Was Atlantis actually Ireland?
Geographer says isle matches Plato's description

DUBLIN, Ireland - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.

Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 B.C., was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.

Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.

“I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it’s incredible,” he told Reuters. “Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest across the middle. They both have a central plain surrounded by mountains. I’ve looked at geographical data from the rest of the world and of the 50 largest islands there is only one that has a plain in the middle — Ireland.”

Sinking of North Sea shoal
Erlingsson believes the idea that Atlantis sank came from the fate of Dogger Bank, an isolated shoal in the North Sea, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) off the northeastern coast of England, which sank after being hit by a huge flood wave around 6,100 B.C.

“I suspect that myth came from Ireland and it derives from Dogger Bank. I think the memory of Dogger Bank was probably preserved in Ireland for around 3,000 years and became mixed up with the story of Atlantis,” he said.

Erlingsson links the boundaries of the Atlantic Empire, as outlined by Plato, with the geographic distribution of megalithic monuments in Europe and Northern Africa, matching Atlantis’ temples with well-known burial sites at Newgrange and Knowth, north of Dublin, which predate the pyramids.

Could Plato have known?
His book, “Atlantis From a Geographer’s Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land,” calculates the probability Plato would have had access to geographical data about Ireland as 99.98 percent.

Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores Islands, 900 miles (1,440 kilometers) west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean Sea. Others locate it solely in Plato's imagination.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5623857/
I remember reading this article a while back and was wondering what ye thought of it.

I don't know what he means by 'I'm amazed no-one has come up with this before?' - they have - many times. Indeed Scotland and Ireland have long been postulated as a possible source for Atlantis - as well as a possibly sunken Island off the coast of either.

Ben

Atlantis, Hmm wasnt the city of atlantis supposidly to have had better technology than witch we have today (I mean, more effective)
If it was in Ireland, Wouldnt the same tech have spreaded all way across, Ireland isnt a very hitech place is it.....

I think atlantis, was an Island, Inbetween America and England in the Atlantic, That sank because the volcano it was on, Erupted and took the entire island back underwater

Well, there have been some strange artifacts found in Britain that hint at a one-time, now vanished, technologically advanced society. The most notable inexplicable remains are the "vitrified forts", which, I have heard, are mostly found in Scotland. Also, the vanishing of the Picts, an early culture of that time, is odd and unexplained. Even more, stories of the legendary, now-vanished race of Ireland, the Tuatha da Dannon, if true, may indicate an advanced, now-gone culture right in Ireland.

I have seen these cultural remains and the vanishing of the Picts mentioned on other threads, so I'll look around and if I find them, I will post the link to the threads here. Our supermoderator, Ben, knows a lot about theses legandary races of people and notable cultural traces and I am sure he will be able to contribute to this discussion when he returns.

Mary

personally ... call me crazy on this one, I think atlantis is ....
*drum roll*
Where the mermaids, nessy, bigfoot, the jersey devil & mothman take their vacations. But the ireland theory is new to me, and quite intresting, thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Reminds me of that family guy episode where they show ireland as a technologically advanced civilization and then one guy brings in the bottles of whiskey... But, yeah, it's possible I guess.

Actually vitrified forts where xplained a long time ago, they found out that with the proper techniques you can indeed glaze walls and make them stronger against seize-attacks. Something to do with using certain grasses, earth and seawater as a catalyst which can make a fire as hot as an oven.

According to Plato Atlantis is supposed to have been at war with Greeche, had a lot of yellow red and white rocks (common in certain mediterranean locations), worshipped bulls (common in mediaterranean locations) and was destroyed by the sea.

Since Ireland doesnt have anymore red/yellow/white stones than any other country, did not possess ships that can reach Europe and did not worship bulls, I totally doubt Ireland was Atlantis. Also Atlantis got destroyed by the sea, Ireland appears to never have experienced a massive cataclysm of that kind. The ancients Celts and other people wherent wiped out by floods or tsunamis, and Ireland definately did not sunk.

Also Atlantis had a lot of copper ore and gold. Ireland has some, but not extreme amounts.

Sorry Nobody but that doesn't hold up to scrutiny - geologists, mineraloligists and archaeologists have only ever been able to simulate 'vitrification' in very small quantities and nothing like the scale seen in earlier civilisations....and what they came up with was nothing near the quality of those earlier processes....as for the Irish they did indeed have ships capable of reaching Europe as we Scots know only too well through the destruction of our castles on the West coast by Irish invaders. Not sure where you got your info from but it strikes me that it could do with a wee bit of an update....Oh PS - sorry it took me so long to respond to your PM as I have been bedridden for a few days but...no I didn't e-mail you :confused:

Ben

What is your opinion on vitrified forts, Ben?

There are only two ways it could have happened Tutu - 1) A 'firing process' which reached temperatures associated with nuclear and atomic weapons was used which we are simply too stupid to replicate - 2) Something hit them quite deliberately with that kind of force and it's at this point I sound 'very stupid' - you see there is in Indian mythology a race of people from 'space' who could fire 'laser' type beams to heat rock up to temperatures which vitrified it - in all honesty I have no option but to side with the 'loony' idea - if we can't replicate it now then what the hell else can I believe lol?

Ben

yes I'm aware of the Vedas

Ben they managed to heat up walls by building a type of blacksmiths furnace around it made from layers of grass. I think that is more likely in any case then that aliens take the trouble to vitrify the castles of some native people.

I thought an entire wall was replicated but if you say its not then maybe you are right, in any case if you read Plato's description of Atlantis you see there is no way it can be Ireland. It isnt even in the right location, it should be past the street of Gibraltar.

I send you a PPM about contacting another member, did you not receive it?

This may or may not help.

"A history of Atlantis:

Atlantis was an island off the coast of the US by about 600 miles. It went down about 14,000 to 12,000 years ago.

It's history starts well over a hundred thousand years ago whan a large space going kingdon (if you will) came across a smaller and would have gone to war. The smaller was not in a big objection to it, and so agreed to join without a fight. There was however an agreement in this. The king and queen of the smaller kingdom would go under the care of the larger and still hold their title but had to be removed from any position to give orders. Oh yes, and the smaller kingdom's main world was called Atlantia btw or something like that.

They chose this island in the Atlantic as it was beautiful and Earth at the time was not inhabited by much of anything. This isalnd was odd too. It was a valcanic creation that is best described as a bobble. It had a thin layer of hardened rock but the inside was still liquid. It was created as a part of the seporation of the Atlantic some time before.

It had all that you would think a super rich king would have. Beatiful white gleaming walls and alot of gold and silver. Thus the stories of the "City of Gold". You could say it was a bit over top even. It had it's own standing army, an engineer corp of very highly trained engineers and just about any amenity you could think of.

It is a bit of a side joke that they had this army. With no one to fight they were not much of an army. In the later years there were mentions of a queen that would have this army trained for only one thing - bed. Many women would have loved it too, the race of Atlantia was Arian or some thing like that, which was tall, blond and blue eyed. Anyway, the real protection was provided by the larger kingdom and was said to be quite ferce but never stepped foot on the island.

It all worked very well until at last the king and queen died. Their whole line came to a crashing holt, this created some big problems. The smaller kingdom started talks of seceding as agreed upon when they joined.

The larger kingdom had had this smaller one for well over hundreds of thousands of years so no one was quick to bail. None the less they found a loophole and and it worked. It was quite a loophole! They found a girl that was not a member of the kingdom and made her the queen just like that. It worked because this kingdom had a level of membership that went: Royalty, Lords, comminers, nonpersons. A nonperson did not exist and so was not alowed to be given a catagory unless he or she was made a member of this kingdom. So she became a queen over night and oddly enough it worked. Every one was happy.

It however did not last very long. Control of this system was lost and Atlantis was left without supplies. They were left on this island and had people right out of the stone age on all of them on the main lands. At his point they started alot of trade for what ever they could get from the locals.

Some time later the large kingdom got back in touch and restocked the supplies. However in this time on which they were disconnected something had gone very wrong. The queen still had control but the place was falling apart. There was a guy that that was a bit crazy that had started some trouble and the queen had sent him and his followers to the southern end of the island to live in huts.

This was their down fall. The queen was loosing control and her island was starting fights. At long last this crazy guy to the south came out and grabbed some fuel rods from the supply run and made a nuclear weapon out of them. He set it off on the south end of the island. It "poped" the bobble of the island and the lava came rushing out. At the same time it sank all in a day and a night. This has confused people lately that say "so was it fire, a volcano or a flood that did them in?". It was all of them.

Today Atlantis is a watery grave. It has more than a small part in the phenomenon known as "The Bermuda Triangle". The people may be dead but the simpler machines are not. It is my hope that it be left alone." writen in 97.

The area pf Ireland-great Britian was also suppose to been the area of Lyonesse that was joined onto mainland Europe at the time of Atlantis. Atlantis existing in the Atlantic Ocean. Russian deep sea drill probes inthe 70's brought up samples that showed surface soil that existed up to 10.000 years ago as to show that lot of the north Atlantic bottom was on the surface.. Even the Irish monk Brenden told of a land in the mid Atlantic he visited that may of been the remnants of the last parts of Atlantis.- Posied.

Alleged photos by Duke University of stone villlages, roadways and etc. on the Nth Atlantic ocoean bottom as well as reports of undersea domed cities off of Portugal for instance, over fast strange subs. But where are the photos of these alleged finds?

Ivan...Brenden...as he was travelling in the 5th century was probably writing about Iceland or Greenland.

Duke is a good source of info...and ancient Civilizations have been found underwater....just as beach deposits have been found at 200 feet above sea level and ancient fossil bearing limestones are at 27,000 feet on Mount Everest.

Well aware of Brenden and his accounts make it more interesting. DId remants of Atlantis still exist back 1500 years ago? Parts of the Atlantic ridge are only 500 feet below the surface and Greenland and etc. did not match the type of people and high culture that he encountered.

Ivan....the Mid Atlantic spreading center runs through Iceland..(and two smaller islands farther south)..hence all the volcanoes....it doesn't pass through Greenland....there is no evidence of an ancient continent in the mid atlantic that I have seen.

My guess is he found Iceland, Greenland and Labrador.

Accounts mention that he was on his way to Iceland Greenland but was carried to this warm sophisticated island. Nor does the factor of volcanoes going through Greenland really have that much to do with it. Yet so many accounts even today of the mid Atlantic rigde being up to 500 feet below the surface is a great factor. The Russian deep sea core samples , cable laying and other factors reveal a more shallow area of land beneath the Atlantic.

Ivan...maybe he got really lost and found the Azores...or perhaps the Faroe Islands. I mentioned volcanoes through Greenland because you did when you spoke of the Mid Atlantic spreading center going through it.

The Mid Atlantic Spreading Center (Mid Atlantic Ridge as you call it) goes through Iceland...so it is ABOVE the surface of the Atlantic and not 500 below the surface of the Atlantic.

One other thing could you explain how deep sea core samples can be shallow in depth?

Actually Plato described Atlantis as being " An island-no smaller than a continent" Pacific Sounds the place and Australia is a prime candidate for it.

Hardly anyone knew of Australia until approx 4000 years ago.

Australia at the time Plato described this island continent had a race called the URu-a pre aboriginal race-possibly the out of africa theory is in-correct and Australia is the birth place of modern humans.

At the time of the last Ice-age Australia was relatively ice-free except for Tasmanian and Victoria and southern New South Wales.

The rest of the country was ice-free. That Australia would have been inundated with water leaving vast areas where islands would be and these islands could have been the birthplace of the Atlantis legends.

The URU could be the Atlanteans of the old world. They certainly had a warrior caste-bird man cult-possibly had hot air balloons and hang gliding. They even had kings and worshipped many deities. This race goes back at least 100,000 years B.P.

They had a script also.