Atlantis and the Silver City (34 page)

There are several clues that this was so. One is embodied in some of the huge buildings and walls they constructed thousands of years ago and that
still exist in South America. These have survived to this day because of their polygonal style of construction. This method entails the use of large blocks of stone cut into irregular shapes, then so perfectly fitted together that it’s impossible to get a cigarette paper into the joints. The buildings withstood serious earthquakes because this form of construction effectively dissipates any tremors. The tall strangers appear to have brought this knowledge with them—an indication that it had evolved in their homeland. Taking the logic a stage further, they could only have done that if that original country was subject to serious tremors, so allowing experimentation … borne out of necessity. That would certainly have been the case if they had come from southwest Iberia. Elena Wishaw discovered several surviving examples of this style of construction in and around Niebla. Some were in the earlier walls of the town, while others were in the ancient construction of the
desembarcadero
. She also quotes Dr. Oric Bates, an eminent archaeologist of the period who worked with her for a while at Niebla, as saying that he had personally inspected several similar examples at sites in Morocco, at Lixus near Larache, for example. Both indicate that this method of building was practiced in the Atlantis kingdom.

In Chapter Three, when discussing the remains that were seen briefly from the top of the cliff on the Algarve coast as the sea withdrew just before the 1755 tsunami struck, I made the point that they had most likely been built in the polygonal style. They would not otherwise have survived the huge quakes and raging seas.

Another significant clue is that in South America, these visitors appear to have even gone to the length of reproducing the unique Atlantis metal alloy of gold and copper, orichalcum. In all probability, this was because it maintained the appearance of gold and was the ideal material from which to make fine jewelry. This is the very alloy Plato mentioned, which had previously caused so much head-scratching but was finally identified in an earlier chapter. It has not been found elsewhere.

The case does not rest there. The most famous, ancient monuments in the world are the Egyptian pyramids. They have fired imaginations, spawned speculation, and inspired awe for thousands of years. Numerous theories swirl around them—some considered, serious, and exhaustively researched; others preposterous. Debate and argument rage between alternative thinkers and the rigid establishment.

If you carefully analyze all the evidence with an open mind, I think you will come to the conclusion that at least the Great Pyramid, together with the Sphinx and a couple of the Egyptian temples, are far older than the current accepted dating. The sheer weight of evidence cannot be ignored. Yet this is what the establishment does, dubbing any dissenters “pyramidiots.” These “experts” are like a man ambling down a road, whose leg is suddenly severed by a skidding motorcycle, but tries to carry on walking as if nothing had happened. If you are interested in sifting some of the most compelling facts, then
Fingerprints of the Gods,
¹⁰⁷
written by Graham Hancock, and
Keeper of Genesis,
¹⁰⁸
co-authored by Hancock and Robert Bauval, provide a thorough grounding and an appetite for more.

Egypt does not, however, have a monopoly on pyramids. South America has more than its share. Surprisingly, the earliest there were circular and not built from cut and dressed stone but from heaped-up earth and rock. Others were oval, and one at La Venta is a fluted conical shape.
¹⁰⁹

Some are proven to be of a great age. A circular step pyramid between Mexico City (site of the Aztec capital) and Cuernavaca, for example, had been partly covered in lava from a volcanic eruption that devastated the whole surrounding area after the pyramid had been constructed. Geologists concluded that the lava was deposited there at least seven thousand years ago. The American archaeologist who examined the pyramid was convinced that it had fallen into ruin around eighty-five hundred years ago.
¹¹⁰
This surely proves that the Aztecs, who arrived on the scene more than seventy-five hundred years later and built their famous capital Tenochtitlan “down the road” in the middle of water, were not the first to construct pyramids here; they copied them! It also suggests that the four-sided shape evolved later, possibly because it was much more suited to stone construction than a circular one and lent itself more to other uses. But how do the ancient pyramids figure in this debate about migrating Atlanteans?

Well, isn’t it somewhat odd that there are such visually similar structures in several countries that are otherwise totally unconnected: South America, an island in the Canaries, Egypt, and even China, for example? The same analysis applies to the distribution of mummies. The only common strands connecting them all are those tall white visitors with such distinctive
individual characteristics and that some places may have a relic population of Atlanteans answering to the same physical descriptions.

There may be more to add to the list. As explained in Chapter Nineteen, it has been claimed, comparatively recently, that some pyramids exist in Bosnia, a Slavic nation that was part of the Vinca culture eight thousand years ago. These pyramids have caused consternation and disbelief among archaeologists, but that has not stopped the nearest town from becoming a tourist attraction. They have been examined by several experts who dismissed them as natural phenomena, whereas others agree but say they have quite obviously been enhanced by a little extra shaping and reworking by man. This makes them credible—and they would not be the only hills to have been “shaped,” as will be revealed later. Why were they shaped? Does it provide another Slavic link to add to the stone egg and paradise homeland in the western ocean?

South America is not the only place with a round pyramid, although some English archaeologists will find this view very controversial. There is a site in southwest England that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage complex, encompassing the famous Stonehenge and Avebury sites. In addition to these more famous monuments, there is a round mound sitting in isolation on a flat plain. It is estimated that its construction started around 4,750 years ago. To the best of my knowledge, there has never before been a suggested connection to round pyramids, yet no one knows why it was built or what it was used for. At 120 feet high, it is thought to be the tallest human-made mound in Europe, and the perfectly circular base is 548 feet in diameter. The center at the top is directly over the center of the base. Known as Silbury Hill, it was a huge undertaking involving an estimated eighteen million man-hours (equivalent to five hundred men working fifteen years) to cut and stack in place the 248,000 cubic meters of chalk. This could not have been achieved by individuals showing up when they felt like it to do their charitable stint. It must have been a highly organized society, with an elite power firmly in control. It was no loose-knit pastoral farming community.

Despite several tunnels being dug into the mound in recent times, nothing significant has been found apart from some organic remains that facilitated the dating. There must have been an all-consuming, overriding
purpose to sustain such a massive undertaking. What was it? The hill is on a flat plain and at one stage was surrounded by a substantial ring of water. Archaeologists do not rule out the possibility that it may have had a structure on its flat top. The area is close to South Wales, and the same people who lived there also inhabited the Silbury area before being forced back into the South Wales stronghold by invaders. The famous “blue stones” used in Stonehenge came from South Wales, confirming that people with a common purpose were common to both areas. Could they have been the same immigrants from southern Portugal—referred to in the research from the University of Wales? Why, though, would they want to build a round pyramid surrounded by water? And what inspired all the other constructions in this unique format—round or four-sided— elsewhere around the world?

When an inquisitive Spanish historian inquired who had built the pyramids, the local South Americans replied that they were built by the Viracochas, the tall, white, bearded men, as they reminded these gods of their homeland. Thor Heyerdahl was told by locals living in the vicinity of the mysterious city of Tiahuanaco that the Viracochas had fashioned the first step pyramid there from an existing hill. I have already mentioned that the area around Silves in the Algarve is notable for its innumerable distinctive small, conical hills about the same height as pyramids, providing an unforgettable, unique landscape. When terraced, they can eerily resemble step pyramids. Another coincidence, or an illuminating insight into why they may have been the inspiration for the pyramids? Perhaps, but I think those emigrants from Atlantis had a far more compelling reason. (
SEE IMAGES
12
D
, 47, 48,
AND
49
IN THE PHOTO INSERT
.)

Why would they want to replicate a part of the distinctive topography of their heartland? Surely it was not because they were homesick. There had to be another, much stronger drive. I think the answer is revealed by analyzing the traditions of other civilizations.

Ancient people are frequently recorded as worshipping the place or object that signifies “the beginning” or “first place.” To the Sumerians, the concept of the pyramid-shaped ziggurat symbolized the “Mountain of Paradise” that rose from the center of the “Lost Paradise.” The first man was referred to as the “Sky Father” and his wife as the “Earth Mother.”
That sounds uncannily like Atlantis, where the ancient mother of their race was Cleito, who lived on the original hill in the center of the kingdom that later became the capital. It existed in the middle of the small, flat plain and inevitably would have been of the same conical configuration as the many other hills that still exist around it today. Poseidon, a god, took Cleito, an earth woman, as his wife and made his home there, and it was there that the five sets of male twins were conceived and first saw the Atlantean sun. They represented the birth of their race, the primeval beginning. This supports the link established in Chapter Nineteen between the Sumerians, the Ancient Vinca culture, the Balkans, and Atlantis.

At the summit of the hill, Poseidon constructed a temple dedicated to Cleito. Later, the simplicity of the hill would have been lost as it was quarried and developed with Poseidon’s palace and other habitations; but the memory would have been retained, with the mirror images of the original all around as permanent reminders. It was the symbolic heart of the whole sprawling empire and where the ten rulers, all descended from those first twins, returned every five to seven years to touch base and renew their vows and allegiance.

Was the original simple hill, topped by the temple, the first pyramid? Were the later pyramids all over the world duplicating and commemorating this original point of creation, and did they eventually evolve into more sophisticated, geometric, and astronomic structures?

It would explain why some émigrés went even further and created memorial cities in the same image. Apart from the one claimed on the Bolivian Altiplano, a photograph is purported to exist of one on the seabed off Cuba.

There is no hard proof of these theories. I doubt if we will ever find “patented in Atlantis” carved on a South American or Egyptian pyramid. But neither have I heard of any other plausible hypothesis. Perhaps future expeditions prompted by this book, particularly on the seabed in front of southwest Iberia, may throw light on the mystery and give it some substance. It was quite likely that other Atlantean cities had their own pyramids, complete with temples.

But while we’re waiting for that, I would like to throw a little light on one last aspect of Atlantis. It is one that has prompted many wild stories. Did the Atlanteans possess any advanced technology?

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Shocks and Centenarians

P
lato gave the merest of hints that, although Poseidon was operating in the Stone Age, he did possess some very advanced knowledge. Some examples: “… and peopled their district” (clue 20) and “… himself being a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the center island, bringing up two springs of water from beneath the earth.…” (clue 27). There were also those massive feats of engineering such as the canals and the embankments.

A very intriguing theory was put forward by Dr. Roger Coghill, the noted British expert on electromagnetism mentioned earlier. He is a fellow believer that Atlantis was in the Algarve.
¹¹¹

He pointed out that as the walls encircling the Atlantis citadel and the surrounding embankments were clad in different metals and were separated by water, it could have functioned as a huge simple electric cell. All that metal cladding on the walls of the embankment had always seemed a huge, unnecessary extravagance unless it was to emphasize wealth and power. Coghill’s insight might explain why. It would have been the perfect use of simple slow technology to produce electricity. Those silver-clad upper walls may well also have shone and dazzled by night.

There is also a very well-known find of a primitive electric battery that surfaced in a Baghdad museum decades ago, indicating that the ancients knew of the technology, although we have no record of what it was used for. It is also claimed that ancient illustrations in the Hathor temple in Dendera, in Egypt, show examples of electrical equipment and light bulbs.
¹¹²
Archaeologists describe the “bulbs” as “snake stones”; but, when shown pictures of the paintings, professional electrical engineers found that explanation hilarious. (
SEE IMAGES
50A
AND
50B
BELOW
.) Several eminent archaeologists have commented that when previously untouched Egyptian tombs have been opened, they have shown no signs of how the pitch darkness was illuminated to allow the considerable work and decoration to have taken place. Oil lamps and the like invariably leave telltale stains and marks. Do the illustrations in the Hathor temple provide the answer?