Atlantis...
               Fact or Fiction

An interview with Arysio Nunes dos Santo

A: No. Extensive sounding of the entire Atlantic Basin for over a century reveals no sunken continent or remains of one anywhere in the Atlantic Basin. The fact is Europe and Africa were originally coterminous with North and South America in forming a super-continent called Pangea ("Whole Earth"). Due to the Continental Drift, these continents began to separate some 200 millions ago, forming the Atlantic Ocean. At the center was the super-continent of Pangea cleft. A fissure known as the Great Rift remained as a sort of scar separating the two tectonic plates and marking their original position.

From this fissure, volcanic magma continuously issues, forming a huge mountain range and causing the tectonic plates to separate at a rate of about 2.5 cm/year. It is this mountain range - called the Mid-Oceanic Ridge - that is often mistaken for the remains of Atlantis. Moreover, the islands of the Atlantic Ocean are all small, rising directly from the abyssal depths, leaving no room for any sunken continent or island of large size.

Q: Thera or Santorini, the volcanic caldera located is the Greek region of the Mediterranean Sea, is often claimed to be the remains of Atlantis by several Atlantologists of scientific repute. Is this view tenable?

A: Not at all. Plato and other authorities are very specific on the fact Atlantis lay "outside the Pillars of Hercules". It is ridiculous to suppose Plato would ignore the real position of neighboring Crete in relation to Gibraltar, or he would believe a whole continent ever existed inside the Mediterranean Basin.

Scientists who propose this theory support themselves on the fact the island of Thera (Santorini) was sunk by a huge volcanic explosion that destroyed the tiny island. This explosion took place about 1,700 BC, and very probably swept away the civilization of the vicinal island of Crete with a tsunami of colossal proportions. Other than that, there is no evidence connecting the event with Atlantis. By the way, the name of Crete means precisely "swept clean (of people)" in Dravida, the language of the Proto-Mediterraneans.

Despite its name, Minoan Crete was only slightly affected by the cataclysm. It did not sink and actually reached its apogee after it. Second, Minoan Crete never formed anything like the huge empire described by Plato, being far lesser in size and population than, for instance, nations such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, etc. The "force-fitting" that such proponents do, shrinking Atlantis' size and the date of its cataclysm by a factor of ten, is utterly unscientific and cannot be maintained.

Q: Is there any possibility Atlantis was located in the Caribbean region?

A: None at all! Despite predictions of Edgar Cayce, no evidence has turned up confirming the existence of Atlantis anywhere in the Caribbean. The sunken archaeological remains found in the region turned out to be natural formations.

Q: Is Atlantis possibly located in the North Sea, as some authorities claim?

A: No. During the Pleistocene Ice Age, Scandinavia and nearby regions were an icy desolation, and could not possibly support a luscious civilization such as the one described by Plato. Besides, Plato's Atlantis is fully tropical, with many forests, rivers and canals full of fragrant fruits, perfumes and luxuriant vegetation. Moreover, in contrast to what Plato claims, Scandinavia and neighboring regions never sank.

Q: What makes you so certain Atlantis is not located in Antarctica as Flem-Ath, Bauval, West and others affirm?

A: The idea the crust of the Earth flipped, taking Atlantis from the tropics into the Polar Circle is just a modern flaunt of ancient theory called the Pole Shift. But if Earth's crust indeed flipped - an impossibility in geophysical and astrophysical terms - several other consequences would occur. As the crust is solid, it would take, if flipped, the former polar region into the tropics. This effect is not observed at all in the time scale of 10,000 years or so of the Atlantean events.

Furthermore, polar glaciers and others, such as the one of Greenland, have been drilled recently and analyses shows they have been on site for the last million years. Moreover, recent pallinological analyses (of plant pollen) and sediments on the bottom of the seas show these regions have been more or less in their present position for hundreds of millions of years.

Q: Why have so many different locations been identified with the site of Atlantis?

A: For one thing, Atlantis created a worldwide empire, and had colonies the world over. These colonies attempted to duplicate the motherland. Secondly, the ancients hid away the true whereabouts of Atlantis for fear the empire, weakened, disorganized and destroyed by the cataclysm would become easy prey of pirates, raiders and conquistadors.

Q: What is the difference between Atlantis and Lemuria?

A: Atlantis and Lemuria have been grossly distorted and misplaced by investigators in what concerns both their epochs and their sizes and locations. Indeed, Atlantis and Lemuria co-existed side by side, at more or less the same date. More exactly, Lemuria was the archetypal Atlantis, the same as Eden or Paradise, the site of origin of both mankind and civilization. From there, the Lemurians and Atlanteans colonized the nearby region of India, which became its "twin" and partner. In mythical terms, we can say Lemuria-Indonesia was the Mother, and Atlantis-India was the Father of all other civilizations.

Q: What does the name Atlantis signify?

A: The first thing to keep in mind is mythical terms have a number of different etymologies, and are often interpretable in different tongues, into which they were adapted when the myths were introduced locally. For instance, Atlas means, in Greek, "the one who could not (a-) withstand (tla) (the skies)." Atlas was deemed the "Pillar of Heaven," that is, its support. When Atlas became overburdened, the skies fell down, burying Atlantis. The names of Atlas and Atlantis originally came from the Sanskrit (the Holy Language of India) name of their Hell called Atala. This word means "Deprived of its Pillar" (a-tala) or, conversely "Bottomless" or, rather "Sunken to the Bottom". Atlas is the personification of the Holy Mountain that is the support of heaven. He is the god Hindus equate with Shiva, also called Sthanu, an epithet meaning "Pillar of Heaven" in Sanskrit.

Q: What is the meaning of the name of Lemuria?