Replies

Lost City of Atlantis Found
- Underneath Sahara Desert!

Nov 26 '03

THE LOST City of Atlantis is not deep beneath the ocean -- the ancient metropolis is buried under the sands of the Sahara Desert!

Archaeologist Dr. Carla Sage points out that according to ancient accounts, the Mycenaean, Cretan and Egyptian civilizations all traded with Atlantis -- which would have been unlikely if it lay in the North Atlantic as many believe.

"Atlantis was clearly within easy trading distance of Troy and the other city states of the Mediterranean," she says. "I believe Atlantis was the capital of a vast North African empire with ports on the Gulf of Sidra.

"Atlantis was destroyed, not by earthquake, floods or volcanoes, but by the steady march of desert sands that smothered the civilization.

"The empire did not sink into the sea as is commonly believed -- it was swallowed by the dunes."

While the theory flies in the face of traditional views of Atlantis, Dr. Sage points to tantalizing evidence that supports the Sahara model.

Nomadic desert Bedouins, especially after sandstorms, often see marble columns sticking up out of dunes, notably near the Ahaggar Mountains of southern Algeria, the British expert reveals.

Even more surprising, scientists have discovered that within comparatively recent times in geological terms, the Sahara region enjoyed a temperate climate that would have made it an ideal site for human civilization.

"Eleven thousand to 12,000 years ago, when the ancient Greeks say Atlantis flourished, the Sahara was lush, fertile land," Dr. Sage observes.

"Artwork etched in Saharan rocks at that time depicts giraffes roaming freely. Archaeologists have also found pictograms of domesticated cattle, horse-drawn chariots, as well as large caravans -- confirming that trade played an important role in the region."

But the alarmingly rapid transformation of the region from paradise to dry desert would have wiped out all agriculture and killed off livestock.

"More significantly, as sand encroached on the empire, clogging caravan wheels, it made travel nearly impossible -- which would have put an end to an empire based on trade," Dr. Sage says.

"It was not until centuries later, around 100 B.C., that people began to use camels for transportation in the region -- an innovation that came too late for Atlantis, long since buried and forgotten under the dunes."

A few diehards continue to believe that Atlantis was literally a continent in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean.

But most modern experts agree that theory was blown out of the water in 1912 when scientist Alfred Wegener demonstrated that the known continents once fit neatly together like a jigsaw puzzle and have drifted apart over the eons.

Although Plato, drawing upon earlier accounts, wrote of a watery end to the great Atlantean civilization, Dr. Sage believes that the ancient Greek philosopher misinterpreted an Egyptian word meaning "movement of water."

"It was not water deluging Atlantis, but the departure of water from the region, that caused the calamity," she says.

Next spring, the expert hopes to lead an international expedition, including archaeologists from the United States, Britain, France, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, that will begin combing the 3.5 million-square-mile desert using high-tech equipment in search of traces of the lost empire.

"I am convinced that buried beneath that vast, arid no-man's-land we will find Atlantis," Dr. Sage declares.