaw: carried away by the enchanting tradition, he recklessly considered the culture of the Atlanteans to be super-high.

Over the millennia, their power increased and their culture developed, reaching a height that, perhaps, has not been reached after that by any of the earthly peoples.

This assessment, obviously, was also facilitated by the influence of the books of occultists, who believed that the Atlanteans knew aeronautics, rocketry, etc.

Scientists in particular N.F.Zhirov, carefully analyzed the question of how high culture Plato describes.

What metals is Plato talking about? About gold, silver, lead, iron, about the mysterious orichalcum? But gold and silver are found in their native form, and their abundance in the capital of the Atlanteans does not indicate that these metals were widely used in the life of the city. Iron, which Plato mentions only once, was probably meteoric.

Indeed, in the "Dialogues" there is no mention of either iron or bronze weapons or tools. Metals were only used to clad giant stone walls or to decorate temples. All this cannot be considered evidence of the onset of the Copper or, moreover, the Bronze Age. And weapons, and tools, for example, for cultivating the land, and household items were made only of stone and bone, which is quite consistent with the Stone Age.

Plato also does not mention lime, cement, gypsum as binding building materials. Obviously, metals were used to fasten the blocks of walls, copper in the first place. This also corresponds to the first period of transition from the Stone to Bronze Age. There is nothing contradictory in Plato's story about the gigantic dimensions of the temples. It is at this stage of development that many peoples of the world gravitate towards gigantism in architecture.

A number of authors associate megalithic buildings scattered in almost all sea ​​coasts the globe. There are especially many of them in western Europe. Megaliths are structures of rough or half-hewn giant blocks of stone, laid in rows or circles. They were built so long ago that even legends about it are silent. But they are known in Europe, South America, Palestine, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Madagascar. There is no doubt about one thing - these structures were supposed to be built by people of the Stone Age.

The high culture of agriculture, by no means contradicts the general assessment of the level of development of the people of Atlantis, given by N.F.Zhirov. By the way, agriculture, apparently, arose 30-20 thousand years ago, which coincides with the heyday and death of Atlantis.

The Russian scientist Doctor of Chemical Sciences N.F.Zhirov can rightfully be considered the greatest atlantologist. He has appeared with articles in newspapers and magazines, on radio and television, and has published several books. The last of them - "Atlantis" came out in 1964, a few years before his death. According to N.F.Zhirov, the question of the existence of Atlantis should be decided by science. In particular, the decisive word here belongs to oceanology. It is she who must answer whether there could have been and whether there was a sufficiently large island in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite Gibraltar, several millennia ago.

Yes, NF Zhirov answers these questions. Atlantis could exist. The data of modern science indicate that among the Atlantic Ocean there is an underwater North Atlantic Ridge, which could exist subaerially (above the surface of the water) at times close to those indicated by Plato in his legend. It is possible that some of these land areas existed until historical time. So maybe it makes sense to look for traces of Atlantis on these islands?

The islands of the Atlantic Ocean have long attracted the attention of Atlantologists. Unfortunately, there was nothing on these islands that looked like a large complex expedition, which would have carried out thorough archaeological excavations, recorded everyday rituals and legends, thoroughly investigated the flora and fauna, etc. Although, according to many assumptions, it is here that the clue to Atlantis should be sought.

Interesting legends are associated with some of the Azores.

• So, on the island of Corvo, it was allegedly found equestrian statue... The person depicted on it stretched out his hand to the west. This fact is reported, in particular, by the German scientist R. Hennig.
• On other islands, gravestones were found with inscriptions in an unknown language.
• On one of the Cape Verde islands, a dolmen and rock carvings in the Berber language were found.
• Population Canary Islands some experts consider the direct descendants of the Atlanteans. After the brutal war, waged by the Spaniards against the population of the islands, who did not know any metal, let alone firearms, the twenty thousandth population of the islands was destroyed. Already by 1600, not a single purebred aborigine remained alive. Paleanthropological studies have shown that the aborigines belonged to different ethnic groups... These conclusions were made by the French scientist R. Verno, after excavating the corresponding burials. The Guanches, as the inhabitants of these islands are called, were spoken in the languages ​​of Berber origin. Rock inscriptions of two types were also found. It is believed that one of these types is related to the hieroglyphs of Crete. But not a single inscription has yet been deciphered or read. During one of the first visits to the islands by the Portuguese, a statue of a man holding a ball in his hand was discovered here. She was taken to Lisbon, but now her whereabouts are unknown.

The bottom of the ocean hides quite a lot of interesting things.

• A Swedish oceanographic expedition aboard the Albatross vessel found freshwater diatoms in one of the columns of soil raised from the bottom to the west of Africa. Maybe they were carried into the ocean by the waters of the Congo or Niger? But in this case, freshwater species would be mixed with marine ones. It is more logical to assume that the soil column was taken where a freshwater lake was once located.

Unfortunately, so far from the place of the death of Atlantis, scientists have not been able to raise either the statue of Poseidon, or even the fragment of his trident. But still there were finds ...

• In the mid-1950s, a sea dredge raised about a ton of very strange formations from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean south of the Azores. These were limestone discs with a depression on one side, which gave them the appearance of plates. On average, these discs were 15 centimeters in diameter and 4 centimeters thick. The outer side of them was relatively smooth, but the inside of the depressions was rough. The strange shape of these formations testifies to their artificial origin. It was possible to establish the age of these "sea biscuits". It turned out to be equal to 12 thousand years, which corresponds to the date of the death of Atlantis. It was possible to establish another thing: the biscuits were made in atmospheric conditions. By whom? For what? How did they get to the top of the seamount?

NF Zhirov in his book mentions the custom that existed among some Caucasian peoples, to sacrifice food to the spirits on the tops of the mountains. Maybe the found "sea biscuits" - plates for similar sacrifices made by the inhabitants of Atlantis?

These are few indications of the existence of Atlantis. They could have been cited incomparably more.

Well, in general, what can you say about the Atlantis problem from the level of modern knowledge?

• First of all, the mountain range located in the center of the Atlantic Ocean is the center of numerous earthquakes. This indicates a high seismic activity in this area.
• In the Atlantic Ocean there are a number of areas that were relatively recently land, and
  

  for all these places,

  N.F.Zhirov notes, -

  we do not exclude the possibility of the existence of islands even in historical time; some of them may have been inhabited.

• The scientist compares information about the islands that existed in historical times, available on modern maps. Surprisingly, they are identical. but
  

  there is every reason to suppose the possibility of subsidence of individual islands and banks of the North Atlantic in our historical time, which had the character of a cataclysm.

  This explains the impossibility of carrying out such identification in a number of cases.

• However, there is a lot of evidence of the existence of Atlantis exactly where it should be expected, according to Plato. Thus, a piece of coral was recently lifted aboard the Mikhail Lomonosov vessel from one of the peaks of the North Atlantic Ridge. As you know, corals live only at relatively shallow depths. And since the coral was raised with a piece of bedrock from a depth of two and a half kilometers, it remains to assume that recently it was here that the ridge sank into the depths of the ocean for at least two kilometers.
• And although many scientists categorically deny the possibility of the existence of large areas of land in the Atlantic Ocean in historical time, there are experts who assert with the same conviction: yes, Atlantis could exist and disappear exactly at the time that Plato spoke about, that is, about 12 thousand years ago. In any case, it was at this time that serious changes took place in the Atlantic Ocean, accompanied by faults in the earth's crust, volcanic eruptions, a change in ocean currents, perhaps a warming of the entire northern hemisphere, which caused the end of the ice age.

More than half a century has passed since Bryusov wrote his work "Teachers of Teachers". To the greatest regret, even today the general attitude of scientists to this issue has not essentially changed. Most still regard Plato's story as unfounded fiction. This is evidenced by the fact that "the narratives of ancient writers are known to be full of such fabulous legends." No new evidence of this has been found over the past years. And the quote given here refers to the very beginning of our century. One often gets the impression that the "opponents of Atlantis" did not read Bryusov's works. However, this is also possible.

Bryusov's work was published only once, in 1917, in a magazine with an insignificant circulation. Time also did not contribute to his fame: the world was then shaken by the world war. Russia was on the eve of the revolution. The most vital problems of modern life were incomparably more important than the history of the continent that sank thousands of years ago. And very soon the article "Teachers of teachers" became a bibliographic rarity. And she did not have the opportunity to convince readers that a particular "fabulous legend" contains too much information that Plato could not have, and this requires a more condescending attitude towards him. It remained the property of only specialist atlantologists who came to the same conclusion on their own.

But we must not forget the other. The world has entered the era of the scientific and technological revolution, which is capturing ever new areas of knowledge. The ocean also succumbed to this irrepressible pressure of science. Researchers have already reached its maximum depths in the bathyscaphes. And without going down into the abyss of the ocean, scientists can already study its bottom in order to find the ruins of giant temples, the remains of city walls and surrounding canals. There is almost no doubt that such search for Atlantis will be undertaken shortly.

What machines, devices, devices will they work with? Of course, clumsy, clumsy bathyscaphes are not well suited to work on the ocean floor. But, perhaps, the bathyscaphes will not be needed for this. Perhaps the search for Atlantis will be carried out by Atlantologists-scuba divers.

Atlantologists-scuba divers ?! At a depth of more than 3 thousand meters ?! Are such depths available for scuba diving? Or will they be available?

It is difficult to answer this question. After all, scuba diving as a means of underwater work appeared quite recently, in 1943 J.I. Cousteau believed at the beginning that his invention would help a person to master a maximum of two to three tens of meters of water. But…

Here are the record dives in the post-war 30 years. I must say that in our time, today's record becomes a publicly available value tomorrow. This can be confirmed, say, by an increase in the speed of cars and airplanes. Probably everyone remembers the story of overcoming sound speed by aircraft. How long has it been ?! And today, supersonic passenger aircraft have become an everyday reality in many countries of the world. The same thing happens with the records of the diving depth reached by scuba divers.

So, the first tens of meters are available for an amateur scuba diver who has put on a scuba diving. But we must not cross the permissible physiological threshold. This threshold is breathing with highly compressed air. In this case, the blood is supersaturated with oxygen and nitrogen dissolved in it. Oxygen oversaturation causes convulsions, and nitrogen - intoxication and leads to decompression sickness. In this case, nitrogen dissolved in the blood begins to be released directly in the veins and arteries. And a person often dies.

To prevent this from happening, divers rise from the depth extremely slowly, and then the blood manages to get rid of excess nitrogen. At the same time, the ascent from a depth of a hundred meters is delayed for 5 hours.

The ingenious idea of ​​a Swiss scientist helped to defeat decompression sickness Hans Keller a. The essence of this idea is the use of various gas mixtures when lifting from great depths. Once, while testing his idea, he rose from a depth of 222 meters in just 53 minutes! But the record for diving in a diving suit was only 180 meters, and the ascent from this depth took 12 hours.

Keller sank to a depth of 400 meters. This was in 1960-1962.

In 1970, British scuba divers sank to a depth of 457 meters. But at the end of the same year, the French moved it over the half-kilometer mark, they reached 520 meters! And in 1972, an even greater depth was taken - 565 meters.

The next step is striking in courage and magnitude. Four American volunteers descended to a depth of 1520 meters, spent 4 hours at the indicated depth and ascended to the surface without any harm to themselves. True, the last experiment was carried out in a pressure chamber, but this does not change the essence of the matter.

The depth has been reached!

It remains to double, triple it, and the depths of Atlantis will be at the mercy of scuba divers. They will be able to search for sunken land and, without returning to the surface of the ocean, relax in special underwater houses. Today, underwater houses of various designs are being tested in the USA, Holland and Italy, Japan and Cuba.

The mystery of Atlantis is described in many works, both adventure novels and serious scientific research. To date, scientists and enthusiastic researchers have put forward more than 1,700 hypotheses about the location of this mysterious continent and the reasons for its disappearance without a trace. However, not so and without a trace.

One of the most prominent scientists of ancient Greece, Plato, in the works "Critias" and "Timaeus", mentions Atlantis, referring to data from the diaries of his great-grandfather, no less famous Athenian poet and statesman Solon. About existence big country of the Atlanteans, who fought with the Greeks for another 9000, an Egyptian priest told him. According to this fragmentary information, the edge of the Atlanteans was somewhere on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules. According to Plato, according to Solon, Atlantis was a large and rich country with large cities and a very developed economy at that time. Scenic territory of the country, covered with dense forests, was cut by numerous irrigation canals. Atlantis was a federation of ten kingdoms. The Atlanteans hoped to expand their territory and tried to enslave Athens and Egypt, however, in the fight against the Athenian army, they suffered a crushing defeat. According to the same data, as a result of a terrible earthquake within 24 hours, the mighty Atlantis disappeared forever under water.

Scientists to this day have not come to a consensus regarding Plato's story about this mysterious country. Perhaps Atlantis was just a product of one of the ancient Greek legends? This assumption is supported by the fact that not all of Plato's stories were believed even by his contemporaries. According to these scholars, in such ancient times, 9000 years before the birth of Plato, such a highly developed culture could not exist. I couldn't, for the simple reason that the end of the ice age had just come. Many scientists agree that cavemen and highly developed Atlanteans could have lived at the same time. And can it be so that an entire country suddenly disappeared without a trace? Nevertheless, most scientists argue that Atlantis could well exist in reality, because the legends had to have at least some basis, and most of myths reflected the events that took place in reality.

After all, archaeologists found the ruins of the once mythical ancient Troy, which was also considered a figment of the imagination of blind Homer. And not so long ago, the fact was scientifically proven that the ancient Greeks could make rather long distant journeys on their ships, and, like Odysseus, reach the shores of Colchis, the country of the golden fleece. As for the enormous and destructive force of earthquakes, then, according to geologists, it is really capable of burying a huge territory in a short time.

However, if we assume that Atlantis really existed, another rather important question arises. Where should researchers go, where should they look for this mythical land? Scientists from different times and countries have never been able to come to a common opinion. Some of them believed that the mysterious Atlantis sank to the bottom of the central Atlantic Ocean - somewhere between two continents, Europe and North America. This statement is based on the words of Plato, who noted that the mysterious land was located in front of the strait, called the Pillars of Hercules (framed by the rocks of Abilik and Calpe), which was located at the Strait of Gibraltar. In addition, many of the same species of animals and plants live in these lands. In addition, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, located in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, was recently discovered. The ridge adjoins a vast plateau with a number of ridges, the tops of which form the Azores.

It is likely that this area was once land and about 12 thousand years ago, during a geological catastrophe, sank to the ocean floor. This period just coincides with the supposed time of the existence of Atlantis. After that, the warm current of the Gulf Stream finally reached the shores of Northern Europe, and as a result of this, the Ice Age ended in our part of the world. This version of warming in Europe was put forward by the Russian scientist N.F. Zhirov, as well as some other researchers. It is likely that the Azores and Madeira Islands are the very remnants of the lost mainland. According to some scientists, not all the inhabitants of Atlantis died during the collapse of their mainland - some survivors reached the shores of America, while others reached Europe. It was they who laid the foundation for the greatest civilizations of Mexico and Peru, as well as Egypt and Mesopotamia. This explains the striking similarities in their architecture, traditions and religions, all the more surprising because the countries were far from each other.

Indeed, the inhabitants of both shores of the Atlantic equally worshiped the Sun, and believed in the myth of the worldwide flood, which was widespread both in Mesopotamia and among the Indian tribes inhabiting the South and North America... It is striking that the language of the Basques living in the north of Spain in the Pyrenees mountains is absolutely different from other European languages, but at the same time it is very similar to the languages ​​of some Indian tribes. And the ancient pyramids created by our ancestors in Mexico and Egypt have a lot in common.

In addition, in both countries there is a custom of mummification of the dead, moreover, the same objects are placed in their graves. But the main thing is that in the places where the burials of the Mayan tribes are located, archaeologists find jewelry made of green jade, the deposits of which simply do not exist in America. Maybe he got there from Atlantis?

According to the legend widespread among the Indians of Peru and Mexico, which tells of the white god Quetzacoatl, he arrived on the mainland on a sailing ship from the edge of the early sun - that is, from the east. God taught the Indian tribes construction and crafts, revealed laws and religion to them, and then mysteriously disappeared. The Peruvians, who did not know about the existence of the Aztecs, believed in the same legend, except with one amendment - their god was called Viracocha. Perhaps these people came from Atlantis? It is believed that their images are found on the walls of the cities of Chichen Itza and Tiguanacu.

Scientists refer to the evidence of the existence of Atlantis and the ruins of ancient Indian cities, the remains of which are located in the Peruvian Andes and impenetrable jungle the Yucatan Peninsula.

In the fall of 1970, while inspecting the coastal waters of the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean from a seaplane, D. Rebikov, a French archaeologist and aquanaut, noticed strange ruins of some buildings on the ocean floor near the island of North Bimini. Divers who descended under the water found giant walls more than a hundred meters long. They were built from giant blocks, each weighing about 25 tons. Who were they built by? Perhaps the Atlanteans? True, it was soon discovered that these "walls" arose as a result of cracking of coastal rocks, which went under the water due to a gradual sinking to the bottom. Bahamas.

They are looking for Atlantis also in the Mediterranean. The most plausible is the opinion of the Russian scientist A.S. Norov, who considered the island of Crete and many small Greek islets to the north of it as the remains of a continent that has sunk into oblivion. The well-known Soviet geographer L. S. Berg agreed with this opinion. Today, the vast majority of scientists adhere to this theory. This version is supported by recent studies in this area and in the Atlantic Ocean.

When studying the area of ​​the alleged death of Atlantis at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists have found that the average thickness of sedimentary rocks in this zone is about 4 meters. At the same time, at the current rate of accumulation of such rocks, which is 10-15 mm per thousand years, this will take at least 300 thousand years, and certainly not 12 thousand, as the supporters of the Atlantic origin of the mysterious Atlantis claim.

In addition, according to the evidence of recent oceanographic studies, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the result of a geological event, during which the continents of Africa and South America... Scientists separately noted the features of the coastline pattern: the western line of the African continent and the eastern line of the South American one.

Accordingly, in order for Atlantis to be located in the Atlantic Ocean, there is simply no place in it. But then what to do with Plato's message about where the disappeared country is located, allegedly located in front of the Pillars of Hercules, that is, the Strait of Gibraltar? Before Plato, the name “Pillars of Hercules” could mean a completely different place. What is it? The controversy among researchers has not subsided to this day.

Regarding the Mediterranean location of Atlantis, assumed by most scientists, they provide a number of sufficiently strong evidence.

For example, it was established that on the island of Thira (Santorini), located in the Aegean Sea, about 3.5 thousand years ago, a volcanic explosion of destructive power took place, similar to the one that was noted in 1883 on the island of Krakatoa in the southeastern Asia, including the islands of Indonesia. Apparently, this was the greatest geological disaster in the entire history of our planet.

In its strength, the explosion of the Santorini volcano was equal to the explosion of about 200 thousand atomic bombs, identical to those that were once dropped on Hiroshima.

Scientist Garun Taziev calls the approximate date of the explosion - 1470 BC and claims that as a result, about 80 billion cubic meters rose into the air. m chopped rock, and the waves that arose in the process reached 260 m. Danish scientists reasonably believe that the explosion took place in 1645 BC. e., - almost 150 years earlier.

It was at that time that the islands located in this part of the Aegean were ruled by the Minoans, who achieved great success in science and craft. As a result of a powerful volcanic explosion, it was found that one of the developed cities on the island of Thira and the center of the Minoan civilization, located in Crete, Knosos, perished.

Most of the state's territory was absorbed by the Aegean Sea. Probably, it was this event, the echo of which reached Plato through the centuries, and was reflected in his story about the country of the Atlanteans. True, in Plato's interpretation, the dimensions of the sunken continent are much larger, and the time of the catastrophe has been shifted many thousands of years ago.

In other words, according to the opinion of fans of this hypothesis, in the descriptions of Plato it is just about the state of the Minoans. Indeed, according to his data, Atlantis was a developed maritime power, and the same could be said about the Minoan country, which had an impressive navy. Plato said that fat herds of sacred bulls grazed on the island of the Atlanteans, of which there were a lot just among the Minoans, and even they were considered sacred. On the seabed near Tyra, a moat was discovered, similar to the one with which, according to Plato, the fortress in the capital of Atlantis was protected. Now the island of Tira is a fragment left after the explosion of a giant volcano. The ruins of the Minoan city, excavated in 1967, lay under a thick layer of volcanic ash and, like Pompeii, are perfectly preserved. Archaeologists have found many colored frescoes and even objects made of wood here.

In 1976, the famous French scientist and aquanaut Jacques Yves Cousteau at the bottom of the Aegean Sea near the island of Crete discovered the remains of an ancient Minoan civilization. According to his calculations, it was destroyed during the devastating eruption of the Santorini volcano, which occurred in 1450 BC. NS. Nevertheless, Cousteau always considered Atlantis to be a beautiful fairy tale of Plato.

The authority of Cousteau's opinion forced many scientists to "return" again to the hypothesis of the Atlantic Atlantis. The impetus for this decision was the discovery to the west of Gibraltar of a group of seamounts with table-like peaks, located only 100-200 meters below sea level. Many scientists consider these mountains to be the remains of a vast archipelago that sank in ancient times.

A sensation was the pictures taken by a researcher at the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1973. At that time he took part in the expedition aboard the Akademik Kurchatov ship. Taking a look at eight underwater photos taken by him, you can see the ruins of the fortress wall and other structures on top of one of the seamounts.

As a result, carried out in 1983-1984. research, scientists of the research vessels "Akademik Vernadsky" and "Vityaz" with the help of underwater vehicles "Paysis" and "Argus", confirmed that Mount Amper is dormant volcano that once sank to the ocean floor. Well, the notorious ruins are far from the creations of human hands, but ordinary natural formations.

This means that the fruitless search for Atlantis in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean only confirms the conclusions of scientists looking for traces of its stay in the Aegean Sea. True, some disagreements arose in their slender ranks. The reason for this in 1987 was the Russian scientist I. Mashnikov. He logically rethought the works of Plato and put forward a new hypothesis.

First of all, he disputes the time of the death of Atlantis, as well as some other data of Plato. For example, the number of land and sea forces of the Atlanteans. Judging by the words of Plato, the Atlanteans possessed a huge armada - 1200 ships, as well as an army, according to experts, more than a million soldiers. Accordingly, the army of the Greeks that defeated the Atlanteans should have been no less numerous. According to the completely logical reasoning of Mashnikov, during the ice age such a huge army simply had nowhere to come from, taking into account the fact that at that time the population of the entire planet was no more than 3-4 million people, while being at a rather low level of development.

Accordingly, we are most likely talking about a different, much later time. Mashnikov says that the ancient people recorded nine thousand as ten thousand minus a thousand, and, accordingly, nine hundred as a thousand minus a hundred. In the system of calculation adopted in Egypt, a thousand was designated by the sign "M", and in the ancient Greek system, "M" meant ten thousand. Apparently, Solon simply rewrote Egyptian signs from ancient Egyptian documents, and Plato understood them in ancient Greek. Thus, 9000 appeared instead of 900 ".

Considering the fact that Solon was "visiting" in Egypt (560 BC) 900 years after the death of Atlantis, the approximate date of the catastrophe is 1460 BC. NS. plus a possible error of 100-150 years.

Scientists, searching for Atlantis in the Atlantic, according to Mashnikov, took a false trail, because they had no doubt that the Plato's Pillars of Hercules, behind which this land was located, was the Strait of Gibraltar. But, under the Pillars of Hercules, apparently, they meant some other place. At the same time, Plato has direct indications that make it possible to determine the location of Atlantis. Plato says that the sea border between the Atlantean country and the Athenian state was laid along the Pillars of Hercules. This means that these pillars could only be in the Aegean Sea. In another place in his story, Plato directly points out that Athens opposed the Atlantean state, which can be interpreted not only as a war, but also as a geographical one, that is, they were on the other side - on the peninsula of Asia Minor. At that time there was the land of the Hittites. In addition, according to the author, only here cities were built in a circular plan, creating canals, as if outlined by a compass.

But Plato spoke of Atlantis as a large island that sank to the bottom of the sea. It can be assumed that part of this state was actually located on an island, though not as large as Plato claimed. Probably, it was this island, and not the whole country, perished as a result of a volcanic eruption or an earthquake, as a result of which only a chain of islands remained, which is now called the Sporades. It turns out that Atlantis is actually Hettia or its insular part. In addition, Plato, when retelling Solon, argued that Atlantis was at war with Athens. And from sources known, the fact that in the XIV century. BC NS. Egypt was at war with Hittia, and after a while Athens entered the war, according to the historian Herodotus, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Hittites and captured 13 of their cities. Subsequently, the Hittite empire collapsed.

According to I. Mashnikov, the war between the Hittites and Athens is the key to solving another mystery. Obviously, "Atlanteans" is not a nationality, but a contemptuous name for an enslaved people. The sculpture of the enemy who became a slave and propping up the cornice was a symbol of the courage of the victors and the submission of the vanquished. The defeated Hittites were turned into slaves and became Atlanteans, their fallen state began to be called Atlantis. ”Perhaps this reasoning is not far from the truth.

An unusual version of the origin of Atlantis was put forward in 1992 by the German scientist Zangger. Some researchers consider his book on the mysteries of Atlantis to be simply brilliant. According to Zangger, Plato's narrative is a distorted memory of the once fallen Troy. This ancient city, which was located at the Dardanelles and was described by Homer in the XII century. BC NS. as fallen under the onslaught of the Greeks, was considered a myth. But, in 1871, the ruins of Troy were found by the German scientist G. Schliemann. At the same time, Zangger provides quite a lot of weighty evidence of this hypothesis, especially if we take into account the coincidences in the descriptions of Homer and Plato of the area in which Troy was located.

But what about the fact that Plato is not talking about the plain, but about the large island of Zangger, he believes that Solon is to blame. When reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the pillar when visiting the main temple in the residence Egyptian pharaohs stationed in Saisi, he made a mistake. Allegedly, these hieroglyphs denoted a sandy strip or coast. A serious mistake was made in the designation of the place in which Atlantis was located on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules. It is possible that this name was borne by the Dardanelles.

According to the author of this version, another serious mistake crept into Plato's story, which consisted in the incorrect determination of the time of the catastrophe. Indeed, on the column of an Egyptian temple, a story is written that nine thousand years ago the Greeks overthrew a powerful power - Atlantis. This hypothesis also has weak side- discrepancies, which the author explains by the mistakes of the ancient sages. In addition, the rationale for determining the date of the war is rather unconvincing.

In general, each of the hypotheses has a certain rational kernel, and which of them will turn out to be true in the end, only time will tell. Or a new hypothesis - after all, the riddle of Atlantis has not yet been solved.

The history of the ancient almost mythical civilization, Atlantis, still excites the imagination. The thought that the city simply went under water due to natural disasters excites the mind. Therefore, in each new settlement that is found under water, they see the mythical Atlantis.

The Greeks called this city Heraklion, and the Egyptians called Tronis. Once located on the northern coast of Egypt and considered one of the most important port cities in the Mediterranean, it is now at the bottom of the sea it once served. Recently, the city, which is 1200 years old, was found under water and is gradually revealing its secrets. The artifacts that are raised to the surface indicate that at one time it was a large shopping center and a busy port. More than 60 ancient ships that were sunk in the port area for various reasons have also been found, along with hundreds of anchors, coins, tablets with inscriptions in Greek and Egyptian, and large sculptures from temples. These temples dedicated to the gods have remained almost intact.

The city was the official port of Egypt from 664 to 332 BC. NS. Now it is located far from the coast, at a distance of 6.5 km. As in many other sunken cities, the artifacts have been preserved in good condition, which helps to accurately recreate the pictures of the life of cities, their architecture and layout. If you answer the question of how the cities ended up at the bottom of the sea, then, most likely, as a result of an earthquake. Since the city was located on the coast, due to geological processes it could easily go under water.

9. Phanagoria, Russia / Greece

The ancient city of Phanagoria, the hero of myths and works of art really existed. If you read the history of Rome, it becomes known that in 63 BC. NS. The uprising ended with most of the city being burned, the wife and children of Mithridates VI were killed by an angry mob. For a long period it was believed that this was just a myth, until archaeologists studied the underwater necropolis of Phanagoria and found a tombstone with an inscription on which read: "Gipsikrates, wife of Mithridates VI." Gipsikrates is the male version of the name Gipsikratia. This tombstone confirmed the reality of the legend that Gypsikratia was bald, taciturn and courageous, so her husband called her by his male name.

Fanagoria is the largest greek city, which is now on the territory of Russia. It was founded on the Black Sea coast in the 6th century BC. and today is the third sunken city that can be the legendary Atlantis. Although most of it today is covered with a thick layer of sand, scientists distinguish port structures and a large necropolis. Pedestals were also found on which stood large statues, and a large number of urban artifacts. Having existed for 1500 years, the city was abandoned in the 10th century, but the reason for this is not known. Since the 18th century, the city has attracted the attention of archaeologists, but excavations are proceeding very slowly due to the peculiarities of the bottom and the ball of sand, which in places is 7 m wide.

Part of ancient Alexandria lies at the bottom of the ocean. The city, which is 2,000 years old, has been an object for decades archaeological site... It is a long and complex process that overcomes a number of difficulties associated with the depth and lack of visibility that hides the part of the city sunk by the earthquake. except royal palace, temples, quarters, military buildings and outposts, large private complexes have been found - everything has been preserved in excellent condition over the centuries. Archaeologists also found the palace complex of Cleopatra, which she called her and Mark Antony home, the place where she committed suicide in order not to surrender to her invaders.

Huge granite statues remain on the ocean floor, where they once fell, as a result of a series of earthquake shocks between the 4th and 8th centuries BC. e .. There is also the house of Mark Antony, Timomium, where he hid during difficult periods of his life. Archaeologists managed to clear the sand from the temple of Isis, statues of Cleopatra's father and son and other artifacts, including dishes, jewelry, amulets, small statues, and ritual boats that were raised to the surface. In 1994, archaeologists explored the ruins of the Alexandria Lighthouse, one of the seven wonders Of the ancient world... In order for those who wish to see the finds, it is planned to create an underwater museum that will allow tourists to stay dry, going down under the water and walking through the sunken city. Difficulties with financing and construction are hindering the implementation of plans.

The Chinese city of Shicheng was founded 1,300 years ago, and most of the buildings appeared over the next 300 years after its foundation. Unique architecture includes buildings dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties of the 14th century. Nothing can resist progress, and the city of Shingcheng did not resist, in 1959 it was flooded as a result of the construction of a hydroelectric power station. More than 300,000 residents have left their ancestral homes. Today the city is under water at a depth of 40 m and is well preserved.

The city is not completely lost. In 2001, the Chinese government became interested in its fate and found that it was well preserved, if not for the water, it seems that the city continues to live. The walls date back to the 16th century and still stand today, including the city gates and numerous statues. Today divers are discovering this city and its greatness in a new way.

If most of the sunken cities are difficult to reach physically or because there is intensive excavation, the ruins of the city of Olus are accessible to everyone. It was founded on the northeastern coast of Crete and had between 30,000 and 40,000 inhabitants. The city was not built on stones, like all Cretan cities, but on sand, like most sunken cities. A powerful earthquake jolt, and he was under water. Today, scuba divers and snorkellers can enjoy exciting underwater walks, exploring the ruins and finding sunken artifacts such as coins. Some structures, such as walls, are partially above the sea surface.

The Lapita tribe, settlers of Micronesia and Polynesia, settled on the islands after leaving Taiwan and East Asia around 2000 BC. e .. In 500 BC. they founded several settlements on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. These people were talented sailors and artisans, especially in the sphere of making tableware. More than 4,000 Lapita crockery has been found in Samoa.

Archaeologists believe that the Mulifanua settlement was founded 3,000 years ago, during the great island migration in the Pacific. It confirms the existence of lapita. At the time, the island was sandy and wide. It is not known how many other settlements were located here, as over the centuries water and sand have hidden material evidence, except for shards that are found on the coast.

In 2002, ruins were found in the Indian Gulf ancient city... Since they are at a depth of 40 m, they were found completely by accident by a team that investigated the level of pollution of the water area. This find forced archaeologists to reconsider the time frame of the existence of civilization in this region. The city was founded 5,000 years ago. Initially, the oldest city was considered to be 4000 years old Harappa, which was considered the cradle of civilization. The Mesopotamian city was known for its sewerage and water collection systems, well-planned streets, ports and fortifications. Rumor has it that it was founded by direct descendants who survived after their first city sank.

Shards, beads, sculptures and human bones were found at the site of the newly found sunken city. Based on carbon analysis, human remains are 9,500 years old. At that time, the ocean level was much lower. The city was on the very shore and was swallowed by a wave of rising water as a result of the melting of glaciers. The remains of the settlement were built along the riverbed.

There are many legends around Lake Titicaca. Even today, the locals consider it sacred. The depth of the lake and poor visibility make it difficult to explore the bottom, and ignorance breeds legends. Recently, a team of exploration divers from Akakor Geographical Exploring made 200 dives to the sunken city ruins. At the bottom were found the ruins of temples, fragments of roads, walls and terraces, on which agricultural plants were once grown. For a long time, among the locals one could hear conversations about the sunken city, but only thanks to the development of technology, diving became possible. Leftovers temple complex were found at a depth of 20 meters, when divers followed the road found at the bottom, which led them to the find.

It is known from the mythology of the Incas that the lake is the cradle of the birth of their civilization. Here was the city of Wanaku and the burial place of the golden statues of the gods, which were hidden from the conquerors, and then lost. At the bottom of the lake, researchers found many artifacts, including fragments of gold items, ceramic statues, stone statues, boats, bones of people and animals, and containers of incense.

Atlit Yam is the name given to several Neolithic buildings that were discovered on the banks of the Carmel. These buildings were stone walls, foundations of houses and other buildings, round foundations and ancient roads. It was estimated that the structures were built 7,550 and 8,000 years ago, and were destroyed as a result of the tsunami caused by volcanic activity... In the center of the settlement there was a structure in the form of stones laid out in a circle, resembling a place of sacrifice, there was also a source of water. Some stones stood upright, while others lay, most likely, they played the role of a table for sacrifices.

Human remains were also found here, including the skeletons of 65 men, women and children. A detailed examination of the finds led to the discovery of traces of tuberculosis, as a result of which people died. This is the world's first manifestation of a fatal disease, dating back 7000-8000 years. They also found stone, flint and bone tools. In addition, seeds of local plants were found: flax and barley. The finds indicate that people not only fished, but also were engaged in breeding livestock and growing crops.

Bayi is an ancient Roman city with a lifestyle similar to that of Sodoma and Gomor. Here I was going to know for games and relaxation. It was visited by Julius Caesar and Nero. There were many hot springs in the city, as it was located in the zone of active geological processes, which contributed to the development of the bath business and spa procedures. In the 8th century, the Saracens captured the city, after which its former glory never returned to it, and around 1500 its inhabitants left it. After a while, the city gradually plunged into the waters of the bay.

Today these places are valuable from an archaeological point of view. Many tourists come here by boat to dive in search of artifacts. Here was found a statue of Odysseus, villas, arcades and the ruins of artificial ponds for breeding oysters and fish. The researchers also found the famous villa of Nero, which was built in the 1st century BC. Divers “walk” along the underwater city streets and swim in the once famous Roman baths. Although it should be admitted that there are much more sunken ships, so the chance of finding is much higher than of discovering the lost Atlantis.