To all interested in exploring new scientific views about the subject of Atlantis, please check out my www.spiritofatlantis.com website.
After over two decades of research, I have discovered a new radical concept of dating ancient history while locating the antediluvian Atlantean capital seaport in what is now Central America.
Moreover, many new theoretical views of what happened to the Atlantean Maritime Kingdom and the remarkable technology it once used to spread its influence throughout the prehistoric world are also presented at the website.
Although many new theories presented may seem unbelievable or hard to understand because of the complexity of the subject, I'm sure some views will raise an eyebrow or two during study.
Before asking any questions, feel free to browse my online book project for more details on why I believe modern literature should treat the subject of Atlantis as fact -- and let the true aspects of the story rise above the centuries of false speculation.
Sincerely,
Duane McCullough
www.spiritofatlantis.com
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Lake Izabel is part of a huge fault line that separates the North American Plate from the Caribbean Plate. The lake sits atop this fault line as it runs through Central America and the surrounding area is subject to major reoccurring earthquakes which could have destroyed the antediluvian seaport many times over. Check out the following sites for more info:
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/v3c9.htm
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/atlanstry.htm
I've heard of location theories from Antarctica to South America. Even Disney's recent movie placed Atlantis near Iceland. Other places such as the Greater Antilles -- not to mention the conventional island of Thera in the Aegean Sea, have been suggested as sites in recent years. And of course, Atlantis only existed within the mind of Plato -- which suggest it never existed in reality. We know better...
My entire book project is available online for free -- and I have much to say about Atlantis. I'm sure you will find some of my theories unbelievable -- but keep reading, just subtract the views you believe are false and add the views you believe to be true. That's what all writers do while researching. We are all seeking the truth.
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Perhaps a language interpretation problem exist in your statements with regard to the location of the elusive Atlantean seaport. Obviously you believe Plato gives the location at or somewhere near Gibraltar and that the lost continent of Atlantis is not the collective American continents.
I, and apparently others, believe otherwise. I can appreciate your desire in seeking the true location of Atlantis and can understand the frustration when other theories conflict with many years of personal research. However, the search for Atlantis is an open game until the antediluvian seaport is found.
Please keep an open mind if you want to learn new scientific views regarding Atlantis.
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Unlike many other theoretical stories about Atlantis, my book project does not rely on great global geological events like major water level changes in the Atlantic to explain why the antediluvian capital seaport has remained undiscovered since it was lost. Although I do explain how the seaport was engulfed within a major earthquake fault line in what is now Central America, my theory places the central trade seaport at a location not far from a mysterious civilization and within a temperate climate which could support a great maritime trading kingdom.
Moreover, I link my Atlantean story to the nautical migration of modern Cro-Magnon man from the New World and not from the Old World. In the aftermath of the Biblical flood event, the surviving Atlantean colonies within the Mediterranean -- who apparently forgot their heritage because the oceanic trade links were broken, rediscovered the Atlantean realm of the New World and renamed it America.
The graphical Latin alphabet invented and used by the surviving Atlantean colonies superseded the binary numerical Ogamic alphabet once used by our Atlantean ancestors.
The story of Atlantis is more than just an Old World tale of lost islands and their inhabitants near the Pillars of Hercules -- it is a remarkable seafaring legend about a lost age when the antediluvian Atlantean Maritime Kingdom once governed a global enterprise of trade links across great distances.
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For the parameters of the Caribbean Plate check out:
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/atlan018.htm
As you can see the north edge of the crack between the Caribbean Plate and the American Plate runs eastward through Central America from the Pacific coast area and bends at the Cayman Trench -- then follows further east between Cuba and Hispaniola where it then becomes part of the deepest area of the Atlantic Ocean just north of Puerto Rico.
The northwestern Caribbean Sea is really a huge underwater cauldron with Cuba as a ridge on the north bordered by the Yucatan Peninsula on the west and the Honduran area on the south. In the middle of this huge underwater cauldron lies Mysteriosa Bank just west of the Cayman Islands. I once read that Columbus once recorded strange underwater lights in the area in one of his voyages. Perhaps underwater geological events could cause the mysterious lights. (The area was the theme site for the movie Abyss)
Anyway, looking for celestial impact zones like the one near the northwestern Yucatan Peninsula will not locate the seaport of Atlantis because I believe it was destroyed by the astronomical and global atmospheric reactions when a rogue comet crashed into the sun long ago. That was the major event that caused the northern fault line of the Caribbean Plate to "shake" -- thus engulfing the seaport of Atlantis near Lake Izabel.
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Have you ever read INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN CENTRAL AMERICA by John L, Stephens. He journeyed near the lakes of Nicaragua back in 1839/40 and describes the area -- great reading. I read sometime ago that an Indian chief by the name of "Nico" once ruled the realm and that his name is why the area is called Nicaragua -- as in "Nico's aqua" or "Nico's water". Since many early cultures once read and spelled names in reverse, do you think "nico" and "ocin" -- as in "ocean" or "oceanus" are linked in some way? (Oceanus was the grandfather of king Atlas)
Also, I have not read your book yet, but do you have any theories as to what purpose all those huge stone spheres that are found throughout Central America were used for?
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I am aware of the concept that the first letter of the ancient character name and grandfather of King Atlas called Oceanus represented the circular river symbol in early Phoenician letters. However, to scoff at the idea that early cultures did not read and write in reverse order is ignoring how graphical symbols used by early man evolved into a orderly method of communication which became alphabetical letters.
Even today much of the world cultures read from right to left. Would it not make since that during the early evolution of graphical alphabetical languages some words containing common symbols could be read and understood in both directions?
Moreover, to assume that the native inhabitants of what is now the New World were merely leftover cultures who came from of the Atlantean area of the Old World, is to misunderstand the direction of the evolution of how the modern graphical Latin Alphabet evolved from a prehistoric numerical communication system first pioneered in the New World.
I am of course referring to the Ogamic Alphabet which can be traced to the twenty-base numerical count system of dots and bars used by the Olmec and Mayan cultures of New World. This alphabet is found throughout the Atlantic realm wherein the Phoenicians, in the aftermath of the Biblical flood, used the five-vowel rule of syntax from the Ogamic alphabet and applied it to what became eventually the Latin Alphabet.
The five vowel rule of syntax is basically the rule that in order for a word to qualify as a word, it must contain at least one vowel symbol. Anyway, for more information on the symbolical meaning of the Latin Alphabet check out:
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/v2c5.htm
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I'm fairly familiar with what you have said about the lake area and its history -- it is a fascinating place. We also had some six foot native inhabitants here in South Florida where I live. Exposure to a liberal amount of dietary Calcium Fluorite while growing up could lead to more flexible bones and larger skeletal frames.
Regarding the stone spheres -- I once believed they were used as some sort of transportable heavy tool device in construction projects. Something like a counter weight object or pivotal center stone to leverage heavy loads.
But while creating a 3D scenery project of the Atlantean continents for a computer watercraft simulator program this last summer, I placed simple spheres throughout the coastal areas of the scenery project as navigational markers. And like the stone spheres of Central America, perhaps they were created by the "Olmec government" of the realm as navigational markers for travelers who needed standard reference objects so they do not get lost in the jungle. Does this theory make sense?
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The link must have been dated -- but I did see the link to the sphere monument picture within your Atlantis off Cuba thread. Yes, I believe the spheres of Central America are navigational monuments that when used with a map could help travelers find their way around the jungle.
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There are several "harbor-like" features carved in the submerged banks of the Bahamas -- the most predominate is the Tongue of the Ocean feature just east of Andros Island. I have read several archeological and geological stories of the area and believe these features to be unique, yet natural geological areas associated with huge sinkhole sections within the submerge plateau.
I have no doubt that there exist some archeological mysteries in the Bahamas which may link to the story of Atlantis -- however, I haven't read any solid story yet. Even the Bimini Road story can be scientifically explained as a unique, yet natural limestone formation feature of the area.
I did stay on Mangrove Cay next to the Tongue of the Ocean back in the early eighties for several months and did see a thunderbolt stone once. Apparently, the natives collect these rare stones near the base of old trees once struck by lightning and use them during boat construction as a charm to prevent lightning from striking the boat.
As the theory goes, such stones are created when lightning fuses metallic manganese within certain trees into thunderbolt stones that look like they were shaped by man. For more info, check out:
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/v3c5c.htm
Also, check out the NASA link I posted before and look at the Cuba pictures again near Cienfugeos. There exist an eight nautical mile wide circular harbor feature with an island in the middle. This feature does not match the dimensions I give at my Spirit of Atlantis website as the harbor of the seaport of Atlantis -- but it is a unique geological abnormality that may be linked to the subject of Atlantis somehow.
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The range of stone spheres in Central America is I believe -- and George you may know more, from the southern Mexican region to Costa Rica and maybe even upper Panama. I don't recall any in South America but some could be.
The theory that they were used for navigational monuments is a flexible concept. Who created them and why are still mysteries. Since the Olmec are considered the mother culture of the western Caribbean realm they may be the who -- but exactly why and when, well -- good guesswork and some serious scientific research may answer those questions.
If they are some sort of navigational markers then finding a map somewhere showing sphere locations could prove that theory. The Maya did use maps because I found a map of the Yucatan Peninsula within the Baktun and Katun time glyphs. Check out the following link regarding how the New Mayan Calendar used important symbol statements within their time glyphs.
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/atlan009.htm
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Do you know the type of granite the Costa Rican spheroids are made of? If they are a kind of Rose granite that may be interesting because, according to my studies, Rose granite is the material that Plato called "orichalch". Rose granite -- or alkaline feldspar granite, is a unique type of matrix material that contains rare earth elements, like samarium, that have powerful magnetic properties.
Orichalch, if polished and seen from a afar, "gleams like fire" -- much like an emery board does up close. Rose granite is also the material that Ramses' sarcophagus was made of. Check out the following link for more information:
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/v3c10c.htm
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I have no doubt that your source material regarding the whereabouts of the Atlantean realm is based on original documents which suggest the Atlanteans occupied the area near Gibraltar. Much of my source material is based from the book THE COLLECTED DIALOGUES OF PLATO, Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns / translated by A.E. Taylor (London 1929) by way of the PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS. Many other versions exist and it is important to get the story correct if one wants to find the truth. -- I will explain in a moment.
One reason why so many versions of the Atlantean story exist is perhaps because Plato probably used his students to republish his work -- much like teachers of today use the modern copy machine to spread information to more students. One such student of Plato was Aristotle -- who, according to some stories, resented his teacher. Perhaps Aristotle had a hand in some versions of Plato's work for propaganda reasons because the infamous war story regarding the Atlanteans from Atlantis and the Hellenic Empire of ancient Greece painted the Hellenic Empire as heroes and the Atlanteans as invaders. Remember, conventional history records that it was Aristotle who taught Alexander "the great" and his Hellenic Empire that invaded the Middle East -- not the Atlanteans.
Wherever the original source material comes from, most all stories regarding Atlantis use the word "Atlantis" to describe three separate entities -- Atlantis the lost capital seaport city, Atlantis the lost continental realm, and Atlantis the lost maritime kingdom. I believe you have found part of the lost maritime kingdom near the Gibraltar area -- whereas you believe you have found all three entities of Atlantis.
Next time when someone refers to the name "Atlantis" -- are they referring to a lost city, a lost continent or a lost kingdom who occupied vast areas of not only parts of the Old World, but also most all of the New World. I believe the greater story of Atlantis is global in nature and not restricted to small areas either inside or just outside the Mediterranean Sea.
One interesting view regarding differences between my source material and other translations of Plato's work is my source states that the Atlanteans would meet at the city of Atlantis every fourth and fifth year during an important ceremony -- whereas other translations give the year count every fifth and six years.
This seemingly small discrepancy is important because I have discovered the view that the Atlanteans used a solar calendar based on leap days every fourth and fifth year -- together with an extra leap day every fifty years. If one adds these leap day counts onto a 365 day calendar -- the result equals the true tropical solar year of 365.2422 days a year. This antediluvian solar calendar time count is as accurate -- if not more accurate, than the conventional calendar of today.
So, perhaps the translation that includes the fourth and fifth year ceremony event is closer to the real story. What does your translation give regarding this year count view?
For more information about these views check out:
http://web.comporium.net/~duanemcc/preface.htm
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I'm not sure if there exist or could exist a version of what Plato wrote regarding Atlantis using hieroglyphic Egyptian characters. Every time a story goes through a translation some elements are lost because of many reasons.
Actually, the English language which uses the Latin Alphabet to convey information is perhaps one of the most advanced methods of graphical communication ever invented by humans. Based on hieroglyphic symbols -- including Egyptian symbols, the Latin Alphabet is the modern alphabet -- and English is the modern language. Although there exist many flavors of Latin -- English has been spoken on the moon. What other flavor of Latin has ever met that achievement?
In fact, English is Norse, French, German, Italian and Spanish -- just look at any good English dictionary and read the language source of most any word and you will discover that the vocabulary of the English language is a collection of many other languages from around the world that has developed over a very long time.
Regarding the Egyptian priest who told Solon about the story of Atlantis -- and by the way whose name nobody knows, this person seems to be describing the layout of the Atlantean seaport as if he was looking at some kind of developers map. This priest is using graphical images to describe complex mathematical and scientific information that only could be recorded using the Phoenician alphabet -- which predates both the Greek and Latin alphabets.
Instead of speaking "Egyptian" to Solon, perhaps the true language source of the Atlantean story is Phoenician -- if that could ever be called a language. Since nobody alive speaks "Phoenician", I can only assume that it would sound like a blend of Greek and Latin -- from which English is based on.
It is interesting to read the English version of Plato's writings and understand the complexity of his views without knowing how to officially speak or read Greek or Latin.
12-18-02