Atlantis & Lemuria

Atlantis! Lemuria! Shamballha! Shangri-La! The very names conjure up images of sunken cities or forgotten lands hidden in the impenetrable jungle or amongst mountain peaks somewhere beyond the edges of civilization. They also suggest ancient and powerful cultures and technologies long vanished from the world, remnants of which—if popular imagination is to be believed—may still lie slumbering in the caverns far beneath the earth. Is there any truth in such beliefs? Allied to the names of these ancient places are further stories of legendary sites—places like the Garden of Eden in Christian lore, Ygdrassil, the World-Tree of Viking myth or even Davy Jones’ Locker, recently madefamous by the film series Pirates of the Caribbean.So strong has the lure of these distant, exotic and often fabulous places proven to be that many men have gone in search of them, either as individuals or at the head of expeditions, some of which have been provided by their own countries.

A good number have set out to find wealth or land, some have done so for political reasons, and a few for the sheer adventure of the enterprise. Some have returned empty-handed, a number have perished in the attempt, and some have simply vanished, thus fuelling speculation that there might be some truth in such legends.But it was not only lost explorers who fuelled the popular idea of distant realms. Television and film makers took up the challenge of actually creating these worlds and giving them some sort ofimmediacy. Popular films on the big screen such as The Lost World, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and even the more recent remake of King Kong, set on a forgotten island where a giant gorilla dwells, have speculated about what sort of environments these places might have. Were they, for example, swarming with prehistoric creatures or homes to advanced cultures that might fight to guard their privacy or be preparing to attack us in our own locations? Indeed the idea of some monstrous race, lurking in the depths far beneath us and armed with futuristic weapons is a common thought which has barely diminished and still stays in the public nightmares, even today. On the other hand, the possibility of a place of monastic tranquillity, shut away from a turbulent world, was also encapsulated in Frank Capra’s1937 film Lo...

Anthony North: The lost island of Atlantis continues to fascinate mankind. It harks back to a Golden Age when things were different. But of course, it couldn"t last. Not if it involved man. So man caused the gods to destroy his paradise. It is a typical story -in one way it echoes our lives, in that when we"ve got it good, we tend to upset things, as if we"re a self-destructive species. However, Atlantis is not the only supposed lost land from the past. Lyonesse: Many western cultures have myths of lost lands, where once lived our great ancestors. Typical is Lyonesse, a fabled land once said to exist between Land"s End and the Scilly Isles, off the British coast. On this land stood the city of Lionsand some 140 churches.

Folk tales, and later poets such as Tennyson, kept the fable alive by associating it with King Arthur. Thought to be the place of his birth, his death has also been associated with the lost land. Logically, it seems the fable arose from its association with the Breton town St-Pol-de-Leon, know to the Roman"s as Leo"s Castle. Atland: Another such fable concerns Atland. First coming to popular attention in 1848, when antiquarian Cornelius Over de Linden first produced his Pera Linda Book, Atland is said to be an ancient land off the Dutch Frisian coast. With a sub-tropical climate and well advanced, happy population, a catastrophe struck in 2l93BC, destroying the land. Survivors went on to travel the world, founding Egyptian, Greek and Indian civilisations. The Oera Linda Book was written oncotton paper and de Linden claimed it came from 1256, copied from an even older work. Published in 1876, many people consider it a fraud. Lemuria: Some lost lands are more modern, and said to be rationally theorised to have existed. For instance, there is a problem with a primitive group of primates called lemurs. They are found only on Madagascar, off the African coast. But they have close relatives in the bushbabies of Africa and the lorises of India. Prior to the understanding of continental drift, zoologists realised this was mysterious.

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Anthony North: One of the most written about mysteries is that of Atlantis. What does it mean? What is it? Where is it? What influence does it have on us? Does it exist in the first place? So many questions, so many ideas. For this essay I thought I"d go back to source and see if we can learn anything about its conception. And the beginning of the myth takes us back to that great philosopher, Plato, who first wrote about it. But can we find hints in Plato"s life and mind itself? Early life: Being nothing less than the father and instigator of western philosophy, Plato was born in Athens in 428BC to one of the great political families of his time. His actual name was Aristocles, Plato being anickname which means ‘broad and flat", referring to his shoulders which he used to great effect as a wrestler.

Indeed, it was thought that Plato would be a great wrestler. But his talent was shown to be inferior and he tried being a poet, but was equally lacking in talent. Stuck for a profession, Plato began to think about his future. Statesman or philosopher were uppermost in his mind, but once he had heard Socrates speaking, he knew where his future lay; in philosophy - particularly in the ideas of Pythagoras. Pythagoras and forms: Pythagoras had been an enigmatic figure. On the one hand a philosopher and on the other a mystic who was believed to have performed more than the odd miracle, he is seen today as the instigator of the quasi-religious cult of the Pythagoreans. Believing that behind thechaotic world of appearance there existed a harmonious world of numbers, he is seen as the father of mathematics. Plato was fascinated by this harmonious world below the consciousness we appreciate. He developed it into his philosophy of ‘Ideal Forms". To Plato this fundamental realm was a world of ideas and forms. Existing in an eternal state of unchanging reality, everything that could be conceived in the conscious world already existed as an idea or form in this other world. Hence, nothing could be invented, merely rediscovered.

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A researcher investigating underwater rock formations off the coast of Japan believes they are the remnants of an Asian equivalent of Atlantis -- an ancient civilization swallowed up by the ocean. Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura says he has identified the ruins of a city off the coast of Yonaguni Island on the southwestern tip of Japan.He has worked for decades to prove the rocks found by scuba diving tourists in 1985 are from an ancient city, which he says may have sparked the fable of Mu -- a Pacific equivalent of the tale of the lost cityof Atlantis."Judging by the design and the disposition of the ruins, the city must have looked just like an ancient Roman city," said Kimura, a professor at Ryukyu University and the chairman of the non-profit Marine Science and Culture Heritage Research Association. "I can envisage a triumphal arch-like statue stood on the left side of the Colosseum and a shrine over the hill," he told Reuters Television. Some of the initial divers notices the rocks were unnaturally smooth and formed a sort of staircase near the island's shores.

Subsequent dives by Kimura revealed irregular rock outcrops over 1 square km (0.4 square mile) and mounds of rubble. Kimura says he believes the city had a castle, a shrine, an arch, statues and a colosseum. "In my estimation, the castle was situated right in themiddle of the city. And though not as big as the castle, a lot of ruins of shrine-like structures too have been discovered," he said at his research room. Kimura believes the city was sunk in an earthquake 3,000 years ago. However, many scientists dispute his claim, saying the ruins can be accounted for by natural phenomena such as tidal and volcanic activity. They also say that very few artifacts such as clay pots or weapons have been found to prove humans lived among the rock formation at all. Kimura, however, remains convinced. "I am getting close to a conviction that this is a mysterious civilization lost in a tectonic deformation in the Pacific ocean," he said.

Copyright: Reuters