Hello everyone, welcome back. I am mixed strange. This is crazy Strange Stories. Episode twenty four was Atlantis Reel? So was Atlantis Reel? Inside the myth of the lost city and the intriguing theories about its existence. There are many purported lost cities throughout time, but none are more famous than Atlantis. First described by Greek philosopher Plato, Atlantis served as an allegorical representation of the hubrius of large nations, kind of like a warning, I suppose, and the consequences that come as a result. But was Atlantis real? Plato wrote that Atlantis had once been a powerful naval empire, dominating much of the Western world, before it fell out of favor with the gods and submerged into the Atlantic Ocean. Although many historians agree that Plato's descriptions of Atlantis were purely fictitious, meant only to illustrate the larger point in his works, this hasn't stopped speculation, conspiracy theories, and legends about the lost city from circulating. Even today, many people wonder did Atlantis really exist? Here's what history tells us. While modern stories of Atlantis often depict it as some lost utopian society, the version of Atlantis and Plato's Dialogues was anything but. Plato first told the story of the lost city in Tamias and Critias, which serve still as the foundation of all other legends surrounding this purported ancient empire. I probably butchered those moving on. In his Dialogues, Plato quotes an Athenian named Solon, one of these Seven Sages of Greece, who had spent time in Egypt between five ninety and five eighty BCE, claiming that he first heard of Atlantis. During his travels. Solon, according to Plato, found Egyptian records that spoke of Atlantis, which he then translated Intamius Timius. Plato described Atlantis as having once been larger than Libya and Asia put together, and it was possible for travelers of that time to cross from it to other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent. Over against them, which encompassed encompasses that veritable ocean. Plato describes as civilization's leadership as a confederation of kings of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island. The latter detail is of particular note as it represents a society quite different than the ancient democracy of Athens. Plato further expands upon the story of Atlantis, postulating that ancient Athens represented the perfect society which he detailed in Republic, and that Atlantis stood in direct contrast. He further explained that the island nation had been bequeathed to Poseidon, who then fell in love with a woman named Clito. The two had five pairs of male twins together, the oldest of whom was named Atlas. In Plato's tale, the Atlantic Ocean was said to be named for him, and Atlas became the king of Atlantis. Excuse me, so. Eventually the kingdom grew and began to expand, and war broke out between the Atlanteans and the Athenians. Atlantis had already overthrown parts of Libya, the European continent, and lands as far as Egypt, but the Athenians led a successful resistance and liberated the conquered lands. This is my first I've never heard this. Maybe I've never gone down a rabbit hole far, you know, quite far enough, But I don't remember ever hearing this part of this story concerning Atlantis. But it was like this great civil War. In the wake of this conflict, Plato wrote, there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of misfortune, Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea. All of this purportedly happened nine thousand years before Plato's own time. Many historians agree that Plato conceived of the story to function as a cautionary tale, largely due to the fact that other writings from the time failed to mention the lost city. But then, nearly two thousand years after Plato first wrote of Atlantis, new life was breathed into the legend. So Ignatious Donnelly reignites theories about the lost city. In eighteen eighty two, former US Congressman Ignacious eld Donnelly published a book titled Atlantis The Antidiluvian World. Donnelly claimed that Atlantis had indeed existed, but unlike Plato's portrayal, it had been a place where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness. Donnelly outlined thirteen hypotheses about Atlantis that he sought to examine, including that Plato's description of Atlantis was true, that Atlantis was the first real human civilization, that the Greek pantheon of gods had actually been the kings and queens of the island nation, that Atlanteans practiced sun worship, and that Indo Europeans, the Semitic peoples, and the Turanian races all stemmed from Atlantis. The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years regarded as a fable proves nothing. Donnelly wrote, there is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance, as well as skepticism, which is born of intelligence. The people nearest to the past are not always those who are best informed concerning the past. He likened the potential discovery of Atlantis to Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were once considered myths and referred to as fabulous cities, and in fact, just ten years before Donnelly's Atlantis was published, two amateur archaeologists named Heinrich Schillermann and Frank Calvert claimed to have found the ancient city of Troy first described in Homer's Iliad. While Donnelly did not find any true evidence supporting his hypotheses, his work proved to be massively influential. Many theories on Atlantis stem from Donnelly's own ideas, and his work inspired other authors like James Churchward, who wrote of the lost continent of MoU sometimes called Limura. The discovery of other sunken cities across the world in the years since Donnelly's book was published have also kept the hope of one day finding Atlantis alive, and some archaeological evidence may in fact support this. Several discoveries over the centuries have been linked to Atlantis, such as the Bimini Road and underwater rock formation off the coast of North Beminy, which some have taken to calling the road to Atlantis. That said, there is little conclusive evidence to suggest the limestone blocks that make up the Beminy Road are anything but natural, and in the decades since this discovery was made, nothing else has linked it to the actual city of Atlantis. Other theories have connected the story of Atlantis to the island of Santorini, but according to author Christos A. Donus Dijonis, this theory falls apart as it completely disregards Plato's given chronologic chronology of the nine thousand and six hundred BC timeline. Writing for the Greek report order. He instead suggests that the tail of Atlantis may have been tied to the Sicklades islands, which were once connected by a vast plateau now four hundred feet under water, and the Sicklades as we know them today were mountaintops of the prehistoric super island. Studies have shown that oceans and the Mediterranean Sea were lower by about four hundred feet in the ancient world, meaning, according to the Jaunus, that if Atlantis had been real, it would now be under four hundred feet of water. Based on this, this theory could actually be a reasonable one. Rather than sinking into the ocean as play had suggested, he urges that the rising of the sea level could have been the flood that claimed Atlantis. As for the occupants of that prehistoric island, recent DNA studies by the University of Washington and others concluded that after the sea level in the Mediterranean began to rise, to escape the d nation, some of these people migrated as far as the island of Crete. They eventually established themselves as the Minoan civilization, while other former Atlanteans re emerge as the Miceians in the Aegeans. This is of course a distilled version of his theory, which he covers in more depth in his book Atlantis, The Find of a Lifetime. Still the despite his thorough research, conclusive evidence of Atlantis has yet to be discovered. Ultimately, while fantastical stories of Atlantis have been told for centuries, it seems more and more implausible that there ever was a real Atlantis, at least not one as Plato described. Theories like these make a compelling case, but still fail to take all factors into consideration. For example, even if there had once been a kingdom known as Atlantis, the likelihood that it was larger than Libya and Asia put together is all but impossible based on what researchers know about Teutonic plates, not to mention that a land mass of that size in the middle of the Atlantic would surely have been noticed by oceanographers. But sunken cities have been found before, so it's also worth considering that Plato's account might have been somewhat embellished. He does make it clear, however, that Atlantis was in the Atlantic Ocean, and to date it has never been found. Plus, there are the many theories not covered here that Atlantis was some hyperadvanced civilization far beyond its ears, that it never sank but is instead one of any number of modern islands, or that it disappeared into the Bermuda triangle that muddy, that muddies the waters even further. As it stands, it's safe to say there is no evidence that Atlantis is real in science would agree. How about you? Did you you agree and you agree with science? I don't know. I'm kind of on the fence about Atlantis. I think there's there's some really good evidence just by descriptions that some scientists or adventure seekers, you know, Indiania Jones types, have kind of placed it in Spain, which is really interesting. There's some tributary in a series of like circular canals and circular islands and all these different things that they kind of nailed down maybe the inspiration for Atlantis. I have no idea. Some say it might be on the western north northwestern part of Africa at one time. So pretty interesting. The story of Atlantis is it's always it's like one of the first like mysterious stories that I kind of latched onto as a child. So it's always near and dear to my heart that in Locknest Monster you know, good old and nessy, but there it is. That's over at all. That's interesting and I'll obviously i'll link to it. That's this author's take on it. There's a little more to it than that, but it's pretty good read, all right. Please five star, rate and review. Where you get all of your pod catchers, where you get all of your podcasts. Please subscribe. I've been mixed, strange, and I am out yet. Name day and names, name names any day, da
