Atlantis and the Silver City (23 page)

This plain continues on the Spanish side of the border, over the Guadiana River, and broadens considerably toward the eastern end. The area close to the border makes good use of the fertile soil, cornering a considerable share of the European strawberry market. Plastic tunnels shimmer in the sun like huge lakes, for kilometer after kilometer.

Over time, large parts closer to the coast past Huelva have become wetlands: the famous Dõna Ana National Park. At some stage it has been invaded by the sea, almost certainly as the result of one or another of the huge quakes, and was a lagoon in Roman times. Northeast of this area, the gently undulating, fertile plain continues for around 70 kilometers to Seville and beyond.

When combined, the plains of the Algarve, southwest Andalucía, and the vast submerged area out to sea present a significant size. The total area is not as big as that described by Plato, but it is certainly large enough to have been noted as part of the history of Atlantis. Plato said it was rectangular, but on the other hand that translation has been questioned. It has been suggested that the original Plato script only indicated that it had four corners, which were not necessarily ninety-degree angles. Image 30 on the next page shows the existing area combined with the sunken area, and illustrates how they formed a wedge, narrower in the northeast but broadening out considerably as it reached the coast and out to sea. The measurements could have been around 300 by 200 kilometers. Plato cites a larger area, about 555 by 370 kilometers, but the proportions are similar.

At this point, it is worth noting again that Plato only writes in round figures, albeit in stadia, the ancient Greek measurement—always, for example, “100” or “500”—never precise lower numbers like “86” or “468.” It would have been true to his nature to have exaggerated by rounding everything up. There is also still some disagreement about the length of one stadium. I have taken the generally accepted figure of 185 meters, but it has been suggested that it could have been less than that. Another theory is that the priest gave his information in the Egyptian unit of length, the
khet
, of only 52.4 meters. Solon could have noted that figure and later forgotten to convert his numbers into stadia. This, however, hardly sounds plausible for someone of Solon’s intellect.

(
IMAGE
30)
The probable Atlantis original homeland before flooding and submergence
.

Masses of unusual, small, pyramid/conical-shaped mountains exist inland, immediately behind the existing Algarve coastal plain, particularly around Silves. The early morning and evening lights produce pronounced
shadows that, eerily, make many of those mountains that have been terraced resemble earth-covered “step” pyramids.

As the mountains roll farther inland, they initially get larger. They are densely crammed together but punctuated by some fertile valleys, rivers, and lakes. In the west they are dominated by two sizeable mountains, with the town of Monchique between them. The tallest, Foia, is partnered by the slightly smaller Picota. They are unique in the whole mountain range in that they are formed of a type of granite: all the others are schist. Foia is almost three thousand feet high, just short of the height of the celebrated Mount Snowdon in Wales. It is possible to drive all the way to the top and gaze down at the awesome view over the foothills and the narrow coastal strip, imagining what Atlantis was once like, with the plain rolling out uninterrupted for mile after mile, where now there is sparkling sea. (
SEE IMAGE
13
IN THE PHOTO INSERT
.)

Imagine also the towns and ports dotting it, together with the roads and canals that linked them all up. The seabed charts show many areas marked as rocks, and perhaps some of these could have been the remains of Atlantean settlements. Apart from a few recent wrecks, nothing has been explored. The whole area is fairly flat and shallow, sloping gradually from the beaches to around 100 to 120 meters before the first submerged sea cliffs—all easily investigated using modern techniques. I know the approximate position of at least one unexplored, submerged settlement. Just think what archaeological riches await.

The existing mountains continue north for about 40 kilometers, providing the shelter that contributes immensely to the Algarve’s sublime climate. As Plato indicates, the mountains are not as grand as they once were—but, significantly and crucially, they survived the sinking. (
SEE IMAGES 12A, 12B, 12C, AND 12D IN THE PHOTO INSERT
.) The same chain continues across into Spain, angling slightly northward, all the way past Seville to Granada. Other mountains drop south to the coast at Gibraltar and to the east of Jerez. They are famous for the incredibly pretty “White Villages” that pepper them.

With the destruction of Atlantis, it is of little surprise that any survivors could see no future there and took off in all directions, some of them to surviving parts of the empire. But what, exactly, was that empire?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Empire

He was up at dawn; the captain had promised they would sight the island around that time. From his stance in the prow of the boat, he could just make out something smudged on the horizon, but the sun had not yet revealed itself. Suddenly, as he swept away his long red hair swirling over his eyes, the first rays burst over the edge of the ocean; he gasped. The island was there, all right, with buildings barely discernible around the bay. Hanging above the settlement was a long, horizontal pillow of cloud. Emerging skyward from the cloud was the great volcano, its snow-capped peak glowing salmon pink in the dawn sunlight. He had heard stories about this vision, but the reality was still breathtaking. His excitement and anticipation rose; he had been looking forward to this next year for so long. All had been arranged when his nine uncles from the four corners of the Kingdom had visited his father in the citadel last year for their periodic conference. He had just turned eighteen, and it was time to start familiarizing him with the great empire
.

T
his is an imaginary account of a young Atlantean prince starting out on a tour of the empire he would one day rule. The island is now known as Tenerife, the volcano Mount Teide. Many tourists from Europe will be familiar with it as a popular holiday haunt, particularly
in the winter when the climate is warmer and more reliable than in the Mediterranean. Like the other islands in the Canaries group, however, at the time the prince went calling, it would have differed considerably from how it is today.

There is no doubt that Atlantis had an empire, with a healthy mercantile trade (clues 11, 35, and 39). Plato said that on leaving the Mediterranean, you immediately came across Atlantis, then …

“From there you could pass westward to other islands, and from those to the vast opposite continent that bordered the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Atlantis had a great and wonderful empire which had ruled over several other islands in the Ocean and parts of that great continent.”

It should be noted that he said “several” islands, not “many.” There are numerous islands in the Atlantic, particularly off the eastern seaboard of Central America, and he seems to indicate that Atlantis may have annexed only the important, or larger, ones. On the other hand, 11,600 years ago, many of these groups of islands would have been joined together, forming much larger, but fewer, islands.

According to Plato, it was the main Atlantis homeland that disappeared under the sea, not the rest of the empire. I reasoned that it was worth trying to identify the islands on which they ruled, then search for any remains or hints of earlier civilizations that may have existed there.

The Canary, Azores, and Caribbean islands all fit Plato’s description. Even today they are much used as ports of call for taking on fresh water and supplies, as well as carrying out repairs and minimizing the number of continuous days at sea. In the past, with slower boats—employing sail or manpower—and poor storage facilities, they were crucial for Atlantic crossings. Christopher Columbus on his first epic voyage of discovery, for instance, stopped in to the island of Gomera in the Canaries to take on fresh water. Some ports in the Azores Islands are regarded with great affection by transatlantic sailors because of their historic role. Calling there is almost a pilgrimage. (
SEE IMAGE
31,
NEXT PAGE
.)

It has been suggested at various times that each of these island groups might be the remains of Atlantis. Some of the evidence is certainly intriguing and links with Atlantis, as will be revealed, but not one of them fits the clues for the Atlantis capital and homeland. They do not support
many of Plato’s pointers, particularly those regarding position and the potential for huge wealth from metal mining.

(
IMAGE
31)
The current islands in the eastern part of the Atlantic
.

So let’s imagine that, like the fictional prince, we are setting out from an Algarve port on an Atlantean boat, following a well-charted route, hopping from island to island and eventually stepping ashore in America.

As they were for Columbus, the Canary Islands would have been the first port of call—unless there were other, closer islands that have since sunk. In fact, that is certainly a possibility, as the now submerged Gorringe Bank, mentioned in the previous chapter, could certainly have once been above water. It is a substantial size and has two volcanoes. It cozies right up against that notorious fault line which then runs in front of the Algarve and would have been subject to the full force of seismic upheavals, such as that in 1755.

One of the peaks of the Gorringe Bank is only about thirty meters below the surface, and the bank itself is now thought to be slowly rising; but that doesn’t necessarily preclude it from once having sunk. At its current depth, at least a part of it would have been well above the surface
before the great glacier melt, in which case it would certainly have been part of the Atlantean Empire. Its sinking could not have been the cause of the mud blockage that Plato refers to, as it was too far away from the Straits of Gibraltar.

There are seven islands in the Canary group, all formed from upwelling magma from a depth of three thousand feet. Apart from their popularity as holiday venues due to the particularly equable climate, they are most famous for the inhabitants who occupied them when they were rediscovered by the Spanish. Called Guanches, they astonished the Spaniards with their fair or red waist-length hair, blue or gray eyes, and the men’s height—generally six feet or more.

I called it the
rediscovery
of the islands, since they were undoubtedly already known to the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans. It is claimed that the Guanches strongly resembled Cro-Magnon man, like the remains, from 8000
B.C.
, found at Muges in Portugal.
⁶⁹
This is the race that has frequently been associated with Atlantis. Equally important for this book’s hypothesis, it is thought that the Guanches shared a common origin with the Berbers from the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa.

This ancient race from the Canaries has long been regarded as a fascinating enigma, with practices and customs that, incredibly, linked them to other ancient civilizations, such as those in Egypt and South America. They embalmed their nobility, for example. A few of the resulting mummies are still in existence in museums today, notably with well-preserved red hair and incisions made by the embalmers almost identical to the Egyptian ones. Interestingly, a three thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy in London’s British Museum has red hair.

Perhaps the most astounding but little-known fact is that six small step pyramids were recently discovered in the Canary Islands, precisely aligned east to west. Similar to well-known examples in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and South America, they are at Guimar on the island of Tenerife and were identified by the famous explorer Thor Heyerdahl in 1998.
⁷⁰
Experts originally scoffed at the notion that they were pyramids, suggesting that they were terraces or simply heaps of stones piled up by the Spanish when clearing the land. Heyerdahl, together with an archaeologist he had brought in to investigate, was able to refute this. They found that each stone had
been purposely stacked “flat side out” and that the corner stones had been carefully shaped.