What if ...



The legend of the sunken island of Atlantis as recorded by Plato's dialogues of Criteas and Timaeus is a distant memory of an actual catastrophic event.


What if ...



The sinking of the island-peninsula described in the Urantia Book, allegedly occuring approximately 33,800 years ago, and the sinking of an island civilization referred to as "Atlantis" in Plato's dialogues and purported to have occured 11,500 years ago, are one in the same event.

What if ...


The recording of even the distant memory of this cataclysmic event in Plato's dialogues was no fortuitous circumstance, but rather the result of a pre-meditated plan by our invisible cousins, the "Midwayers," to perpetuate a human record of the event, even if in the form of a legend.


What if ...


The seeming coincidental confluence of circumstances:  the preservation of Plato's writings on Atlantis over the centuries, the Urantia Book's account and description of the first Garden of Eden, and the momentus archeological discoveries by a man with an insatiable drive to bring alive the actual beginnings of civilization from their dormancy within the mythologies of the world and to closely examine the topography of the easternmost floor of the Mediterranean Sea ... was actually by divine design.

What if ...


It was always the divine intent that, when the world was deemed ready, we should all finally learn the truth about our human origin and our original racial stratification.

What if ...
The Portal Into the Future is in the Discovery of the Past

P.1255 - §5 2. The progress angels. These seraphim are intrusted with the task of initiating the evolutionary progress of the successive social ages. They foster the development of the inherent progressive trend of evolutionary creatures; they labor incessantly to make things what they ought to be. The group now on duty is the second to be assigned to the planet.
Plato's "Timaeus"                               Plato's "Critias"
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HYPOTHESIS

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360 BC
Timaeus
by Plato
translated by Benjamin Jowett
Timaeus 24e-25d

Egyptian priest, speaking to Solon:

The memorials which your own and other nations have once had of the famous actions of mankind perish in the waters at certain periods; and the rude survivors in the mountains begin again, knowing nothing of the world before the flood.

But in Egypt the traditions of our own and other lands are by us registered forever in our temples. The genealogies which you have recited to us out of your own annals, Solon, are a mere children’s story. For in the first place, you remember one deluge only, and there were many of them, and you know nothing of that fairest and noblest race of which you are a seed or remnant. The memory of them was lost, because there was no written voice among you. For in the times before the great flood Athens was the greatest and best of cities and did the noblest deeds and had the best constitution of any under the face of heaven.’

Solon marvelled, and desired to be informed of the particulars. ‘You are welcome to hear them,’ said the priest, ‘both for your own sake and for that of the city, and above all for the sake of the goddess who is the common foundress of both our cities. Nine thousand years have elapsed since she founded yours, and eight thousand since she founded ours, as our annals record.1  Many laws exist among us which are the counterpart of yours as they were in the olden time.  I will briefly describe them to you, and you shall read the account of them at your leisure in the sacred registers.

In the first place, there was a caste of priests among the ancient Athenians, and another of artisans; also castes of shepherds, hunters, and husbandmen, and lastly of warriors, who, like the warriors of Egypt, were separated from the rest, and carried shields and spears, a custom which the goddess first taught you, and then the Asiatics, and we among Asiatics first received from her. Observe again, what care the law took in the pursuit of wisdom, searching out the deep things of the world, and applying them to the use of man.

The spot of earth which the goddess chose had the best of climates, and produced the wisest men; in no other was she herself, the philosopher and warrior goddess, so likely to have votaries. And there you dwelt as became the children of the gods, excelling all men in virtue, and many famous actions are recorded of you. The most famous of them all was the overthrow of the island of Atlantis. 2  This great island lay over against the Pillars of  Heracles, in extent greater than Libya Asia put together, and was the passage to other islands and to a great ocean of which the Mediterranean sea was only the harbour;  3 and within the Pillars the empire of Atlantis reached in Europe to Tyrrhenia and in Libya to Egypt. This mighty power was arrayed against Egypt and Hellas and all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. Then your city did bravely, and won renown over the whole earth. For at the peril of her own existence, and when the other Hellenes had deserted her, she repelled the invader, and of her own accord gave liberty to all the nations within the Pillars. A little while afterwards there were great earthquakes and floods, and your warrior race all sank into the earth; and the great island of Atlantis also disappeared in the sea. This is the explanation of the shallows which are found in that part of the Atlantic ocean.  4





Footnotes for Timaeus:

1 It is possible that by the time the 'annals' were recorded in the Egyptian temples there had already been so much distortion of the facts over millennia of oral tradition that the timeline had become greatly shortened at the time of actual recording.  The island-peninsula was not contemporary with the progenitors of the Greeks at 11,000 to 9,000 B.C., having already sunk some 24,000 years earlier. (back)

2  It may have developed that the "memory" of the sequence of events was confounded by the time of the recording in the Egyptian temples, and that such confusion was perpetuated by the tradition that the sinking of the island-peninsula was as the judgment of Zeus, surely as the result of the corruption and evils of the Atlantaeans. The facts rather may be that this record represents the merging of what eventually became a very distant memory of successive invasions of the island-peninsula, before it was inundated approximately 33,800 years ago, with what had become the distant tradition, even as reflected in Plato's account, of how a certain group (the Nodites), as the last residents to dwell on the island-peninsula before it sank, was opposed to cooperating with the descendants of Adam, a branch of whom, approximately 20,000 years later, were the progenitors of the Greeks.  It may also be that, still thousands of years later, as the island of Cyprus may have become increasingly regarded through tradition as having had some connection with "Atlantis," the 'story' of Atlantis became further permeated with the accounts of Cyprus having become settled by a progressive group from Mesopotamia (somewhere between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago), and that, subsequently, the island was overcome by a succession of belligerent marauders.   (back)

3 This reference likely provides further substantiation to the hypothesis that Plato's record represents a confusion of two differing time periods, the times before the inundation of the island-peninsula, before the breaking of the Gibralter Dam approximately 33,800 years ago, and far more recent times when Cyprus as an island may have still been remembered, even if only as legend, as the remnant of the now-legendary "Atlantis" within the Mediterranean "harbor" of the greater ocean beyond the Gibralter Strait.  (back)

4 After the sinking of the island-peninsula, it may have become customary to regard the Mediterranean Sea as part of the greater Atlantic Ocean.  It would be expected that the waters over the area near the new coast of the Mediterranean shore (Syria) would be too shallow for maritime commerce.
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Plato's "Critias"






































360 BC
Critias
by Plato
translated by Benjamin Jowett

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE:

CRITIAS;
HERMOCRATES;
TIMAEUS;
SOCRATES.

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[Timaeus] How thankful I am, Socrates, that I have arrived at last, and, like a weary traveller after a long journey, may be at rest! And I pray the being who always was of old, and has now been by me revealed, to grant that my words may endure in so far as they have been spoken truly and acceptably to him; but if unintentionally I have said anything wrong, I pray that he will impose upon me a just retribution, and the just retribution of him who errs is that he should be set right. Wishing, then, to speak truly in future concerning the generation of the gods, I pray him to give me knowledge, which of all medicines is the most perfect and best. And now having offered my prayer I deliver up the argument to Critias, who is to speak next according to our agreement.

[Critias] And I, Timaeus, accept the trust, and as you at first said that you were going to speak of high matters, and begged that some forbearance might be shown to you, I too ask the same or greater forbearance for what I am about to say. And although I very well know that my request may appear to be somewhat and discourteous, I must make it nevertheless. For will any man of sense deny that you have spoken well? I can only attempt to show that I ought to have more indulgence than you, because my theme is more difficult; and I shall argue that to seem to speak well of the gods to men is far easier than to speak well of men to men: for the inexperience and utter ignorance of his hearers about any subject is a great assistance to him who has to speak of it, and we know how ignorant we are concerning the gods.

But I should like to make my meaning clearer, if Timaeus, you will follow me. All that is said by any of us can only be imitation and representation. For if we consider the likenesses which painters make of bodies divine and heavenly, and the different degrees of gratification with which the eye of the spectator receives them, we shall see that we are satisfied with the artist who is able in any degree to imitate the earth and its mountains, and the rivers, and the woods, and the universe, and the things that are and move therein, and further, that knowing nothing precise about such matters, we do not examine or analyze the painting; all that is required is a sort of indistinct and deceptive mode of shadowing them forth. But when a person endeavours to paint the human form we are quick at finding out defects, and our familiar knowledge makes us severe judges of any one who does not render every point of similarity. And we may observe the same thing to happen in discourse; we are satisfied with a picture of divine and heavenly things which has very little likeness to them; but we are more precise in our criticism of mortal and human things. Wherefore if at the moment of speaking I cannot suitably express my meaning, you must excuse me, considering that to form approved likenesses of human things is the reverse of easy. This is what I want to suggest to you, and at the same time to beg, Socrates, that I may have not less, but more indulgence conceded to me in what I am about to say. Which favour, if I am right in asking, I hope that you will be ready to grant.

[Socrates] Certainly, Critias, we will grant your request, and we will grant the same by anticipation to Hermocrates, as well as to you and Timaeus; for I have no doubt that when his turn comes a little while hence, he will make the same request which you have made. In order, then, that he may provide himself with a fresh beginning, and not be compelled to say the same things over again, let him understand that the indulgence is already extended by anticipation to him. And now, friend Critias, I will announce to you the judgment of the theatre. They are of opinion that the last performer was wonderfully successful, and that you will need a great deal of indulgence before you will be able to take his place.

[Hermocrates] The warning, Socrates, which you have addressed to him, I must also take to myself. But remember, Critias, that faint heart never yet raised a trophy; and therefore you must go and attack the argument like a man. First invoke Apollo and the Muses, and then let us hear you sound the praises and show forth the virtues of your ancient citizens.

[Critias.] Friend Hermocrates, you, who are stationed last and have another in front of you, have not lost heart as yet; the gravity of the situation will soon be revealed to you; meanwhile I accept your exhortations and encouragements. But besides the gods and goddesses whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of my discourse is dependent on her favour, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre. And now, making no more excuses, I will proceed.

NOTE:  (It should be acknowledged here that the preceding and extravagant disclaimer is inherent license to propose that the descriptions recorded below represent 1) legend already established at the time of Plato, and 2) a mixing not only of multiple geographic locations but also of multiple time periods.  Unbeknownst to even Plato's contemporaries may have been the facts that  1) both their oral traditions and written records that provided descriptions of terrain attributed to areas beyond "Atlantis" may have in actuality been physically descriptive *of* that legendary Atlantis, and  2)  the historicity associated with their record may represent a condensation of events that in actuality span a time frame of literally tens of thousands of years.)

Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as [Timaeus] was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the precedence to Athens.

In the days of old the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by allotment. There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by contention that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own districts; and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their own pleasure;-thus did they guide all mortal creatures.

Now different gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order. Hephaestus and Athene, who were brother and sister, and sprang from the same father, having a common nature, and being united also in the love of philosophy and art, both obtained as their common portion this land, which was naturally adapted for wisdom and virtue; and there they implanted brave children of the soil, and put into their minds the order of government; their names are preserved, but their actions have disappeared by reason of the destruction of those who received the tradition, and the lapse of ages. For when there were any survivors, as I have already said, they were men who dwelt in the mountains; and they were ignorant of the art of writing, and had heard only the names of the chiefs of the land, but very little about their actions. The names they were willing enough to give to their children; but the virtues and the laws of their predecessors, they knew only by obscure traditions; and as they themselves and their children lacked for many generations the necessaries of life, they directed their attention to the supply of their wants, and of them they conversed, to the neglect of events that had happened in times long past; for mythology and the enquiry into antiquity are first introduced into cities when they begin to have leisure, and when they see that the necessaries of life have already been provided, but not before.

And this is reason why the names of the ancients have been preserved to us and not their actions. This I infer because Solon said that the priests in their narrative of that war mentioned most of the names which are recorded prior to the time of Theseus, such as Cecrops, and Erechtheus, and Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, and the names of the women in like manner. Moreover, since military pursuits were then common to men and women, the men of those days in accordance with the custom of the time set up a figure and image of the goddess in full armour, to be a testimony that all animals which associate together, male as well as female, may, if they please, practise in common the virtue which belongs to them without distinction of sex.

Now the country was inhabited in those days by various classes of citizens; there were artisans, and there were husbandmen, and there was also a warrior class originally set apart by divine men. The latter dwelt by themselves, and had all things suitable for nurture and education; neither had any of them anything of their own, but they regarded all that they had as common property; nor did they claim to receive of the other citizens anything more than their necessary food. And they practised all the pursuits which we yesterday described as those of our imaginary guardians.

Concerning the country the Egyptian priests said what is not only probable but manifestly true, that the boundaries were in those days fixed by the Isthmus, and that in the direction of the continent they [the boundaries] extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes; the boundary line came down in the direction of the sea, having the district of Oropus on the right, and with the river Asopus as the limit on the left. The land was the best in the world, and was therefore able in those days to support a vast army, raised from the surrounding people. Even the remnant of Attica which now exists may compare with any region in the world for the variety and excellence of its fruits and the suitableness of its pastures to every sort of animal, which proves what I am saying; but in those days the country was fair as now and yielded far more abundant produce.

How shall I establish my words? and what part of it can be truly called a remnant of the land that then was? The whole country is only a long promontory extending far into the sea away from the rest of the continent, while the surrounding basin of the sea is everywhere deep in the neighbourhood of the shore. Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking; and during all this time and through so many changes, there has never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from the mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all round and sunk out of sight. The consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are remaining only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, as in the case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left. 1

But in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with soil, and the plains, as they are termed by us, of Phelleus were full of rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains. Of this last the traces still remain, for although some of the mountains now only afford sustenance to bees, not so very long ago there were still to be seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a size sufficient to cover the largest houses; and there were many other high trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for cattle. Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea, but, having an abundant supply in all places, and receiving it into herself and treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the streams which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant fountains and rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred memorials in places where fountains once existed; and this proves the truth of what I am saying.

Such was the natural state of the country, which was cultivated, as we may well believe, by true husbandmen, who made husbandry their business, and were lovers of honour, and of a noble nature, and had a soil the best in the world, and abundance of water, and in the heaven above an excellently attempered climate.

Now the city in those days was arranged on this wise. In the first place the Acropolis was not as now. For the fact is that a single night of excessive rain washed away the earth and laid bare the rock; at the same time there were earthquakes, and then occurred the extraordinary inundation, which was the third before the great destruction of Deucalion. But in primitive times the hill of the Acropolis extended to the Eridanus and Ilissus, and included the Pnyx on one side, and the Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite side to the Pnyx, and was all well covered with soil, and level at the top, except in one or two places. Outside the Acropolis and under the sides of the hill there dwelt artisans, and such of the husbandmen as were tilling the ground near; the warrior class dwelt by themselves around the temples of Athene and Hephaestus at the summit, which moreover they had enclosed with a single fence like the garden of a single house. On the north side they had dwellings in common and had erected halls for dining in winter, and had all the buildings which they needed for their common life, besides temples, but there was no adorning of them with gold and silver, for they made no use of these for any purpose; they took a middle course between meanness and ostentation, and built modest houses in which they and their children's children grew old, and they handed them down to others who were like themselves, always the same. But in summer-time they left their gardens and gymnasia and dining halls, and then the southern side of the hill was made use of by them for the same purpose.

Where the Acropolis now is there was a fountain, which was choked by the earthquake, and has left only the few small streams which still exist in the vicinity, but in those days the fountain gave an abundant supply of water for all and of suitable temperature in summer and in winter. This is how they dwelt, being the guardians of their own citizens and the leaders of the Hellenes, who were their willing followers.

And they took care to preserve the same number of men and women through all time, being so many as were required for warlike purposes, then as now-that is to say, about twenty thousand. Such were the ancient Athenians, and after this manner they righteously administered their own land and the rest of Hellas; they were renowned all over Europe and Asia for the beauty of their persons and for the many virtues of their souls, and of all men who lived in those days they were the most illustrious.

And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child, I will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries. For friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in common.

Yet, before proceeding further in the narrative, I ought to warn you, that you must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be introduced. The tale, which was of great length, began as follows:-

I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe. Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high on any side.  3

In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her, and breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from the centre, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not as yet. He himself, being a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island, bringing up two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil.

He also begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, 2 he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Heracles, facing the country which is now called the region of Gades in that part of the world, he gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres, and the other Evaemon. To the elder of the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus, and Autochthon to the one who followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus, and the younger Mestor. And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger that of Diaprepes. All these and their descendants for many generations were the inhabitants and rulers of diverse islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in our direction over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.

Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family, and they retained the kingdom, the eldest son handing it on to his eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished with everything which they needed, both in the city and country. For because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided most of what was required by them for the uses of life.

In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, solid as well as fusile, and that which is now only a name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, being more precious in those days than anything except gold. There was an abundance of wood for carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island; for as there was provision for all other sorts of animals, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and on plains, so there was for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of all. Also whatever fragrant things there now are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for nourishment and any other which we use for food-we call them all by the common name pulse, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement, and are fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating-all these that sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their temples and palaces and harbours and docks. And they arranged the whole country in the following manner:

First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, making a road to and from the royal palace. And at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the god and of their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who went before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided at the bridges the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving room for a single trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and they covered over the channels so as to leave a way underneath for the ships; for the banks were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall on every side, placing towers and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, varying the colour to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum.

The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed on this wise:-in the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of the ten princes first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, to be an offering to each of the ten. Here was Poseidon's own temple which was a stadium in length, and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum. In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot-the charioteer of six winged horses-and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of them by the men of those days. There were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private persons. And around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives, and there were many other great offerings of kings and of private persons, coming both from the city itself and from the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence, and the palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple.

In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the heavens, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths; there were the kings' baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable. Of the water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil, while the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and others for horses in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was set apart a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in. Also there were guardhouses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of whom were appointed-to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, near the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace.

Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbours were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all sorts night and day.

I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them also many wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.

I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by the labours of many generations of kings through long ages. It was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth, and width, and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have been artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth-in winter having the benefit of the rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the canals.

As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find a leader for the men who were fit for military service, and the size of a lot was a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast multitude, which was distributed among the lots and had leaders assigned to them according to their districts and villages. The leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and riders for them, and a pair of chariot-horses without a seat, accompanied by a horseman who could fight on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer who stood behind the man-at-arms to guide the two horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy armed soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three javelin-men, who were light-armed, and four sailors to make up the complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal city-the order of the other nine governments varied, and it would be wearisome to recount their several differences.

As to offices and honours, the following was the arrangement from the first. Each of the ten kings in his own division and in his own city had the absolute control of the citizens, and, in most cases, of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he would. Now the order of precedence among them and their mutual relations were regulated by the commands of Poseidon which the law had handed down. These were inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the kings were gathered together every fifth and every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal honour to the odd and to the even number.

And when they were gathered together they consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any one had transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this wise:-There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings, being left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without weapons but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar, besides the laws, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed manner, they had burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they put in the fire, after having purified the column all round. Then they drew from the bowl in golden cups and pouring a libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the pillar, and would punish him who in any point had already transgressed them, and that for the future they would not, if they could help, offend against the writing on the pillar, and would neither command others, nor obey any ruler who commanded them, to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each of them-offered up for himself and for his descendants, at the same time drinking and dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the temple of the god; and after they had supped and satisfied their needs, when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground, at night, over the embers of the sacrifices by which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation to bring against any one; and when they given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it together with their robes to be a memorial.

There were many special laws affecting the several kings inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following: They were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any of their cities attempted to overthrow the royal house; like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the descendants of Atlas. And the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten.

Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them.

By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as follows-   (The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.)








Footnotes for Critias:

1 Although Critias is set upon describing the land areas of ancient Greece, it is entirely plausible that as the account endured the many oral transferrences over the millenia, such description may have become mixed and transposed with the description of the Edenic Peninsula, which extended westward, out from Syria into the Mediterranean Sea.  The "wasted body" would clearly then be a comparative reference to the mountaintop ridges now known as the island of Cyprus.  Such transferrence can the more easily be concluded to be the case when one considers how the story as presented is intended to convey that the gods ultimately favored Athens over Atlantis.  That 'angle' is all the more substantiated by the fact that it was the Nodites, not the Adamsonites, that repeatedly settled upon the Edenic Peninsula before it sank, while the Greek land masses were settled by a branch of the descendants of Adamson and Ratta, becoming the ancient Greeks.  (back)

2 As traditions go, the formation of ten groups of teams of one hundred probably has the greatest longevity, spanning the long history of our world from even the days of the inception of the Dalamatia regime, 500,000 years ago.  Whether Critias' account of the ten princes is true to reality or merely myth, nevertheless either development very likely is patterned after the traditions handed down from the times of Adam's having commissioned ten groups of one hundred in his compromised effort to advance society in the Edenic Peninsula.  (back)
     
3 The natural hill north of the temple as described in the Urantia Book was "enlarged" to create the desired effect for the reception of the Adamic pair, but this manipulation of its height took place nearly 4,000 years before the Edenic peninsula sank.  Whether Critias' account of the mound near the center of the plain is accurate to the reality of an island-peninsula three times older than is indicated by Plato's record, or may have degraded in accuracy over the millennia, the fact remains that the man-made accentuation of the natural hill has prevailed over the ages, and today can be *clearly* seen along with apparent intersecting walls in the newest bathymetric maps that were generated from sophisticated sonar resulting from data obtained during the first expedition of the sea floor between Cyprus and Syria launched on 11/08/04, spearheaded by Robert Sarmast, author of the breakthrough book:                                                                                                                                  (back to Critias)
"Discovery of Atlantis; The Startling Case For The Island Of Cyprus" 

http://DiscoveryOfAtlantis.com 

VIEW SONAR-GENERATED IMAGES OF STRUCTURES





Map-rendering of the land-mass as it would be seen today were the Mediterranean sea surface level to be lowered.


Listen to the entire Coast-To-Coast Aug 7, 2006 interview by George Noory of
Robert Sarmast, explorer and author, regarding the sunken land-mass between Cyprus and Syria.
























UPDATES 2004

UPDATES 2005


February 19th, 2006 UPDATE:

The second expedition may take place in the Summer 2006.  Due to the high cost, there is a chance that an ROV will not be available.  Negotiations continue with interested broadcasting networks.  END


February 24th, 2006 UPDATE:

Robert will be arriving in Cyprus again by mid March.  The US broadcaster, NBC, will be there by late March to film Robert's story as part of a two hour Atlantis special due to air on one of its cable channels on July 2nd.   A few minutes of footage from the first expedition will be aired on this program for the first time.  The second expedition may also happen this spring/summer season depending on the availability of funds and/or favorable circumstances.  END


March 22nd, 2006  UPDATE:

NBC and crew will arrive in Cyprus today.  The host of the show will be Natalie Morales of MSNBC.  They will film choice spots around the island with Robert for three days before returning to the US.  If all goes well the documentary will air on July 2nd.  END


March 30th, 2006  UPDATE:

NBC and Natalie Morales have finished filming with Robert in Cyprus and it was a great success, with some beautiful footage taken of the island as well as a group voyage on an EDT vessel.  The Cyprus theory will be discussed for at least 30 minutes in the 2-hour Atlantis documentary due to be aired by the Sci-Fi channel in the US (July 2nd) and by SKY TV in Europe.

A revised edition of Robert's "Discovery of Atlantis" book is in the works and will hopefully be ready by July.  The new edition will include a report about the 2004 expedition by Commodore Robert S. Bates and an update by Robert, as well as a foreword by Colin Wilson.  Colin's foreword begins this way: " "I have virtually no doubt that Robert Sarmast’s conclusion that Plato’s Atlantis was situated in the south part of the island of Cyprus, and now lies under the sea, is correct."   END


June 8th, 2006  UPDATE:

The revised edition of Robert's "Discovery of Atlantis" book is on the verge of public distribution.  The new edition includes a report about the 2004 expedition, an update by Robert, and a Foreword by Colin Wilson, who expresses his confidence in Robert's theory that Plato's Atlantis now lies under the sea between Cyprus and Syria.

The second expedition may or may not happen before the end of summer depending on the availability of funds and/or favorable circumstances.  END


June 23rd, 2006  UPDATE:

Robert's Cyprus theory along with film footage of the first expedition was among the highlights of the 2-hour documentary, "Quest for Atlantis: Startling New Secrets," with Natalie Morales.  The second expedition may or may not happen before the end of summer depending on the availability of funds and/or favorable circumstances.  Robert's second edition of his book is now on sale.   END


August 8th, 2006  UPDATE:

Robert Sarmast, in an interview by George Noory on Coast-To-Coast Monday night, revealed that it was the Urantia Book's 51-year-old description of a sunken rectangular land mass, its accounting of its sinking, and its placement as having once been "a long narrow peninsula--almost an island--projecting westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea," "the neck connecting with the mainland by only twenty-seven miles at the narrowest point," that initiated his quest to gather hard data and evidence within the scientific arena, and to correlate anecdotal information from ancient cultures and mythologies of the surrounding lands, in order to actually physically find this sunken land mass.  It was during his research that he discovered the many points of correlation between the Urantia Book's account and description of the sunken land mass and Plato's account and description of "Atlantis" within his writings, "Critias" and "Timaeus."

Sarmast thereafter attacked the project of gathering scientific and logical proof demonstrating that the physical site indicated by the Urantia Book is the very site of Plato's legendary, "Atlantis."  Sarmast confirms that he believes not only the Urantia Book's account of the catastrophic event, but also its claim that this sunken land mass was once the site of the original Garden of Eden, as he has gathered together a wealth of correlative indicators from the several ancient mythologies.  Sarmast further alluded to the appearance of a correlation between the Urantia Book's claim of the timing of the arrival of Adam and Eve on this island-peninsula and the generally-accepted scientific observation of the sudden physical and technological acceleration, beginning approximately 35,000 years ago, in the evolution of the theretofore primitive human species.

"It's extremely exciting. It is just a gigantic discovery.  I can't overemphasize the magnitude of what this means for the world and how it's going to change history and what we know about the origins of civilization," Sarmast said.

Sarmast and his team hope to undertake a second expedition soon to more deeply scan the walls and surrounding area using a "sub-bottom profiler," (SBP) which would provide a better swath of evidentiary information than would be the case were they to use a Remote Operating Vehicle (ROV) with its inherent limitations.

The Urantia Book was first published in 1955 and is the only source on the planet that pinpoints the location of this sunken land mass, and further, claims to detail the nature and extent of the catastrophic event.  If the Urantia Book is true, and Sarmast's Atlantis Project team of scientists further demonstrates that it has actually found remnants of an ancient civilization, it may well turn out that the ancient legend of "Atlantis" as recorded in Plato's writings in fact dates three times further into the past than Plato had ever dreamed.  Conversely, as scientific evidence is accumulated of the timing of the catastrophe, and further, as those findings ultimately validate the Urantia Book's claim, the ramifications within the fields of religion and history will be unparalleled for all time.   END


September 1st, 2006   UPDATE

NOTE FROM ROBERT:

The second expedition is set to happen sometime this fall; no dates will be provided but a pubic release will be sent afterwards.  We'll be using some of the world's best companies and equipment for our research, whose focus will be to examine and identify the core composition and structural shape of the anomalies around the purported "Acropolis Hill," particularly the wall at the base of the hill.  We will learn what is under the sediment resting on top of the wall and the summit as well.  There will be a documentary crew on board and the expedition will be featured on a major show this coming January, 2007.  END


September 14th, 2006  UPDATE

ROBERT REPLIES TO A PUBLIC FORUM INQUIRY:

The wall itself is too thick to be merely a wall (300 feet thick) and since it appears to catch the river water coming down the hill, it most likely was a walled canal of some type. This is of course exactly as the ancient world/Plato described the Acropolis Hill, with two rivers coming down the summit and caught by an outer canal at the foothills, which was walled. The ancient world routinely protected their cities with walled canals/rivers (i.e. Babylon).

We don't know what that other wall is for.

Since the whole area is covered by silt, the only way to see what the structure is actually made of, and what its shape is, is by using a sub-bottom profiler which will penetrate the mud and show what's under it. This is coming up in the second expedition.

We'll send out a press release after the expedition but since it's all being funded by a media company for a documentary, we won't be able to actually show the results until early next year when the program airs.  END



October 27th, 2006  UPDATE

ROBERT REPORTS ON CONCLUSION OF SECOND EXPEDITION: 

Forum Post:  Results of Second Expedtion

"The second expedition took place October 23-25.  It was filled with massive problems that had to be overcome, serious drama, extremely electric moments, heart-breaking disappointments, and technological breakthroughs.  It should make a wonderful documentary with all that went on."

"As far as the results go, we did not bring back the irrefutable proof that we were hoping for.  The structures/walls are natural and not man-made; however, they have been there for millions of years and were probably used as a natural fortress.  In other words, these natural structures would have served as perfect defense/irrigation walls and the protected hillside would have been prized territory.  We all agreed that the number of matches with Plato's description which pointed us to this particular mountain before its features could be seen, and the subsequent discovery of numerous canals, walls, rivers etc. around the area which also matched the description of the Acropolis Hill could not have been coincidental.  Add to this the Urantia Book connection and the clues it provided (which could definitely not have been known in the early-mid 20th century) which also match our area, and the odds of it all being just coincidence is about a billion to one in my opinion.  Nevertheless, although we have the world's best and only match with Plato's description of Atlantis, the amount of time which has passed and the severe limitations of modern technology in gathering good data from deep sea areas has stopped us from bringing back irrefutable evidence.  In other words, the expedition neither proved nor disproved the Cyprus theory. "

"As you can imagine, the idea that the purported wall is natural and not man-made was a big shock to everyone.  However, this fact by no means takes away from the fact that we have indeed found the rectangular valley of Atlantis or the "Edenic peninsula" of Eden.  We merely failed to bring back indisputable proof that we have found it, which really was a long shot anyway since we're talking about a landmass that went under tens of thousands of years ago after being struck by a massive flood.  Remember what Indonesia looked like after the tsunami hit it a couple of years ago; now imagine what would happen if a flood that was a hundred times stronger struck it and took it a mile under water for tens of thousands of years -- what would you expect to find there after that much time passes?  That analogy should help you understand the magnitude of our undertaking and the chances of bringing back irrefutable proof."

"We had a world-class geologist with us on the ship, Patrick Lowry, who is the same man who created all of our maps and 3d models for the last six years.  He was instrumental in helping us get a solid answer.  We used what's called a sub-bottom profiler which can penetrate silt and look up to 100 feet under the seafloor.  It was the world's very best technology and it took me six months to put the whole thing together.  The results are conclusive, the purported wall is natural.  The ridge was pushed up through time and it's some kind of fault or fissure.  I've shown that image to many many specialists and at least 75% have told me that it looks man-made, that it looks like nothing they've ever seen natural under water. "

"I chose that hill some six years ago as the most likely spot.  That was later confirmed even further by Plato's descriptions which pointed out a "low mountain" about 3 miles in diameter, right in the middle of the rectangular valley which faced south, and at a distance of 7 miles from the sea.  All of this matched.  There was no hill to look at other than this particular one.  I put the coordinates of it in the book and published it as the most likely spot.  A year later we got better and newer data that allowed us to map higher resolution maps of the area, and that's when we first saw the hill upclose.  We were absolutely shocked to find a flat summit with two rivers coming down to meet a canal halfway down the hill, and then continuing down to meet the extremeties of a walled canal at the base of the hill which was 1.5 miles away from the summit.  It was a shock because these anomalies that turned up on this higher resolution map were an EXACT match with Plato's description of the Acropolis Hill (Central Sector).  The odds of this being coincidental are just out of the ball park."

"I want to repeat that our latest research in no way discounts the idea that Atlantis has been found.  We learned several things with the data just acquired.  We learned that the ridge is not man-made, but we also learned that the whole hillside had "slumped" to create that extremely unusual geological feature, and that it had happened a very long time ago, way before humans were around.  This means that when the Garden was inhabited, these features were already there which of course means that it would have been a very coveted location.  It would create a ready-made and ideal location that would provide safety (hill to the back, rivers/walls to either side, and a wall at the base of the hill) and irrigation.  With just a little bit of work, they could have made it an ideal home for thousands of people.  I believe this was the case; it's just that we can't prove it because even if they had dug canals at the inside of the ridge or tunneled through it etc., the silting through the ages that this area has been underwater would have completely eradicated any signs of it. "

"At this point we have exhausted the technological means in proving our case, except for one.  A "core sample" of the seafloor in the area would provide indisputable proof about the last time it was above water.  If it was above water 35,000 years ago, the core sample would show it.  Technology is constantly improving in underwater research and this research will continue practically despite our efforts."

"Another very positive effect of this last expedition was that I can finally take my focus off of it for now and continue to look at the rest of the valley.  The sub-bottom profiler data that we acquired is quite valuable to scientists and I'm currently trying to trade it with them in exchange for the rest of the high resolution data for the area, so we can look at the whole Edenic peninsula with great clarity, including the "neck."  This is where the walls to the Garden were located and it's close to the Syrian shore.  Who knows what else can be found."

"We'll be studying the data just acquired for the next several weeks, and it's still too early to close the case.  Knowing the lines along which my own mind often runs, and seeing how it's already moving on to the next phase, I really doubt our research is coming to an end."

"This if far from over.  In the meantime, there'll be a great documentary about the expedition this January on the History Channel.  I'll keep you updated."  END



October 30th, 2006  UPDATE

ROBERT PROVIDES FURTHER COMMENTARY ON SECOND EXPEDITION: 

Forum post:  Results of Second Expedition

"Hi guys:

"Hope I can answer all you questions; if I miss any let me know. "

"What an expedition it was; I'm sure glad it was all caught on tape. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong in classic Murphy's law fashion, and yet somehow we pulled our data out of it. It would be almost impossible to convey (to people who are not involved in deep sea research) just how pathetic and primitive our technology is right now."

"Keep in mind that in the course of this research, and while writing the book several years ago, we produced the world's first detailed LOOK at the eastern Med. seafloor. That's right, mankind's first GLIMPSE of the seafloor in the region happened just six years ago! So imagine what it's like trying to find primitive manmade remains that went under a mile of water tens of thousands of years ago, lying under mud! That's what we face. Not easy to say the least and I can already imagine how people in the future will pity us for what we had to go through just to get some elementary data. The fact that radar doesn't penetrate water is the root of all the problems, throwing us to sonar use and all the unbelievable number of problems that arise when mixing electricity and water."

"We've now researched maybe one percent of the rectangular valley stretching between Cyprus and Syria. That's right, one percent. Long way to go. But we've matched the ancient world's description of the island and the valley and the hill to a degree that cannot be discounted, and remains unprecedented. Nothing even remotely close even though other researchers are not shy about claiming to have a match (without bothering to match any of the physical clues), and journalists who just parrot what they hear."

"A lot of progress has been made already and I should tell you that in this line of work crushing disappointments and thrilling highs are part of the process. There have been many of both sides, and over time you learn not to go too high or come too low. In just three years after the publication of the book we've produced the world's first detailed maps, conducted the top two (and only) scientific Atlantis expeditions in human history, and launched two major documentaries. Not bad."

"We now know the structure of the seafloor in the area up to a hundred feet under. We also know the surface structure. From these we can determine dates, core sample needs, and where things go next. We're part of an impatient generation that wants immediate gratification but I've come to realize that this may take the rest of my life, given the limits of our technological means, and maybe even more than one generation may be needed. But it is there, of this I have no doubt, and the secrets will surface in time one way or another."

"We simply don't have the ability to look under the mud. We can take a peek under one particular spot, two inches wide, one straight line at a time, but that's about it for now. If we had many millions of dollars we could keep doing the lines until we get a better picture, but realistically, it's just out of our means right now even if we had all the money in the world. However, a core sample would definitively show when the area was above water last and so it has to be the next step. We now know how far we have to go to get our answers, and it's not that far down, maybe a meter or two. It's doable."

"Meanwhile, patience is the name of the game. For now there's a documentary coming up that'll knock your socks off. January."   END
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The Urantia Book does make definite reference to the sinking of an island-peninsula that once jutted out from what is now Syria, approximately 33,800 years ago, but the Urantia Book does not actually use the name, "Atlantis," to refer to it.

Since the island-peninsula that had jutted out from what is now Syria had served, approximately 4,000 years before it sank, as the site of the *original* Garden of Eden that had been prepared in advance of the arrival of the heavenly Adam and Eve couple, the biologic uplifters of the human races, the Urantia Book refers to the island-peninsula as the "Edenic Peninsula."
Hypothesis:

It does indeed seem that Plato's legend of the sinking of Atlantis and the Urantia Book's account of the sinking of the "Edenic Peninsula" are one and the same event.

The Urantia Book's description of the terrain and characteristics of the Edenic island-peninsula that once was attached by only 27 miles to present-day Syria, and the physical description of an island in Plato's writings are a close match.

It must be borne in mind, however, that that would place the sinking of "Atlantis" to have been three times further back into history than Plato's legend indicates (approx 33,800 years ago, rather than 12,500 years ago).

There is a *possibility* that the name, "Atlantis," became attached to the sunken island-peninsula much later after the sinking, as that event became a hazy memory and was perpetuated orally over a period of at least 30,000 years, and as the sinking increasingly became associated with the retribution of the Gods, with "Atlas" and "Poseidon," finally developing into the stuff of legend that had suffered still more distortion before it, as a legend of completely unrecognized antiquity, last found surviving record in Plato's writings.  The reference to the Pillars of Heracles and its alleged placement within the legend of Atlantis as recorded in Plato's writings may well represent distortion owing to millennia of oral transferrence.
 
It may seem plausible to many that the awe-inspiring phenomenon of a sinking island-like land mass approximately 33,800 years ago could give rise, over subsequent millennia of oral tradition, to the legend of Atlantis as purportedly conveyed by Critias and Timaeus and then recorded by Plato.

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Acknowledgment

It must be said that there is no mention of the name, "Atlantis," in The Urantia Book.  The significance of that fact will vary from one person to the next, from one reader-believer to the next. 

If, in fact, the record by Plato of the accounts given by Critias and Timaeus of their personal recollections of their childhood teachings of what had purportedly existed on supposed and now-lost Egyptian records actually does reflect a distant memory of the actual catastrophic event which the Urantia Book places at over 30,000 years prior to Plato's recording of this legend, the then-unrecognized oral tradition would have already had an immense period of unrecognized time over which to suffer distortion, possibly to even include an eventual invention of the name, "Atlantis," based upon a mythological Deity, "Atlas," a name adopted to make reference to this long-distant collective memory of a sinking-island phenomenon, but a name that perhaps may never have actually been used to refer to the island-peninsula by its inhabitants prior to its sinking.

What is universally significant is that as actual physical confirmation is found of the sunken island-peninsula and of the civilization that succumbed to the Mediterranean waters, and as scientific applications fully establish its age, these findings, together with the fact that the Urantia Book is the only source on earth to have been pointing to and accurately dating this sunken land-mass since its publication in 1955, will assert the revelatory authority of The Urantia Book.  As that reality unfolds over years, even decades, the catalyzed social readjustments and spiritual progress will be such as the world has never seen.  

The theme of this entire page was inspired by the advances in thought and exploration of Robert Sarmast.  Neither Mr. Sarmast nor any of his associates is responsible for the creation of this page or of any linked pages except for the site:  http://www.discoveryofatlantis.com    The author of this page and related pages welcomes contact by sincere inquirers, but chooses to remain anonymous.
5thUrantiaRevelation

Disclaimer:

The history depicted by the Timeline at http://members.aol.com/Urantianow/eden.htm is direct from the Urantia Book, except for the account of Plato's writings.  The treatment of Critias and Timaeus at http://members.aol.com/Urantianow/atlantis.htm is not in any way associated by the Urantia Book with the history that is presented within the Urantia Book.  All associations/correlations, via hyperlinks and footnote rendering, of passages within Plato's writings to areas/sections/paragraphs/excerpts of the Urantia Book are the result of the opinion and assessment of the author of this page and of other individuals and are presented solely for the reader's consideration and are not to be regarded either as established fact or as representations by the Urantia Book.

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