Atlantis and the Silver City (31 page)

•  “Aztec” is the local Nahuatl word for “people of Aztlan,” indicating where they came from. Their ancestors were described as having red hair and were thought to have migrated south from northern Mexico. That is remarkably close to the Antilles Islands, part of what I suggest was the Atlantis Empire. They were also described as having very straight noses extending immediately down from their foreheads. Mrs. Wishaw gave exactly that description for the blond Spaniards in Andalucía.

•  “Aztlan” is reputed to have meant “the place of herons” or “whiteness.” One of the most common birds in the Algarve is the white egret heron. This description also sounds remarkably similar to that of Atala, the homeland of a race recorded in ancient Vedic literature as the great enemy of India. It is described as being a “white island” in the great western ocean on the other side of the world that eventually disappeared below the sea. Not surprisingly, it has often been associated with Atlantis. The Berbers have a similar legend.

•  A red-haired mummy was recovered from Nevado Ampato in Peru, near the famous mountaintop remains of Machu Picchu. Other finds of mummies in South America have included a mixture of those with the stiff, black hair of the indigenous Indians, and others with long, silky, wavy red hair; tall bodies; and long skulls (Thor Heyerdahl).

•  An ancient and sadly desecrated cemetery near Nazca in Peru, famous for the “Nazca lines,” had dozens of partly exposed red-haired corpses.

•  Spaniards reported seeing red-haired Incas in South America. Francisco Pizarro, the famous Spanish conquistador, was told by locals that the remaining tall white men with beards and red or blond hair were the last survivors of the Viracochas, who had suddenly appeared from the eastern ocean and taught them so much. Heyerdahl is also reported as saying that the Inca rulers were tall with much lighter skin than the small, dark locals.

•  In his book
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island
,
⁹⁸
Heyerdahl recounted how the leading family largely comprised fair-skinned redheads with long, thin noses—quite unlike the rest of the
islanders, who were darker-skinned and had black hair and flat noses. These redheads were the remnants of the earlier ruling class who had arrived on the island by boat a long time before. Significantly, the Viracochas had eventually left South America from the west coast by boat. Could they have reached Easter Island? These rulers were almost totally obliterated in a rebellion by the indigenous locals. Heyerdahl also found red-haired people on the Marquesas Islands, close to Easter Island. The famous statues on the island originally had red hairpieces, made from a separate red stone, on the tops of their heads.

•  Remains of red-haired people have even been discovered in New Zealand. One theory is that these, too, were remnants of the same Viracochas who had eventually left South America from the west coast.

•  Many Egyptian mummies have been found to have red hair. The very early ruling demigods were installed in Egypt by the original gods who came from the west.

None of these offers firm evidence that the original Atlanteans had the same characteristics, but the likelihood is that people with such distinctive features would have evolved in one place. The dispersal of people with these characteristics around the world is often associated with civilizers appearing in foreign lands and imparting their knowledge. Their point of departure appears to have been someplace in the center. They appeared in South America from the east, in Egypt from the west, and in northern Europe from Iberia.

The most well-known and often trumpeted dispersal relates to those tall, bearded, long-haired white people who visited South America. They arrived by boat, and in one legend the boat is described as shining, as though covered in fish scales. It sounds like metal.

Similar accounts existed all over that continent. Although the names vary, the most well known were Viracocha and Quetzalcoatl. The former was said to have started his own civilizing mission immediately after the great flood, and he was linked to the mysterious city of Tiahuanaco on the Bolivian Altiplano, for which the locals claim immense age. He came in a
time of chaos to set the world right. A great scientist and architect, he was noted for constructing irrigation channels so that agriculture could flourish. That sounds remarkably like duplicating Plato’s account of Atlantis.

The story of Quetzalcoatl follows an identical pattern. He arrived in Mexico after it had been overwhelmed by a deluge, bringing agriculture to the area together with seeds for crops, and teaching the arts of mathematics, astronomy, and how to build a refined culture.

Graves containing tall people with extended skulls have also been found in the northern part of Egypt—a race quite different from the later Egyptians.

Osiris was revered as being one of the first gods and is said to have ruled in Egypt for a long period, initially having to contend with banishing cannibalism among the primitive natives. You will recall a mention that Thoth, who appeared on the scene afterward, was said to have come from a distant land, which he had ruled, in the west. He was credited by the ancient Egyptians as having invented mathematics and astronomy, as well as schooling them in land surveying, medicine, reading, and writing. There are extraordinary similarities here with the South American accounts.

At what period these gods appeared in Egypt is mired in controversy and conflicting views. Preserved in Turin’s Egizio museum, however, is what is considered to be the oldest map of topographic interest surviving from the ancient world. It was drawn by an Egyptian scribe in 1160
B.C.
for Rameses IV, to help in a quarrying expedition. Apart from the map of the area, it shows geological information and includes numerous annotations. It states that the first demigods in Egypt were installed by the original gods to rule on their behalf around 9850
B.C.
That is remarkably close to the time given by Plato for the demise of Atlantis. The fact that they were called “demigods” (i.e., literally half gods) presumably meant they were not from the pure lineage of the original gods, but offspring from mating with the native population, so they retained some of the “divine nature” and physical characteristics of the gods that set them apart.

If any of these people came from Atlantis, it would explain how the Egyptians knew about the tragic lost civilization—another piece in the jigsaw puzzle.

The ruling elite of Atlantis may have had prior warning of the eventual overwhelming disaster and have left before it struck or, possibly, survived
in their citadel and left afterward. There could well have been a preceding period of seismic activity. Some may have left as a result of an earlier major earthquake that sank part of the plain. Not all of the empire would have been affected at the same time, so these “civilizers” could also have departed to other countries from various parts of the Atlantean kingdom at different times. It is likely, for instance, that some of those who visited South and North America would have come from the Antilles/Bahamas region.

In both South America and Egypt, these seemingly identical people arrived complete with the same knowledge that had been developed in the place from whence they came.

Author Andrew Collins, in his books
Gods of Eden
and
From the Ashes of Angels
, proposes that these “gods,” who were responsible for this much-earlier culture in Egypt, for whatever reason left there and resettled in the Lake Van region of Kurdistan.
⁹⁹
Much later, the remnants of this group descended from that base onto the plains of the Fertile Crescent and kick-started the Sumerian civilization.

Plato indicated that Atlantis also ruled well into the Mediterranean. Did some of those ruling elite strike out to the east and northeast, eventually penetrating as far as India, and then establish the Silk Road all the way to China?

Let us consider what we know:

•  Many thousands of years ago, tall, blond or red-haired, blue-eyed, and bearded civilizers arrived by sea in South America, having voyaged from the east.

•  Others, physically identical, arrived in Egypt from the west and again introduced the arts of civilization. Indications are that this could have happened as long as fourteen thousand years ago.

•  The installation of the first demigods as rulers of Egypt corresponds with Plato’s date for the destruction of Atlantis.

•  Both groups are described as having the same mastery of agriculture, mathematics, astronomy, building, irrigation, and writing.

Many commentators have pointed out the obvious: that this indicates a dispersal of the same people from the same place, somewhere between the
two destinations, a place where they had already developed their knowledge and skills. Atlantis and its island empire in southwest Iberia fit that hypothesis perfectly.

This would, however, only appear to account for the ruling elite group, who were small bands of select, knowledgeable individuals. The destination of any survivors from the ordinary population is best gleaned from the current placement of the blond/red hair gene and the ancient alphabet. That would indicate Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and pockets in the eastern Mediterranean. The blonds of the Atlas mountains in Morocco and the Canary Islands were likely there all along as part of the empire. Most of those down on the North African coastal plains would have been annihilated by the disaster; only pockets in the mountains survived and remained fiercely loyal to their territory and tribe. Some among the North American tribes have blond hair, and they have preserved legends that their ancestors came from a foreign land.

This proposed migration from southwest Iberia to the Celtic areas of Great Britain has received support from research recently carried out in Wales. Professor John Koch from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth says that archaeological inscriptions on those large stones found in the Algarve show that the Celts came from southern Portugal and southwest Spain—not from central Europe, as previously accepted. He maintains that the Southwestern Script in Chapter Seventeen can be deciphered as Celtic.

Another expert on Welsh history, Dr. Raimund Karl from the University of Wales at Bangor, has said: “In the last couple of years there have been a number of genetic studies of human DNA indicating that the population of much of the western part of the British Isles is related to other communities along the Atlantic seafront. These include Brittany, northern Spain, Portugal, and the French Atlantic coast. That’s their genetic origin.”

Even earlier, Professor Sykes of England’s Oxford University had carried out DNA research that established that ancient Britons originated from the Iberian peninsula many thousands of years ago. In 2001, research by Oxford University combined with the University of California found that the Basques of northern Spain were genetically linked to the Celts of Ireland and Wales. Other research has also shown that the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains fall into the same group and, in 2009, a paper in
BMC
Evolutionary Biology
recorded that research had found that the Berbers were of the same lineage as the Guanches on the Canary Islands. Other work has also shown a link with the Balkans.

How, though, does one then account for the many dark-haired Celts? Most likely, it is because the Poseidon family was the blond/red-haired lot, whereas the original ordinary mortals were dark-haired. The combination of their DNA would have spawned a mixture. Also to be considered is the well-ingrained local legend that the south Walians arrived there under their leader Brutus, fleeing from Troy.

But who were the Trojans from Troy? Japheth was Noah’s third son, and Japheth’s seventh son was called Tiras. He is held to be the ancestor of the Tiracians, more generally known by their Greek name, the Thracians. Troy was reputedly named after Tiras. When founded around 1900
B.C.
, it was known as Troas, and subsequently Troi, then Troy, with the Thracian inhabitants called Trajans or Trojans. Apart from Brutus, who was related to the old Trojan royal family and who escaped with his followers to Wales, others migrated northeast through Europe and became the ancestors of the Swedes. Many Bulgarians also claim to be descendents of these ancient Thracians—not the Slavs, who only arrived in the region around
A.D.
600. The Thracians were described as having ruddy complexions, red or blond hair, and blue eyes.

There has also been much “coming and going” of groups between Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, as well as Scandinavia. The seeds have been well and truly intermingled.

The indications are that the Conii from southwest Iberia were also dark-haired. Where do they fit into the puzzle? Were they the remnants of the ordinary Atlanteans, or were they Celts who migrated there from elsewhere in central Europe, as many historians have maintained? This previously accepted history of the Celts is currently undergoing a complete reappraisal. The theory that they came from central Europe is now broadly accepted as being a mistake, resulting from a misunderstanding by ancient chroniclers. The latest genealogical research indicates they were Iberian.

The original Atlanteans most likely evolved into different tribes or clans, all living harmoniously together. Some had more of the gene producing the red or blond hair, while others, with increasingly less of the gods’ DNA,
inherited the original humans’ black hair. Plato said that the “admixture” of the gods had diminished.

It seems increasingly likely that the Conii and the Celts were one and the same and were the early migratory ancestors of some of the south Walians as well as the Basques.

It is pertinent here to take up Carlos Castelo’s theory that the ancient southwest Iberian language was carried from that area to the Middle East by the populace fleeing a disaster. If that was the case, these people would have been absorbed into the confused racial mixing bowl there, although the physical characteristics of some—tall, with red/blond hair and blue eyes—were significantly different from those of the indigenous Sumerian and Semitic population. It would certainly explain the frequent occurrence of red hair in that area. Some Israeli scholars have painstakingly linked the Tribe of Dan that invaded Ireland with one of the lost tribes of Israel, also called the Tribe of Dan, after one of Jacob’s sons. The tribe’s journey northwest, overland from Israel, and the areas they settled or migrated through can, claim the scholars, be traced by the names left behind. The Danube and Don Rivers and Denmark
(Danemark)
are a few examples. This version of history is disputed by others, who maintain it is a bid to enlarge the area of influence of Judaism. Irish records, however, state that these invaders had red hair and blue eyes. Could Dan, who reportedly had red hair and was one of Jacob’s sons, have had a red-haired mother?