What is it? This is it.1
Publishing about Atlantis these days is almost invariably harmful to an author’s reputation. After all, two hundred years of scientific research has shown Atlantis to be a fantasy, born from the minds of dreamers. There is no longer any need to go in search of the origins of our civilization, or is there? Atlantis, or so they would have us believe, is a just figment of our imagination. The current view is that around 3000 BC the oldest civilizations emerged, civilizations that left us many monuments still in existence today, like the pyramids and the ziggurats, sphinxes, obelisks and the labyrinth. We go on archaeological trips, visit museums to see the most wonderfully crafted artifacts, but in many cases we have no idea what they were made for. Although the function they served may elude us, we cannot help being fascinated by them. There is a kind of magic about them that we cannot put our finger on. We do not really know why man in ancient times went to so much trouble, put in so much effort to realize the impressive legacy they have left us. The grandeur and refinement of the products of their civilizations boggles the mind. Egyptian architecture in particular, the pyramids from the Old Kingdom, still fill us with awe and fascination. Every great civilization from the past has left us great architecture underlining the level of their achievements. They built structures for eternity, wanted their buildings to last down the generations. The Ancient Egyptians explicitly stated this intention in their writings. They wanted their fundamental view of the world to be preserved down the millennia. Nevertheless, we are about to lose the central core of their legacy forever, a world view that we cannot afford to lose, if only for our own view of the world.
At the same time I do realize that the level of development that we attribute to ancient cultures is determined by the level of development that our own thoughts and insights allow them to have. This is true not only for the way we look at their architectural achievements, but also in our translations of the writings they have left us, or the way we view the structure of their culture. Our limitations thus become their limitations. Blinded by their own extensive knowledge of their field, scientists and scholars are generally reluctant to relativize conventional beliefs, to get out of their comfort zone and allow new light to be shed on orthodox views, particularly if this new light is unfamiliar and, in their opinion, cannot be trusted. What is worse is that they fail to grasp the necessity and indeed the duty to simply account for us finding what we are in fact finding, on the basis of current theories. The level of sophistication and engineering that we are confronted with in ancient artifacts and structures, to mention just one example, is far beyond anything that can be achieved using the relatively simply tools orthodox theories assume ancient man had at his disposal. The cavalier response from the egyptological community that they obviously managed to pull it off with the tools we have found, simply will not do.
The scientific courage to launch an in-depth and unbiased investigation into our past is lacking, barred by vested interests and reputations that stand in the way of a necessary revision of our current world view. Is it not every philosopher and scientist’s dream to get to know things in their true nature and define them? A history of Ancient Egypt without a proper framework cannot be called a history. We need to know the beginning and the end, and only a chronological source like the Turin Papyrus and Ancient Egyptian texts about their past can give us these. The Turin Papyrus, which dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II (13th century BC), fixes the beginning of Egyptian history in 11,248 BC. The contents of this papyrus completely overturn the existing chronology. A beginning this early does not fit into the current, carefully constructed view of history. Nevertheless, the annals the Ancient Egyptians left us are of great importance to our world view. They put us on the trail, allow us to follow the traces of extremely ancient backgrounds.
To find out about these backgrounds interdisciplinary research is essential. It requires an open mind without preconceived points of view. Where could the cradle of Ancient Egyptian civilization be located? Did their forebears pass this location on to their offspring? These are pertinent questions that need to be answered. Scientific analysis requires authentic source material and explanatory texts. In my analysis, I will make use solely of Ancient Egyptian texts and sources. The Ancient Egyptians did indeed allude to the cradle of their civilization; they referred to it on the inner surface of the western wall surrounding the Horus Temple at Edfu. These annals talk of a group of volcanic islands situated in the west. The Eyptians mentioned three islands that their first homeland consisted of, namely iw titi (Island of Trampling) and the two islands iw ‘h3 (Island of Combat) and iw htp (Island of Peace).2 My extensive research has revealed that the cradle of their civilization consisted of the submarine flat-topped mountain Great Meteor (extinct volcano) and the two so-called (submarine) Cruiser seamounts. This is a group of submerged islands in the Atlantic Ocean. “Other submarine mountains in this region were briefly studied in the last century. Salvaged lumps of limestone warrant the conclusion that the Atlantis sea mountain, for instance, lying in the immediate vicinity, must have been an island in the past 12,000 years.”3 The Great Meteor flat-topped mountain has a diameter of about 110 kilometers and its top is located some 270 meters below sea level. This certainly raises the question whether sea levels have not risen more in the past 11,000 years than is currently surmised, some 300 meters I would think. A physiographical map of the west coast of Africa reveals a great many river channels now submerged, the original river mouths being located as far out as 500 to 800 kilometers into the Atlantic Ocean (see color plates section). As far as I know, geo-physicists and geologists do not know for sure how much sea levels have actually risen. They assume it must have been by 100 to 120 meters.
The tops of these three sea mountains must have stuck out above sea level for quite some time (after the catastrophe) since the Greek historian Homerus wrote about them, and later on also geographer Marcellus was familiar with the remains of these islands. They were probably still visible as late as 1000 BC, and known at the time. The group of islands is indicated on a globe made by the Frenchman Oronteus Finaeus in 1531. The location of these submerged islands is unmistakable and undeniable. The same globe, oddly enough, also shows the continent of Antarctica, which, according to our current view of history, should be impossible, as that continent was first discovered as recently as 1820 by Russian expedition leader von Bellingshausen.
Since 1996 it has been assumed by many who take the possible existence of Atlantis seriously that Antarctica may have been that fabled continent.4 However, Plato explicitly reported that the Island of Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond Gibraltar, known at the time as the Pillars of Hercules.
Is it reasonable to expect scholars to focus their attention on submerged islands in the Atlantic that disappeared thousands of years ago? Of course it is, but science has never taken the issue of Atlantis seriously enough as it disrupts our current view of history and mankind’s past. The group of islands in question is nothing less than what remains of the ‘continent’ of Atlantis described by Plato. The Greek name Atlantis does however not occur in the Ancient Egyptian text, just the tree names mentioned earlier.
In the course of time, from the year 1985 onwards, I came across geographical material that was published, partially incomplete, in other books.5 After years of searching for clues, I found the remains of the realm of islands in a NASA satellite picture titled Night falls over Europe. Floodlight strikes the Atlantic Ocean, rendering submerged sea mountains and islands visible. What caught my eye was the striking geomorphological similarity of the three sea mountains to the three pyramids of Giza. This book describes the results of my research. Ancient Egyptian texts and source material about the cradle of their civilization, whose name was known to them, is published for the first time. This is all the more surprising since, according to Egyptologist at least, no such information is supposed to exist. It is surprising also because the origin of the Osiris religion turns out to be closely linked to the configuration, the characteristic outline of the island group. Geomorphology lying at the basis of their unfathomable religion? Indeed, and exclusively, because the configuration, the image of the total landscape was copied in the shape of three artificial Mountains in Giza, located at the same latitude. The distance between the meridians of longitude is exactly 60°. Now that the remains of Atlantis have finally been found, we can start focusing on a new view of the world. The included color plate section shows the particulars.
Notes
1 Translated lines from a column by Dutch TV personality, female protestant minister Jacobine Geel, broadcast on 9 April 2012 by Max Broadcasting Corporation, based on a poem by Esther Jansma (2006)
It only needed to be found. Somebody had to look at it and say what is it, this is it, and there it was. Fantastic. No hand of God here, creating sun, moon and stars. No, here it is eyes that see, there is somebody who looks and says ‘What is it? This is it’. No painter applying the first brush stroke to an empty canvas, but somebody who finds something – a shard of a cup, traces of ditches, remains [of the] past – who grows curious, and renders new what is old, breathes new life into it through the power of memory and with the aid of imagination. What is it, This is it Indispensable and of vital importance is this ability to reinvent ourselves again and again in the now. Somebody had to say: ‘What is it? This is it’. Had to, for when the time is there, would never be able to get here again, would never be now again, then – so it would seem – future would be unthinkable, and neverbe.
Re-creation is a perpetual necessity…
2 E.A.E. Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, pp.12-13; Edfu texts IV.358,13 and VI. 181,11-13.
3 J.Verhoef, ‘A Geophysical study of the Atlantis-Meteor Seamount complex’, p.14. (Heezen et al, 1954; Heezen and Hollister,1971)
4 Rose and Rand Flem-Ath, When the sky fell (1996)
5 W.H.Zitman, Kosmische Slinger der Tijden (1993); Egypt: “Image of Heaven” (2006)
Translation: Hans Verhulst.