Santorini and the Legend of Atlantis

Santorini and the Legend of Atlantis

All of us have heard about the legend of Atlantis, that lost continent. There have been songs written about it as well as a motion picture dedicated to that legendary power.

There is a story thousand of years old about a lost island in the Atlantic Ocean. The story was told by the ancient Greeks, and had been handed down from father to son for many generations before the Greek philosopher Plato wrote a famous story about it, about 375 BC. The island of Atlantis, according to Plato’s story, was really a series of island. Imagine in the center a hill, surrounded by a ring of water; the ring of water surrounded by a circle island, then another ring of water and nine of land.

Neptune, god of the sea had created the islands, for Cleito, his beloved. From their children the king and people of Atlantis were descended. The islands were very rich, and the people content. The city was built of black and red stone; the roofs of the houses were of red copper and flashed in the sun; and there were two beautiful temples, one surrounded by a golden wall and the other with silver walls, golden pinnacles, and a roof of ivory.

Excavations on Santorini by the late Greek archaeologist Spyros Marinatos, which began in 1967, have brought to light many artifacts which point to a huge volcanic destruction some 3.500 years ago. The digging has revealed a kingdom of a highly civilized people. The Egyptian papyri which Solon and Plato translated describe Atlantis as a kingdom ruled by a central government.

This same system has already been proved to exist in Minoan Crete. The description of the island formation also corresponds to that of Santorini before the volcanic eruption. And speaking of the volcanic eruption, scholar Angelos Galanopoulos says that the energy created by the eruption in 1500 BC on Santorini was 700 times more than the electrical power used by the entire world in one year! The last eruption on the island happened in 1950 and lasted two months. Today the island is quiet.

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