Finding Atlantis

National Geographic (Sky Channel 526)
Sunday 26 June, 8pm

"I avoid using the word Atlantis in my books because most people when they hear the word Atlantis immediately think that they're dealing with the lunatic fringe.” (Graham Hancock, Horizon, BBCTV, 14th December 2000)

The tale of the lost city of Atlantis said to have disappeared into the sea has fascinated writers for millennia – yet mention of the fabled legend immediately earns authors the label of being a crank and open prey to the academic establishment. So here we go.

Graham Hancock, the most successful of recent writers on the fabled city of Atlantis, wrote of an advanced civilisation in Fingerprints of the Gods (1995) that, following a world wide catastrophe, that ended the last ice age, around 11,500 years ago, had left their wrecked homeland and went out to civilise the world. Hancock goes on to cite the civilisers of the South Americas and huge megalithic structures around the world, such as the pyramids both sides of the Atlantic, using precession of the equinoxes at various ancient sites to underline this date. Basing the conclusion of Fingerprints of the Gods on the work of Rand Flem'Ath, When the Sky Fell (1995), who had further developed the Earth Crust Displacement theory of Charles Hapgood; Atlantis was in Antarctica under two miles of ice.

Hancock's book became immensely popular, but the kick back was the onslaught of debunking he suffered and was challenged by academia to provide proof of his theory; where was this lost civilisation?

Hancock's response was Underworld: The Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age (2002) 700+ pages and  a Channel Four TV series detailing a worldwide exploration for the underwater ruins of a lost civilization, following clues in ancient scriptures and mythology and scientific evidence of the flood that swept the Earth at the end of the last Ice Age. However, Underworld failed to convince the academics and Hancock gave up on his quest for the lost civilisation and resorted to writing fiction where he could be master of any creation he chose and free from academic criticism.

Of course the story from Homer's Iliad, telling of the forbidden love between Helen, wife of the King of Sparta, and Paris, son of Priam of Troy, resulted in a war that destroyed a civilization, was just legend until  Heinrich Schliemann, with Frank Calvert, uncovered the original site of Troy, at Hisarlik, in Turkey. If Schliemann and Calvert had proved that ancient texts such as the Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid could reflect actual historical events, then we cannot dismiss the possibility that  Plato's account of Atlantis could also have an historical basis.

Has the fabled lost city of Atlantis been located?
Now a television documentary, screened tonight, may have unearthed evidence of the lost civilisation. Using satellite photography, ground-penetrating radar and underwater technology, experts are surveying marshlands in Spain to look for proof of the ancient city. If this team of scientists can match geological formations to Plato's descriptions and date artifacts back to the time of Atlantis, we may be closer to solving one of the world's greatest mysteries.

Since writing the legend of Atlantis in 360BC, Plato's tale has captivated the world and many have dedicated their lives to locating the lost island. Plato believed Atlantis, existing around 9600 BC, lay in front of the ‘Pillars of Hercules’, an area now known as the Straits of Gibraltar. He described it as a large and powerful island, home to Gods and Kings, but following a failed invasion of Athens  Plato tells how “in a single day and night of misfortune, the island… disappeared into the depths of the sea....... and vanished.”

While some ancient writers thought the stories were merely fiction, others believed it to be real. And the debate still rages today, with scientists, writers and scholars putting forward different theories about its location and what actually happened.

Armed with Plato’s descriptions, three teams set out to either support or disprove possible locations of Atlantis, with one team uncovering a strong lead; they discover a city off the coast of Southern Spain, which was lost to a tsunami 9,000 years ago. Using state-of-the-art technology, experts search the marshlands of Spain to try to uncover the location  of the fabled lost city of Atlantis.

Hancock vindicated?


National Geographic - Finding Atlantis 1/4



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The Tombs of the Genii

The Biggest Stone Moved by Man?
Recently I posted an article discussing how the ancients moved massive stones over great distances, Moving Megaliths. In this post I mentioned the Roman temple complex at Baalbek, named after the gods worshipped by the ancient Phoenicians but then known as Heliopolis (City of the Sun), high above the Beqaa plain in Lebannon, which appears to have been constructed upon the base of an ancient temple site. Legend records the ancient temple as the construction of Cain before the Deluge and then rebuilt by a race of giants under the command of Nimrod after the flood. Incorporated into the foundations of this ancient temple are three massive stones estimated to weigh 800 tons each known as the Trilithons. The Trilithons were raised 20 feet to sit in the third course of the temple foundations, beneath these 24 blocks of 300 tons make up a lower course. The Trilithons have been so accurately placed it is not possible to push a knife blade between them. These massive blocks are generally considered the largest stones moved by man in a construction, unmatched in antiquity or modern times.

Less than a mile from the ancient temple complex at Baalbek, is an even larger quarried block known as the Stone of the Pregnant Woman, (or Stone of the South), still attached to the bedrock. Measuring 71 feet long, 14 feet high, and 13 feet wide it is estimated to weigh at least 1000 tons. A second ancient monolith was discovered in the same quarry in the 1990s, its weight estimated at 1,242 tons. Although these two massive stones did not leave the quarry the original intention clearly appears to have been to use them in the ancient temple at Baalbek and therefore can justifiably be considered the largest stones worked by man.

However, the title of the world's largest megaliths ever discovered may belong not to Baalbek but a set of "tombstones" located on the Kora River in Kazakhstan. The Kora river gorge is probably one of the most scenic in the region of Semirechye (Land of Seven Rivers). The river rises high in the mountain ranges of the Jungar Alatau. The rivers Kora, Chizhe and Tekeli come together to form the river Karatal, which flows into Lake Balkhash, one of the largest lakes in Asia.

The Jungar Alatau is a range of mountains between the Altai and the principal massifs of the Tien Shan, marking the deserted mountain borderlands of Kazakhstan and China. The lowland between the Jungar Alatau and the Tarbagatai mountains forms a natural gap known as 'The Jungar Gate,' the favoured route of Genghis Khan and his forces on their journey west, the most important crossroads of the ancient routes on the Eurasian continent.

Known as the Tombs of the Genii, five massive standing stones were discovered by the Kora River in 1860 by Thomas Witlam Atkinson. The largest recorded of this megalithic group measuring 76 feet high by 24 feet wide by 19 feet deep. Modern estimates to the weight of this massive megalith provide figures between 3,000 and 4,000 tons. Atkinson reported a sixth even larger stone lying recumbent, half buried in the ground. The massive stones are recorded in Atkinson's 1861 book Travels In The Regions Of The Upper And Lower Amoor.

Sketch from Atkinson's book

 The following is an excerpt from Chapter VI: The Kora and Traditions: 

"Having travelled onward several miles, I arrived at a part of the valley where the Kora makes a bend toward the cliffs on the north, leaving a space of about 200 yards in width, between the base of the rocks and the river. As I approached this spot, I was almost induced to believe that the works of the Giants were before me, for five enormous stones were standing isolated and on end, the first sight of which gave me the idea that their disposition was not accidental, and that a master mind had superintended the erection, the group being in perfect keeping with the scene around. One of these blocks would have made a tower large enough for a church, its height being 76 feet above the ground, and it measured 24 feet on one side and 19 feet on the other. It stood 73 paces from the base of the cliffs, and was about 8 feet out of the perpendicular, inclining towards the river. The remaining four blocks varied from 45 to 50 feet in height, one being 15 feet square and the rest somewhat less. Two of these stood upright, the others were leaning in different directions, one of them so far that it had nearly lost its equilibrium. A sixth mass of still larger dimensions was lying half buried in the ground; on this, some young picta trees had taken root and were growing luxuriantly.” [1]

 

An account of these massive stones was later reported in an article in  1876 for the ‘Journal of Transactions’ by John Eliot Howard, [2] using Atkinson as its source who appears to be the only person to report the monoliths from a first hand account.

Fact or fable?
Books on strange and unexplained phenomena cover topics from the Loch Ness Monster to Ancient Nuclear Warfare, yet accounts of the Tombs of the Genii are surprisingly absent from their pages. Indeed, I could only find one brief reference to these massive stones. [3] Atkinson is our sole source. The terrain of Kazakhstan varies from flatlands, steppes, rock-canyons, hills, deltas, glaciers and snow-capped mountains to deserts; it is absolutely vast, the world's largest landlocked country, covering an area of 2,727,300 square kilometres (1,053,000 sq miles) – an area larger than Western Europe.

If these stones actually exist, is it possible that these huge megaliths can go undetected in this age of modern technology?

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Notes:
1. Thomas Witlam Atkinson, Travels In The Regions Of The Upper And Lower Amoor, Hurst And Blackett, 1861, pp.117-119.
2. John Eliot Howard, The Early Dawn of Civilization, Victoria Institute, Journal of the Transactions, 9:239, 1876.
3. David Hatcher Childress, Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2000, p.116.

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Merlin's Mound of Neolithic Origin

Merlin's Mound,  located some 25 miles north of Stonehenge  and 5 miles east of Silbury, one of the biggest mysteries in the Wessex landscape and reputed burial site of Merlin the legendary wizard has been dated to the Neolithic period.

Following excavations, new evidence suggests the mound at Marlborough, Wiltshire, was constructed around 4,400 years ago, making it contemporary with the nearby Silbury Hill, [1] suggesting that both neolithic structures are likely to have been constructed over many generations.

Merlin’s Mount, Marlborough, engraving 1810

The Mound, also known as Merlin's Mount, located in the grounds of Marlborough College, has long been recognised as a landscape feature of considerable historical significance. It was the motte on which the keep of Marlborough Castle was built some fifty years after the Norman Conquest.

Samples of charcoal were retrieved during recent coring of the Mound, allowing radiocarbon dating for the first time. The samples, which came from different levels in the Mound, were taken from two bore holes through the height of the 19m (62') monument, showing that it was built in the years around 2400 BC. This is the first solid evidence to confirm that the castle motte is largely a re-used prehistoric structure. At two-thirds the height of Silbury, Marlborough Mound now becomes the second largest prehistoric mound in Britain.

It had previously been suggested the Mound dated back to about 600 AD, the Arthurian Age, legend claiming it as the elusive site of Merlin’s grave. Merlin, as Arthur's wizard, is largely the creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth. There is a tradition, tantalisingly close to the date of Geoffrey’s Vita Merlini, (Life of Merlin) c.1150AD, in which it was recorded in 1215AD that the town was named after 'Merlin's Tumulus', when Alexander Neckham wrote in a poem: "Merlin's tumulus gave your name, Merleburgia". [2] The town's motto 'Ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini' meaning ‘Where now are the bones of wise Merlin’ adds further speculation to the location of the wizard’s grave. It is possible of course that Merlin’s Mount was known by that name prior to the circulation of Geoffrey’s tales of Merlin, but the name ‘Merlin’ is not found recorded prior to Geoffrey, indeed in 1086AD it was recorded as ‘Merleberge’ (Maerla's Hill), a Saxon name.

The recent archaeological investigations, including the radiocarbon dating were led by Jim Leary for English Heritage, who said, “This is an astonishing discovery. The Marlborough Mound has been one of the biggest mysteries in the Wessex landscape. For centuries people have wondered whether it is Silbury’s little sister; and now we have an answer. This is a very exciting time for British prehistory”


Notes:
1. Michael Dames, The Silbury Treasue, Thames & Hudson, 1976, pp. 134-136. Dames suggests there is a clear relationship between Silbury, Merlin’s Mount and the Avebury complex. Both hills are situated on the River Kennet, one near its source, the other near its margin.
2. Geoffrey Ashe, The Traveller’s Guide to Arthurian Britain, Gothic Image Publications, 2nd Edition, 1997, p.170.

Sources:
1.The Guardian online - 31 May 2011
2. BBC News online - 31 May 2011

See Also:
The Story of Silbury Hill by Jim Leary and David Field
Silbury: Resolving the Enigma by Michael Dames

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