So, it is hard to see how it could ever have
been identified to either Plato's or to Homer's paradigm. The Aztecan capital
in Mexico, Tenochtitlan, also followed an inland adaptation of the primordial
model, with the Holy Mountain at the center (Mt. Atlas) replaced by a pyramid,
and the crossing and encircling canals replaced by avenues and majestic
gateways.
This Sacred Geometry is amply attested
in the Far East (Angkor, Java, etc.). So, there can be little doubt that the
model came to us from there. Cruder copies are also found in the Scandinavia
and in Celtiberia, in monuments (cromlechs) such as Stonehenge and the likes. The universality of this tradition attests the reality of Atlantis
as the prototype of the cities that follow the model of the "Celestial
Jerusalem". In India and Indonesia we find a profusion of entire cities and temple complexes such as Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and Borobudur, which were based on the model of Atlantis' capital either in full size or as smaller scaled down replicas.
As we discuss elsewhere[LINK], the Sacred
Geometry of Atlantis' capital city is itself a replica of the world, in an idealized form that dates from remotest antiquity. The four quadrants of the Cross of Atlantis represent the Four Corners of the World, that is, the Four Continents (Eurasia, Africa, America and Australia). Likewise, the Center represents the continent of Atlantis, sunken under the sea, and reduced to a tiny portion (Indonesia) of mere insular proportions. (See also next item, below).
4) Holy Mountain
and Volcanoes
The essential feature of Atlantis was its
Holy Mountain. This mountain was placed at the center of the capital and was identified with
Atlas himself in his role as "Pillar of the Sky". As the legend goes, when
this pillar collapsed, the sky fell down upon the world, destroying and
asphyxiating it. In reality this is an allegory of the explosion of Mt.
Atlas indeed a volcanic peak and of the cataclysm that caused the end
of the Pleistocene Ice Age, as we argue in detail elsewhere.
The Holy Mountain that we find in essentially
all religions and sacred traditions concerning Paradise is indeed Mt. Atlas,
the archetype of them all. We encounter the Holy Mountain under names such
as Mt. Meru in the Indies, Mt. Calvary (or Golgotha) in Christianism, Mt.
Qaf ("Skull" = Calvary) in Islamism, Mt. Kailasa (idem) in Shivaism, Mt.
Salvat (or Calvat = "Skull") in Catharism, Mt. Olympos in Greece, etc.. all such derive directly from the Atlantean model, both in the New and the Old worlds.
Mt. Olympos, for instance, derives its name from the Greek
Olmos Hippous, meaning "the Mountain of the Centaurs". But the Centaurs
(Khentarfos) derive their name and their myth from the Gandharvas
of India, where Mt. Meru is called "the Mountain of the Gandharvas". This
fact shows the Indian origin of the myths of ancient Greece. Again, the Holy Mountain this time directly connected with an Atlas figure (Ayar Cachi) turned to stone is also found in Peru as the Huanacauri of the Incas. In fact, wherever
we find the myth of the Holy Mountain of Paradise, we are able to trace
it back to Mt. Meru and the Indies, that is, to Atlantis.
In symbolic form, the Holy Mountain is
also represented as a pyramid or an obelisk, or similar structures. These include artefacts such as the pylons
of Egyptian temples, the towers of the Babylonian
ziggurats,
the spires of the Gothic cathedrals and the Hindu
gopuras
and pyramidal
temples. The pyramids above all the step pyramids of Egypt (Zozer's),
of Mexico, of Peru and of the Far East (China, Japan) are all replicas
of Mt. Meru, which is also shaped as a four-sided pyramid in Hindu
traditions.
The pyramidal temples of India have all
been destroyed by the Muslim invaders, who replaced them with mosques and
palaces. But many have been reconstructed according to the former paradigm
that of the Holy Mountain. However, the best examples extant are those
of Angkor (Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom) and of Java (Baphuon, Borobudur)
which replicate not only the Holy Mountain, but the sacred capital of Atlantis
itself.
As we already said, the Holy Mountain of
Atlantis, Mt. Atlas, was a huge volcanic peak which exploded, taking the
sacred capital under, in its wake. So, this is another essential feature
of Atlantis that cannot be forgotten when seeking for the site of Atlantis.
To give a specific example, the archetypal Jerusalem was characterized
by the central presence of Mt. Zion. This Holy Mountain is really the same
as Mt. Sinai. Mt. Sinai is often described as a terrifying volcano whose "pillar
of fire and smoke" actually guided the Israelites in their exodus from the site
of their destroyed paradise. This paradise which lay in Primordial Egypt (or Eden), rather than in the country now so named is indeed Indonesia, the
original homeland of the Jews.
Hence, it is a waste of time to seek Atlantis
outside the regions tormented by volcanism and earthquakes. Such regions
are indeed quite few in the world. First there is Thera, the favorite of the more scientifically
minded Atlantologists, precisely because of this feature. The realms of
the Incas and the Mayas is also frequently castigated by this type of event,
but apparently never in the scale preconized by Plato and others. The reason
for that is that their volcanoes are not of an explosive nature, in contrast
with those of the Far East.
The same absence of explosive volcanism
seems to be true of Scandinavia and of Greenland and Antarctica. No volcanoes
exist in Schliemann's Troy, in Tartessos (Spain) and in Celtiberia (France
and British Isles).
