Collective Research

First Debate

Gaps in the theory / missing links

Sources/citations

Minecraft recreation of Richat-Atlantis

Opera: Atlas Chained

Documentary brainstorm

Atlantis Together Documentary Critiques

Structure of Documentary

Explore

Comparison Plato's Atlantis - Richat

Concentric ringed city

hRinged city:

Horse track on landring not dyke

Plato Atlantis en Richat overeenkomsten, bewijs van bevolking forten, waarschijnlijker verbonden dan puur toeval, geef aan dat exht gebeurd

water uit karsts vulde ringen?

5-1-2-2-3-3 vanaf land gemeten, bronze age, grillig, mijn activiteit, afgerond, informatie overgedragen

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11 - THE RINGED CITY AND THE RICHAT STRUCTURE

Now our investigation moves on to matching Plato’s descriptions and proportions of the ringed city with the Richat structure, in order to demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that the Richat structure is in fact the 3.500 year old remains of the city of Atlantis.

Constraint 14: The city of atlantis must have a centre island of 5 ‘‘stades’’ in diameter with a hill on it, surrounded by a canal of 1 ‘‘stades’’ in breadth, around which a ring-shaped island of 2 ‘‘stades’’, which was surrounded by yet another canal of 2 ‘‘stades’’, and another ring-shaped island of 3 ‘‘stades’’. Around this was a final canal of 3 ‘‘stades’’ surrounding the whole city, which was encompassed by a circular mound which rested in the middle of a large plain that surrounded it, 50 stades in each direction (Critias 113d-e, 115c-116a, 117b, 117d-e)

A - The mythological origin of the ringed city

First of all, regarding the origin of the ringed city, the account related the following mythological explanation:

To make the hill whereon [Cleito, the primal mother of Atlantis] dwelt impregnable, [Poseidon] broke it off all round about; and he made circular belts of sea and land enclosing one another alternately, some greater, some smaller, two being of land and three of sea, which he carved as it were with a lathe, out of the midst of the island; and these belts were at even distances on all sides, so as to be impassable for man; (113e) for at that time neither ships nor sailing were as yet in existence. And Poseidon himself set in order with ease, as a god would, the central island, bringing up from beneath the earth two springs of waters, the one flowing warm from its source, the other cold, and producing out of the earth all kinds of food in plenty. (Critias 113d-e)

When reading this passage, we should bear in mind that Poseidon was an Ancient Greek god who was associated with earthquakes, floods, the ocean, and horses. His name possibly derives from Proto-Indo-European ‘posis das’, meaning ‘husband of the earth’ or ‘lord of the earth’. He used his trident, a symbol which potentially originated from a fish hook, to cause earthquakes by throwing it into the bedrock, and he was often depicted riding a horse chariot, surrounded by waves (Britannica, 2023). Knowing this, we can interpret this mythological passage as referring to a geological process involving earthquakes and water. As has been described in II.3, the region around the Richat structure experiences regular earthquakes, and as has been demonstrated in II.10, there was also plenty of water and some flooding events at the time of Atlantis. This context implies the obvious conclusion that the local Atlantean might have worshipped some ancient predecessor of Poseidon, some divine nature spirit ruling over tectonic and hydrological processes, whose original name we might never recover (more on this in II.16). This interpretation is corroborated by the following passage:

You must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our language. (Critias, 113a)

This implies that the original name of this god was first translated from Atlantean into Egyptian, perhaps as Geb, the god of the earth whose laughter created earthquakes (Pinch, 2002), which was then in turn translated into Greek as Poseidon.

Atlas was described to be the firstborn son of Poseidon and Cleito, the primal mother of Atlantis (Critias 113e-114a). Since we have already associated the mythological entity Atlas with mountains in II.6, it seems obvious why Atlas would have been a son of Poseidon, since mountains are the result of tectonic processes (Janssens, 2023). Sceptics of the Richat-Atlantis hypothesis sometimes mention the geological origin of the Richat structure as a counterargument to the idea that it could have been Atlantis, but this is a weak argument which only demonstrates their lack of background knowledge of Plato’s actual account in the Timaeus and Critias. The ringed city was never claimed to be man made, but rather made by Poseidon, the god of tectonic and hydrological processes, and this matches the geological origin of the Richat structure. In order to protect Cleito, Poseidon made the separated rings of water and land, and he created the two water springs in the middle in order to nurture his offspring.

B - The geological origin of the ringed city

Initially, there existed no academic consensus on the geological origin of the Richat structure. One of the suggested origins was an asteroid impact, but recent research has brought an end to this uncertainty, and we now know that the actual origin of the unique structure was magmatic (Matton, 2005). Before the structure existed, the geology of the region consisted of many different layers of sediment which formed during the many climate cycles in the past, thus creating alternate layers with more and less resistant material. When the Richat structure was formed, a large magma bubble underneath the crust slowly rose to the surface, a process which usually precedes the formation of volcanoes. Because of the formation of underground cavities known as karsts as the result of hydrothermal activity, which was already mentioned in II.10, this magma bubble did not erupt into a volcano, but rather collapsed in on itself. This created a circular uprising around the point where the magma dome collapsed, thus concentrically exposing the different sedimentary layers. After this, erosion from water and wind eroded away the softer layers, which created the inner depressions of the ring, while the harder layers remained, resulting in the iconic land rings. Plato described that the rings were equidistant all around (Critias 113d), and this matches the Richat structure, which is only ever so slightly elliptical (Abdeina et al., 2021), since all the layers were symmetrically exposed around a single central point. The magmatic nature of this region, combined with its hydrothermal activity, might also explain why Plato described it as highly fertile (Critias 113c).

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SEMSIYAT SIMILAR PROCESS!

C - Terraforming of the ringed city

Upon the pre-existing ringed structure, the account states that the Atlanteans terraformed their city:

First of all they bridged over the circles of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, making thereby a road towards and from the royal palace. (Critias 115c)

PASSAGES VOORLEZEN EN BOVEN VISUALISATIE EN RICHAT EDITEN

Upon inspection of satellite images of the structures, no clear land bridges are apparent between the land rings. However, it should be expected that if such land bridges, which would have measured 700 metres, 1.400 metres and 2.100 metres, or 0,43 miles, 0,86 miles and 1,29 miles respectively, were constructed by mesolithic Atlanteans, they would have been built as thin and low as realistically possible, because of the sheer amount of earth that has to be moved by hand in order to construct such a bridge. This, however, would have resulted in relatively weak and shallow land bridges made out of loose material, which could have easily been broken through or submerged in a catastrophic flood, perhaps explaining why these land bridges now appear absent. The past existence of these land bridges does seem likely however, because connecting the concentric islands to the mainland in this way creates an excellent logistical and defensive layout, where the inner sanctum was protected by three moats of water and three walls at the shores of the islands, while all rings are still mutually accessible by land, as well as by water (Janssens, 2023). To those who are sceptical of the ability of a mesolithic society to carry out such a megaproject, I reply that mesolithic and neolithic peoples are known around the world for having constructed megalithic structures and large burial mounds, thus indicating that we should not underestimate their construction abilities when carrying out a coordinated project with lots of manpower, regardless of their primitive tools. Perhaps the existence of location of these land bridges could be verified by the discovery of human artefacts in high concentration along a straight line cutting through the inner depressions, which would have otherwise contained less artefacts than the land rings because it was flooded with water.

D - The proportions of the ringed city

Beginning at the sea, they bored a channel right through to the outermost circle, which was three plethra in breadth, one hundred feet in depth, and fifty stades in length; and thus they made the entrance to it from the sea like that to a harbor by opening out a mouth large enough for the greatest ships to sail through. (...) The greatest of the circles (...) was three stades in breadth, and the circle of land next to it was of equal breadth; and of the second pair of circles that of water was two stades in breadth and that of dry land equal again to the preceding one of water; and the circle which ran round the central island itself was of a stade's breadth. And this island, (116a) wherein stood the royal palace, was of five stades in diameter. (Critias 115d-116a)

The account gives us the dimensions of the ringed city in Atlantean ‘stades’, which as already mentioned before in section II.7, I have estimated to be around 700 metres, or 0,43 miles. How I derived this distance, I will now demonstrate. As stated by the account, the diameters of the inner island and the breath of the rings were 5 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 3: these proportions are crucial, since they are scale invariant. Because these figures can be easily remembered, the proportions between these numbers is most likely to have survived the transmission, while the original length of an Atlantean stade was most probably lost (until now). One of the most common counter arguments against the Richat-Atlantis hypothesis is that the proportions of the rings don’t match up with the account. This, however, is only true for what I shall here call the ‘large interpretation’, while this problem does not arise in the correct ‘small interpretation’, which I will defend here.

The large interpretation takes the circular plain around the Richat structure to have been the outer water ring, with the largest landrings of the structure being the two land rings mentioned by Plato, and with the large inner circular island which starts at Sebkhet el Guelb being the inner island. In this interpretation, the proportions are indeed quite off: the outer water ring and outer land ring were said to be both 3 ‘stades’ in breath, but in this interpretation the outer water ring would have been significantly larger than the outer land ring. If we take the diameter of the inner island of this interpretation, which was said to have been 5 stades, and use this to derive the length of the stade, the proportions would be 5 - 0,9 - 1,4 - 1,4 - 2,8 - 4,4. This is indeed quite off, and furthermore, according to this interpretation the largest water ring would have been about 9 kilometres or 5,6 miles broad, which seems highly unlikely to have been bridged by an artificial land bridge.

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The small interpretation, however, is a perfect fit with the proportions mentioned in the account. This interpretation takes the inner island of the large interpretation to be in fact the inner island, plus the inner water ring and the inner land ring, thus measuring 2 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 2 = 11 stades in diameter. Elevation maps of the Richat structure clearly show that the centre of this area is uplifted, surrounded by a circular ditch, and the edge is again a raised circular ridge. Since water would have flowed from the centre of the inner island, it would have flowed down into this ditch, thus creating the inner water ring, which was said to measure 1 stade. Thus, we can use the average breath of this inner ditch, which is around 700 metres, as a unit for the Atlantean stade. It quickly becomes apparent that the surrounding rings obey the 5 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 3 proportions when using this measurement (Janssens, 2023). This is a huge discovery, which in my eyes proves most definitely that the Richat structure was indeed the ringed city of Atlantis, as well as demonstrating how incredibly accurate all the details mentioned in the 3500 year old account are.

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Georgis Sarantitis?

STADIUM UNIT USED FROM 6TH CENTURY BC ONWARDS? COULDNT HAVE BEEN LATE BRONZE AGE MEASUREMENT, JUST LONG UNIT

However, as has already been discussed in I.7, some minor details might have been lost in translation or transmission because of its ancient age. One measurement from the account does indeed seem to have been corrupted:

And after crossing the three outer harbors, (117e) one found a mound which began at the sea and ran round in a circle, at a uniform distance of fifty stades from the largest circle and harbour, and its ends converged at the seaward mouth of the channel. The whole of this mound had numerous houses built on to it, set close together (Critias 117d-e)

In this passage, the word ‘τεῖχος’ is often mistranslated as ‘wall’, but a more accurate translation would be ‘mound’ (Liddell & Scott, 1940), being etymologically related the the English word ‘dyke’ and the Dutch word ‘dijk’. This would make more sense in the context of the text, since many houses are said to have been built atop it. This mount probably corresponds to the outer elevated ring ot the Richat structure, which would have separated the outer water ring from the surrounding flat plain.

Compare this description by Plato with the distribution of tumuli and fortified agro-pastoral ruins:

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Tumuli - Richat vs Tichitt⁠

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This clearly shows that the largest concentrations of simple people lived on this outer mound, which also explains why so many artefacts are found and sold at the entrance of the Richat structure at the Southern side of this outer mound. As was also noted by Monod, the inner depressions between the land rings are virtually devoid of these kinds of artefacts, hinting at the possibility that rain- and groundwater flowed here through concentric rivers, either seasonally or permanently. This would explain why no artefacts are found here but only on the elevated land ridges.

The most problematic part of the passage Critias 117d-e is rather the claimed distance of 50 ‘stades’ from the outer water ring. This description does not match up with the proportions of the Richat structure when taking the Atlantean stade which we have chosen. The total diameter of the ringed city plus the surrounding plain would have been 127 stades, translating to 89 kilometres, or 55 miles, while the entire Richat structure is only 35 kilometres or 22 miles in diameter, less than half of this distance. However, if we allow ourselves to fudge his figure a tiny bit by interpreting it not as the breadth of the region surrounding the outer water ring, but rather as its diameter, it exactly matches up with the Richat structure, since 0,7 * 50 = 35 kilometres, or 0,43 * 50 = 22 miles. It seems quite plausible that somewhere along the 9000 year transmission of the story up to Solon, the diameter was confused for the breadth (Janssens, 2023). Without an aerial view image to refer to, it is quite difficult to try to visualise the layout of the city with its dimensions using the given description, let alone accurately remember all of it. Even with aerial photos, it still took 17 years for someone to figure out the correct interpretation of the city’s layout in the Richat structure. This is the only instance of slight fudging that has to be done in order to make the measurements fit, while the rest of the structure neatly matches the given proportions, as well as the 2000 by 3000 stadium size of Atlantis Nesos.

Another possible reason why the 50 stade measurement got corrupted might be because the individual who misunderstood the description (perhaps Solon or Plato) might have tried to make the different dimensions coherent with one another. If this individual would have thought that the sea started immediately at the end of the circular plain, this would mean that the distance from there to the outer water ring would have been 50 stades, thus making the breadth 50 stades. However, as we can see from aerial images of the Richat structure, the canal that once connected the outer water ring with the sea reached beyond the edge of the circular plain where it was encircled by the descending mountains, extending for another 23 kilometres, or 14 miles. When measuring the actual distance from the outer water ring to the dried up sea, we see that it does measure about 35 kilometres, or 22 miles, which translates to 50 Atlantean stades, thus matching perfectly with the stated length of the canal (Janssens, 2023).

The canal was further described as measuring three plethra in breadth and one hundred feet in depth. It is hard to know for sure what these measurements meant to the Atlantean, but I will propose my best guess. To the Greeks, a stade was equal to six plethra, and a plethron was equal to 100 feet, with one foot measuring about 30 centimetres, the same as one modern U.S. foot (Calvert, 2010). Taking the proportions between a stade, plethrum and foot as 600 - 100 - 1, and combining this with the Atlantean stade of 700 metres or 0,43 miles, we are left with an Atlantean plethron of 117 metres or 384 U.S. feet, and an Atlantean foot of 1,2 metres or 4 U.S. feet. Since the dimensions of the canal were three plethra in breadth and one hundred feet in depth, this amounts to 350 metres breadth by 117 metres depth. This depth seems quite unlikely, implying that the Atlanteans used another measurement for the foot, but the 350 metres breath, half an Atlantean stade, is quite plausible. When measuring the breadth of the dried up river bed which once connected the Richat structure with the southern inland sea, this seems like quite an accurate fit.

E - The infrastructure and layout of the ringed city

Regarding the infrastructure and architectural layout of the city, the account described the following:

Through the circles of land, (115e) which divided those of sea, over against the bridges they opened out a channel leading from circle to circle, large enough to give passage to a single trireme; and this they roofed over above so that the sea-way was subterranean; for the lips of the land circles were raised a sufficient height above the level of the sea. (Critias 116a)

A trireme is a large type of ancient battle ship, although it cannot be known with certainty what kind of ships the Atlanteans used, which were translated at triremes. In any case, we can assume it to have referred to some type of large ship. The land rings of the Richat structure are indeed raised considerably above the depressions, and thus it would have been possible for a passage to have been dug through these tall banks, through which these ships could have passed. It makes sense that the passages would be covered over, because if this were not the case, the land rings would not be fully accessible because of a canal running through it. At the same time, it seems quite impressive to think that the largest of these water tunnels would have been 2,1 kilometres or 1,29 miles long. It would have been an incredible feat to dig a channel of this size, and since the inside of the tunnel would be pitch dark, it would also have been quite an ordeal to sail through them. However, when inspecting an aerial image of the Richat structure, it is readily apparent that natural fracture lines exist all around the land rings, and it seems quite likely that the Atlanteans used these pre-existing inlets in the bedrock, only having to remove the soft sediment that might have originally filled them. Since these fracture lines extend from both sides into the land ring relatively far, the part of these passages that was fully covered under the bedrock would have only been as little as 200 metres or 656 feet (Janssens, 2023). Underground imaging technology might be employed to see if these areas are indeed hollowed out underneath the bedrock. In Mauritania, several half-natural, half-artificial tunnels connected to a network of small fractures have already been discovered, and within them terracotta oxen figurines have been found (Vernet, 1979), which corroborates the possibility of the Atlanteans having done the same within the Richat structure.

Now the island and the circles and the bridge, which was a plethron in breadth, they encompassed round about, on this side and on that, with a wall of stone; and upon the bridges on each side, over against the passages for the sea, they erected towers and gates. And the stone they quarried beneath the central island all round, and from beneath the outer and inner circles, (...); and while quarrying it they constructed two inner docks, hollowed out and roofed over by the native rock. (Critias 116a)

This passage tells us that the land bridges were one Atlantean plethron broad, which we have established as being 117 metres or 384 U.S. feet. Because of the sheer length of the land bridges, this breadth would have made them true mega projects which likely took many years of organised labour by a large group of people. The encirclement of each island with a stone wall would have created a highly secure defence system combined with the water rings, and the placement of towers and gates on each side of the land bridges would make sense, because these entry points are the only weak spots of the city.

A possible counter argument to my claim in II.11.D that the proportions from the account match that of the Richat structure, could be that it is unclear how high the water level was, and thus uncertain where to draw the line between the concentric rings of water and land. To this, I reply with the passage which mentioned that the Atlanteans had quarried rocks around the edge of the central island, as well as the two land rings. Although we do not know to what extend the bedrock was quarried, this would still explain that the edge of the bedrock of the rings is not a good indication of where the land ring ended, since the edge of the bedrock might have receded as a result of this quarrying, as well as the erosion of the flood (Janssens, 2023).

They had in the centre of the large island a racecourse laid out for horses, which was a stade in width, while as to length, a strip which ran round the whole circumference was reserved for equestrian contests. (Critias 117b)

I will discuss the presence of horses in Atlantis in more detail in section II.12, but for now we will only focus on the alleged race course. The Atlanteans most probably did not have modern horses such as we know them today, but rather some type of possibly extinct donkey, since the area is still rich in donkeys to this day. Donkeys however, are not all too suited for horseback racing, so these races would have most likely taken place in chariots, which are mentioned throughout the account, which will also be discussed in further detail in section II.12. Since the race track went around the middle of the outer land ring, it would have measured around 40 kilometres, or about 25 miles total. Such a distance is way more suited for slower, long-distance racing, rather than short sprints, which donkeys are quite poor at (Janssens, 2023).

F - River engineering

The account repeatedly mentions the Atlanteans having created incredibly large canals. On closer inspection of the text, however, it becomes evident how they might have done this:

(118c) Now as a result of natural forces, together with the labours of many kings which extended over many ages, the condition of the plain [Atlantis Nesos] was this. It was originally a quadrangle, rectilinear for the most part, and elongated; and what it lacked of this shape they made right by means of a trench dug round about it. Now, as regards the depth of this trench and its breadth and length, it seems incredible that it should be so large as the account states, considering that it was made by hand, and in addition to all the other operations, but nonetheless we must report what we heard: it was dug out to the depth of a plethron and to a uniform breadth of a stade, and since it was dug round the whole plain (118d) its consequent length was 10,000 stades. It received the streams which came down from the mountains and after circling round the plain, and coming towards the city on this side and on that, it discharged them thereabouts into the sea. And on the inland side of the city channels were cut in straight lines, of about 100 feet in width, across the plain, and these discharged themselves into the trench on the seaward side, the distance between each being 100 stades. It was in this way that they conveyed to the city (118e) the timber from the mountains and transported also on boats the seasons' products, by cutting transverse passages from one channel to the next and also to the city. And they cropped the land twice a year, making use of the rains from Heaven in the winter, and the waters that issue from the earth in summer, by conducting the streams from the trenches. (Critias 118c-e)

The account states that the channels were made by a joint effort of natural forces and generations of labour. River engineering is the ancient practice of diverting rivers to flow into a certain, artificial direction, and this seems to be the most likely explanation for how the Atlanteans managed to create these vast channels. Using natural valleys in the landscape, only a relatively small amount of digging would be required to drain a nearby river or water source into these, creating an artificial channel.

The account described that all around Atlantis Nesos, a trench was dug which carried the water from the Atlas mountains down to the Richat structure, thus creating a natural transportation route. Since Atlantis Nesos measured 2000 by 3000 Atlantean stades, its circumference would be 10.000 Atlantean stades, as described by the account. This would amount to a 7.000 kilometre or 4.350 mile long trench, a truly titanic size. One wonders if the outlines of this trench could still be identified from satellite images, or if the desertification of the region hid them out of sight. David Stig Hansen, an Atlantist who visited the Richat structure twice, has spent a lot of time scanning the area around the Richat structure for parallel and transverse lines in the bedrock. He compiled all of his finds on his Facebook page (Hansen, 2023a), however it remains unclear whether these are natural parallel fracture lines, or if these are artificially dug. Even if they are of geological origin, however, they might have still been used by the Atlanteans to divert rivers into them, creating the straight channels which are mentioned by the account.

AQUADUCTS GARAMANTES!!

https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat⁠

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossatum_Africae⁠

trench

URBAN REVOLUTION: in

anthropology⁠

and

archaeology⁠

, the processes by which agricultural village societies developed into socially, economically, and politically complex urban societies. The term urban revolution was introduced by the archaeologist

V. Gordon Childe⁠

Childe identified 10 formal

criteria⁠

that, according to his system, indicate the development of urban

civilization⁠

Increased settlement size

Concentration of wealth

Large-scale

public works⁠

⁠

Writing

Representational art

Knowledge of science and engineering

⁠

foreign trade⁠

⁠

Full-time specialists in nonsubsistence activities

Class-stratified society

Political organization based on residence rather than

kinship⁠

⁠

He saw the underlying causes of the urban

revolution⁠

as the

cumulative⁠

growth of technology and the increasing availability of food surpluses as capital.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/urban-revolution⁠

City: size and population density, at least 20 hectares, 30-40, at least 10.000 people living in it, division of labour specialised, commoners produce surplus for government (government storage facilities), formation of social classes elites, centralisation of power (political hierarchy), monumental architecture (public building, symbol), bureaucracy, regular foreign trade, development of practical sciences (math geometry astronomy), conceptualised and sophisticated styles of art

compare to more recent structures

Atlantiers konden varen en astronomie

The wealth they possessed was so immense that the like had never been seen before in any royal house nor will ever easily be seen again; and they were provided with everything of which provision was needed either in the city or throughout the rest of the country.

For because of their headship they had a large supply of imports from abroad

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