The Minoan Connection to Atlantis

(From Wikipedia – Public Domain Image)
Atlantis by Lloyd K. Townsend

It has recently been suggested that instead of Atlantis being west of the Pillars of Hercules, it was really east. In addition, the catastrophic end of the island occurred not 9000 years before Plato’s time, but only 900 years. If this is true, then the lands of Atlantis might be a place that was well-known even in Plato’s time, this being:  The island of Crete.

Crete is now a part of modern Greece and is located just south of Athens across a portion of the Mediterranean Sea.  Prior to 1500 B.C. it was the seat of what has become known as the “Minoan Empire”. The Minoans dominated the eastern Mediterranean with a powerful navy and probably extracted a large piece of respect from all of the surrounding nations. Archaeological excavations have shown that Minoan Crete was without doubt one of the most advanced cultures of its era. It had fabulous architecture and art alike. There was a code of laws giving women equal legal status to men, which is now considered to be an advanced way of thinking for the time. Agriculture was well developed and an extensive irrigation system was widely used.

Then, seemingly within “a blink of an eye”, the entire Minoan Civilization vanished. Geological studies have shown that on an island we now know as Santorinas, which is located just ten miles to the north of Crete; a disaster occurred that was certainly capable of utterly destroying the Minoan empire.

The Santorinas of today is a thriving Mediterranean paradise made-up of several islands forming a ring like shape. But, twenty-five hundred years ago, it was a single large island with a volcano very near its center. Subsequently, the volcano blew itself apart in an immense explosion around 1500 BC.

To better understand the effect of its explosion / eruption, scientists have compared it with the most powerful volcanic event in recorded history, which occurred on the Island of Krakatoa in 1883. There, a giant wave, or tsunami, estimated to be approximately 120 feet high sped across the Mediterranean Sea, hitting all of the neighboring islands, and killing approximately 36,000 people. Ash was thrown up into the atmosphere which blackened the skies for three days. The sound of the blast was heard as far as 3,000 miles distant.

So in comparison, the explosion at Santorinas was four times as great as that of Krakatoa.    So is the island of Crete and Santorinas perhaps the legendary Atlantis?

According to Plato, Atlantis was bigger than Libya and Asia combined; situated in front of the Pillars of Heracles, in the ocean which he called “Atlantic.”

While Crete is definitely the largest island in Greece and the second largest in the eastern Mediterranean Sea (after Cyprus), it’s surface area of 8,259 sq km (3,138sq. miles) will not measure up to the Asian Continent: 44,579.000 sq. km (17,212,000 sq. miles) which makes up 30 % of Earth’s Landmass. Then, if you include the landmass of the African Country of Libya, with an additional area of 1,759,540 sq km (679,358 sq miles), it is difficult to confuse the two locations, really size alone seems enough, but then there’s the Atlantic verses the Mediterranean issue to consider in the absence of size alone.

In addition, Plato’s portrait of Atlantis depicts a harmonious island; a place where the inhabitants were by its very nature,  provided all manner of vegetation (flora) and fauna (animal life). In fact, the climate was so mild; it was common to grow two crops every year. Because of these two key factors (flora & fauna); Atlanteans were never in want of food.

The weather in Crete which is only 10 miles south of Santorinas is characterized by mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. Not exactly an ideal location for farming an abundance of crops.  There are however, significant differences between the coastal zone’s climate and that of the mountainous areas.   In the Coastal zone, expect dry summers and mild winters. The rainy season starts in late October and lasts till March and sometimes well into April.  During the winter months in the mountainous zone of Crete it can be very cold with severe snowfalls.  These conditions certainly do not indicate suitable conditions for the “two crop” growing season described by Plato.
 

Perhaps the biggest problem associated with the concept of Atlantis is that no one other than Plato, found reason to write about it, or make some mention of its existence throughout all of history as we know it.  Although he described his source of information as deriving from Egypt, to date there has been no documentation or verification from ancient Egypt.  In other words there simply are no written records discovered to date that are old enough.

For this reason alone, perhaps the information provided by the legendary Edgar Cayce (the sleeping profit) is currently our best alternative source for data. In the very least, until such time as more concrete evidence is found.

In any event, according to Cayce, Atlantis was destroyed by volcanic and earthquake-like “explosions” on three separate occasions.  Each of these destruction's lasted over a period of months or even years, instead of days or a single day! The first such disaster took place around 50,700 BC, the second occurred in about 28,000 BC and the third and final one happened in the neighborhood of 10,000 BC.  In all of his readings it is indicated that ample warnings were given and that many Atlanteans were, in fact, able to escape prior to each of the disasters. Some, he described as traveling to Europe and Africa while some sought refuge in South America.

Over several thousand years, a civilization developed in Atlantis which surpassed all historical empires, past, present and future, especially in regard to its scientific and economic achievements. Cayce further explained that the Atlanteans developed technology which allowed them to created aircraft, submarines, elevators, a broadcasting system, and computers.

Other discoveries included what they called a death-ray, explosives, radioactive forces and atomic energy. As the Atlanteans began to add to their knowledge and understanding of all these destructive forces, the first destruction of Atlantis occurred.

By the time of the second major disaster which happened in about 28,000 BC, the Atlanteans were able to travel in all of earth's environments; including air, water and land.  In fact the Atlanteans enjoyed all of the “modern” developments we see today and many others which are yet to be discovered.

Following the second “destruction”, the Atlanteans were forced to make many adjustments and alterations to the new circumstances with which they faced. Although their scientific achievements were still considerable, they were not as advanced as  they were in previous eras.

The two earlier disasters left Atlantis as a group of Islands, the chief ones being named, Poseidia, Aryan and Og.   Unfortunately there was a continuous state of unrest and rebellion throughout the whole continent which eventually caused the third and final devastation and the total destruction of Atlantis; brought about by their continued use destructive energies and powers sometime around 10,000 BC. In short, they destroyed themselves.

Finally, as told by Cayce, many records of knowledge and understanding were “hidden” within the Great Sphinx, that’s located in Egypt. However certain precautions were activated to insure that these records would not be re-discovered for many thousands of years, or you could say, until the time was “right” . . .

As for the 3^rd destruction , when it came, although it happened fairly suddenly, there were many advanced warnings  given regarding what was sure to happen. As a result, several political leaders were able to take charge of arranging for the “transportation” of those Atlanteans who were “allowed” to leave.  This action is perhaps the most likely explanation for the advanced civilization destined to become what we call the “Minoan Empire” that once lived on the island of Crete, and a few surrounding islands.   It is common knowledge in the archaeological community that the name “Minoan” which we now use for these ancient peoples, is in fact associated with an ancient Greek myth regarding “king” Minos.  No one knows as of yet by what name those ancient people of Crete called themselves.   May-be, “Atlanteans”?

  

Sources:

http://www.unmuseum.org/atlantis.htm                                                                               http://www.crystalinks.com/edgar_cayce.html                                                                                http://www.shellac.org/slu/scayce01.html                                                                             http://coverups.com/greatcoverups/atlantis.htm                                                                              http://www.explorecrete.com/nature/crete-weather.html                                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis#Plato.27s_account                                               http://www.anythingbutwork.com/travel/crete.htm                                                  http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/as.htm                                              http://tgsfree4allinfo.blogspot.com/2011/10/sleeping-profit.html