I was lost, then I was found, you might hear
some of the wonders of the world say if they could speak. We might look at perhaps the best known once-lost
city in Machu Picchu, that was abandoned in the 16th century and discovered again in the
20th century. Then you have the spellbinding city of Angkor
in Cambodia, which was never really lost, but certainly needed a lot of restoration
for it to look as magnificent as it does today. We also have cities that are perhaps only
legends, El Dorado, The Lost City of Gold; or The Lost City of Z, whose mystery lured
explorers from Europe… and some never returned home. But today we’ll talk about perhaps greatest
legend of them all, in this episode of the Infographics Show, The Evidence That The lost
city of Atlantis Existed. If we want to know the origins of the city
of Atlantis we have to go back to the great, Greek ancient philosopher known as Plato. You’ve probably heard of the guy. Some writers have said all philosophy is just
a footnote to Plato, while he’s the man that wrote the Socratic dialogues; he came
up with The Cave allegory we still talk about today and he advanced ideas on justice, law,
and learning that we all should be thankful for. With that in mind, if Plato was the one that
started the story of Atlantis, perhaps we should take him seriously? Well, while there are still people that believe
Atlantis was real, most others, tell us Plato told that tale as an allegory, meaning the
story had a hidden meaning in it. Plato said in 360 B.C. that these Atlanteans
had a pretty good life. No doubt if such a thing existed back then,
Atlantis would have come very high in standard of living indexes. The people that lived there were human, but
also God-like, according to Plato. Where the island is, is actually widely debated,
with some saying that the island, and surrounding islands, were just somewhere in the Mediterranean,
and others saying near Spain, in the Pacific, the Caribbean or even close to Antarctica. The place is described as having one main
island, with smaller islands surrounding it. It was a wonderful spot, too, where exotic
wildlife not seen anywhere else wandered around, and where precious metals were plentiful. It was said living there was a Utopian existence,
before Sir Thomas More wrote his book 'Utopia’ in 1516 and we started using that word to
mean the apogee of human civilization. You get the picture, Atlantis was supposed
to be perfect in every way. No one messed with the Atlanteans, either,
because they had an impenetrable navy. So, as we said, a lot of people don’t think
this place actually existed and Plato wrote the story as an allegory of hubris. Hubris could be said to be when someone or
something gets too big for its boots, that pride comes before a fall. For the Greeks it meant, "excessive pride,
violating the bounds set for humans.” We all know what happened to Greeks in their
mythologies, when they got cocky and started thinking they were almost above the Gods:
they were taken down a notch or two, and often in violent fashion. And that’s what happened to Atlantis. You see, in Plato’s story these people living
the high life in Atlantis started to become corrupt, greedy, morally bankrupt. Maybe he foresaw this happening to all great
civilizations, that empires decline, and that’s why we have a theory of Declinism. The people became warlike, they tried to expand
into other territories, and they lost their way. For that, the Gods sent them all kinds of
horrors, including earthquakes and floods. Plato wrote, “And in a single day and night
of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis
in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is
impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was
caused by the subsidence of the island.” And that was that, goodbye Atlantis. While this is thought to be an allegory, Plato
may not have pulled this tale out of a hat. Not only was Plato well aware that societies
are easily corruptible, and greatness can soon turn into something counter to that greatness,
but he also knew that civilizations had been rubbed off the face of the Earth due to the
sometimes-brutal whims of nature. It was known to him that a massive volcanic
eruption could wipe out a people. Still, we must now ask, was Plato totally
making this story up, or was it based on a real civilization with perhaps a few embellishments? Some scholars do believe such a place existed,
and throughout history in spite of being called components of pseudoarchaeology, they have
tried to present a case for Atlantis existing. Let’s now have a look at what they say. One man is said to have brought the Atlantis
story back to life in the 19th century, and his name was Ignatius L. Donnelly. The U.S. congressman and part-time scientist
wrote the book “Atlantis: the Antediluvian World.” It’s important to see what kind of a man
he was when we consider he believed that a world used to exist that was perhaps technologically
superior and morally superior to other places. He once wrote about America, saying, “Corruption
dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress…. The people are demoralized; The newspapers
are largely subsidized, or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes
covered with mortgages, labor impoverished.” That was in 1892, and we can hear similar
things said today. He believed Atlantis was a great culture,
and one which spawned other ancient cultures such as the Maya culture. “There now lies beneath the waters of the
Atlantic, covered, doubtless, by hundreds of feet of volcanic debris, an amount of gold
and silver exceeding many times that brought to Europe from Peru, Mexico, and Central America
since the time of Columbus,” he said in his book, but the problem was a lack of incontestable
proof. Nonetheless, he had a lot of people thinking
about Atlantis again, a utopia to show that something existed better than the corrupt
modern world he talked about. He even went as far to say that The Garden
of Eden had been in Atlantis, and the reason for the sinking of the city was due to the
great flood as depicted in the Old Testament. So, to believe his theory you also have to
buy into the Great Flood, and not everyone, even some Christians, are certain that ever
happened. Let’s move on. We have a theory that Atlantis was actually
somewhere off the coast of the Bahamas. Thanks to Donnelly a slew of writers started
telling us that indeed Atlantis had existed. One such writer was Charles Berlitz, who in
the 1970s said that the Bermuda Triangle had swallowed the city. People have agreed, seeing as that underwater
close to the Bahamas you have something called the “Bimini Road”. This is a large group of stones that lie on
the ocean floor, which do look like the remnants of a sunken city. But as spectacular as it looks, geologists
tell us this is just a natural phenomenon. Then you have the theory that Atlantis was
part of Antarctica. In 1958 a book called “Earth’s Shifting
Crust” writer Charles Hapgood said that about 12,000 years ago Atlantis split off
from Antarctica and that part which remained more temperate was home to this advanced culture. But scientists know a lot more about plate
tectonics now than they did then, and that theory has been widely debunked. Or was Plato talking about the Minoan culture,
which went from great to ruined in a short time. It’s thought this advanced culture, situated
on what we now call Crete and other Aegean Islands, was the home of King Minos. The early Minoan culture goes back as far
as 3500 BC and historians tell us this was a great culture that influenced the upcoming
Greek culture. It’s said earthquakes as well as an eruption
of the Thera volcano brought an end to this vibrant place, destroying palaces and leaving
the place vulnerable to hostile outsiders. Perhaps Plato’s allegory was just based
on this, and like any other writer of poems or fiction he just took a real event and embellished
it for the sake of making a point. In this case how the mighty can fall, and
one should always prepare for the vicissitudes of nature and the risk of power turning to
corruption. What does Graham Hancock have to say? Have you heard of this guy? He is well known for controversially re-telling
the history of some ancient cultures, as well as taking powerful hallucinogens such as ayahuasca. These, he believes, can take us into different
realms that are possibly a gateway into more truth about the human existence. He believes that there is something in nature
that connects us all, and perhaps even into the past. Well respected scientist Dr. Rick Strassman
who courageously went on a mission to discover what these hallucinogens were about also said
something uncanny happens on those trips. Writer Michael Pollan talked about “merging
with the universe, or with nature” and the “mystical experience.” That’s not to say these guys believed in
Atlantis, but it might say, as Hancock thinks, that there is more out there than science
tells us? People who tell you they have entered other
worlds, or visualized mysterious symbols from the past in hallucinations or dreams, might
not be on your reading list this year. But according to Hancock, ancient civilizations
across the globe were somehow connected. He believes there was indeed a golden age
of these ancient civilizations, but they were all wiped out due to a catastrophic event
some 12,000 years ago. But he does not tell us there was definitely
an Atlantis, only that there were certainly very advanced ancient cultures that just went
missing. Or perhaps Atlantis was downed in the Black
Sea of circa 5600 BC. Some people even say Atlantis was Ireland,
or the Portuguese island of Madeira. And there are more incredible theories, but
none pose any threat to what rational science tells us in that Plato was likely making this
great world up for effect. We need solid proof, and there isn’t any. If someone entered Atlantis while travelling
through time and space on DMT, it likely isn’t going to change the minds of Atlantis skeptics. Now we’d like to turn this over to you. Did Atlantis exist? Where, and what was it like? Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
Places Even Stranger Than Bermuda Triangle. Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to
like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
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How atlantis is explained to the modern people.