Hard cover bilingual book (french/english) with 272 pages all in colour and 640 images.
This bilingual archaeological book is intended for everyone. Beautifully pictured and detailed, it reveals the fascinating story of the discovery of the localization of"Atlantis." It is the first scientific deciphering of the pictogram writing of Atlantis.
Fruit of twenty years of research, the author guides us back to the source of our heritage clustered in the human flight of the imagination. He leads us on the road to find Atlantis lost 12 000 years ago.
Discover how the deciphering of the Phaistos, Aztec and Maya disks and Egyptian frescos reveal important messages from our past. These archaeological enigmas that have been gazing at us for thousands of years, represent a precious legacy from the greatest civilizations of distant Antiquity. By meeting and joining they reveal the exact geographical location of Atlantis and the origins of the human race.
"Atlantis' Messages de l'Atlantide" is the fulfilment of a 5 000 year old prophecy. It is the work and devotion of a lifelong project that brings the past and the future to the present.
You do not need a background in history or archaeology. If you take interest in the subject, you will understand. For the erudite, the author Jean Louis Page gives keys to new undiscovered worlds.
Atlantis Under Antarctica?
After WW II, scientists started to pay close attention to the issue of a supposedly once-existing civilization in Antarctica. The hypothesis is confirmed by some medieval maps and research of paleogeologists and glaciologists.
In January of 1820, Lieutenant of Russian Empire Fleet Mikhail Lazarev discovered a new continent. In the beginning of 20th century, a Russian encyclopaedia, while adducing the approximate square milage of south pole continent, reported that it was insufficiently explored and there was no flora and fauna. The author of the article also mentioned the richness of the algae and sea life.
Twenty years later, the director of the Istanbul National Museum, Khalil Edkhem, was sorting out a library of the Byzantine emperors in an old palace. He found an ancient map made on gazelle skin. On the map, there were the shores of western and southern Africa, as well as the northern shores of Antarctica. Khalil could not believe his eyes: the shores of the Queen Mod Land, to the south of the 70th parallel, was free of ice. An ancient cartographer marked a mountain chain there. The name of the cartographer was known: an admiral of the Ottoman Empire fleet, Piri Reis, who lived in the first half of 16th century.
The map's authenticity was without doubt. Graphology examinations of the notes on the margin confirmed that they belonged to the admiral.
In 1949, a combined British and Swedish expedition conducted intensive seismic measurements of the South Pole through the ice cap. According to the commander of 8th Technical Investigation Squadron of the US Armed Force Strategic Command, Colonel Harold Olmayer, " the geographical details of the bottom part of the map (the shore of Antarctica) correspond with the results of the seismic measurements. We cannot correlate these data with the supposed level of geography in 1513."
In his notes on the map's margin, made in the early 16th century, Piri Reis explained that he was not responsible for the cartography and that the map was based on earlier sources. Some of these "earlier sources" belong to his contemporaries (for example, to Christopher Columbus), while others could be dated to the 4th century B. C. Not later, because one of these sources belonged to Alexander the Great.
Of course, professional historians who specialize in ancient history could say the following: "This is only one more hypothesis. What about documentary and, what is more desirable, trust-worthy sources? The opinion of the Turkish admiral and notes on a margin You know, it is too disputable!"
Therefore, I would like to present the position of the late historian and professor of Keene College in New Hampshire, USA, Charles H. Hapgood. In the late 1959, he found in the Washington Congressional Library a map created by Orontheus Phynius in 1531. Orontheus Phynius depicted Antarctica with mountains and rivers, without glaciers. The relief of the continent's center was not marked, which, according to Hapgood, could mean that there had been an ice cap in that area.
In the early 1960s, Phynius' map was studied by Doctor Richard Stratchen of the Massachusetts Technology Institute together with Hapgood. Both scientists concluded that Phynius had indeed depicted Antarctica free of ice. The characteristics depicted were very close to the information that was obtained in 1958 by specialists from different countries.
Gerard Cremer, known in the world as Mercator, also trusted Orontheus' evidence. He included the Phynius map into his atlas, in which several maps of Antarctica by Mercator himself were also included. There is one interesting feature: on Mercator's map of 1569, the west shore of South America is pictured less accurately than on the earlier map of Mercator from 1538. The reasons for this contradiction are the following: while working at the earlier map, the cartographer of 16th century proceeded from ancient sources, which were not kept for our time, and while working at the later map, he proceeded from observations of the first Spanish explorers to South America. Gerard Mercato's mistake can be excused. In the 16th century, there were no precise methods to measure longitude: as a rule, an error could have been hundreds of kilometers!
Finally, we come to Philippe Boiche, full member of the French Academy of Science. In 1737, he published his map of Antarctica. Boiche presented a precise picture of Antarctica of the time when the continent was free of ice. On his map, the under-ice topography of the continent is presented, about which our civilization had no clear idea until 1958. Moreover, based on now-lost sources, the French academician depicted in the middle of the South Pole a body of water dividing it into two sub-continents, which were situated to the west and to the east from the line, where the Trans-Antarctic Mountains are now marked. According to the investigation in the framework of International Geophysical Year (1958), Antarctic is in fact an archipelago of large islands covered with 1.5-kilometers of ice.
Medieval maps show Antarctica without an ice cap or partially covered with ice. The precision of the 16th century cartographers was very high and even surprising. Their data surpassed the technical possibilities even of the late Middle Ages (for example, the determination of the longitude of a relief within one minute). This level was reached by mankind in the late 18th century, while in some cases, the 20th.
Scientists cannot comment on the high scientific level of medieval cartography. Information from almost 2000-year-old primary sources is supposed to be not well-founded.
Orthodox geology claimed that the age of the Antarctica ice cap was at least 25 million years; however, recently, it has been reduced to six million years.
Therefore, we should notice the following feature of the Reis map: the shore of the continent was free of ice. On the Phynius map, made 18 years after the Reis map, there is an ice cap around the South Pole within the limits of 80th and the 75th parallels. Two hundred years later, academician Boiche depicted Antarctica with glaciers.
The conclusion is obvious: we can see the process of the spreading of glaciers on the southern continent.
In 1949, Admiral Baird's expedition bore holes into the Ross Sea in three spots, where Orontheus Phynius marked river-beds. In the cuts, fine-grained layers were found, obviously brought to the sea with rivers, whose sources were situated in temperate latitudes (i.e. free of glaciers).
While using the nuclear dating method of doctor U. Oury from the Karnegy Institute in Washington, scientists discovered that Antarctica's rivers, which were sources of fine-dyspersated deposits, were flowing as depicted on the Phynius map, about 6,000 years ago. About 4000 years B. C., glacial sediments started to accumulate on the bottom of Ross Sea. Kernels show that before this, there was a long warm period.
Therefore, the maps of Reis, Phynius, and Mercator present Antarctica when the ancient Egyptian and Shumer civilizations were newborn. This point of view is excluded by almost all professional historians and could be regarded as an operating hypothesis that cannot be verified. Any historian would say that there were no civilization of the kind in the late 5th millenium B. C. According to Doctor Jacob Hock from Illinois University, the deposits in-question could be 6 to 12 thousand years old.
In September 1991, US and Egyptian archaeologists discovered at a distance of 13 km from Nile River, in Abidos, 12 large boats that belonged to Pharaohs of First Dynasty. The age of the boats is about 5,000 years. They are believed to be the most ancient vessels in the world, the leader of the expedition, D. O'Connor far, the find is estimated to be aimed for religious rites.
According to Herodotus, ancient Egyptians tracked stars more than 10,000 years ago. This statement of the "father of history" is supposed to be esoteric and, therefore, not true. However, land nations seldom produced astronomers. The fact that ancient Egyptians were interested in astronomy may indicate that they inherited some knowledge from an unknown civilization of navigators.
Workers of US technical intelligence determined the projection center of the Piri Reis map, whose data belongs to 4000 year B. C. The projection center was supposedly situated near today's Cairo. At that time, according to most historians, all then-existing nations were at a very low level of development.
Between the 5th and 10th milleniums B. C., there was a civilization on Earth that possessed great knowledge in the field of navigation, cartography, and astronomy, which was no less advanced than that that of the 18th century.
This civilization preceded our civilization, and it was not an extraterrestrial one. Its age could be several thousands years, while its location was probably on the northern shore of the most southern continent, or archipelago: Antarctica. Later, this civilization may have resettled to the north-east of Africa.
The reason for the death of the civilization was the covering of Antarctica with glaciers. This process started no earlier not than in 10th millenium B. C. It cannot be excluded that there were also large-scale floods, which were regular and cause long-term local deluges (this is confirmed by archaeologists). These disasters could have destroyed most of the civilization's cultural objects. However, some fragments might be found in the future under the thickness of ice. It can also be assumed that the survivors of Antarctica kept and handed down knowledge to the ancient Egyptians.
Therefore, if there will ever be an extensive exploration of Antarctica, mankind will most likely be surprised with the results.
Translated by Vera Solovieva
Atlantes Still Alive
They live in their underwater cities and sometimes frighten people.
Everybody knows about UFOs. And what about UUOs? I mean, Unknown Underwater Objects? The Paseidon kingdom sometimes surprises sailors with fluorescent heads, devil circles and other miracles. Explorer Fedor Gard recorded evidence of sailors who had seen a strange phenomenon: "June 18, 1845, the vessel Viktoria crew saw in Mediterranean Sea three dazzling disks emerging. The disks seemed to be five times bigger than the Moon, and they were linked with each other with some thin fluorescent pivots."
Another piece of evidence originates from 1963: within four days sailors of the Wosp US aircraft-carrier and of five escort vessels saw during the manoeuvres near to Puerto Rico shore a mysterious object which moved under water with a high speed. The sailors tried to "break" it, though without effect.
July 20, 1967, at a distance of 120 miles from Brazil shore, an Argentine vessel captain wrote in his log book: "We saw a fluorescent object at a distance of 50 feet from the right board. It had a cigar shape and was 105 to 110 feet long. A strong white-blue radiance emanated from the object which produced no sound and left no track on water. It was moving for about 15 minutes simultaneously with the ship, then dove and moved under the ship and disappeared at all."
Some "fire dances" were observed in 1977 by the crew of the cruise motor ship Anton Makarneko in tropical waters. "Dancing circles" were described in 1976 by the crew of the Akademik Vorobiev vessel, while the echo-sounder registered some object presenting at a depth of 20 metres. Even Thor Heyerdahl saw similar phenomena (in particular, he writes about some round heads of 60-70 cm in diameter, which did not move and looked the sailors with their big aflame eyes).
So, what are these objects? Nobody can say it. In 19th century, scientists Adams and Jenkins assumed some intelligent creatures with gills live under water, accustomed to low temperatures and overpressure. Moreover, according to an old legend, in ancient times, there were Paseidonians living in ocean who were the human kind enlighteners. The underwater civilization representatives were not similar to Apollo.
Paseidonians are said to have taught Atlantes all science, so they even could travel in space. A woman from the city of Dnepropetrovsk who is said to have contacts with the extraterrestrial, got information about some mysterious civilization founded by extraterrestrial and called Atsor. Their descedants, who knew Solar System laws, forecasted a monster catastrophe which would put an end to their civilization. So, they built houses under ocean bottom. They resettled to their new houses before the cataclysm and still live there. While on the earth surface, only their probes can be observed, that above-mentioned underwater objects.
Translated by Vera Solovieva
PROOF OF ATLANTIS?
"We may at last have discovered evidence that proves the existence of that most fabled and mysterious civilisation: Atlantis"
Atlantis Will Be Found
05/26/2003 11:19
Russian researchers have held the Second Congress of Atlantis Explorers in Moscow.
Has legendary Atlantis ever existed? Russian explorers and researchers have recently held a meeting in Moscow in order to discuss the material about the legendary continent and share their opinion with each other. Alexander Voronin, the director of the Russian association for studying Atlantis's problems stated at the meeting that Atlantis would be found. Alexander Voronin added that various findings in different parts of the planet proved the certainty of finding the lost continent.
Remains of the "big land" have been found in the water area of the Brazilian island of Sao Paulo; an undestroyed temple of thousands years old has been found in the sea not far from Europe. Voronin believes that such findings testify to the existence of a "central kingdom and numerous islands, on which ten Atlas brothers lived."
Participants of the meeting stated that there had been a lot of evidence collected to prove the existence of Atlantis. Researchers believe that one has to continue the quest, looking for other discoveries. As far as the significance of the lost continent's existence is concerned, Alexander Gorodnitsky, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that the discovery of Atlantis might change the concept of nature and life development on planet Earth. Gorodnitsky believes that the proved existence of supreme civilizations in the past will make the up-to-date Darwinist society reconsider its views. Alexander Gorodnitsky has been on several expeditions to the places, where Atlantis allegedly existed. He still hopes to organize a targeted mission in order to study the problem in detail. "I am sure that this issue is extremely complicated and important, so one has to deal with it seriously, on a serious scientific level," Gorodnitsky was quoted as saying.
Searching for the Lost Continent
07/09/2003 16:45
Russian scientist believes, Atlantis lies between Gibraltar and the Azores.
Doctor of Geology and Mineralogy, professor Alexander Gorodnitsky has recently celebrated his 70th birthday. This is a world-known scientist from the Russian Institute of Oceanology. Alexander Gorodnitsky is also known in Russia as a poet and a song writer.
Alexander Gorodnitsky chaired the laboratory of the marine geophysics at the Arctic Geology Research Institute in Leningrad. He took part in a lot of expeditions in various areas of the World Ocean, he explored the ocean at the depth of five kilometers in underwater vehicles. He was the first scientist in the world to calculate the lithosphere power. The professor published more than 260 scientific works, including eight studies about the geology and geophysics of the ocean floor.
You wrote a song about Atlases, you read books about Atlantis. What is it: a return to the old romantic hobby, or something more serious?
It is probably both. Vyacheslav Kudryavtsev, Director of the Metahistory Institute, believes, there is a mouth of an ancient river on the continental slope to the south-west of the British Isles. Kudryavtsev thinks, an ancient town might have existed on the banks of the river too. He is determined to go there to explore that place. There is no actual evidence to prove that supposition, but a theory says that the Greenland ice melted in the beginning of the historic time, and the Gulf Stream made it to the north. The continent with such a beautiful name - Atlantis - was flooded as a result of the ocean level change. It seemed to be very interesting to me, especially after we came across a strange construction under the water - it looked like the ruins of an ancient city.
We have all necessary equipment at our disposal at the Oceanology Institute: we have underwater probes and vehicles, which allow to submerge to the depth of the ocean. We have already developed the project of the mission, freighted a ship, we have even obtained a permission from the UK. We just need $200,000 for the expedition, but Russian sponsors have refused to help us.
Why breaking a lance - a lot of people believe that there is no Atlantis at all, because there has not been any evidence found to prove the existence of the ancient continent.
The absence of findings is not supposed to be the base to say no to further attempts and works. It simply testifies to the low level of the research. About 15 years ago scientists found a proof that a large ancient civilization used to exist - the huge Hittite Kingdom.
I think that the lost continent is situated somewhere between Gibraltar and the Azores. In 1984 and 1986 our expedition was working on the slopes of Mount Ampere, when we found very strange constructions at the depth of only 100 meters - they looked like rooms and walls. I submerged to see that myself, made some sketches. Other geologists drew alters or walls - that was what they had seen, we could not take any photographs at that time. At first it seemed to me that those rooms and walls had been created by the nature, but the rooms were equal in size. The human psychology is organized very specifically: if someone had said that professor Gorodnitsky found the lost continent, no one would have believed such a message.
Yes, it is true, but there were a lot of other scientists, who were trying to find Atlantis, Jacques Yves Cousteau, for example.
It was Cousteau, who explored the sea floor around Santorin volcano and found the ruins of an ancient state there. A lot of people believed that it was Atlantis. However, such a point of view contradicted to Plato's words, who said that Atlantis was situated on the other side of Pillar of Hercules. From the point of view of the modern geology, I dare to prove that the underwater mountain chain between Gibraltar and the Azores is the lost continent. Canaries and Green Cape islands are the last peaks of Atlantis.
Atlas stands next to Pillar of Hercules, which means that ancient people had reasons for that. Of course, it would be ridiculous to think that we will find a golden statue or ruins of ancient towns. Any expedition has a chance to be a success, because there is always an opportunity to discover something new. If we manage to prove that Europe used to spread far behind the Pyrenees, it will change the perception of the human history. In addition to it, it is a great chance for Russian scientists to discover Atlantis!
Scientists say, the angle of inclination of the axis of the equator is changing, which will eventually make continents collide with each other. The collision will cause a monstrous earthquake, the land will sink under the water, tsunamis will flood practically everything. What is your attitude to such forecasts?
They are nonsense. The stability of continent plates tectonics is determined with endogenous (internal) factors. As far as the Earth's axis is concerned, one may not worry about it for the coming 100,000 years. It will remain as it is now and will not cause an earthquake that would be capable of destroying continents.
HAS AN ANCIENT HARBOR, PERHAPS FROM ATLANTIS, BEEN FOUND AT ANDROS ISLAND, BAHAMAS?
October 2003
A husband-wife research team has announced that an underwater, three-tiered stone platform lying under 10 feet of water just off northern Andros Island in the Bahamas may be the ruins of an ancient breakwater forming a harbor.
A husband-wife research team affiliated with the Virginia-Beach, VA-based Association for Research & Enlightenment (A.R.E.) has announced that an underwater, three-tiered stone platform lying under 10 feet of water just off northern Andros Island in the Bahamas may be the ruins of an ancient breakwater forming a harbor. At the annual A.R.E. Ancient Mysteries Conference, Drs. Greg and Lora Little, who found the underwater structure in March 2003, presented this conclusion in a video documentary and a just-released book on their research. The Littles, based in Memphis, TN, produce a monthly archaeologically-related newsletter for the A.R.E. entitled "Ancient Mysteries".
The Littles began a series of research expeditions in February in the Bahamian island of Andros in an attempt to solve several 35-year-old mysteries. In the late 1960's, numerous underwater formations were spotted by pilots flying over western Andros and writers have speculated that these could be ruins from Atlantis. The Littles managed to find all of the formations during extensive aerial surveys and then visited them by boat. All of the mysterious underwater formations had natural explanations.
But during their March trip to Andros, Dino Keller, an experienced diver and former dive operator, told them about an unusual stone structure he had viewed one time from a boat just after Hurricane Andrew passed the island in 1992. They eventually found the unusual formation about 500 yards offshore. It is a gigantic, flat-stone platform made by thick, mostly rectangular blocks of stone. It is comprised of three flat tiers, which increase in height as they move toward the sea. The blocks on the front edges of each of the three tiers are about 25- by 30-feet. The formation is about 150-feet wide and 450 yards long and encloses a deep-water lagoon and harbor at North Andros.
In June 2003, the Littles visited Andros again while filming a documentary for a series on "The Learning Channel". They found a large, flat area to the north of the platform under 10 to 12 feet of water. While most of the bottom of the seabed was covered with sand, in several places they photographed what appear to be paving stones carefully fitted and joined together. "The area looks like a quay," Greg stated. "Quays are paved staging areas typically associated with breakwaters constructed at ancient Mediterranean harbors. The ancient harbors of the Mediterranean were primarily built from beachrock, which was cut from nearby formations and then transported on water to the breakwater. These large blocks were then carefully lowered onto the breakwater forming multiple tiers."
In their book, "The A.R.E.'s Search for Atlantis" (Eagle Wing Books, Inc.), the Littles speculate that the harbor could have been used as long as 8,000-9,000 years ago. "But even before that time," Greg added, "the Andros platform could have been used as a massive foundation for buildings. It would have had a commanding view of the entrance into the Tongue of the Ocean, a two-mile deep trench running the entire length of the island. It is an astonishing find and it's going to take some time to thoroughly explore the structure and the surrounding area."
Contact: Joan Grasser
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Radio and TV interviewers can arrange interviews by contacting Hot Guest at (208) 552-2752.
Also see:
Is Atlantis Off The Shore Of Cuba? - 3/5/05
Intellpuke: "The following was submitted to Free Internet Press by George Erikson, co-author of "Atlantis In America: Navigators of the Ancient World". The article was written by Kevin Sullivan, of the Washington Post Foreign Service. It's a very interesting read.
The images appear slowly on the video screen, like ghosts from the ocean floor. The videotape, made by an unmanned submarine, shows massive stones in oddly symmetrical square and pyramid shapes in the deep-sea darkness.
Sonar images taken from a research ship 2,000 feet above are even more puzzling. They show that the smooth, white stones are laid out in a geometric pattern. The images look like fragments of a city, in a place where nothing man-made should exist, spanning nearly eight square miles of a deep-ocean plain off Cuba's western tip.
"What we have here is a mystery," said Paul Weinsweig, of Advanced Digital Communications (ADC), a Canadian company that is mapping the ocean bottom of Cuba's territorial waters under contract with the government of President Fidel Castro.
"Nature couldn't have built anything so symmetrical," Weinzweig said, running his finger over sonar printouts aboard his ship, tied up at a wharf in Havana harbor. "This isn't natural, but we don't know what it is."
The company's main mission is to hunt for shipwrecks filled with gold and jewels, and to locate potentially lucrative oil and natural gas reserves in deep water that Cuba does not have the means to explore.
Treasure hunting has become a growth industry in recent years as technology has improved, allowing more precise exploration and easier recovery from deeper ocean sites. Advanced Digital operates from the Ulises, a 260-foot trawler that was converted to a research vessel for Castro's government by the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
Since they began exploration three years ago with sophisticated side-scan sonar and computerized global-positioning equipment, Weinzweig said they have mapped several large oil and gas deposits and about 20 shipwrecks sitting beneath ancient shipping lanes where hundreds of old wrecks are believed to be resting.
The most historically important so far has been the USS Maine, which exploded and sank in Havana harbor in 1898, an event that ignited the Spanish-American War. In 1912, the ship was raised from the harbor floor by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and towed out into deeper water four miles from the Cuban shore, where it was scuttled. Strong currents carried the Maine away from the site, and its precise location remained unknown until Ulises's sonar spotted it two years ago.
Then, by sheer serendipity, on a summer day in 2000, as the Ulises was towing its sonar back and forth across the ocean like someone mowing a lawn, the unexpected rock formations appeared on the sonar readouts. That startled Weinzweig and his partner and wife,Paulina Zelitsky, a Russian-born engineer who has designed submarine bases for the Soviet military.
"We have looked at enormous amounts of ocean bottom, and we have never seen anything like this," Weinzweig said.
The discovery immediately sparked speculation about Atlantis, the fabled lost city first described by Plato in 360 B.C. Weinzweig and Zelitsky were careful not to use the A-word and said that much more study was needed before such a conclusion could be reached.
That has not stopped a boomlet of speculation, most of it on the Internet. Atlantis hunters have long argued their competing theories that the lost city was off Cuba, off the Greek island of Crete, off Gibraltar or elsewhere. Several Websites have touted the ADC images as a possible first sighting.
Among those who suspect the site may be Atlantis is George Erikson, a California anthropologist who co-authored a book in which he predicted that the lost city would be found offshore in the tropical Americas.
"I have always disagreed with all the archaeologists who dismiss myth," said Erikson, who said he had been shunned by many scientists since publishing his book about Atlantis. He said the story has too many historical roots to be dismissed as sheer fantasy and that if the Cuban site proves to be Atlantis, he hopes "to be the first to say, 'I told you so.' "
Manuel Iturralde, one of Cuba's leading geologists, said it was too soon to know what the images prove. He has examined the evidence and concluded that, "It's strange, it's weird; we've never seen something like this before, and we don't have an explanation for it."
Iturralde said volcanic rocks recovered at the site strongly suggest that the undersea plain was once above water, despite its extreme depth. He said the existence of those rocks was difficult to explain, especially because there are no volcanoes in Cuba.
He also said that if the symmetrical stones are determined to be the ruins of buildings, it could have taken 50,000 years or more for tectonic shifting to carry them so deep into the ocean. The ancient Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is only about 5,000 years old, which means the Cuba site "wouldn't fit with what we know about human architectural evolution," he said.
"It's an amazing question that we would like to solve," he said.
Iturralde stressed that the evidence is inconclusive. He said that no first-hand exploration in a mini-submarine had been conducted, which would provide a much more comprehensive assessment. He said a remote-operated video camera provides only a limited perspective, like someone looking at a close-up image of an elephant's toe and trying to describe the whole animal.
The National Geographic Society has expressed interest and is considering an expedition in manned submarines next summer, according to Sylvia Earl, a famed American oceanographer and explorer-in-residence at the society.
"It's intriguing," Earl said in an interview from her Oakland, Calif., home. "It is so compelling that I think we need to go check it out."
Earl said a planned expedition this past summer was canceled because of funding problems, but she said National Geographic hopes to explore the site next summer as part of its Sustainable Seas research program.
Earl has visited Cuba and described the preliminary evidence as "fantastic" and "extraordinary;" but she stressed that as a "skeptical scientist," she would assume that the unusual stones were formed naturally until scientific evidence proved otherwise. "There is so much speculation about ancient civilizations," she said. "I'm in tune with the reality and the science, not the myths or stories or fantasies."
As they search for answers, Weinzweig and Zelitsky have suddenly become involved in a new mystery -- the discovery of a potential blockbuster shipwreck. They said that on Aug. 15, their remotely operated vehicle came across what appears to be a 500-year-old Spanish galleon for which they had been searching.
They declined to name the ship, fearful of other treasure hunters, but they said it carried a priceless cargo of emeralds, diamonds and ancient artifacts. By contract, they said they can keep 40 percent of the value of whatever they recover. They said the value of findings at the newly discovered wreck could far exceed the nearly $4 million that their private backers have so far invested in their operations.
Weinzweig said a closer examination is needed to prove the ship's identity. He said that in treasure hunting, as in the search for Atlantis, there is no substitute for science.
"One thing is legend," he said, sitting on Ulises's bridge. "Another is the hard evidence you find on the ocean floor."
They discover symbol of the Atlantis city in a Iberian ceramics.
Added: (Tue Aug 09 2005)
They discover symbol of the Atlantis city in a Tartessian ceramics.
A fragment of ceramics found near the city of Seville, Spain, presents the symbol of the concentric city of Atlantis, it affirms studious investigator of the Plato's Atlantis.
The finding of this ceramics took place in the decade of the Fifties of the last century, nevertheless, was unnoticed pass until scriptologist Hispanic-Cuban Georgeos Diaz-Montexano was noticed of the representation of a center circle, that appears surrounded by five ring, and from whose center it leaves a straight outline - like a channel - that extends towards the outside of the ring. This design, evokes - according to Diaz-Montexano - the scheme of the main city of Atlantis, according to the description that offers Plato in the dialogue of the Critias.
The ceramics was exactly in the most emblematic site of the Tartessian civilization "El Carambolo", located to few kilometers of the city of Seville, and where it appeared the most famous treasure of gold jewels of this civilization.
According to Diaz-Montexano, "... it cannot be a mere chance, that in a so important, tie archaeological site to the Tartessian civilization it appears a ceramics with a clear representation of the architectonic scheme of the Acropolis of Atlantis. The Tartessian they would be the most direct descendants of the Atlanteans that it describes Plato, that would be the towns as well pre-tartessians of the Bronze Age... "
It does not seem either chance that in Iberia has been only discovered rest of ceramics of end of the Bronze Age with symbols that represent an identical scheme of the city of Atlantis, according to the descriptions of Plato, that is, a center circle surrounded by several concentric ring with a line that extends just from its center to the outside of the ring; pictorial desing that Diaz-Montexano has denominated like "Rings with Channel".
Ceramics with concentric circles can be in many places of the Mediterranean pertaining to other Greek, Phoenician and Etruscan towns like, but ceramics with symbols of "Rings with Channel", like the scheme of Atlantis, they only appear in Iberia, as it demonstrates the Hispanic-Cuban investigator.
Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found
8/15/05
A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered.
Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water.
The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago.
Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology.
Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, found a coarse-grained sedimentary deposit that is 50-120cm thick and could have been left behind after a tsunami.
Shaken sediments
Dr Gutscher said that the destruction described by Plato is consistent with a great earthquake and tsunami similar to the one that devastated the city of Lisbon in Portugal in 1755, generating waves with heights of up to 10m.
A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered.
Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water.
The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago.
Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology.
Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, found a coarse-grained sedimentary deposit that is 50-120cm thick and could have been left behind after a tsunami.
Shaken sediments
Dr Gutscher said that the destruction described by Plato is consistent with a great earthquake and tsunami similar to the one that devastated the city of Lisbon in Portugal in 1755, generating waves with heights of up to 10m.
The thick "turbidite" deposit results from sediments that have been shaken up by underwater geological upheavals.
It was found to date to around 12,000 years ago - roughly the age indicated by Plato for the destruction of Atlantis, Dr Gutscher reports in Geology.
Spartel Island, in the Gulf of Cadiz, was proposed as a candidate for the origin of the Atlantis legend in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard.
It is "in front of the Pillars of Hercules", or the Straits of Gibraltar, as Plato described. The philosopher said the fabled island civilisation had been destroyed in a single day and night, disappearing below the sea.
Sedimentary records reveal that events like the 1755 Lisbon earthquake occur every 1,500 to 2,000 years in the Gulf of Cadiz.
But the mapping of the island carried out by Dr Gutscher failed to turn up any manmade structures and also showed that the island was much smaller than previously believed.
This could make it less likely that the island was inhabited by a civilisation.
Atlantis Exact Location May Have Been Found
The geographer who demonstrated the similarity between Ireland and Atlantis is now providing more details. New data supports the hypothesis that the original tale came to Ireland from an island that sank much like Plato claimed. Geological data now points to an exact location--in the North Sea.
Miami, Fla. (PRWEB) April 26, 2006 -- In 2004 a geographer demonstrated the similarity between Ireland and Plato's Atlantis. He suggested that the tale of the island that sank came to Ireland from the North Sea. New geological data may confirm the hypothesis.
By comparing Plato's description with 3-dimensional seismic data from oil exploration, and archaeological analyses of paleoenvironments, a plausible location has been found in the Silver Pit meteorite impact crater. If so, it is not just under the sea, but under the bottom of the sea. This would explain why it has not been found yet: 3D seismic studies is something quite new.
The original hypothesis was presented by Dr. Ulf Erlingsson in the book "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land." The foreword was written by W. Karlén, professor emeritus in Geography and editor of a scientific journal.
In the book he concluded that "beyond reasonable doubt, Plato based the geographic description of Atlantis on Ireland." However, he also pointed out that the story of the island that sank must have come from elsewhere, and suggested Dogger Bank in the North Sea as a possible source.
Plato wrote that the city of Atlantis was located inside three concentric lakes created by the god Poseidon. Seismic data indicate that such a location may exist on the correct side of Dogger Bank. Furthermore, it is at the correct depth for having sunk at the time Plato claimed--at the very end of the ice age.
Apart from studying a possible historic origin for the Atlantis tale, Erlingsson has recently published an article on the risk for a jökulhlaup from East Antarctica, a prediction that was confirmed by an article in Nature only weeks later. He has also got an article in preparation that proposes a novel explanation for why and how the ice age ended. It is his geographic research into dramatic natural events that has led him to suspect that the tale of Atlantis may have a background in reality.
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