Posted on 08/06/2004 8:50:19 PM PDT by freedom44
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.
Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 BC, was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.
Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography, and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.
"I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it's incredible," he told Reuters.
"Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest across the middle. They both have a central plain surrounded by mountains.
"I've looked at geographical data from the rest of the world and of the 50 largest islands there is only one that has a plain in the middle -- Ireland."
Erlingsson believes the idea that Atlantis sank came from the fate of Dogger Bank, an isolated shoal in the North Sea, about 60 miles off the northeastern coast of England, which sank after being hit by a huge floodwave around 6,100 BC.
"I suspect that myth came from Ireland and it derives from Dogger Bank. I think the memory of Dogger Bank was probably preserved in Ireland for around 3,000 years and became mixed up with the story of Atlantis," he said.
Erlingsson links the boundaries of the Atlantic Empire, as outlined by Plato, with the geographic distribution of megalithic monuments in Europe and Northern Africa, matching Atlantis' temples with well-known burial sites at Newgrange and Knowth, north of Dublin, which pre-date the pyramids.
His book, "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land," calculates the probability Plato would have had access to geographical data about Ireland as 99.98 percent.
Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores islands 900 miles west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean sea. Others locate it solely in the long-decayed brain of Plato.
You live on Atlantis?
On the other hand, I can't wait to see the comments this gets.
What did Bush know and when did he know it?
This flooding was almost certainly caused by Dick Cheney's caveman ancestors drilling for oil, they had a company called Paleoburton./sarcasm
So where are the archaeological evidences to support this? Atlantis was supposed to be highly advanced etc...water system and all that good stuff. Wouldn't someone have found something by now?
Let me guess. The scientist's name is O'Shanessey. ;-)
A Swedish scientist is making this claim.
>>Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist (Ulf Erlingsson).
Atlantis is a myth, Ulf.
The Daoine Sidhe hid it all....:)
I think it's a plot. And that has about as much creedence as the original claim. I'm in good company.
I like Atlantis potatoes with butter, chives and sour cream.
There are some amazing ruins in Eire. Perhaps someone could take a look and deduce the correct place to start digging.
Do you think sometimes the sarcasm tags are just plain unnecessary?
Well, maybe not for some lurkers.... :-)
Aye, it'll be a foine book.
"Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 BC, was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves. "
Did the "cataclysmic natural disaster" have anything to do with grapes and hops?
If you can't go to heaven,
May you die in Ireland!
good, now that it's been found they can quit yapping about it
that is intersting.... would also help explain how a civilization could exist pre-egypt that could make the likes of Stonehenge.
one of the structures on the Isle of Skye is older than the Great Pyramids. the Isle of Sky is a simple jump from Ireland, as it is on Scotland's north west.
i have heard thoeries of making the Great Pyramids involving kites. wind power as transportation. of course, this doesnt explain lifting a 30 ton rock and placing it on two other rocks, 12 feet up.
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