spiritofatlantis.com | Duane K. McCullough

Original Atlantean Story Overview

by Duane McCullough

The following overview story is based on my interpretation of Plato's TIMAEUS and CRITIAS Dialogues that refer specifically to the geographical location and historical makeup of Atlantis. According to Plato, a catastrophic global event long ago destroyed the antediluvian maritime kingdom of Atlantis and its capital seaport that was located near the center of the Atlantean continental realm in the western ocean. Over the centuries, many have attempted to explain the reality of Plato's Atlantean story without truly revealing solid evidence as to the whereabouts of the lost capital seaport. By reading the following overview story, perhaps the literary evidence of Atlantis will reveal itself to whosoever can see the reality and whereabouts of history's greatest mystery.
(Conventional numerical values from Plato's translations are presented in parenthesis where needed.)

Plato was perhaps Western Civilization's first known academic science teacher. Much of his work was presented in the form of fictional dialogues between citizens explaining important philosophical views of human politics and the cosmic structure of nature. Of all the work written by Plato, the most famous was the story of Atlantis -- for it was in the Atlantean dialogues that he recorded a remarkable time and place which has captured the imagination of countless writers throughout recorded history. Beginning with portions of the TIMAEUS dialogue and covering much of the CRITIAS dialogue, the following statements and interpretive commentary should reveal important views about what was and what happened to Atlantis in antediluvian times.

TIMAEUS Dialogue section
Plato is speaking through a character named Critias to three other characters named Socrates, Hermocrates and Timaeus at an annual ceremony event when he suggest that the forthcoming Atlantean story is not fiction and can be verified by a famous statesmen named Solon who was first told about Atlantis by a priest while visiting the Egyptian city of Sias long ago. The Egyptian priest, whose name is never revealed in the TIMAEUS or CRITIAS Dialogues, is the first source of all details about Atlantis.

The story begins with a ancient tale about how a great global earthquake and flood destroyed a remarkable prehistoric civilization and that knowledge of the event was almost lost because the art of recording history was forgotten by many regional survivors. Yet the Atlantean story survived in Egypt because the stable environment withstood both large earthquakes and floods overtime, and thus preserved the art of recording history. The Egyptian priest attempts to explain the cause of the destructive event by revealing knowledge as to how the declination of certain celestial bodies moving in the heavens around the earth have and will continue to create "the stream from heaven" which destroys great civilizations over time. A timeline count backwards from when the Egyptian priest first told his story to when the Atlantean Civilization was destroyed was recorded at about 900 lunar unit cycles -- or about 73 years before. However, other translators of the Atlantean story have mistakenly added an extra zero to the count and also increased the numerical value from lunar units to solar units -- which, when compiled together, greatly magnifies the true timeline count of about 73 years to over 9,000 years.


It is important to note that the conventional Stadia measurement of 607 feet is incorrect
and should, in fact, be half that value at 304 feet in length -- or 100 yards.

Much of the TIMAEUS Dialogue -- and the first part of the CRITIAS Dialogue describes the Athenian realm and refers to a prehistoric civil war between the powerful western Atlanteans and the rebelling eastern Hellenic Empire. A section of the TIMAEUS Dialogue also introduces the whereabouts of the lost capital seaport of Atlantis within the western ocean realm near the center of a great continental island and reveals the scale of the Atlantean Maritime Kingdom as once having governmental control over the eastern Mediterranean realm. This dialogue section further describes the global layout of what is now the Atlantic Ocean and compares the Mediterranean Sea area as a harbor with a narrow entrance that is opposite of the Atlantean continent of what is now the collective American continents.

Apparently, the global earthquake and flood that destroyed the capital seaport of Atlantis and the Hellenic Empire happened so fast and was so great that in one day and night all evidence of their existence was lost -- except for the literary story told by the Egyptian priest. The last section in the TIMAEUS Dialogue that refers to the location of the lost Atlantean capital seaport states the view in which "a shoal of mud" blocks access to the area and "was caused by subsidence of the island".

CRITIAS Dialogue section
Plato, still speaking through the character named Critias, repeats the story of Atlantis that came from the Egyptian priest byway of the famous sage named Solon. A great powerful sea-god created the capital seaport of Atlantis by cutting large rings of island and water areas out of a hill that was located on a coastal plain in the center of the Atlantean continental realm. Overtime, this powerful sea-god, whose true name is uncertain, fathered ten offspring kings that became the Atlantean Maritime Kingdom. Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean is named after King Atlas whose grandfather was named Oceanus. The seafaring Atlanteans built numerous significant trade links from this capital seaport to many colonial outpost throughout the world. With knowledge of a remarkable alchemical technology, our Atlantean ancestors once possessed powerful tools that could easily score through hard stone objects. Such technology was used to create the capital seaport of Atlantis near the eastern central coast of the western continental realm also called Atlantis.


Plato implied that the capital city of Atlantis was carved out of a small hill
on the edge of a plain "as with a lathe".

The layout details of the Atlantean seaport begins with the creation of a canal that was cut from the ringed hill through part of the plain to open water by the sea. The width of this canal measured a stadia wide -- or about 100 yards, and 50 stadia long -- or about 2.5 nautical miles. The inner harbor, cut from beneath the main central island ring, measured the same as the main central island itself at 5 stadia and had some openings that led to the second ring of water -- which measured at 2 stadia. Part of the second water ring nearest the main central island was covered with a second island ring overhang that measured 1 stadia. Supporting the central main island of 5 stadia and the second island ring of 2 stadia, was an island ring that measured 1 stadia between the water areas of the inner harbor and the second ring of water. The third island ring was located beyond the second ring of water and measured 3.5 stadia. It contained the stadia wide racecourse in its center called the Hippodrome that encircled the whole island ring complex. Stadia wide canals, some with overhanging bridges, allowed ships to ply between the inner harbor, second water ring and the outer water ring that also measured 3.5 stadia. Altogether, the outermost water ring edge -- from which the main canal led to open water, measured a total of 25 stadia -- or about 1.25 nautical miles in diameter. The outermost wall of the third island ring was coated with white lead paint while the second island ring overhang edge was coated with a tin-based paint. The central main island ring that was above the second island ring had a wall of rose-colored granite slabs placed on its outside edge and "gleamed like fire" in the sun.


The inner harbor area of the Atlantean seaport had a roofing of native rock.

The whole seaport area contained numerous docks and cutout sections of rock overhangs that was home to many merchant vessels and their passengers which traded with other colonial outpost throughout the maritime kingdom. A type of merchant vessel design commonly used for oceanic trade were multi-hull ships such as trimarans. With simple arrow-wing shaped lateen sail-rigs and somewhat flexible support hulls, the Atlanteans could safely sail to windward on long voyages in strong winds and rough seas. Unlike many ships of the eastern colonial outpost -- which used rowing power such as triremes, the Atlantean vessels, relied on wind power to travel over vast oceanic pathways.


Seagoing Trimaran sailboats -- with Lateen Rigs, were used by the Atlanteans in antediluvian times.

Hot and cold water springs, created by scoring deep wells near the temple area, supplied running water for the ten Atlantean kings and their families throughout the year. Many buildings of the seaport were built out of the common red, black and white stones of the area that was quarried from the water ring projects. The seaport was part of a plain that was oblong and nearly rectangular -- but was cut and modified into a shape of a parallelogram that was used as a fosse or ditch that drained rain waters from the nearby encircling mountains into the outer harbors of the city. The sides of this fosse or ditch measured 200 by 300 Stadia with a total length of one-thousand Stadia -- or 50 Nautical Miles long. (Because conventional numerical values in Plato's story are incorrect in stating that the fosse or ditch measured 2,000 by 3,000 Stadia with a total length of 10,000 Stadia -- or about 1,000 Nautical Miles long, conventional historians looking for Atlantis have never -- and will never, find such a place based on this incorrect data.)

Other canal projects were drawn across the surrounding plain at 100 stadia between every two -- or 5 nautical miles apart between every two canals, and drained into the fosse or ditch on the sea side. They were used to float timber down from the nearby mountains that encircled the plain on three sides. Oblique channels were also cut over the plain to help in the conveyance of the biannual harvest of goods. The plain itself was protected from the north winter winds by the nearby mountain range on the north side.


Lake Izabal in Guatemala still leads directly into the Caribbean Sea.


The Capital Seaport of Atlantis -- and the canal system that supported it,
is a real place awating discovery.

Atop the central island ring stood the "un-Hellenic" temple that King Atlas inherited which measured a stadia long and half a stadia wide. Decorated by rose-colored granite slabs with the use of gold and silver coated artwork, the temple housed a great statue of a famous king that was piloting "a winged chariot". Nearby and within the central island ring stood "the altar" column site whereby the ten Atlantean kings would meet every alternate fourth and fifth year during a special ceremony. According to the laws inscribed on the column base, they would cast animal blood into the altar fire while passing judgment on each other. No king could take the life of any fellow king without the approval of more than half of the ten.

The Atlantean story continues with a view that the Atlanteans somehow lost their ability to see right from wrong and that a judgment by the highest universal leader of the heavens is about to decide their fate when, according to Plato, the story abruptly stops. Whether Plato died before he could finished the Critias Dialogue or he intentionally left it unfinished we may never know -- but the story is by far too complex to assume that it is fictional in nature.

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