48 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
By the 13th century B.C., the Atlantean Empire stretched from the Americas
to the western shores of North Africa, the British Isles, Iberia, and Italy, with
royal family and commercial ties as far as the Aegean coasts of Asia Minor. The
Atlanteans were responsible for and dominated the Bronze Age, during which
they rose to the zenith of their material and imperial success to become the
leading power of late pre-classical times. However, their expanding trade net-
work eventually clashed with powerful Greek interests in the Aegean, resulting
in a long war that began at Troy and spread to Syria, the Nile Delta, and Libya,
climaxing at the western shores of North Africa.
Initially successful, the Atlantean invaders suffered defeats at the hands of
the Greeks, who had just pushed them out of the Mediterranean World when a
natural catastrophe destroyed the island of Atlantis, along with most of its popu-
lation, after a day and night of geologic upheaval. The same event simultaneously
set off a major earthquake in present-day Morocco, where the pursuing Greek
armies had gathered, and engulfed them, as well. Atlantean survivors of the de-
struction arrived as culture-bearers in different parts of the world, founding new
civilizations in the Americas, and left related flood legends as part of the folk
traditions of peoples around the globe.Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
The first modern, scientific examination of Atlantis begun in 1880 by
Ignatius Donnelly and published two years later by Harper Brothers (New York).
Certainly the most influential book on the subject, it triggered a popular and
controversial revival of interest in Atlantis that continues to the present day.Illustration of Atlantis based on the description in Plato’s Kritias. From Unser Ahnen
und die Atlanten, Nordliche Seeherrschaft von Skandinavien bis nach Nordafrika, by
Albert Herrmann.