I have a good friend (In Spain) who once told me of a story of a floating city. The story goes that the city was never in the same place twice. I asked him, "Do you think it's Atlantis" He said, "No lo se". (Dont know)

Story goes that a long time ago, before the days of the Greek empire, their used to be a floating city. This city would float everywhere. It would travel through the entire World. setting up cities and ports along the way. My friend Emillio told me that this city was known to have united the know civilizations and spread their knowledge everywhere it went.

Just wondering what you guys think of Emillio's story.

The only think that stayed in my mind was that I asked him if it was water that the city floated on. Emillio said he didn't know

It sounds to unbelievable to me. Sound more like folk lore, but you never know.

a floating city is deffinately in the realms of possibility, i have seen boats made of concreate that float.. aslong as its water tight, and displaces the water and has the boyouncy right technically i dont see why massive moving floating citys could not be built with farms and everything on them.. problem is i cant see it being able to get too close to land without running aground. could send landing craft i suppose!!

[Edited on 4-5-2003 by The Blade Runner]

Maybe the "floating city" could be a big alien mother ship. It would be big enough that people might think it is a city. I believe there were aliens around back then.

Thats why I find this story interesting, the only thing I don't get is why it was named to be a folk lore if it's in the realm of possibilities??

Sounds very similar to the stories of the Indian "Vimanas".

Who is Vimanas, and what tribe of Indians is he from???

Is the Indian tribe somewhere near the ocean?

[Edited on 5/5/2003 by FoxStriker]

I'm happy that their is some history behind this story. Since, I asked my friend Emillio where he got his story from and he said somewhere in Africa. So maybe their could be more. I think he told me he was told the story somewhere in the area of the old Songai Empire (Don't know how to spell Songai).

Maybe this city spead ideas such as the pyramid ans other ideas which have been discovered all over the world.

The African empire would be Songhai, I think: Niger and Mali to-day -mediaeval period in western terms.

[Edited on 5-5-2003 by Estragon]

I don't know of any "floating city" legends in African folklore; but I wonder if part of the origin of such stories might have been first glimpses of very large ships - perhaps traders or sailors off course.
One can imagine someone used to canoes and rafts being awed by a great galley or perhaps a European ship in the middle ages.

It also occurs to me that, if this were a Songhai legend ( far inland, desert, river-traffic only) then a large sea-going vesel would ahve been a most impressive sight and, magnified in the telling, could easily have become a floating city (and one imagines that the word "city" probably meant little more than what we might call a town or large village.

Estragon- True, I know little of the Songhai Empire, but thats were my friend said he got it from. Maybe in a year or so I'll talk to him again. Check up on the story.

let me clarify that I mean the ancient empires of South America, around the same time as really ancient Egypt here.... Anyhow, there have been some depictions of very large vessels (triple-hulled, wood and reed vessels) that are thought to be "Atlantean". Just about every day, there seems to be new evidence showing that South Americans traded with ancient Egypt, and Greece, etc. My supposition would be that these "floating city" legends are derived from these large trading vessels. Large merchant vessels, because that's not the kind of trip you make for nothing....

That's an interesting extension of the topic, Gazrok.
Originally, I'd had Portuguese traders at the end of the mediaeval era in mind; but there's no reason why this possible explanation could not be pre-dated by a millennium or more.

(can't remember his name offhand) who had a team construct an Eqyptian sailing vessel (out of reeds, and period materials, etc.). Using ancient navigation techniques, and riding the currect currents, he demonstrated that these ships could get from Egypt to South America and back. (by actually DOING it!) The ships were built based on those in tombs dating around 2000 BC if I remember correctly...

This would be Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame, I think: the vessel I recall was named "Ra": I'll get researching.

RA as in the sun god. What I find interesting is the story itself, It originates in the area of the Songhai Empire, but what if the story was talking about ATLANTIS.

I don't find it weird that my friend heard this story around the old Songhai empire. I think thats just were he heard it from, I don't think thats were the story originated from though.

At this point, there is little doubt in my mind that the continent of Atlantis, is indeed, South America, and that the CITY of Atlantis, used to reside in the region known as the Altiplano.

I just believe that it could have been their large trading vessels...that were deemed "floating cities"

something like a very big ship but this happen before the deluge time where the stories say somewhere in china before the deluge happen there is a big ship which can carry as much as a 10,000 people in it.and somemore this ship sail on the surface of the sea. this ship also can fly to the sky but to what hight it is unknown.this is only a legend