Atlantis In The News Again

Divers
Photo Source: Stock.xching

I know that I am talking about Atlantis a lot lately, but that is only because it is in the news again. People have claimed to have found Atlantis all over the world in many different sites. Sometime we would hear that after the site was analyzed it was found not be be Atlantis. Other times, Atlantis has believed to have been found and it was stated that future expeditions would go back to confirm it and they either never did, or did and found that the site they thought was Atlantis wasn't and they never informed anyone. Atlantis has been fascinating people ever since Plato mentioned the place in one of his discussion type plays. It does make one wonder why this place, out of all those places that are said to have disappearedl has remained so sought after and mysterious. You would think that it would have been forgotten by now. I wonder what Plato would think if he knew that over 2,300 years after he mentioned Atlantis, people were still talking about it and trying to find it and many of those people are from countries that didn't exist in his time. If it were fiction I bet he would be laughing so hard that he couldn't stand up and if it did exist Plato would be wondering why we were still so interested in this particular places.

Ruins
Photo Source: MorgueFile

Somehow we have come to think that Atlantis might have been so advanced that it was even more advanced than we are today. I don't know where this idea originated? If the ancients considered a place advanced, that certainly didn't mean it had more technology than we do. Not only that, but there have been other lands that are said to have existed and none of these are as sought after by as many people as the ones that I like to call the Atlantis hunters. There was Mu, Lemuria and El Dorado, just to mention a few. Lemuria and Mu were thought to be entire continents that disappeared, while Atlantis is mostly thought of as a city state, it is sometimes also thought of as a continent. If Atlantis was more advanced than we are, how come we haven't found any evidence of that? It was said that the Alantians conquered most of Europe, parts of Africa and also Asia, but have we even found one advanced relic to indicate a superior technology? Not that I know about.

As I said the idea that an ancient race was more advanced than we are today is probably wrong, while the idea that one race could have been far more advanced than other ancient races could be true. Just think of a race from say 10,000 BC that had siege weapons and ships equivalent to those used in the Middle Ages, the people from that race might have been looked at as gods. If we would have found some of this stuff, we could have easily thought that it was a lot newer than it was. For example, if we found a catapult from 10,000 BC, it might have been though to come much later and just sent to a museum. There might not be any need to try and carbon date it, in the minds of those who found it. Does this sound far fetched to you? It really isn't. If a modern day hammer was found in the dirt somewhere, would anyone stop and say, “hey maybe it is ancient, let's test it”?

Today it is being claimed that a site that was found deep under the Caribbean Sea could be Atlantis. The site was found using satellite imagery. The exact area is being kept a secret for now, but photos that have been given out do seem to indicate that there are ruins there. The lead archaeologist has said that there are definitely ruins there and that they could even predate the pyramids. When people use the term “could” and “might” this tends to water down my feeling about a place. It only shows me that right now the scientists are guessing about what is there and it would be better for them to hold off their opinions until they have had a chance to examine the site. They haven't said it might be Atlantis, but many people are excited and think that it might be. I can't help but wonder if they have examined the site already and then came to this conclusion? The site has nothing to do with the one found near Cuba by Russian explorers in 2001.

The archaeologists did let out a clue or two. When they were asked about the Russian discovery, one said that it was at 2300 feet, but the ruins that they found were in much shallower water. They also said it was off the coast of a Caribbean island and the site belonged to the government of that island. They said at first that the ruins were not Atlantis and that Atlantis probably never existed. What they think that they have found, according to scientists and archaeologists is an advanced sea faring city that may have been visited by peoples from the rest of the world. The archaeologists went on to say that no one will ever strap on a scuba tank, jump into the water and find a gateway that said Welcome To Atlantis. The archaeologists are trying to figure out how the city landed up on the bottom of the sea floor.

The researchers have said that there is a pyramid in the ruins that is older than the ones in Egypt. There have been many reports of this type that have turned out to be nothing and I certainly hope that this is not another one of them. The archaeologists are trying to raise funds so that they can mount a full fledged expedition to the sunken city and study it. Ruins are being found at greater rates lately that are under the water. They have even been found in the cold waters off of Scotland's Orkney Islands. Just around the British Isles there are submerged ruins in many places off the coast of England.

Photos of the submerged ruins can be seen by clicking on this link.

Interesting, while I see no indication that the archaeologists claimed that the ruins are those of Atlantis, some news media are saying that they did say that and are warning of fraud. They cite the fact that the archaeologists are remaining anonymous, won't give the coordinates of the ruins and are trying to raise money. I would like to just throw out my two cents. Taking the last item first, trying to raise money. I am sure that the people and institutions that they are approaching for money know their identity, because who would give money to people that they didn't know? Secondly, not giving the coordinates is only good science. When coordinates are given out, people flock to the area and could easily destroy a site, or at the least take credit away form these archaeologists for the discovery. As far as not telling us who they are, they probably don't want to be hounded about Atlantis, but could all this be a hoax? We will just have to wait and see.