Plato's account of Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias is the original account of this "legend", although later writers like Diodorus Siculus gave details about Atlantis. Since there is no reason for Plato to have deliberately lied about this, most traditional historians simply consider Plato's tale to be allegorical in nature. But here, let us assume that it is true.

When was Atlantis destroyed and when did it "disappear beneath the sea"? Plato wrote about Solon's visit to Egypt in 500 BCE, and he said that Atlantis had sunk beneath the sea approximately 9,000 years previously, leading us back to 9500 BCE. Others "round it off" to 10,000 BCE.

See also DOOMSDAY, THEN & NOW.

What did Atlantis look like? It was a round island continent with a high mountain range in the center and with the world's largest natural harbor. Antarctica is a round island continent with a high mountain range in the center (the South Pole is at elevation 5,000 feet, something like that) and with the world's largest natural harbor (namely, the Ross Sea).

Where was Atlantis? The island continent was located at such a latitude on the planet to allow it to have a mild Mediterranean climate for most of the year, and it produced bountiful harvests of fruits and vegetables. If the Polar Axis were located in a different place, depending upon where Antarctica would be located, it could undoubtedly have had periods of excellent climate. To reach Atlantis from Egypt, one had to sail out the Pillars of Hercules, that is, the Straits of Gibraltar. Note that the Suez Canal is a modern achievement; in bygone days, there was no maritime passage from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. To reach Antarctica from Egypt in days when there was no Suez Canal, one would have had to sail out the Straits of Gibraltar and head southwards across the modern Middle and South Atlantic Oceans, assuming that one's passage was not obstructed by Polar Ice.

Thus, these three crucial descriptive points that Plato made about Atlantis can lead us to the assumption that the unfrozen Antarctica, located at a Mediterranean-like northern latitude, was the legendary paradise of Atlantis. And this idea first occurred to me in 1973. Nothing that I have read or heard since then has contradicted this identification, and I'll continue to believe it for the duration, until absolutely proven wrong. Through the years, however, I have noticed certain other writers who mention this most logical identification, but because of the "mystical antiquity" of the whole idea, most people don't pay much attention to any of it. It has become just another mythical bygone era of heroes and villains. And, for the record, it is not the place here to speculate about the "advanced technology" of Atlantis and its possible connections to Outer Space. Plato mentioned nothing about such advanced technology and space travel; those ideas were "channeled" later by people like Edgar Cayce -- and thus they do not belong in historical or scientific discussions of this nature.

My "Theory Of Polar Axial Displacement" is complex in that there are so many details that have to be considered and coordinated. The following hypothesis is a summary of part, albeit a most important part, of the overall theory.

There is evidence of an "Ice Age" in South Africa and Hawaii. Traditional science assumes that the /current/ North and South Polar Ice Zones expanded towards the Equator; and traditionalists would conclude that the "Ice Age" in South Africa was a result of South Polar Expansion, and that of Hawaii of North Polar Expansion. There are all sorts of internal contradictions amongst the various establishment theories of so-called "Ice Ages"; Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky has adequately documented this. These currently ice-free areas like South Africa where there is evidence of an "Ice Age" were merely under a different Polar Icecap at a different epoch of geological time. If you consult a world globe, you will have a better understanding of what I am saying.

If the cause of such Polar Axis Shifts is the periodic arrival, docking and tethering of the Planet Nibiru -- Hyperborea, The Cosmic Tree, The Night Sun -- then these catastrophes must repeat in cycles of 3,600 Earth Years, the length of one Nibiruan Year. The last one occurred in the year 1587 BCE, the traditional date for the Santorini Cataclysm and the Velikovskian date for the Exodus Catastrophe. The previous arrival occurred in the year 5187 BCE, which can be coordinated with the Floods of Noah, Utnapishtim and Deucalion. And going back another 3,600 years prior to that takes us back to 8787 BCE for that arrival of the Planet Nibiru. Undoubtedly, the destruction of Atlantis, as recounted by Plato, coincided with that particular "crossing" of Nibiru, even though the calculated date here is not identical with Plato's generalization of the date of 9500 BCE. But since these catastrophes are not caused by any other known periodic cosmic body, the conclusion is not far-fetched that the Atlantis cataclysm coincided with the 8787 arrival of Nibiru; the date 8787 is closer in time to 9500 than would be another whole period of 3,600 more years.

Dr. Velikovsky, it must be noted, did not believe in Plato's literal date for the timeframe of Atlantis. He concluded that Plato meant 900 years, not 9,000 years, ago; and that the destruction of Santorini/Thera around 1600 BCE gave rise to the legend of Atlantis. This was picked up on later by Jacques Cousteau, and it has become the establishment retort to the antiquity date explicitly stated by Plato.

Assume that the North Pole was once located near Johannesburg, South Africa, and that the South Pole was located northeast of the Hawaiian Islands. This would completely reverse the north-south and east-west directions with respect to Egypt and the Great Pyramid. All of Africa would be a land mass stretching NORTH from Egypt towards the Johannesburg Pole, much like North America stretches northwards today to the Arctic. The Pillars of Hercules, or Straits of Gibraltar, would have been east, not west, of Egypt and Greece (which itself would have been due-south not north of Egypt). And more importantly, the South Africa Polar Zone would not have obstructed maritime travel between the Mediterranean and the then-unfrozen Atlantis, which would have been located in the northern hemisphere at about the same latitudes as modern Australia is located south of the Equator, although twice as large as Australia. It would have had a wonderful Mediterranean-style climate and have been in total command of all the world's major sea routes. This was PRIOR to 8787 BCE!

Then Nibiru returned, and the Poles shifted. The North Pole shifted from South Africa out into the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, stretching from West Africa to northeastern Brazil, both regions of which contain evidence of an "Ice Age". As a result of this shift of the Polar Axis, there was now North Polar Ice spanning the Middle Atlantic Ocean, blocking all maritime traffic between the Mediterranean and Antarctica/Atlantis via the Pillars of Hercules. Atlantis disappeared or "sank beneath the sea". Contact between Egypt and Atlantis was severed permanently. Only the legend remained, to be handed down for thousands of years from priest to priest, until finally Plato recorded it for posterity.

With that introduction, here is the abstract from a lecture given by Flavio Barbiero at a June 1999 catastrophism conference at the University of Bergamo in Italy. Signor Barbiero lectured on the identification of Atlantis with Antarctica. This abstract was included in the September 2000 edition (Volume V, Number 1) of "The Velikovskian" Journal published by Charles Ginenthal in Forest Hills, New York.

QUOTE

Was Atlantis In Antarctica? Arguments In Favour

By Flavio Barbiero,

Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici
Capodiponte, Italia

All over the world there exist myths about a universal flood and traditions about an antediluvian civilization called Atlantis or Mu. Scientists deny usually any validity to such traditions or at least greatly reduce their significance, bringing them to more manageable spatial and temporal dimensions from an archaeological point of view (Santorini, etc.) Geology and archaeology, in fact, do not allow any space on Earth for an advanced civilization of the size and the antiquity of Atlantis, as described by Plato.

This attitude does not take into account the climatic situation on Earth during the concerned period. According to the theory exposed by the author [that is, Flavio Barbiero] in a previous section, the climatic situation during the Pleistocene was influenced by the fact that the North Pole was located between Greenland and Canada, at the edge of the great Wisconsin Icecap. As a consequence, the South Pole was placed near the current magnetic pole, on the coast of Antarctica facing Australia. The coast of Antarctica facing the Atlantic, therefore, was placed at a much lower latitude and was completely free of ice, as witnessed by conclusive geological evidence.

[COMMENT: Here we find that the Atlantic coast of modern Antarctica contains evidence of deglaciation, which is just what one might expect. It was the contention of Dr. Velikovsky that the previous North Polar Zone was centered between Greenland and Canada; thus, this is a Velikovskian idea. However, it is my thinking that the last North Pole actually was located a few hundred miles south of Greenland, more into the North Atlantic between Spain and Quebec. Nevertheless, the previous North Pole was located farther southwards into the Atlantic than today, in the direction of the former North Poles which were located in the Middle-South Atlantic Ocean and South Africa. RS]

While the palaeolithic cultures were thriving all over the remaining parts of the world, in that part of Antarctica the first human agricultural civilization developed in complete isolation, thanks to populations driven there by oceanic currents from Southeast Asia and South America.

At the end of the Pleistocene, an asteroid or a comet impact triggered a shift of the poles, according to the mechanism explained in the previous communication. This resulted in the worldwide catastrophe remembered by traditions as the "universal flood", during which Atlantis sank (temporarily) in the ocean. Soon after, the glaciation covered the Atlantic coasts of Antarctica, thus deleting all archaeological evidence.

[COMMENT: From this statement, one can immediately note that this writer, as did Dr. Velikovsky, considers these occurrences as "random" events, such as an errant asteroid or comet. Thus, they are forced to discuss them in isolation from each other and thereby arrive at false conclusions. RS]

Several vessels must have survived the catastrophe, bringing their crew safely to the coasts of America, Africa and Asia. Here they started, in complete autonomy and isolation, the Neolithic cultures and later civilizations. The numerous striking similarities between ancient civilizations all over the world were due in our view to the common culture of the survivors of the flood. An impressive amount of evidence of different kinds supports this theory.

[COMMENT: Of course. Ignatius Donnelly in Atlantis : The Antediluvian World mentioned all of these similarities. They are the cornerstone of modern Atlantology. RS]

The chronological gap of 4 millennia between the end of Atlantis and the archaeological findings of the most ancient known civilizations (such as Mohenjo Daro, Ur and so on), is only apparent due to the thawing of the northern hemisphere's icecap; the sea level has been constantly rising during the first 4 millennia after the end of the Pleistocene, for a total amount of possibly 130 meters, thus submerging any remnants of populations established along the coasts. This is confirmed by the existence of submerged structures all over the world, like the great pyramid off Yonaguny Island (Japan), the remnants of a town off the Cadiz coast and so on.

UNQUOTE

The following information was taken from an article by the late British Atlantologist, Dr. Egerton Sykes, that appeared in The Atlantis Magazine in September 1973 (page 95). "All three [Bimini, Andros, North Sea] are facets of the megalithic culture, which lasted until BC 1500 and which may well have started in BC 10,000 in Atlantis. The ruins which we have been able to find are those which were on the European and American continental shelves which endured until BC 6000, the date when the Atlantic broke through into the Mediterranean by the Straits of Gibraltar, into the North Sea by Ys and Lyonysse; and into the Caribbean and surrounding islands of Bimini and Andros. The cause was probably the melting of glacial ice sheets in the North, the same as that which forced the Thalassic peoples to leave Central Asia."

There were Polar Axis Shifts, with accompanying melting polar ice-caps, in 1587, 5187 and 8787 BCE. The fact that the "megalithic culture" lasted until about 1500 BCE undoubtedly reflects the axis shift of 1587; and the date for the Atlantic's breaking through into the Mediterranean, along with other contemporaneous events, most certainly could be more accurately dated at 5187 BCE, rather than closer to 6000 BCE.

In the book Atlantis Rising by Brad Steiger (Dell, 1973) we find these observations. "In the January 1969 issue of Fate magazine, Hugh Auchincloss Brown reports on the evidence that indicates that the Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli on the Adriatic Sea's Gulf of Venice was erected by artisans of a civilization that existed 12,000 to 19,000 years ago. Brown writes that the temple must have been erected when the site was above sea level, as it is at the present time, but that it has been below sea level by at least 20 feet, judging by the holes left by boring clams 15 to 20 feet above the present sea level. The creators of the great marble columns had tools that enabled their workmanship to rival the Egyptians'. According to Brown: 'The present location of Pozzuoli is approximately 46° North Latitude, but at the time the Temple was erected its latitude was 40°. The earth did a roll-around which was caused by the eccentric rotating mass of ice at the North Pole, and Pozzuoli moved to approximately 65° North Latitude at which time the temple was submerged.'"

These conclusions of Mr. Brown confirm my own (as well as Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky's) placement of the previous North Polar Zone in the North Atlantic Ocean and the zone previous to that in the upper South Atlantic Ocean. If this Temple of Serapis was constructed when its present geographical location was at about 40° North Latitude, then it must have been erected when the North Pole was located between Nigeria and Brazil. At that time the Gulf of Venice was located at about 35° North Latitude, rather than at its present latitude of 46° North. Then following the Polar Axis Shift of 5187 BCE, when the Atlantic broke through the Straits of Gibraltar and thereby raised the level of the Mediterranean Sea, the site of the Temple of Serapis in the Gulf of Venice not only would have most likely been submerged but also would have been located at about 55° North Latitude. Thus, when the North Pole was positioned between Spain and Québec, south of Greenland, from 5187-1587 BCE, the level of the Mediterranean Sea must have been at least 20 feet higher than its present level. This would also help explain recent enigmas discovered in the Black Sea. Finally, following the Polar Axis Shift of 1587 BCE, the level of the sea decreased and exposed the Temple of Serapis once again, now located at its current latitude.

Finally, here is additional miscellaneous information which is taken from the book We Are Not The First by Andrew Tomas (Bantam Books, 1971), pages 74-76. This information in included here for the record.

QUOTE

The people of antiquity believed in the tremendous ages of the world and mankind, which they estimated in tens of thousands and even millions of years. To the European of Napoleonic times, the earth and man were created by God only several thousand years ago. However, the Asiatics had different views.

The Brahmins of India calculated the duration of the universe, or the Day of Brahma, to be 4.32 billion years. The Druses of Lebanon set the beginning of creation at 3.43 billion years. The present age of the earth is considered to be about 4.6 billion years, whereas that of the crust is 3.3 billion years. There are strange parallels between these figures. What is really extraordinary is the pundits' time reckoning in milliards of years -- cosmic chronology of this type was unknown until this century.

According to Simplicius (sixth century A.D.) ancient Egyptians kept records of astronomical observations for 630,000 years. The archives of Babylon were 470,000 years old, wrote Cicero with a remark that he did not believe this claim. Hipparchus (c. 190-125 B.C.) mentioned Assyrian chronicles stretching back for 270,000 years.

The Egyptian priests told Herodotus [sic -- actually it was Solon, whose visit was mentioned by Plato in Timaeus & Critias] in the fifth century B.C. that the sun had not always risen where it rose then. This implied that they had kept records of the precession of equinoxes, covering at least 26,000 years.

The Greek historian Diogenes Laertius (third century A.D.) claimed that the astronomical records of Egyptian priests began in 49,219 B.C. He also referred to their registers of 373 solar and 832 lunar eclipses, which would involve a period of approximately 10,000 years.

The Byzantine historian George Syncellus said that the chroniclers of the pharaohs had recorded all events for 36,525 years. Martianus Capella (fifth century A.D.) wrote that the Egyptian sages had secretly studied astronomy for over 40,000 years before they imparted their knowledge to the world.

The first dynasty after the Deluge was traced by Babylonian priests to a date 24,150 years before their time.

According to Codex Vaticanus A-3738, the Mayas had kept their calendrical system since 18,612 B.C.

Herodotus places the reign of Osiris at about 15,500 B.C. from the information given to him by the priests of the land of the Nile. He made the remark that they were quite certain about the exactitude of the date.

The lunar calendar of Babylon and the solar calendar of Egypt coincided in the year 11,542 B.C. The calendrical computations of India began with the year 11,652 B.C.

According to Plato, the Egyptian priests fixed the date of the sinking of Atlantis at 9850 B.C., while the Zoroastrian books set the "beginning of time" at 9600 B.C.

That these dates are correct can be questioned. But we cannot escape the conclusion that the ancients were much closer to the truth than the scholars and clerics of one and a half centuries ago who thought that the world had been created in 4004 B.C., according to the Biblical chronological study of Bishop Ussher.

The universe of the Brahmins was almost as old as that of modern science. The chronicles of the Mayas, the Egyptians, and the Babylonians went farther back in time than our history. In view of what our science has yet to learn, it would be presumptuous to accuse them of exaggeration.

The mental horizons of the peoples of antiquity were vast, and we are only beginning to see today what they perceived yesterday.

The priests of Babylon and Egypt believed that man was civilized 500,000 years ago. They kept historical and astronomical records in their archives, as Simplicius and Cicero tell us. We can smile at these claims and give civilization 5,000 years to progress from the chariot to the automobile, from bows and arrows to the atomic bomb, from the boat to the spaceship.

UNQUOTE

Since 1973, I have been a charter lifetime member of the Ancient Mediterranean Research Association headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Our Founder and Director is Professor Maxine Klein Asher, formerly of Pepperdine University. The Co-Founder was Pepperdine Professor Julian Nava, who later served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico under President Jimmy Carter. I first became acquainted with Dr. Asher in 1973, because she was in the news for her expedition to Spain to prove the discovery of the Lost Atlantis. Accompanied by Spanish undersea diver Francisco "Paco" Salazar Casero, she travelled with a university group to Cadiz. Paco, she reported later, took some underwater photos of Atlantean artifacts. But, as luck would have it, they were diving and exploring too close to a top-secret naval facility and got "chased out" of Spain as spies, fearing for their lives, and sought refuge in Ireland. Back in New York City, Maxine gave a press conference, and she got stories written in Time, Newsweek and US News & World Report, as well as in various newspapers like The Dallas Morning News. 1973 was also the same year that I'd taken up the study of Atlantis myself, and I was most intrigued by her expedition. However, before I ever heard of her, I'd already made up my own mind that Atlantis was Antarctica, not some area only a short mile or two off the coast of Cadiz.

Paco's pictures were blurry black-and-white images of a couple of "ancient" vases, supposedly on the bottom of the ocean. There was no size-frame of reference for anything, and no people were in these pictures. But other than these pictures and her own account of events as she chronicled in her book The Atlantis Conspiracy, over the years Dr. Asher has produced absolutely no evidence of Atlantis off/in Spain. And she has made over 40 trips to Spain in this regard. She informed me several years ago that she has a lot of "confidential" material which she is unable to reveal to anyone, not even to trusted longtime association members like myself, who have contributed money to the funding of one of her illustrious expeditions to Cadiz and who were promised a full report which we investors never received. Frankly, I don't buy it anymore. After all these years, as well as the fact that she herself is getting older, she should release some of this material to prove her contention. Periodically she will send out a newsletter from AMRA, faithfully I might add for 27 years. In it she will once again state that an exciting new discovery is about to be made in Atlantis research, so stay tuned for more details. After a while, it becomes repetitively old news.

Atlantis was Antarctica. Once whilst on a trip to Southern California, I visited Dr. Asher and was invited to lecture to the association. I took along my world polar globe and demonstrated how Plato could have been referring to Antarctica. Maxine and the group listened politely and applauded, but I got the distinct impression that I was merely their "curiosity program" of the month, that none of them intended to give up the fantasy belief that Atlantis was off the coast of Cadiz.

Again, her newsletter arrived today. She had the following to report about a recent television program which I personally did not see and knew nothing about.

QUOTE

The Search For Atlantis
A&E Cable TV
September 10, 2000

A recent two-hour documentary about Atlantis was aired on A&E cable television, narrated by Ted Danson. Everyone who viewed the show thought it was a "nightmarish" collection of non-truths and omissions obviously designed to abort Atlantis research and keep the truth about the lost continent as a myth.

The show was hastily made and absolutely flawed. Here are some of the errors.

1)  The show claimed that Plato made up his story about Atlantis because he was upset over the death of Socrates. There is absolutely no truth in this statement and it cannot be documented.

2)  The documentary stated that Columbus was searching for Atlantis. This is untrue. Columbus was aware of Atlantis but his primary goal was to find new land for the Spanish crown.

3)  That statement that if Atlantis exists, it is either in Bolivia or Antarctica (where it obviously is not). No mention was made of either Spain or Bimini where most Atlantis research has taken place. No mention was made of Dr. David Zink or the Cayce explorations at Bimini. Bimini was mentioned in one sentence, glossed over, and no photographs were displayed, even though ample film exists about this site.

4)  The daughter of the deceased Greek archaeologist Marinatos was shown on camera, giving the wrong dates for Santorini (Thera) and claiming it was not Atlantis. No mention was made of Marinatos' mentor, Dr. Angeles Galanopolous, a superb archaeologist, whose book in 1968 was irrefutable proof of the connection between Atlantis and Thera. Recent datings of Thera in "Archaeology" Magazine pre-date the statements made on the TV show by more than 3,000 years.

5)  Both Edgar Cayce and Madame Helena Blavatsky were made to look like fools. Statements made about these two mystics were totally in error and very defamatory.

6)  One-half hour was devoted to Hitler and his desire to turn Germany into Atlantis, using Atlantis as the reason for the Holocaust. We know that Hitler was intrigued by Atlantis but the causes of the Holocaust were complex and only marginally related to the Atlantis story.

There were other major errors and omissions. The show closed with a picture of the new Atlantis Hotel and Casino in the Bahamas showing a gambling table and hinting that this was probably what Atlantis was like.

Your editor appealed to A&E, to Ted Danson and to the two sponsors of the show, but no response was received.

UNQUOTE

By "other major errors and omissions" Dr. Asher is undoubtedly referring to the fact that A&E did not consult or interview her for this program. She's been claiming for years that she is going to produce her own movie or television program about Atlantis and finally reveal all, but she's never struck a deal with anybody despite her Hollywood connections. She is a friend of actress-dancer Ann Miller, who was affiliated with this association at one time. Ann Miller accompanied Maxine to Cairo on an expedition to search for possible clues as to the location of the buried annals of Atlantis. They were wined and dined in style by the Mayor of Cairo and other notables, for the most part academics. They discovered nothing, but they sure did have a good time, sailing up and down the River Nile! As part of the trip, they invited flautist Paul Horn along.

He received permission from the Egyptian antiquities department to record some flute music inside the King's and Queen's Chambers of the Great Pyramid and the Second Pyramid. AMRA was partly behind the recording and marketing of this album. I have a copy (two-record volume), and it is some of the most breathtakingly beautiful music that I have ever heard. The album set featured an insert, describing the expedition and the process of recording the music, in which Dr. Asher is shown photographed with Paul Horn at the Pyramid Complex. This album is probably no longer available. For your information, Paul Horn also recorded a live album in the Taj Mahal, which I have heard; but I think it pales compared to the acoustics of the Pyramids, where the internal echoes of the notes being played intermingle with the actual melody -- it is fascinating music and so totally pleasing to the ear and relaxing to the mind! Everybody who had a hand in that Pyramid flute project should be complimented and congratulated.

As for item 3 above, Dr. David Zink wrote a book titled The Stones Of Atlantis describing his research concerning the Bimini Blocks, as well as linking Atlantis to legends of "Pleiadian Gods" which are prevalent in Central and South America. This is an excellent book, and I have a copy. There is/was another undersea explorer named J. Manson Valentine who conducted similar research from his base in Miami. He has also been affiliated with Maxine and AMRA in past years. As for Edgar Cayce, he is ultimately only another "channeler", nothing more nor less. His information must therefore be discounted, and it is surprising that Maxine continues to cite the Cayce Foundation. And one cannot even begin to put Cayce into the same intellectual category with Madame Blavatsky, if indeed that is what the program implied, as Maxine reported (see item 5).

Regarding item 4, I do not know what she is really referring to here. Her statements are confusing because she herself doesn't believe that Atlantis was Santorini. Her statement about the dating of the Thera/Santorini Cataclysm is equally obscure; Santorini is definitively dated to about 1500-1600 BCE -- there is no argument here at all from anyone.

In short, it is w-a-y over time for Dr. Maxine Asher to put up or shut up.