Resumo de The Lost Continent

The idea of a lost, but highly advanced civilization has captured the
interest of people for centuries. Perhaps the most compelling of these tales is
the story of Atlantis. The story appears again and again in books, television
shows and movies. Where did the story originate and is any of it true?

Plato''s
Atlantis

The story of the lost continent of Atlantis starts in 355 B.C. with the
Greek philosopher Plato. Plato had planned to write a trilogy of books
discussing the nature of man, the creation of the world, and the story of
Atlantis, as well as other subjects. Only the first book was ever completed.
The second book was abandoned part way through, and the final book was never
even started.

Plato used dialogues to express his ideas. In this type of writing, the
author''s thoughts are explored in a series of arguments and debates between
various characters in the story. Plato often used real people in his dialogues,
such as his teacher, Socrates, but the words he gave them were his own.

In Plato''s book, Timaeus, a character named Kritias tells an account
of Atlantis that has been in his family for generations. According to the
character, the story was originally told to his ancestor, Solon, by a priest
during Solon''s visit to Egypt.
The capital city of Atlantis
was a marvel of architecture and engineering. The city was composed of a series
of concentric walls and canals. At the very center was a hill, and on top of
the hill a temple to Poseidon. Inside was a gold statue of the God of the Sea
showing him driving six winged horses.

About 9000 years before the time of Plato, after the people of Atlantis
became corrupt and greedy, the gods decided to destroy them. A violent
earthquake shook the land, giant waves rolled over the shores, and the island
sank into the sea, never to be seen again.

Location:

If we make the assumption that Atlantis was a real place, it seems logical
that it could be found west of the Straight of Gibraltar near the Azores Islands.
In 1882 a man named Ignatius Donnelly published a book titled Atlantis, the Antediluvian World.
Donnelly, an American politician, had come to the belief that Plato''s story
represented actual historical fact. He located Atlantis in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean, suggesting the Azores
Islands represented what
remained of the highest mountain peaks. Donnelly said he had studied zoology
and geology and had come to the conclusion that civilization itself had begun
with the Atlantians and had spread out throughout the world as the Atlantians
established colonies in places like ancient Egypt
and Peru.
Donnelly''s book became a world-wide best seller, but researchers could not take
Donnelly''s theories seriously as he offered no proof for his ideas.

Are there any other candidates for the location of
Atlantis? People have made cases for places as diverse as Switzerland, in the middle of Europe, and New Zealand, in the Pacific
Ocean. The Minoan Connection

Frost suggested that instead of being west of the Pillars
of Hercules, Atlantis was east. He also thought that the
catastrophic end of the island had come not 9000 years before Plato''s time, but
only 900. If this was true, the land
of Atlantis might already be a
well-known place even in Plato''s time: the island of Crete.

Crete is now a part of modern Greece
and lies just south of Athens across part of the
Mediterranean Sea. Before 1500 B.C. it was the
seat of the Minoan Empire. The Minoans dominated the eastern Mediterranean
with a powerful navy and probably extracted tribute from other surrounding
nations. Archaeological excavations have shown that Minoan Crete was probably
one of the most sophisticated cultures of its time. It had splendid
architecture and art. A code of laws gave women equal legal status to men.
Agriculture was highly developed and an extensive irrigation system existed.

Then,a blink of an eye, the Minoan Civilization disappeared.
Geological studies have shown that on an island we now know as Santorinas,
located just ten miles to the north of Crete,
a disaster occurred that was very capable of toppling the Minoan state.

To understand the effect of such an explosion, scientists have compared it
with the most powerful volcanic explosion in historic times. This occurred on
the Island of Krakatoa in 1883. There a giant wave, or
tsunami, 120 feet high
raced across the sea and hit neighboring islands, killing 36,000 people. Ash thrown
up into the air blackened the skies for three days. The sound of the explosion
was heard as far away as 3,000 miles.

The explosion at Santorinas
was four times as powerful as Krakatoa.

The tsunami that hit Crete must have
traveled inland for over half a mile, destroying any coastal towns or cities.
The great Minoan fleet of ships was all sunk in a few seconds. Overnight the
powerful Minoan Empire was crushed and Crete
changed to a political backwater. One can hardly imagine a catastrophe more
like Plato''s description of Atlantis'' fate than the destruction of Crete.

If the fall of the Minoans is the story of Atlantis, how did Plato get the
location and time wrong? Galanopoulos suggested there was a mistake during
translation of some of the figures from Egyptian to Greek and an extra zero
added. This would mean 900 years ago became 9000, and the distance from Egypt to Atlantis went from 250 miles to 2,500. If this is true, Plato would have been forced to assume the
location of the island continent to be squarely in the Atlantic
Ocean.

Not everyone accepts the Minoan Crete theory of the story of Atlantis, but
until a convincing case can be made for some other place, it, perhaps, remains
science''s best guess.

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