2007-08-07 Far fetched but interesting in parts

Sarmast references Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods and a lot of the earlier chapters are obviously influenced by this work. Here I am talking about the similarities that occur in architecture, symbology and deities across disparate ancient cultures. Graham Hancock took these similarities to theorize that ancient cultures that could not feasibly have had intersection either spatially or temporally must in fact have been influenced by a single source. To Robert Sarmast that source is clearly Atlantis.

So there is nothing new in the first part of the book but some of the ideas are interesting if far-fetched.

Perhaps more interesting is the author's detailed (if selective) breakdown of the work of Plato that references Atlantis in Critias. From Critias Sarmast creates a series of clues as to the configuration and likely location of the Atlantis island.

The author goes on to discuss other theories about the location of the island. I feel that this section was a bit unnecessary. I was reading this book to find out why Sarmast located Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus not reasons why he thinks other people's theories unworthy.

Of more interest is research that suggests that the sea floor of the Mediterranean shows evidence of been above water at intervals during the past and that the Strait of Gibraltar acts as an inlet valve to the Med. Unfortunately Sarmast doesn't go into much detail on this and I left with trying to find more on this from other sources. What he does suggest is a more recent drying period of the Med just beyond recorded history. What I found is that Sarmast is referring to the Messinian Salinity Crisis, but that is widely evidenced to have occurred 6 million years ago, and that is probably why Sarmast doesn't want to go into too much detail as to where the evidence is for his recent drying event.

So the evidence for this theory is dubious at best and Sarmast seems to have tried to support it by selective reference to Plato and to cross cultural legends.

I would love to believe that the remains of Atlantis lie on the sea floor between Cyprus and Syria but this book was written in 2002 and nobody has found it yet! Interestingly the website referenced in the book is still maintained and the whole idea still seems to be taken seriously.