Myths and Legends

The Lost City of Atlantis, Fact or Fiction

City of Atlantis
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic LicensePhoto by  cherrylet

Mankind has dreamed about the Lost City of Atlantis for hundreds of years. But is this dream fact or fiction? We’ve all dreamed of advanced cities full of riches and knowledge and when we think of this, the lost city of Atlantis always comes to mind.

Early Writings of the Lost City of Atlantis

Greek philosopher Plato who lived between 427-347 B.C. was responsible for the first writings describing Atlantis. He believed that the teachings of Atlantis started in ancient Egypt and the stories were carried by word of mouth for over 900 years.

Plato speaks of Atlantis in two separate texts, Timaeus and Critias. In these writings, he describes a lush, rich land with a technologically advanced society. Supposedly the entire city was lost without a trace in a single day. It’s said that cataclysmic earthquakes and floods were responsible for it’s disappearance. Of course the only reasonable explanation was some form of punishment from the Gods. It’s believed they were being punished for their materialistic and corrupt nature. The remains of Atlantis are supposed to be deep within the Atlantic Ocean, just past Gibraltar.

The Teachings of Atlantis

Many of the believers of this once great city describe it as a lost golden age. According to ancient teachings, Atlantis was responsible for all culture as we know it today. It was supposed to be a very sophisticated and technologically advanced society whose people brought their knowledge and skills to the neighboring lands such as South America, North Africa and Europe.

All of these neighboring lands seem to have similar stories that tell of Atlantis and it’s greatness. This is the reason it’s believed they benefited from it’s teachings. Although this is the popular belief, it is also well known that long distance travel by means of boat was also possible at that time. So it is also possible that further regions may have received knowledge from the Atlanteans as well.

The Search for Atlantis

Man has been searching for this lost city for ages, but nothing definitive has surfaced dealing with it’s existence. There have been many books and articles written about Atlantis that describe theories and ideas of it’s exact whereabouts, but it has not yet been discovered.

According to psychics and mediums, they believe it is a place they’ve visited while in a trance like state. But this doesn’t tell us whether Atlantis is an actual place or just a state of mind.

Many explorers have studied and searched the Atlantic Seabed in hopes of finding evidence of where the city once was, but they can’t seem to tie anything conclusively to an actual city. I’ve seen many documentaries about Atlantis where they’ve discovered many structures that lay under the ocean’s surface and many of them look hopeful, but could it be possible that what they’re looking for could lie further beneath the seabed?

Is it possible that the North Atlantic Ridge is in fact part of the sunken city of Atlantis? What about the Portuguese Azores? Could this be the tips of Atlantis’ sunken mountains? Maybe even the island of Spartel, northwest of Africa is also a part of the once great city.

We have to ask ourselves, did Plato write these historical documents simply to create a fable about the city? Or was he trying to make a philosophical point? Many believe that he was talking about something else. He could of been referring to the volcanic island of Thera that was destroyed around 1500 B.C. near Crete. It’s possible this was responsible for the end of Minoan civilizations which is quite similar to Plato’s description of Atlantis.

This is another one of cultures unexplained mysteries and we may never know the truth, maybe the truth is not meant to be discovered. But most certainly mankind will continue it’s search for the truth simply because the curiosity of it all is too great. What do you think? Was Atlantis real, or is it simply a state of mind created to push us to become more technologically advanced? Tell me what you think.

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32 thoughts on “The Lost City of Atlantis, Fact or Fiction
  1. I do believe that Atlantis did exist, with the Bermuda triangle eventually being the culprit of its demise.

    1. Very interesting Ronke. There are in fact many people that believe Atlantis is buried beneath the Bermuda Triangle. I would love to charter an expedition and see what could be discovered to support that!

  2. Hi Robert,

    Thank you for this great article! I must say I’m not much of a believer, but still I’m amazed by the story … Wouldn’t it be great if it was true?! 😀

    Thanks again,
    Linda C.

    1. Having skeptics is one of the great things that keeps these legends interesting. I guess everyone has to believe in something….I’m not for certain that I truly believe in Atlantis either, but it’s fun to dream about such places. 🙂

    1. We may never truly know if Atlantis is fact or fiction. But there have been many sights found that have similar properties to ancient civilization.

      I’m not exactly what science hopes to learn from it’s discovery, but it’s said to of been a very advanced culture for it’s time.

  3. I think it’s a true story though. If it’s only in the myth, why they ever come out with the story and the details ? Just my opinion 🙂

  4. great and very Interesting Post .its very interesting to hear about Atlantis. this is the first time i know about it .thanks for this post!!!!!!

    1. You’re welcome harish, Atlantis is one of the great mysteries of the world. I’m glad you were able to discover the legend here on Odd Random Thoughts.

  5. Atlantis could just as easily be referred to as the “Just because we haven’t found it yet, doesn’t mean it’s not out there” theory. But come to think of it, there are many reasons to believe that Atlantis really exist. One of this is many culture share similar stories about it. And why do scientist, geologist ,divers and even government want to search for this Island? Because they know that it really exist. (I think)

    1. I most certainly agree Anjie! People are too quick to dismiss things like this merely because they don’t fully understand it. But with so much effort into uncovering the mystery, there has to be something to it.

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