300 years before him and that during these visits both men had been shown a golden pillar
inscribed with hieroglyphics just as had been described by Plato.- Another Greek historian named Herodotus is reported to have actually seen “two pillars,
one of pure gold, the other of emerald which shone with such brilliancy at night...” while
visiting a temple of Heracles at ‘Tyre’ (also known as Phoenicia). It was actually not
uncommon for the Phoenicians to erect such ‘Pillars of Heracles’ in almost all the places
they colonized as they did at Gibraltar for example. The Phoenicians record that such
pillars were erected to commemorate the first founding of Atlantis by Atlas and Heracles. - The Egyptian historian Manetho, also mentions the existence of two pillars and tells us that
before the great flood the Egyptian deity Thoth inscribed them with hieroglyphs containing
all of the ancient wisdom so it would not be lost in the deluge that was soon to come. - Other historians have reported that Alexander the Great inspected many such large pillars
of gold bearing unusual hieroglyphic markings in the lands of Northern India. These
histories mention that Alexander traveled beyond the ‘Pillars of Hercules and Dionysus’.
This is quite a significant statement because Dionysus is in fact, a divine representation of
Atlas – his Heavenly counterpart so to speak. So here we have a European conqueror
reportedly finding Atlantian Pillars and a reference to Heracles and Atlas in Northern
India. Some people have also said that such pillars were constructed to mark the outer
borders of the Atlantian territories. Interesting. - A Jewish historian called Josephus who lived around the time of Christ also made mention
of either Seth or Thoth inscribing some pillars with ancient knowledge: “in order that
wisdom and astronomical knowledge should not perish in the cataclysm, (?th) made two
pillars, one of stone and one of brick in which he inscribed this knowledge for posterity,
said pillars still existing in the land of ‘Siriad’ to this day” - The Mayans also have creation legends which talk of a lost and mysterious continent that
they call ‘Aztlan’. They say this land was the place from whence they first came but it was
destroyed in terrible volcanic upheavals and later sank beneath the seas and their ancestors
were forced to set out in canoes and catamarans to look for new lands. There was even a
quite famous frieze that was removed from the Mayan city of Tikal actually depicting the
event (fig.93). The stone frieze was displayed in the Berlin museum but was unfortunately
destroyed during the Allied bombing of Berlin in 1945. - The Indian traditional texts of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata make constant
references to the land of ‘Atala’, a ‘paradise’ that sank beneath the sea. In these texts the
Rama Empire is recorded to have fought Great wars against the people of Atala with both
nations using powerful and devastating weapons. - Many ancient maps such as those mentioned in the second chapter show a group of islands
in the Atlantic Ocean. Mostly just labeled as ‘the Atlantic Islands’. There are usually seven
of them shown on most ancient maps. Today there are only two main islands in the area:
Cuba and the Dominican Republic, however many ancient maps show three or four more,
as on King Henry’s Map of 1500 (fig.94) and the Benincasa Map of 1482 (fig.95).Some
see this as a reference to a sunken civilization, however it must be taken into account that
some islands have been known to come and go.
These are just some other references to Atlantis that come from places that were not
necessarily associated with Plato, and there are many tales of Ancient Cataclysms if one wants to
delve a little deeper. One remarkable thing about all the tales of Atlantis, and the same is true for
most references found in ancient text that indicate they may be referring to a sunken civilization,
is that all the event timelines match up very closely. This becomes especially noticeable with it
happens with events recorded by civilizations who apparently had no contact with each other. We
will investigate this a little later but for the moment we will briefly revisit the actual legend itself.