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KRISH CHITRODA

The Secrets Of Atlantis

First published by Notion Press 2021 Copyright © 2021 by Krish Chitroda All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Krish Chitroda asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. First edition This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy. Find out more at reedsy.com

Contents 1 The Origin of Atlantis 2 The Minoan Civilization 3 The Lost Continent 4 Theories About Atlantis 5 The self-sufficient and rich city 6 The Powers Of Atlantis 7 In The Atlantic Ocean 8 Atlantis Found? 9 No Rest For The Wicked 10 -VOCABULARY.The End.

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One

The Origin of Atlantis

The story of Atlantis was first told in two of Plato’s dialogues, the “Timaeus” and the “Critias,” written about 360 B.C. Atlantis is often conceived of as a peaceful utopia, the Atlantis that Plato described in his fable was very different. In his book “Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology,” professor of archaeology Ken Feder notes that in Plato’s story, “Atlantis is not a place to be honored or emulated at all.” Atlantis is the embodiment of a materially wealthy, technologically advanced, and militarily powerful nation that has become corrupted by its wealth, sophistication, and might.” As 1

The Secrets Of Atlantis propaganda in Plato’s morality tale, the Atlantis legend is more about the city’s heroic rival Athens than a sunken civilization; if Atlantis really existed today and was found intact and inhabited, its residents would probably try to kill and enslave us all. It’s clear that Plato made up Atlantis as a plot device for his stories, because there no other records of it anywhere else in the world. There are many extant Greek texts; surely someone else would have also mentioned, at least in passing, Such a remarkable place. There is no evidence from any source that the legends about Atlantis existed before.

Two

The Minoan Civilization

Five thousand years ago, the Minoans, Europe’s first great civilization, flourished on the island of Crete. The sophisticated inhabitants, named after the legendary King Minos, were the first Europeans to use a written language, known as Linear A, and the first to construct paved roads. They were an advanced society of highly-cultivated artisans and extremely skilled civic engineers. The Minoans were excellent ship builders and sailors, and their maritime empire was so vast, it rivaled that of the ancient Egyptians. They were an enigmatic people, worshiping snake priestesses and engaging in human sacrifice with origins not linked to Europe as expected, but to ancient Iran, which may explain why they were so different from the Greeks who rose to power after them. Such practices gave rise to Greek myths about the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull that ate human flesh in his forbidding 3

The Secrets Of Atlantis labyrinth. But inexplicably, at the height of their power, the Minoans were wiped from the pages of history. The reason for their disappearance has perplexed historians for generations — until now. At long last, the story of the Minoan disappearance has been unearthed. Five thousand years after it hit, an epic natural disaster can be blamed for their collapse. A wave that washed away an empire is strikingly reminiscent of a mystical city that sank beneath the waves. And though we may never know for sure if Crete was Atlantis, we at least have an explanation for the downfall of Europe’s first great civilization.

Three

The Lost Continent

Despite its clear origin in fiction, many people over the centuries have claimed that there must be some truth behind the myths, speculating about where Atlantis would be found. Countless Atlantis “experts” have located the lost continent all around the world based on the same set of facts. Candidates — each accompanied by its own peculiar sets of evidence and arguments — include the Atlantic Ocean, Antarctica, Bolivia, Turkey, Germany, Malta and the Caribbean. Plato, however, is crystal clear about where Atlantis is: “For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, ‘the pillars of Heracles,’ (i.e., Hercules) there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together. Yet it has never been found in the Atlantic, or anywhere else. The only way to make a mystery out of Atlantis (and to assume that it was once a real place) is to ignore its obvious origins as a 5

The Secrets Of Atlantis moral fable and to change the details of Plato’s story, claiming that he took license with the truth, either out of error or intent to deceive. With the addition, omission, or misinterpretation of various details in Plato’s work, nearly any proposed location can be made to “fit” his description. Furthermore plate tectonics demonstrate that Atlantis is impossible; as the continents have drifted, the seafloor has spread over time, not contracted. There would simply be no place for Atlantis to sink into. As Ken Feder notes, “The geology is clear; there could have been no large land surface that then sank in the area where Plato places Atlantis. Together, modern archaeology and geology provide an unambiguous verdict: There was no Atlantic continent; there was no great civilization called Atlantis.” Ignatius Donnelly was certain of his theory, predicting that hard evidence of the sunken city would soon be found, and that museums around the world would one day be filled with artifacts from Atlantis. Yet over 130 years have passed without a trace of evidence. The Atlantis legend has been kept alive, fueled by the public’s imagination and fascination with the idea of a hidden, long-lost utopia. Yet the “lost city of Atlantis” was never lost; it is where it always was: in Plato’s book.

1.Atlantis was a mid-Atlantic continent that suddenly sunk into the ocean

The Lost Continent The idea that Atlantis was an actual historical place, and not just a legend invented by Plato, didn’t surface until the late 19th century. In his 1882 book, Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, the writer Ignatius Donnelly argued the accomplishments of the ancient world (such as metallurgy, language and agriculture) must have been handed down by an earlier advanced civilization, as the ancients weren’t sophisticated enough to develop these advances on their own. Assuming the Atlantic Ocean was only a few hundred feet deep, Donnelly described a continent flooded by shifting ocean waters that sank in the exact location Plato said it did: in the Atlantic Ocean just outside the “Pillars of Hercules,” the two rocks that mark the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. Long after modern oceanography and a greater understanding of plate tectonics poked holes in his shifting-waters thesis; some continue to cling to Donnelly’s theory, mostly due to its adherence to Plato’s placement of Atlantis in the mid-Atlantic.

2. Atlantis was swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle. Inspired by Donnelly, many later writers expanded on his theories and added their own speculations as to where Atlantis may have been. One of these writers was Charles Berlitz, grandson of the founder of the well-known language schools, and author of many books on paranormal phenomena. In the 1970s, Berlitz claimed Atlantis was a real continent located off the Bahamas that had fallen victim to the notorious “Bermuda Triangle,” a region of the Atlantic where a number of ships 7

The Secrets Of Atlantis had supposedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Supporters of this theory point to the discovery of what look like man-made walls and streets found off the coast of Bimini, although scientists have evaluated these structures and found them to be natural beach-rock formations.

4. Atlantis didn’t exist at all—Plato invented it. Most historians and scientists throughout history have come to the conclusion that Plato’s account of the lost kingdom of Atlantis was fictional. According to this argument, the Greek philosopher invented Atlantis as his vision of an ideal civilization, and intended the story of its demise to be a cautionary tale of the gods punishing human hubris. No written records of Atlantis exist outside of Plato’s dialogues, including in any of the numerous other texts that survive from ancient Greece. Furthermore, despite modern advances in oceanography and ocean-floor mapping, no trace of such a sunken civilization has ever been found.

Four

Theories About Atlantis

Five

The self-sufficient and rich city

Other than the legend of the lost city of Atlantis and other fables, the fact about the city still remains unknown. Among historians and other researchers, the findings of Edgar Cayce (American Clairvoyant) had something different to tell. Edgar Cayce believed in the rising of the lost city once again like ‘the sun rises from the sea’. He predicted a new land would appear off the east coast of North America. He also suggested that the souls of a number of people lived in Atlantis had been incarnating to America in order to usher in a new era of enlightened human consciousness. The fertile and beautiful city of Atlantis, where half-god and half-human beings lived, is believed to have been a selfsufficient region where people grew their own food and reared animals. Farmers in the city used to grow the crops in the fertile plains on the outskirts with the help of well-maintained irrigation 10

The self-sufficient and rich city system. They also built beautiful buildings and other architectures from materials like black and red stone. They also had access to rare metals and even alloys like brass made and used crystals extensively for leisure and experimental purposes and had a lot of free time to even play with volcanoes.

Six

The Powers Of Atlantis

As some claim, the inhabitants of the Atlantis city believed to have the possessors of exceptional powers such as the ability to control the weather, modify volcanic eruptions. Some accounts also mention about their possession of some sort of device that allowed them to channel energy from time and space. Even though the myth says that the inhabitants of the Atlantis City were superior beings, there are some of the opinions that it is just a mythical representation of a barbaric fashion of life. The city of Atlantis, in the innermost circle, had palaces and temples where wise and powerful rulers lived. The ruling coalition descended from Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Poseidon and Clieto had five sets of twin sons, according to Greek Mythology, each of which was given a region of Atlantis. Atlas, the firstborn son was given the largest province, which became the city of Atlantis, a name that derives from Atlas. The 12

The Powers Of Atlantis finest structure on the island, the Temple of Poseidon, honored the god and served as the home of the primary ruler. Atlantis had a powerful army of professional soldiers, as did each of the other nine regions of the continent. The culture of Atlantis promoted learning, through which advances in engineering and science made the land bountiful, beautiful, and powerful.

Seven

In The Atlantic Ocean

The location of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean has a certain appeal given the closely related names. Popular culture often places Atlantis there, perpetuating the original Platonic setting as they understand it. The Canary Islands and Madeira Islands have been identified as a possible location, west of the Straits of Gibraltar, but in relative proximity to the Mediterranean Sea. Detailed studies of their geomorphology and geology have demonstrated, however, that they have been steadily uplifted, without any significant periods of subsidence, over the last four million years, by geologic processes such as erosional unloading, gravitationalunloading, lithospheric flexure induced by adjacent islands and volcanic under plating. Various islands or island groups in the Atlantic were also identified as possible locations, notably the Azores. Similarly, cores of sediment covering the ocean bottom surrounding the Azores and other evidence demonstrate that it has been an 14

In The Atlantic Ocean undersea plateau for millions of years. The area is known for its volcanism however, which is associated with rifting along the Azores Triple Junction. The spread of the crust along the existing faults and fractures has produced many volcanic and seismic events. The area is supported by a buoyant upwelling in the deeper mantle, which some associate with an Azores hotspot. Most of the volcanic activity has occurred primarily along the Terceira Rift. From the beginning of the islands’ settlement, around the 15th century, there have been about 30 volcanic eruptions (terrestrial and submarine) as well as numerous, powerful earthquakes. The island of São Miguel in the Azores is the site of the Sete Cidades volcano and caldera, which are the byproducts of historical volcanic activity in the Azores.

Eight

Atlantis Found?

The most popular theory explaining Atlantis’ disappearance proposes the entire island was sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean or the Atlantic Ocean. According to Plato, Atlantis completely disappeared “in a single day and night of misfortune”. Despite there being no evidence to suggest Atlantis was something more than a work of fiction, conspiracy theorists have spent decades trying to find it at the bottom of the sea. But a new theory based on satellite scans of North Africa suggests Atlantis could have spent thousands of years out in the open. According to BrightInsight host Jimmy, the city of Atlantis could be tucked away in central Mauritania near the town of Ouadane, in a structure known as the Eye of the Sahara. He said: “Not only did the lost city of Atlantis exist but it’s true location has been hiding in plain sight for thousands of 16

Atlantis Found? years, completely unnoticed. “We’ve been looking in all the wrong places for its location since everyone assumed it must be under the ocean somewhere such as the depths of the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea, which we can consider the most likely places for its existence.”The Eye of the Sahara, also known as the Eye of Africa or Guelb er Richat, is an incredible formation of concentric circles dug into the exposed rock of the Sahara. The unusual formation is largely considered by geologists to be a natural formation caused by a so-called laccoliths intrusion. A laccolith is a sheet intrusion of rocky material injected between two layers of sedimentary rock, which causes a deformation of the ground around. Not only that, the diameter of the outer circle matches the size described by Plato within a very small margin if not identical.” The theory was however met with skepticism from the online community with many claiming the Eye of the Sahara is nothing more than a striking natural feature.

Nine

No Rest For The Wicked

Having said that, nothing is clear cut in this story, even if we are to assume that such a civilization did exist and its remnants are still out there somewhere, there’s a lot more going on here. We can’t agree on the nature of this city, for one thing. We tend to have an image of the hypothetical Atlantis as a bit of a utopia, but that’s not the case at all.

No Rest For The Wicked

“Professor of archaeology Ken Feder notes that in Plato’s story, “Atlantis is not a place to be honored or emulated at all.” Atlantis is not the perfect society … Quite the contrary, Atlantis is the embodiment of a materially wealthy, technologically advanced, and militarily powerful nation that has become corrupted by its wealth, sophistication, and might.”

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. -Plato

Ten

-VOCABULARY-

A ·Accomplishments: the act of completing something successfully. ·Adherence: the act, action, or quality of adhering.

B · Beach-rock formation: Beach rock is a friable to wellcemented sedimentary rock that consists of a variable mixture of gravel-, sand-, and silt-sized sediment that is cemented with carbonate minerals and has formed along a shoreline. C 20

-VOCABULARY· Clairvoyant: a person who some people believe has special mental powers and can see what will happen in the future.

· Coalition: a combination or alliance. · Conspiracy: a secret plan by a group of people to do something bad or illegal.

E ·Embodiment: When you talk about embodiment, you’re talking about giving a form to ideas that are usually not physical: like love, hate, fear, justice, etc. ·Emulated: to try to do something as well as, or better than, somebody. F • Flexure: the action of bending or curving, or the condition of being bent or curved.

G • Gibraltar: Gibraltar is a British overseas territory and headland, on Spain’s coast.

· Guelb er Richart: Guelb er richart, the eye of the Sahara is a 21

The Secrets Of Atlantis prominent circular feature in the Sahara’s Adrar Plateau, near Ouadane, west–central Mauritania, Northwest Africa.

H · Hypothetical: based on situations that have not yet happened.

I · Inexplicably: in a way that cannot be explained or understood. · Incarnating: put (a concept or quality) into concrete form.

L · Labyrinth: a complicated set of paths through which it is difficult to find our way. · Laccoliths: a mass of igneous rock, typically lens-shaped, that has been intruded between rock strata causing uplift in the shape of a dome.

M · Minotaur: Minotaur is a fabulous monster of Crete that had 22

-VOCABULARYthe body of a man and the head of a bull. · Misinterpretation: the action of interpreting something wrongly.

O · Oceanography: Oceanography is the study of the physical, chemical, and biological features of the ocean. · Omission: something that has not been included; the act of not including somebody/something. · Outskirts: the parts of a town or city that is furthest from the centre. P · Perplexed: not understanding something; confused. · Plate tectonics: Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth’s subterranean movements. · Perpetuating: to cause something to continue for a long time. · Platonic: used about a relationship between two people (friendly).

R 23

The Secrets Of Atlantis · Reminiscent: that makes you remember somebody/something. · Remnants: a piece of something that is left after the rest has gone. S · Sophisticated: having or showing a lot of experience of the world and social situations. · Speculation: Speculation is the purchase of an asset with the hope that it will become more valuable in the near future.

· Skepticism: an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object.

U · Utopia: Utopia is an imaginary society or community that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. · Unambiguous: not open to more than one interpretation. · Upwelling: Upwelling is a process in which currents bring deep, cold water to the surface of the ocean. 24

.The End.

ALWAYS THE REAL THING, ALWAYS MYSTERY