Atlantis found: In Ireland

A new book just out reports to find too many connections between the description of Plato's Atlantis and the Emerald Isle.

The News Item

New book identifies Ireland as Atlantis
04/08/2004 - 10:21:27

A new book investigating the myth of Atlantis says that the mythical land was actually the island of Ireland.

The claim is made by geologist Ulf Erlingsson in his book 'Atlantis from a Geographer�s Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land', who is to visit Ireland on August 11 to 13.

In his book Erlingsson bases his evidence on Plato's desription of Atlantis which, according to Erlinsson, matches Ireland perfectly. Statistically, the scientist claims, the probability is over 99.98% that Plato was describing Ireland.

Erlingsson says: "Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest over the middle. They both feature a central plain that is open to the sea, but fringed by mountains. No other island on earth even comes close to this description."

�What has led most students astray is that Atlantis sank in the sea�, says Dr Erlingsson.

�It is an �Atlantic myth� all right � but a myth from, not about, Atlantis�.

"The island that sank was Dogger Bank. It was struck by a disastrous flood-wave around 6,100 BC, and now rests deep under the waves of the North Sea."

In the book, Dr Erlingsson shows how the Atlantic Empire probably can be associated with the megalithic monuments of Europe and Northern Africa. Their geographic distribution matches the extent of the Atlantic Empire as Plato described it.

The Atlantean capital can be connected with Tara, the legendary seat of the high king of Ireland.

The temples of Poseidon and the ancestors match up well with the so-called passage tombs of Newgrange and Knowth, in the Boyne valley.

They are the oldest roofed buildings anywhere in the world.

Ulf Erlingsson has a Ph.D. in Physical Geography from Uppsala University.

His specialty is geological processes, under-water research, and natural disasters�.


- Was

He should get a refund on his PHD...

"Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest over the middle. They both feature a central plain that is open to the sea, but fringed by mountains. No other island on earth even comes close to this description."

If you read Plato, you'll see that he is describing that the PLAIN is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, etc. not the ISLAND. Yes, the ISLAND was wider in the middle, but not the plain. The plain is also located not in the center, but in the center of the island's LONGEST SIDE...

No other island, eh? South America fits it to a tee....and the Plain of the Altiplano fits the measurements to a tee as well, and it IS on the Longest Side of the Island, etc. The problem is that there was a capital city called Atlantis (which was sunk by flooding) and then the continent of Atlantis (which is called South America today). You can even see this in the name of the Atlantic Ocean today....

Here is why its definatly not Ireland, Plato goes into specific information about how Atlantis was inhabited by Elephants and guess what their has never ever been any archeological evidence of Elephants or any animal even remotely resembling an elephant in Ireland (editing Note Woolly Mamoths did inhabit the region of the world which includes Ireland but they do not match the time nor the description of the elephants in Platos Critas). Sticking to my guns that Atlantis was no more than an advanced bronze age civilization located exactly where plato said it was, ie right outside the pillars of herculese you may find it intresting to find that Elephant skeletons dated too ancient times have been found in the low lying regions of the North Atlantic volcaninc shelf off the coast of spain. As for the size of Atlantis that could be debated because of a misuse of mathamatical proportions when translating Solons (Ancient Egyptian) description into Greek (Platos Critas).

[edit on 5-8-2004 by IndianaJoe]

Originally posted by IndianaJoe
Here is why its definatly not Ireland, Plato goes into specific information about how Atlantis was inhabited by Elephants and guess what their has never ever been any archeological evidence of Elephants or any animal even remotely resembling an elephant in Ireland.

Wrong...
Woolly mammoths ranged from Ireland to eastern North America. Check the history books.

My appologies the statement "or any other relatives" is not true because Wooly Mammoths did inhabit the region but according to the history books Woolly mammoths died out during or shortly after the Ice Age. Therefore they would predate Platos Atlantis by a substanial amount of time. Not to mention Plato describes Elephants African/Indian elephants not Woolly mammoths if you were to read the Critas you'd find it difficult to confuse his description with that of a Woolly mammoth. So it is still a plausible arguement that no elephants on Ireland therefor no Atlantis.

Refer yourself here for further reading on the possible date that Atlantis may have existed in.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 5-8-2004 by IndianaJoe]

I thought mammoths didn't die out until just before or just after the Younger Dryas, which was around 8000 BC. If you take plato's story at face value, then Atlantis existed in 9450 BC, approximately. (9000 years before Plato's time).

In my openion I think his dating is off read the link as to why this could have occured.

I still like the idea that Im standing on Atlantis right now.

- Was

Hey Yahoo picked up the story...

Yahoo Link

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.

Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 BC, was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.

Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography, and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.

"I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it's incredible," he told Reuters.

"Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest across the middle. They both have a central plain surrounded by mountains.

"I've looked at geographical data from the rest of the world and of the 50 largest islands there is only one that has a plain in the middle -- Ireland."

Erlingsson believes the idea that Atlantis sank came from the fate of Dogger Bank, an isolated shoal in the North Sea, about 60 miles off the northeastern coast of England, which sank after being hit by a huge floodwave around 6,100 BC.

"I suspect that myth came from Ireland and it derives from Dogger Bank. I think the memory of Dogger Bank was probably preserved in Ireland for around 3,000 years and became mixed up with the story of Atlantis," he said.

Erlingsson links the boundaries of the Atlantic Empire, as outlined by Plato, with the geographic distribution of megalithic monuments in Europe and Northern Africa, matching Atlantis' temples with well-known burial sites at Newgrange and Knowth, north of Dublin, which pre-date the pyramids.

His book, "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land," calculates the probability Plato would have had access to geographical data about Ireland as 99.98 percent.

Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores islands 900 miles west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean sea. Others locate it solely in the long-decayed brain of Plato.

Originally posted by Wassabi
I still like the idea that Im standing on Atlantis right now.

- Was

Well, if you are, there may be a repeat of the events at some point.

There are some really old Catholic prophesies (at least 5) that state before the end of the world "The ocean shall inundate Ireland seven years before the end so that the devil may not rule over that people."

Of course the book with these prophesies caution that though private revelations should not be taken seriously..... if Ireland were to disappear in this way, the rest of us might want to start counting.

maybe stonehedge was made by the atlantians

Originally posted by MarkLuitzen
maybe stonehedge was made by the atlantians

We have so many stonehedges because of all the bloody stones in the fields. That said, no one can possibly date when they were all built, so just possibly your right.

Now if you meant Stonehenge thats a different country, lad.

- Was

Yeah Ireland, home of giant power crystals and fantastic flying machines.

You never know what you might see after a few pints on a Saturday night.

- Was

[edit on 7-8-2004 by Wassabi]

Did not Charles Berlitz note that it must have been in the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to the Carribean? "Larger than Asia Minor" or something?

He also noted that the Basques of Europe seemed to have a similar dialect to some South Americans.

I was reading the paper over the weekend and there was an article in there about atlantis. It claimed that it supposidly the lost city was to be near if not part of cyprus that has become submerged over the last 11,000 years. The evidence was somewhat compeling, however many places have just be speculation, and until something emerges from this theory, I yet to think that atlantis will be found for sometime to come.

I thought mammoths didn't die out until just before or just after the Younger Dryas, which was around 8000 BC. If you take plato's story at face value, then Atlantis existed in 9450 BC, approximately. (9000 years before Plato's time).

Yep.

Something to remember about Plato here. He was hearing the story second hand himself, from the Egyptian priest Solon. He even quite clearly admits in the dialogue as I recall, that he took certain license with details such as names, to make the account understandable by his fellow Greeks. So, it is not that unlikely, that he could have heard mammoths described by Solon, and changed it to elephant to be understood by his audience. I should also note that another prehistoric elephant was in South America at this time (see my SA Atlantis post), and it VERY closely resembles modern elephants, much more so than mammoths....