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ATLANTIS: Decoding the dialogues Timaeus & Critias
of Plato
Sofias Sotirios*
*Corresponding Author: Sofias Sotirios, Geodesy (National Technical University of
Athens, Faculty of Surveying Engineering), Gis expert (ArcGIS ESRI), author of the his-
torical books Orpheus & Argonauts, Atlantis of Plato, Centauri, Athens, Greece.
E-mail: sotosofias@yahoo.gr
A SUMMARY OF PLATOS’ CRITIAS & TIMAEUS DIALOGUES
Having had the privilege to read the ancient texts directly in their original language,
the Attic, or Ionian Dialect, I will present -for the first time- information that has never
been presented until today. The dialogues “Critias” & “Timaeus” describe the meet-
ing of Socrates, Critias, Timaeus and Hermocrates, just before the celebration of the
fest in honor of Goddess Athena.
The four friends met at Socrates house and started to discuss several issues in the
presence of a person that was recording their sayings: Young Plato himself, student
of Socrates at that time!
Socrates is of course the famous Athenian philosopher, Timaeus is the distinguished
philosopher and astronomer from the Greek colony of Locris of South Italy.
During the discussion about several issues, Hermocrates (i.e. an aristocrat and well
known General from the Greek colony of Syracuse) urged Critias (i.e. the Athenian
politician, one of the later 30 Tyrants of Athens) to repeat what he had told them the
night before, on their way to the house of Critias, who was by the way hosting them,
as an Athenian, while the 2 other companions had arrived in Athens from South Italy
to celebrate the Greater Panathenaea. I have concluded-even though it is not clarified
in the ancient text if it was the Lesser or the Greater Panathenaea- that the fest was
the Greater one, because ONLY during the period of the Greater Panathenaea did
Greek citizens from all the Greek colonies come to Athens and join the fest.
Since Hermocrates and Timaeus had come from Italy, it is obvious that it was The
Greater Panathenaea, a holly fest that was normally celebrated every 4 years, during
the attic month called “Ekatombaeon” (i.e., its duration was from mid-July to mid-
August) between two consecutive Olympic Games. After careful research in the his-
torical books, I managed to identify that this meeting took place in the first days of
July 6 BC. Exactly between the 8BC and 4BC Olympiads which took place in 6BC!
Critias, then started to describe the visit of Solon-the famous ruler of Athens-
around 600 BC in Egypt. As a distinguished person, Solon was accepted and hosted
by the Egyptian priests with honor. Then the Egyptian Priests started to describe to
ABSTRACT
The analysis of Google Earth’s screenshot, proves that Atlantis of Plato was a real continent and not
a fiction that the great philosopher invented to support his Ideal Republic
Keywords: Atlantis, Plato, Timaeus, Critias, Solon, Athens, Egypt
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Solon the glory of his city, Athens, the organization of its society, the landscape, the
army and finally its great achievements. The ultimate achievement was the victory in
a war between the Athenians and an aggressive nation called Atlanteans.
The priests continued their revelation to Solon, emphasizing that the Atlantic nation,
which lived in an island out of the Hercules Pillars, managed to conquer all the islands
of the Atlantic Ocean and many others inside the Mediterranean Sea, from Libya, and
Tyrrhenian cost up to Egypt, by having acquired huge power.
Then all the countries revolted against the Atlanteans’ aggressiveness, joined under
the leadership of Athens, and a brutal war broke out between the Athenians and the
Atlanteans. In the end, Athens was the winner, but suddenly Atlantis vanished after a
terrible physical destruction.
To avoid any misunderstanding in my text, from now on, I shall call Critias (II) the
present narrator and Critias (I) his grandfather.
Critias (II) pointed out to his companions that all these descriptions were written down
on papers by Solon and that these notes had been passed down by his grandfather
Critias (I) during the fest of “Apaturia” a significant family fest for the Athenians.
Critias (II) mentions that during that family fest he was 9 years old, and his grandfa-
ther Critias (I) was almost ninety. Ι conclude that this particular fest took place in 451
BC since Critias (II) lived from 460-403BC, hence he was 9 years old in 451 BC.
Critias (II) had also revealed that Solon was relative to his greater grandfather named
Dryopides and explains how the written notes of Solon had finally been passed down
to Critias (II) the grandson, the present narrator of the facts.
Solon (630-559BC), Critias (II) the tyrant (460-403BC), Critias (I) grandfather (540-
450 BC) while Dryopides, the greater grandfather of Critias (II) and father of Critias
(I) must have lived one generation before his son Critias (I), or approx. between 570-
500 BC.
If we match the dates, we can see that Solon was approx. 60 years older than Dry-
opides. Hence, we conclude that Dryopides was either Solon’s grandchild or one of
his beloved nephews.
But when Solon died in 559 BC, Dryopides was only 10-11 years old. The logical
assumption is that the written notes of Solon were not passed down to Dryopides, but
most probably to his (unknown to us) father. Later, they were passed down to adult
Dryopides, then to Critias (I), after to his son (i.e. Kallaeschros) and finally to Critias
(II) and thanks to great Plato they remained for eternity.
Another important clue that derives from the historical archives: Plato’s mother was
Perictione. Her father Glaucon was the younger brother of Kallaeschros, Critias (II)’
father. Hence Critias (II)-the present narrator-was uncle of Plato from his mother’s
side. Also, Critias (II), to further prove his point, made it clear to all the participants
that the original notes of Solon were at his disposal and available to be presented to
them at any time.
Taking into consideration that the dialogue of Critias was published in 360 BC, almost
46 years after the meeting, we can easily conclude that Plato had at his disposal, as a
beloved nephew of Critias (II), the original notes of Solon.
It is impossible that Plato could recall all the incredible details of Atlantis, described
by his uncle Critias (II), almost half a century later.
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Most probably his uncle -knowing Plato’s passion for writing- handed over him the
notes of Solon, to justify the homonymous dialogue.
There is no way to dismiss the sayings of Critias (II) as fiction.
The existence of Solon’s written notes and the presence of Socrates as the central
participant in the meeting, exclude any possibility that the dialogues Critias & Ti-
maeus- recorded by Plato-is the philosopher’s invention to justify his famous book
for the Ideal “Republic” as many scholars believe.
ATLANTIS ON GOOGLE EARTH
I had almost forgotten about Atlantis for around 25 years, when a "strange" news
on the internet, in early 2009, rekindled my interest for the lost continent. On February
20, 2009, Bernie Bamford, a British aeronautical engineer, accidentally browsing
Google earth, spotted submarine-like formations about 600 km NW of Palmas Island
of the Canary complex. The news traveled around the world, arousing the curiosity of
many researchers, myself included. I searched the Atlantic area with the strange bot-
tom out of curiosity and I was extremely impressed with what I found.
Figure1. Area A was seen by Bernie. Area B also exists (and is clearly connected to area A) and I
discovered it thanks to the editing in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP (since the original photo is dark).
THE DESCRIPTION OF CRITIAS SOLVES THE GREAT MYSTERY OF
GOOGLE EARTH’s PHOTOS.
In the homonymous dialogue, Critias (II) based on Solon’s written notes, analyses
in detail the descriptions of the Egyptians priests for the “PLAIN” -as they call it- of
Atlantis, literally translating the Google photo!
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Critias (II) explains in detail that what appears in the photo below -that I have edited
in Photoshop-are the ditches that the Atlanteans had dug, and which accepted the wa-
ter from the surrounding mountains. With this system not only did they water their
city but also transported the tree trunks to the city to later use the timber in the various
constructions as well. The Atlanteans also used these artificial "channels" to transport
products by boat throughout the city. In fact, 2 of these ditches - as Critias (II) men-
tions - guided outside the city and emptied their waters into the sea.
Figure2.The “plain” or “square” as this region of Atlantis is referred to by Solon. The capital of
Atlantis as it is proved. The grids are in fact the artificial channels excavated by the Atlanteans in
order to create a water communication system in the capital.
ALL THE DIMENSIONS DESCRIBED IN THE DIALOGUE ARE TOTALLY
CONFIRMED IN GOOGLE EARTH’s PHOTO
Critias (II) mentions that the "plain" was an absolute square and almost plain eve-
rywhere. Its perimeter was 3000 stadia (i.e. or 3000x185m=560km, since one attic
stadium=185m). Hence, each side of the square should be 560/4=140 km in today
length units.
The shape shown in the Google Earth’s photo is a stunning square, of huge dimen-
sions, divided into building blocks by a horizontal and vertical grid of artificial chan-
nels. Measuring the sides of the square with the Google earth Measure tool, I found
them to be 140 kilometers long.
Absolutely amazing, exactly as Critias (II) mentions in the ancient text!
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Critias (II) reports that the water from the surrounding mountains reached the city's
channel system through a ditch. At least one water catchment can be seen descending
from the neighboring mountains. By further analyzing the previous photograph and
the plain, one confirms the consistency of Plato's astonishing description. He says that
the system of the city's channels was drained to two bigger channels, that ended in the
sea. Indeed, it is quite visible in the photo, that two large channels exit the plain and
after traveling about 100 kilometers, they suddenly stop. In fact, Plato mentions that
the distance between the two channels was 100 stadia apart, that is, 18,500 meters.
Measuring with the measure tool the distance between the two central channels, it is
found EXACTLY as mentioned in the ancient text! Most likely these two channels
continued their routing and ended at the sea, as Critias (II) says, they just do not appear
intact in the aerial photograph because naturally, the channels after 11,500 years have
been covered by the sand of the ocean floor. I think it is very possible that in a huge
city, one channel was used as an entry and the other as an exit to the sea. In such a
busy city, with thousands of boats coming and going, it seems very logical to me that
the Atlanteans had determined from which channel they would enter the city and from
which they would leave. It also seems very clear that the "plain" or "square" as Plato
mentions it, is crossed by a wide system of channels (grid) which according to the
exact description of the ancient text, served the irrigation and the transportations of
the Atlanteans in all areas of their city by boats. In other words, the capital of Atlantis
was an ancient-like Amsterdam, but 100 times bigger than the present one. The iden-
tification of Plato's Atlantis, marks the ancient Greek history from at least 9,600 BC,
as it is mentioned by the Egyptian priests who referred to Solon that not only Atlantis
but Athens as well was a flourishing city 9000 before that time ( i.e. Solon visited
Egypt around 600 BC) but due to a big Cataclysm, Athens simultaneously to Atlantis
was destructed and the glory of the city was forgotten since the people who survived,
living mainly in mountainous areas, did not have the education to preserve the Athe-
nian civilization. Fortunately for Athens, Attica Region was hit by the destruction but
not vanished, in comparison to Atlantis, which was forever submerged in the Atlantic
Ocean.
With such an incredibly realistic description and with such precise dimensions of
the channels (lengths, depths, and widths), one wonders how Atlantis is considered
by some to be a creation of Plato's imagination. The real issue that left me ecstatic
once again is when Critias (II) mentions that the total length of the (artificial) channels
was 10,000 stadia, or 10,000 x 185m = 1,850 kilometers. Adding -with the assistance
of AutoCAD- the lengths of the lines shown in the square shape, I was really shocked.
Their total sum found to be 1800-1900 kilometers and it is very close to the number
that Critias (II) says. It seems as if Critias (II) took today's Google photo and explained
to us in a very simple way, what EXACTLY we see on the photo: Atlantis after 9600
years!
THE WAY ATLANTIS VANISHED
As Critias (II) says, "Atlantis vanished suddenly, being submerged in the sea". But
how is it possible for the present “plain” of Atlantis to be situated at the bottom of the
ocean? How does it look intact on Google Earth? Is it ever possible for a large island
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to sink and sit softly at 5,000 meters depth? By reading the dialogue and the narration
of Critias (II) himself very carefully, I immediately found the solution in the ancient
text. Using my knowledge of general geology, I was able to provide a scientific solu-
tion to a seemingly unsolvable problem: How and why Atlantis sank without dissolv-
ing its channel networks shown on google. The solution to the mystery is somehow
camouflaged in the ancient text. Some may have read it but not given it the proper
importance. In simple figures I will present the evolution of a cataclysmic phenome-
non. Yes, Atlantis was located - unfortunately for the place - on a hyper volcano,
something resembling to America's Yellowstone. So, this is the piece of information
that exists "camouflaged" in the ancient text. But this destructive fact was ignored by
the Atlanteans (or they did not give it the proper importance, as I believe, since it had
never warned them before) and built their cities on a sleeping hyper volcano, like the
corresponding one in Yellowstone America Park! To comprehend the terrible simi-
larities between the two hyper volcanos, I will point out this: Critias (II) describes the
nature of Atlantis, as if describing something like today's beautiful Yellowstone Park!
And the most amazing of all? He mentions that in Atlantis there were many hot water
tanks used by its inhabitants for therapeutic purposes. There were hundreds of such
small ponds-as in Yellowstone -and visitors to the park could also take their warm
baths in wintertime as well. An incredible association that greatly reinforces my the-
ory. The oceanic crust (~ 10 km thick) in which Atlantis was located, did not in fact
touch the mantle of the earth, but was in a way floating on the liquid materials of the
core and which due to pressure and high temperature "pierced" some moment the
mantle to explode. The island of Atlantis proved to be a temporary creation of nature.
Therefore, due to the existence of magma under the crust of Atlantis, the infinite lakes
that Atlantis had with thermal hot waters are completely justified. Atlantis was an
island created by the gentle solidification of lava about 500,000 years ago. In other
words, it was a volcanic island with soil rich in fertile materials that made Atlantis
very flourishing, since Critias (II) mentions that there was an infinite abundance of
earth trees, fruits plants etc. along with a huge variety of tamed and wild animals. And
what else does Critias (II) mention? That Atlantis was also rich in minerals, such as
copper, tin, brass, gold, silver, and many others in a fluid state. But we know that
heavy materials, exist deep in the earth's core and rise to the surface with magma.
Thus, confirming the existence of volcanic material beneath the surface of Atlantis.
So, what happened? At some point due to the high and increasing pressure exerted by
the fluid background materials on the crust, it opened (i.e. there is still this rift in the
mid-Atlantic ridge and in fact divides Iceland), and the fluid materials were violently
ejected through the huge eruption of the hyper-volcano. What happened next? The
crust of Atlantis, without the fluid material beneath it, somehow "deflated" and sat
softly as the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
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Figure3,4,5. In the 3 photos I drew in Excel, the scientific explanation of the creation, evolution,
and destruction of Atlantis, are shown in 3 phases. The 1st one shows the creation of the volcanic
island of Atlantis. In the 2nd one the great eruption of the hyper-volcano of Atlantis around 9,600
BC. according to Plato. In the 3rd one, the "deflated" Atlantis, "sat" on the ocean floor, at a depth
of 5,000 m.
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Figure6. In the left photo, I’ve drawn the square or Capital of Atlantis’ location, according to
Plato’s description. In the right photo, Atlantis as it is today.
Another astonishing conclusion: Plato says that the city was protected from its
North side, by high mountains. Indeed 3 underwater high mountains exist (i.e with
height 4.000-4.500m according to Google Earth’s measure tool) which during the
Atlantic era, were located north of the city. The capital of Atlantis as a “clever” city,
was constructed, fully oriented from north to south to take full advantage of the solar
energy (left above photo).
In the right photo, Atlantis as it is today. There is a significant rotation of about 75O
anti-clockwise, proving that the violent rotation of the earth, was the reason for the
absolute destruction of the ancient world. A huge global cataclysm, recorded in
many ancient traditions and religions, caused the destruction of Atlantis, Athens and
all the coastal cities and islands of that era. The Egyptians priests mentioned to So-
lon, that thanks to Nile, their homeland was saved and according to them, this was
how the ancient texts from the Atlantean era remained intact and at their disposal for
90 centuries!
A global cataclysm with huge earthquakes, volcano’s eruption, tsunamis etc.
was the reason for the absolute disaster of the ancient world caused by the vi-
olent rotation of the axis of the Earth into 75o.
But what has caused this anomaly to the axis rotation, that shifted it 75o, which
equals to 8000 Km as I have calculated? Plato gives once again the amazing answer
in his text: The fall of a meteorite or comet -he named it Phaethon- was the cause of
the huge catastrophe, something like the comet that hit the earth 65 billion years ago
and caused the dinosaurs to go extinct!
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Figure7.An amazing illustration from TIME-LIFE that shows the disaster extremely realistic.
THE REVELATION OF THE PALACE OF ATLANTIS
I will present for the first time the Palace of Atlantis, that was the residence of the
Major King. According to Critias (II)’ descriptions, the island was divided in 10 king-
doms, each one with its own king and all of them were under the rules of the Major
King, who was the direct descendant of Atlas, son of Poseidon, and founder of Atlan-
tis. Critias (II) reveals the exact dimensions, lengths, widths, depths of the palace.
Around the central island which had a diameter of 5 stadia (i.e. around 1000m), there
were two zones of land and three of water, absolutely circular, that did not appear to
be man-made. Critias (II) also mentions a 50 stadia long channel (i.e. 9,500 m), con-
necting the outer ditch of the palace with the sea. It was 300 feet wide (~ 100 m) and
100 feet deep (~ 30 m). Almost 1.5 times the current size of the famous channel of
my homeland, Corinth Channel! When was that? In 9,600 BC. In fact, they had con-
nected -as Critias (II) says- with 3 bridges, the 3 technical circular channels, so that
the main road ends at the palace. What openings were bridged? Openings of 550, 350
and 200 meters respectively. What bridges were used? Were they hanging ones? Or
bridges with outer and central piers? Which kind of superior technology was that?
Because these are not just bridges or small irrigation channels but are rather consid-
ered SUPERSTRUCTURES even today!!!
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Figure8. A combined illustration, dipinted by me, showing the exact city plan of the Palace of
Atlantis . All the dimensions that I present in this picture are clearly mentioned in the ancient text,
(i.e Plato referres the distances in attic tadia that I ‘ve tranformred to meters) proving that Plato’s
description of the Atlantic palace is 100% realistic and engineeringly correct. Total diameter of
the circular palace -if we also calculate the land and water strips- is 27 stadia or ~ 5000m .
I have precisely designed the Palace of Atlantis in this combined photo, com-
posed from the artistic illustration of TIME-LIFE & Google earth. I thought I would
calculate how many cubic meters the Atlanteans dug to build the 3 circular water
lanes. Easy measurements, simple geometry with the formula π x (R1 ^ 2-R2 ^ 2),
where R1 is the radius of the outer circle and R2 is the radius of the inner circle. For
the outer lane, if I apply R1 = 3,000 m. & R2 = 2,450 m, I find the area of the circular
zone 9.4 sq.km.
Calculating the other 2, the total sum is 14.7 square kilometers. The depth of the 3
zones was 30 meters, according to Critias (II). So, the excavation volume results in a
total of 14,700,000 x 30 = ~ 450,000,000 cubic meters. To this amount must be added
the cubic excavations of the channel that connected the palace with the sea. The di-
mensions of the channel were 9500x100x30 = 28,500,000 cubic meters. In total, about
500 million cubic meters of soil were dug for the palace. But analyzing the data, I
remembered that the two ditches that started from the plain of Atlantis and which,
after covering a course of 360 kilometers, were poured into the sea. So, the two
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channels 2 x 360 (720 km in total), 100m wide and depth 30m. = 2,22 billion cubic
meters of excavation. To these figures we must add all the channels of Atlantis which
according to Plato were myriad (i.e. 10000) stadia. That is 10,000 x 185 = 1,850,000
m. With a width of 100 meters and a depth of 30 meters, the volume results V =
1,850,000 x 100 x 30 = 5.5 billion cubic meters, a total of over 8 billion. UNCON-
CEIVABLE!!!
Finally, Plato mentions that there was a port in every water circular channel. That is
a total of three ports. Another striking fact in Plato's description is that the two chan-
nels from the sea to the first port were covered to protect the passing ships.
Two channels with length 9500 m each and width 30m, fully covered like today un-
dersea channels. What an amazing achievement by the Atlanteans engineers!!!
THE DIMENSIONS AND THE SHAPE OF THE ISLAND
After identifying with great ac-
curacy - from the descriptions
of Critias (II) - the Palace and
the “Plain” of Atlantis (the cap-
ital), it was time for the next
big step. The ancient text also
indirectly mentions the area
and the shape of the island of
Atlantis. The ancient text also
describes the organization of
the Atlantean army as follows:
Figure9. The exact shape and
location of Atlantis. In the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean, it was extended
from present day Spain to the Lesser
Antilles.
Regarding the number of men, useful on the battlefield, it was arranged that each part
of the country would give a leader for the men who could carry weapons, and the area
of each part was about one hundred stadia and there were sixty thousand such sec-
tions. In other words, there were 60,000 divisions in Atlantis (probably local camps)
and each division was ten times ten stadia in length, that is, 100 stadia. So, if we
consider that there were 10 kingdoms in Atlantis, then each kingdom would have
6,000 camps. Each camp that housed men capable of carrying weapons, was a square
with side ten stadia, so an area of 100 square stadia (i.e a square with a side of 1850
m and an area of 3,422 acres). The ancient text continues: The number of people living
in the mountains and in other parts of the country was, as it was called, innumerable
and was ruled by the local leaders of the regions and towns of each clergy. That is,
each camp was responsible for the perimeter cities and towns that were under its mil-
itary command and all together the 6,000 camps constituted the military power of
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each of the 10 equivalent kingdoms. So, if there were 60,000 camps across Atlantis,
then the area of the camps alone was 10 x 10 stages x 185m x 185m x 60,000 =
205,350 square kilometers. If we add to these the cities, the towns, the mountains, the
lakes, and the gorges, we have a huge island with an area of perhaps more than 3.5
million square kilometers. In fact, an island around 3.5 million square kilometers (i.e
my estimation) matches the report of Critias (II), that “Atlantis was as much as Libya
and Asia together”. Of course, ancient Libya had nothing to do with the country as
we know it today, nor was ancient Asia the giant continent we know it to be today.
As Libya, at the time, contained all the northern coasts of Africa, from the Pillars of
Hercules (Gibraltar Straits) to Egypt. Also, as Asia was only the part of the then
known as Asia Minor. So, to approach the dimensions of Atlantis I will make some
assumptions. Today's coasts of North Africa are ~ 3,000 kilometers long. So, if they
were habitable at an average distance of up to 100 km from the shores of the Medi-
terranean, then the area of ancient Libya mentioned by Plato was about 3 million sq.
Km. Therefore, if we add 300-400 thousand sq.km. of the then known Asia (Ionia,
Bithynia, Mysia, Paphlagonia, etc.) we should be very close to 3.5 million sq.km. One
last question left. What shape was the island of Atlantis? This information can also
be found "camouflaged" in the ancient text. Critias (II) mentions that the end of the
Island of Atlantis was opposite to the Pillars of Heracles. That is, neither towards
South Africa, nor towards Iernida (Great Britain). So indirectly from the ancient texts,
derives an island with East-West direction, narrow and long. He also mentions that
its eastern side extended from Gadiriki region (i.e Gadiriki, today's Cadis of Spain).
This is some incredible geographical information. The distance of the sea -according
to Critias (II) - was about 2000 stadia (i.e. 360 km) from the middle of the plain, and
the island of Atlantis was elongated and stretched from East to West. So, 2x360 = 720
km was its average width. If we divide the total area of 3.5 x 10 ^ 6 Km2 with 760
km, it equals a length of ~ 4,500 km. Logically, however, the island would not be
exactly rectangular, so its length could reach 5,500 kilometers. Examining the current
bottom relief of the Atlantic Ocean, one observes that islands exist ONLY along the
X-axis, in the east-west direction (i.e. the Azores archipelago) which are the peaks of
the mountains of submerged Atlantis. In other words, the oblong shape of Atlantis is
fully confirmed. Plato says that the Atlanteans used to rule over the neighboring is-
lands (a logical assumption would be he is referring to present day Lesser & Greater
Caribbean Antilles) but also the continent that surrounds the real ocean. Which one?
America. North & South. The distance from Spain to the Antilles is 6,000 km and
therefore the length of 4,500-5,000 km that I calculated by making some assumptions,
seems to be correct. In fact, the west coast of the island of Atlantis is ONLY 1,000
kilometers off the coast of South America. This explains the meanders and pottery or
coins of Minoan origin that have been found in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and else-
where. They did not come from Crete, which is 10,000 kilometers away, but from the
neighboring Atlantis, the intermediate station, THE GREEK COLONY that was
ONLY 1,000 kilometers or a week by ship!
I present for the first time the shape of the island of Atlantis that has nothing to do
with the supposedly round shape that some arbitrarily suggest. Mine is based on the
indirect descriptions of Plato. It had an elongated shape, covering an area of 3.5 cm
km, one end of which reached just outside of present-day Spain and the other off the
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Caribbean. Its width was 760 km in the center and its length was about 4,500 km. The
elongated shape also helped to cross the Atlantic, as sailors were able to sail along the
southern coast of the island and stop every night to rest before continuing their voyage
the next day. An elongated island that stretches from East to West, makes travel un-
imaginably easier. On the contrary, the round island that some people have designed
from north to south, apart from the fact that Critias (II) indirectly rejects it with his
description, would be a huge obstacle since to bypass it one would have to travel for
days or even months.
THE INERIOR OF THE ATLANTIS PALACE
Figure10. A Won-
derful artistic depic-
tion from TIME-
LIFE:
The interior of
the temple of Po-
seidon, with the
statue of the god
upright, holding
the reins of the 6-
winged horses
and surrounded
by a 100 of Nere-
ids. An artistic
depiction from
TIME-LIFE, but
at the same time perfectly in line with the descriptions of Solon who, in the dialogue
CRITIAS, says exactly: They placed golden statues, the god (Poseidon) to be upright
in his chariot, holding the reins of six winged horses, and this complex was so tall
that it almost touched the top of the roof of the temple. Around him, seated on dol-
phins, there were a hundred Nereids along with innumerous other statues around,
dedicated to exceptional individuals.
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Figure11. Another
wonderful depiction
from TIME-LIFE: The
main entrance and the
yard of the palace.
The majestic palace
was located on the
central circular is-
land (i.e. which ac-
cording to Plato had
a diameter of 1000
meters). Having read
countless books
about Atlantis, I be-
lieve that the de-
scription of TIME-
LIFE and the artistic
images published by
this wonderful encyclopedia are very accurate and very close to the descriptions of
the ancient text.
The dimensions of the palace were astonishing, according to Plato: Its length was
200m, so was its width, and its height was 100m. Bigger than the Saint Peter Catholic
Church in Rome!
Figure12. Map with the al-
leged Atlantis in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean. Location-
wise correct but shape-wise
incorrect.
If the shape of Atlantis
was as shown in the adja-
cent photo (oriented from
north to south), it would
not be easy for sailors to
cross the Atlantic Ocean,
since they would be
obliged to travel north or
south of the continent,
wasting valuable time. Moreover, in the dialogue, Solon mentions that the island was
narrow and extended from the coast of ancient Spain to the neighboring islands
(meaning present day Antilles). So, when Atlantis disappeared, Solon reported that
crossing the Atlantic Ocean became almost impossible, not only because of the mud
created at the bottom of the ocean, but primarily because travelers lost their resting
place during the arduous journey to the shores of ancient America!
15
REFERENCES
[1]
Dialogue Critias of Plato
[2]
Dialogue Timaeus of Plato
[3]
Atlantis of Plato, by Sotiris Sofias, Noon Publications 2010
Citation: Sofias Sotirios. “Atlantis” of Plato: The great continent was real and not fiction
Copyright: © 2021 Sofias Sotirios. This is an open-access article which permits unrestricted use, dis-
tribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.