Atlantis Pyramids Floods (10 page)

And around the temple on
the outside were placed statues of gold of all the descendants of
the ten kings and of their wives, and there were many other
great
offerings of kings and of private
persons, coming both from the city itself and from the foreign
cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too, which in
size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence, and the
palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the kingdom
and the glory of the temple.

In the next place, they had fountains,
one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing;
and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the
pleasantness and excellence of their waters.

They constructed buildings about them,
and planted suitable trees. Also, they made cisterns, some open to
the heavens and others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm
baths. There were the kings’ baths, and the baths of private
persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for
women, and for horses and cattle. To each of them they gave as much
adornment as was suitable.

Of the water which ran off, they
carried some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all
manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the
excellence of the soil; the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts
along the bridges to the outer circles. There were many temples
built and dedicated to many gods. Also, gardens and places of
exercise, some for men, and others for horses, on both of the two
islands formed by the zones. In the centre of the larger of the two
there was set apart a racecourse of a stadium in width, and in
length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race
in.

Also there were guardhouses at
intervals for the guards, the more trusted of whom were
appointed—to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the
Acropolis while the most trusted of all had houses given them
within the citadel, near the persons of the kings. The docks were
full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready
for use.

Enough of the plan of the royal
palace. Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you
came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was
everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbor,
and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the
channel which led to the sea.

The entire area was densely crowded
with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were
full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from
their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and
din and clatter of all sorts night and day.

I have described the city and the
environs of the ancient palace nearly in the words of Solon, and
now I must endeavor to represent the nature and arrangement of the
rest of the land.

The whole country was said by him to
be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the
country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level
plain, itself surrounded by mountains, which descended towards the
sea. It was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in
one direction three thousand stadia, but across the centre inland
it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island looked towards
the south, and was sheltered from the north.

Note
: Here
Plato describes the plain of Atlantis as being lofty and
precipitous on the side of the sea. Reading on will show that this
is the second clue helping us to calculate the height of the water
level.

The surrounding mountains were
celebrated for their number and size and beauty, far beyond any
which still exist, having in them also many wealthy villages of
country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows supplying food
enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various
sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.

I will now describe the plain, as it
was fashioned by nature and by the labors of many generations of
kings through long ages. It was, for the most part, rectangular and
oblong, and where falling out of the straight line followed the
circular ditch. The depth, and width, and length of this ditch were
incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent, in
addition to so many others, could never have been artificial.
Nevertheless, I must say what I was told.

It was excavated to the depth of a
hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was
carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia
in length. It received the streams which came down from the
mountains, and winding round the plain and meeting at the city, was
there let off into the sea.

Note:
Here
Plato describes the ditch as being dug to a depth of 100 feet. This
is the third clue that helps to determine the water level at the
plain.

Further inland, likewise, straight
canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the
plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea. These
canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they
brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed
the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from
one canal into another, and to the city.

Twice in the year they gathered the
fruits of the earth—in winter having the benefit of the rains of
heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by
introducing streams from the canals.

As to the population, each of the lots
in the plain had to find a leader for the men who were fit for
military service. The size of a lot was a square of ten stadia each
way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. And
of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country
there was also a vast multitude, which was distributed among the
lots and had leaders assigned to them according to their districts
and villages.

Note
: There
were also a vast multitude of people in America before Columbus
arrived. According to some sources, there were 500 different
nations in America.

“
The Lost Civilizations of North
America” documentary, YouTube Reference:

youtu.be/yEcD55aTBdA

The leader was required to furnish for
the war the sixth portion of war chariots, so as to make up a total
of ten thousand chariots. Also two horses and riders for them, a
pair of chariot-horses without a seat accompanied by a horseman who
could fight on foot carrying a small shield. Also a charioteer, who
stood behind the man-at-arms to guide the two horses; and, he was
bound to furnish two heavily armed soldiers, two slingers, three
stone-shooters and three javelin-men, who were light-armed, and
four sailors to make up the complement of twelve hundred
ships.

Such was the military order of the
royal city—the order of the other nine governments varied, and it
would be wearisome to recount their several differences.

As to offices and honors, the
following was the arrangement from the first. Each of the ten kings
in his own division and in his own city had the absolute control of
the citizens, and, in most cases, of the laws, punishing and
slaying whomsoever he would. Now the order of precedence among them
and their mutual relations were regulated by the commands of
Poseidon, which the law had handed down.

These were inscribed by the first
kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle
of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the kings were
gathered together every fifth and every sixth year alternately,
thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even
number.

And when they were gathered together
they consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any
one had transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before
they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this
wise:- There were bulls who had the range of the temple of
Poseidon; and the ten kings, being left alone in the temple, after
they had offered prayers to the god that they might capture the
victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without
weapons but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught
they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so
that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription.

Now on the pillar, besides
the laws, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the
disobedient. When therefore, after slaying the bull in the
accustomed manner, they had burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of
wine and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the
victim they put in the fire, after having purified the column all
round. Then they drew from the bowl in golden cups, also pouring a
libation on the fire. They swore they would judge according to the
laws on the pillar, and would punish him who, in any
point, had already transgressed them. Also, for
the future, they would not, if they could help, offend against the
writing on the pillar, and would neither command others, nor obey
any ruler who commanded them, to act otherwise than according to
the laws of their father, Poseidon.

This was the prayer which each of
them-offered up for himself and for his descendants, at the same
time drinking and dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the
temple of the god; and after they had supped and satisfied their
needs, when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was
cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting
on the ground, at night, over the embers of the sacrifices by which
they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple,
they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation
to bring against any one; and when they gave judgment, at daybreak
they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated
it together with their robes to be a memorial.

There were many special laws affecting
the several kings inscribed about the temples, but the most
important was the following: They were not to take up arms against
one another. They were all to come to the rescue if any one in any
of their cities attempted to overthrow the royal house; and like
their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war and
other matters, giving the supremacy to the descendants of
Atlas.

The king was not to have the power of
life and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the assent of
the majority of the ten. Such was the vast power which the god
settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards
directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition
tells:

For many generations, as long as the
divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and
well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were; for they
possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness
with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their
intercourse with one another.

They despised everything
but virtue, caring little for their present state of life. They
thought lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which
seemed only a burden to them. They were not intoxicated by luxury,
nor did wealth deprive them of their
self
-
control. They were sober,
and saw clearly that all these goods were increased by virtue and
friendship with one another. Whereas by too great regard and
respect for them, they are lost, and they lose friendship with
others.

By such reflections and by the
continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have
described grew and increased among them; but when the divine
portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too
much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper
hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved
unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased,
for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to
those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared
glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of
avarice and unrighteous power.

Zeus, the god of gods, who rules
according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving
that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to
inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and
improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation,
which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created
things. And when he had called them together, he spake as
follows:

Note:
The
story ended at this point without any explanation of why it was cut
short.

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