Atlantis? My interest has often been one of scathing criticism. I am willing to concede a reality behind this ancient story. But the scandalous elaboration of the legend, with the placement of Atlantis everywhere absurdly imaginable, from Cuba across to Japan, leaves me astonished at the gullibility of the credulous.

Yet, by small increments, I came closer to this most persistent of myths. I would read a book, unsuspecting of Atlantis, and then at some point the sunken island would raise its seaweed swathed head to catch my inner eye. Eventually, I felt obliged to go directly to the fable's source. But let me track back a little.

In 2001, I was reading Pliny the Elder's geography, and learnt that in Latin, the island Atlantis & the Atlas mountains bore the same name. As Pliny puts it, there was "another island off Mount Atlas, itself also called [by the same name]" - "et alia insula contra montem Atlantem, et ipsa Atlantis appellata" [Pliny - Natural History - Book VI ; XXXVI ; 199 - Loeb Library].

At this time, I concurred with the ideas of Robert Graves, who, in "Greek Myths", placed Atlantis in what is now, southern Tunisia. The sea invaded this area during the Bronze Age, probably as the result of an earthquake. Lake T was formed; a saline lake which has long since decayed into saltpans. Refugees from this area introduced the Goddess Athena to Athens. So this explanation of Graves seems to give a solid basis to the Atlantis legend. However, it is well to remember that such legends often have multiple sources, which become coalesced into one final, intricate & often rather confused story!

In May 2002, I finally decided that I must do, what I had for so long avoided. That is, to read the actual source of the Atlantis legend. I read Plato's "The Critias", or at least the fragment of this work which remains. What survives is the early chapters and these are very revealing. The obvious conclusion which should be drawn is so clear, that I am astonished that I have never come across it in any writing.

Atlantis is Andalusia in southern Spain. It fits perfectly. When I read that one extremity of Atlantis came close to the Pillars of Hercules [114], I immediately thought of Andalusia. Plato does mention a great mass of mud, which prevents one reaching the place where Atlantis was, before it sank [108]. Yet there are no such realms of mud within cooee of the Pillars of Hercules. As to this supposed sinking, I will come to it later!

Reading on [114-118] I discovered that the harbours of Atlantis faced southwards, protecting them from the northern gales, which describes Andalusia; that the City of Atlantis was at the southern end of a plain, which was surrounded by mountains, & this describes Cadiz very well; that they had two crops a year, using rain in winter & irrigation in summer, which is Andalusia again; that they had both fusable & hard metals, which the Spanish Mountains were famously rich in; and also they had this metal, "Orichalcum" or "Shining Metal", second only to Gold in worth, which was found there and nowhere else. This last is Mercury. Cinnibar, which is Mercury Oxide, has been mined in Spain for millenia. Spain is still the dominant world supplier of Mercury. But the ores of this metal are absent from that vast swathe of land, which was the Hellenic realms.

It is true that Cadiz does not quite fit Plato's description of the City of Atlantis, but then no actual city possibly could, as his description is clearly fanciful! The immense dimensions he gives for the city are undoubtedly a storyteller's brazen exaggeration. The Hellenes were notorious for the creative inflation of their myths and Plato is certainly no exception! But Cadiz does have a very good harbour, if not exactly of Platonic expectations. Plato places Orichalcum on the roofs and walls of their finest buildings, which is not exactly where a sane architect, ancient or modern, would attempt to lay Mercury to rest! But then he had never seen this metal and, understandably enough, simply placed a valuable metal where he felt it belonged.

Andalusia is obviously not an island, but when the Phoenicians first came across it, they would have seen it as such: the island lying off the Atlas mountains. One must remember that while these Pillars now bear the name "Hercules", this is the Roman version of the Greek "Heracles", which is a translation of the Phoenician "Melqart". When we look at what Plato says of the Atlantian religion, with the worship of Cleito & Poseidon. We are seeing here, Phoenician Gods, as this is the Greek translation of . So, the Atlantians of the City are the Phoenicians, and later the Punics, who ruled Andalusia from Cadiz [in Latin, Gadis].

This Phoenician connection also explains the elephants, which Plato credits as occurring in suspiciously large numbers, dwelling in heretofore unmentioned swamps, which appear it seems, on cue, as an environment in which to place them . Elephants were a popular Punic import, possibly from Senegal, as they were able to obtain impressive numbers of these fiercesome war-beasts, without Roman knowledge [Polybius, "The Rise Of The Roman Empire"; Book XV, 11-18].

Plato mentions Egyptian records as being his ultimate source of the Atlantis story, and thus the circle of the myth is closed. The Egyptians were not great seafarers, and apart from Hatshetsup's celebrated marine expedition to the Land of Punt in the 15th century BC, relied on the Phoenicians for their sea expeditions and trade. One can see how the early records of the Phoenicians, regarding the island off the Atlas mountains, were written down by the Egyptians and filed away by their priestly beauracracy. Eventually, these writings were rediscovered by the Classical Greeks, who came to the wrong conclusion.

A large island was described as being next to the Pillars of Hercules. They knew there was no island there, just Africa and Europe. So it must have sunk. At this point, the legend of the earthquake-caused sea invasion that formed Lake T, which is conveniently close by the other end of the Atlas mountains, was blended in to the Atlantis legend. The Hellenes were determined myth-creators and when they were on a roll, the vast distance between the opposite ends of this massive mountain chain, was no impediment. And Plato's mass of mud was concoted on cue, to stop anyone exploring the area where the "lost island" had been. Speculation was very much the way of the Hellenes, as wild Sophist supposition was generally preferred by them, to the clear reasoning of Socrates and Democritus. Please note, I mean the real Socrates, as described in Xenophon's biography, not the Platonic Socrates, who is really just a pseudonym for Plato himself!

So, there you have it. Plato, in the Critius, once you remove his storyteller's elaboration, describes Andalusia, when he says he is describing Atlantis. Thus, Andalusia is Plato's Atlantis.

Postscript: My experience of the general human nature is such, that, however perfectly one may succeed in explaining the origin of the Atlantis legend, it will not stop the most ridiculous drivel about Atlantis being taken as gospel truth, by millions of people around our globe. Those Sophist-Adoring Hellenes have a multitude of like-minded spiritual desendents.

Yet, I will add, that my vanity is not quite at the level, where I suppose my own perfection in anything. Still, if I have not given a more interesting or entertaining story about Atlantis than others, I have at the least given a more credible story than most, and wasted fewer precious words in so doing.

written by Tony Sims © 2002.

First draft 8th June 2002; Prose Revised 3rd July 2002;
Reference details added 21st July 2002.

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