22. What is Atlantis? 



The story of Atlantis is one of the most persistent of all legends. 

 More than 5,000 scholarly works are in existence about the lost Atlan- 

 tean civilization. The oldest existing account is that of Plato and is the 

 basis for most subsequent speculations. 



Plato described a great civilization far ahead of its time. The Atlan- 

 teans built temples, ships, and canals. They lived by agriculture and 

 commerce. In their pursuit of trade, they reached all the countries 

 around them. By 9600 B. C. they had conquered all the known world 

 except Greece, which was saved when Atlantis was engulfed by the sea, 

 overnight, disappearing without a trace. 



Plato said that Atlantis was west of the Pillars of Hercules, which 

 many people have assumed to be the Straits of Gibraltar. Recently it 



has been suggested that the pillars may have been the Strait of Messina 

 between Italy and Sicily. 



Before entirely dismissing the legend as a myth, remember that for 

 thousands of years the cities of Troy, Pompeii, and Herculaneum were 

 considered to be mythical. It has been said that mythology is history 

 seen through the eyes of the intellectually immature. 



Clarke, Arthur C. 



The Challenge of the Sea, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960. 

 Donnelly, Ignatius J. 



Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, Harper and Brothers, 1882. 

 Pell, Claiborne (Senator) 



Challenge of the Seven Seas, William Morrow and Company, 1966. 



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