The lost city of Atlantis has been found, and it’s straight out of the Bible – at least according to a stunning new National Geographic documentary which follows a high-tech, wide-ranging search for the mythical city with incredible results. The documentary, Atlantis Rising, released last Sunday, features Oscar-winning Titanic director James Cameron and Emmy-winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici following ancient clues through Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic on a search for Atlantis, a mythical city that allegedly sunk into the sea thousands of years ago. Along the way, they discover Biblical connections to Atlantis, including a 3,000 year old carving that ties the mythical city to the Jewish Temple.
Jacobovici, who describes his recent projects as 'investigative archaeology', admitted that sources are scarce. The only ancient source for Atlantis was the Greek philosopher Plato in the 4th century BCE. In his dialogues, Plato wrote about a traveler, Solon, who learned about a highly advanced, wealthy civilization, described in depth. It was a port city located past the 'Pillars of Hercules', which Jacobovici explained is known today as the Straits of Gibraltar. In Plato’s account, Solon describes the destruction of Atlantis by a natural disaster which covered the coastal city with mud and water. According to the story, the city sank into the ground and disappeared. Jacobovici equated this to a tsunami.
"So often, when you tell people you are looking for Atlantis, they think it is a crazy project because they think it is a thing that was made up by Disney or Hollywood, a city full of mermaids. Many people may think this is a fictitious account, but Plato went into a lot of detail. More problematic is that no other historical or archaeological source discusses a city named Atlantis."
The team set out to find a city that fit the description of Atlantis. The search eventually led them to the Iberian Peninsula, where they began to make a connection between Atlantis and an ancient city known as Tartessos – which appears in the Bible. The research led Jacobovici to believe there is a link between Plato’s fabled city of Atlantis, which he believes is Tartessos, and the oft-mentioned Biblical city of Tarshish, citing an unmistakably Atlantis-like reference in Psalms.
"There are many artifacts and ancient writings that show that 3,000 years ago there was a great city of Tartessos, very wealthy and with a powerful navy. Though we don’t know exactly where it was, it was purported to be somewhere in Southern Iberia, Spain or Portugal, precisely the area that Plato gives for Atlantis."
Perhaps the most shocking revelation came when Jacobovici interviewed Spanish researcher Georgeos Diaz Montexano:
"He showed me Bronze Age symbols, 3,500 years old, carved into ancient shrines. Montexano believes that after the tsunami destroyed Atlantis, or Tarshish, the refugees made these shrines to commemorate the destruction of their city and to pray to their gods that Atlantis should rise again. The symbols carved into the walls had distinct design resembling a bull’s eye standing on a stick with three legs. The ancient stone carvings in the Spanish shrines are strongly reminiscent of Plato’s description of the port of Atlantis: three concentric circular docks with a central rectangular temple to Poseidon, with a canal connecting out to the sea. The symbol carved into the walls in Spain was an aerial view of the port Plato described, but with the canal depicted as Poseidon’s three-pronged trident. In one of these of these shrines in Spain, the 3,000 year old carving is missing the top half of the bull’s eye. Montexano theorized that this symbolizes the refugees were praying for a restored Atlantis. But that symbol, as everyone knows, is the Menorah in the Jewish Temple."
Jacobovici relates Montexano’s theory for the remarkable similarity between the ancient symbol found in Spain and the Jewish Temple.
"Montexan believes that when God told the Jews to make the Menorah, he gave them a symbol they already understood, already recognized from the Atlanteans."
In Greek, the term 'Atlantis' means 'island of Atlas' (Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος), and it may very well have applied to the island of Santorini. It was Plato who brought life--and myth--to Atlantis. According to him, Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, the daughter of Evenor and Leucippe, who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean--called the Atlantic Ocean in his honor--and was given the mountain of his birth and the surrounding area to rule over. It was also Plato who wrote that Poseidon made Atlantis--a huge island with a volcano at its center--His home after Zeus, Hades and He divided the world.
The theory--because that is undoubtedly what it is--is interesting and the documentary does a good job of tying all the ends together, but is it true? By far the majority of previous theories point to modern dat Santorini. Santorini (Σαντορίνη), classically named 'Thera' and officially Thira (Θήρα), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Greece's mainland. Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic eruption that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island and created the current geological caldera.
Plato's description of Atlantis would have fit the ancient Hellenic version of Santorini well. It was a large, mountainous island, with an active volcano at its center. The large settlement on the island was build around said volcano. Poseidon's influence on the island isn't a stretch of the imagination at all; there was sea and ocean all around and from time to time, the entire island would tremble due to the volcano. The volcano eruption decimated the settlement, but from what archeologists and scholars have been able to piece together, the settlement was a sight to behold while it stood. It had walls eight meters tall, three story houses, beautiful frescos and a rich economic climate.
We most likely will never know for sure where--if anywhere--the ancient city of Atlantis was, but it's good new research and new theories continue to be posited.
[Scholars have begun to favor a location in southern Spain and Portugal,
just past the Strait of Gibraltar, as the location of Atlantis]
Jacobovici, who describes his recent projects as 'investigative archaeology', admitted that sources are scarce. The only ancient source for Atlantis was the Greek philosopher Plato in the 4th century BCE. In his dialogues, Plato wrote about a traveler, Solon, who learned about a highly advanced, wealthy civilization, described in depth. It was a port city located past the 'Pillars of Hercules', which Jacobovici explained is known today as the Straits of Gibraltar. In Plato’s account, Solon describes the destruction of Atlantis by a natural disaster which covered the coastal city with mud and water. According to the story, the city sank into the ground and disappeared. Jacobovici equated this to a tsunami.
"So often, when you tell people you are looking for Atlantis, they think it is a crazy project because they think it is a thing that was made up by Disney or Hollywood, a city full of mermaids. Many people may think this is a fictitious account, but Plato went into a lot of detail. More problematic is that no other historical or archaeological source discusses a city named Atlantis."
The team set out to find a city that fit the description of Atlantis. The search eventually led them to the Iberian Peninsula, where they began to make a connection between Atlantis and an ancient city known as Tartessos – which appears in the Bible. The research led Jacobovici to believe there is a link between Plato’s fabled city of Atlantis, which he believes is Tartessos, and the oft-mentioned Biblical city of Tarshish, citing an unmistakably Atlantis-like reference in Psalms.
"There are many artifacts and ancient writings that show that 3,000 years ago there was a great city of Tartessos, very wealthy and with a powerful navy. Though we don’t know exactly where it was, it was purported to be somewhere in Southern Iberia, Spain or Portugal, precisely the area that Plato gives for Atlantis."
Perhaps the most shocking revelation came when Jacobovici interviewed Spanish researcher Georgeos Diaz Montexano:
"He showed me Bronze Age symbols, 3,500 years old, carved into ancient shrines. Montexano believes that after the tsunami destroyed Atlantis, or Tarshish, the refugees made these shrines to commemorate the destruction of their city and to pray to their gods that Atlantis should rise again. The symbols carved into the walls had distinct design resembling a bull’s eye standing on a stick with three legs. The ancient stone carvings in the Spanish shrines are strongly reminiscent of Plato’s description of the port of Atlantis: three concentric circular docks with a central rectangular temple to Poseidon, with a canal connecting out to the sea. The symbol carved into the walls in Spain was an aerial view of the port Plato described, but with the canal depicted as Poseidon’s three-pronged trident. In one of these of these shrines in Spain, the 3,000 year old carving is missing the top half of the bull’s eye. Montexano theorized that this symbolizes the refugees were praying for a restored Atlantis. But that symbol, as everyone knows, is the Menorah in the Jewish Temple."
Jacobovici relates Montexano’s theory for the remarkable similarity between the ancient symbol found in Spain and the Jewish Temple.
"Montexan believes that when God told the Jews to make the Menorah, he gave them a symbol they already understood, already recognized from the Atlanteans."
In Greek, the term 'Atlantis' means 'island of Atlas' (Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος), and it may very well have applied to the island of Santorini. It was Plato who brought life--and myth--to Atlantis. According to him, Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, the daughter of Evenor and Leucippe, who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean--called the Atlantic Ocean in his honor--and was given the mountain of his birth and the surrounding area to rule over. It was also Plato who wrote that Poseidon made Atlantis--a huge island with a volcano at its center--His home after Zeus, Hades and He divided the world.
The theory--because that is undoubtedly what it is--is interesting and the documentary does a good job of tying all the ends together, but is it true? By far the majority of previous theories point to modern dat Santorini. Santorini (Σαντορίνη), classically named 'Thera' and officially Thira (Θήρα), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Greece's mainland. Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic eruption that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island and created the current geological caldera.
Plato's description of Atlantis would have fit the ancient Hellenic version of Santorini well. It was a large, mountainous island, with an active volcano at its center. The large settlement on the island was build around said volcano. Poseidon's influence on the island isn't a stretch of the imagination at all; there was sea and ocean all around and from time to time, the entire island would tremble due to the volcano. The volcano eruption decimated the settlement, but from what archeologists and scholars have been able to piece together, the settlement was a sight to behold while it stood. It had walls eight meters tall, three story houses, beautiful frescos and a rich economic climate.
We most likely will never know for sure where--if anywhere--the ancient city of Atlantis was, but it's good new research and new theories continue to be posited.
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