A NEW THEORY ON ATLANTIS (entire book) by August Hunt

A NEW THEORY ON ATLANTIS:

ATALANTE AND THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

By

August Hunt

Copyright © August Hunt 2014 All Rights Reserved

Cover Art: Winged bull between two floral friezes,  circa 510 BC, Palace of Darius I, Susa, Iran

FOR

THE PEOPLE OF THE LOST LANDS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface                                       5

Introduction                                               10

Part One                                            12

Part Two                                            51

PREFACE

Few subjects generate more of a mixed sense of wonder and disdain than that of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. For centuries now, scholars and charlatans and “True Believers” have launched upon an Indiana Jones’-like quest to be the first to discover what Ignatius Donnelly in 1882 called the antediluvian world. 

The myth of Atlantis has evolved considerably since Plato’s time.  It is now often thought of as a sort of high-tech or magical utopia, ruled over by super-sophisticated beings.  Often the city or countryof Atlantis is associated with aliens or ancient astronauts, UFOs, crop-circles, imaginary planets and the like.  Psychics such as Edgar Cayce, J. Z. Knight and Gordon Michael Scallion have weighed in, and national or ethnic pride has encouraged many a patriotic pseudo-scientist to “find” this sunken land pretty much everywhere and anywhere.

So silly has become the study of Atlantis that professional academics now inevitably choose to shun the topic entirely, rather than have their reputations tarnished by the stigma of New Age nonsense that drowns the Lost Continent just as surely as the sea did all those millennia ago.  This is a shame, of course, for certainly Plato’s account is worth examining critically and objectively. 

I’ve always been keenly interested in the Atlantis legend, not only because it poses a mystery that begs to be solved, but because it is a splendid morality tale, one that does an excellent job of showing the ultimate consequence of human hubris. In this day and age, when we are so busily destroying the integrity of our biosphere, it is easy to imagine our entire civilization suffering the same dreadful fate as the Atlanteans.  Certainly, it is in part our conscious or subconscious acknowledgment of our own arrogance in the face of environmental degradation that imparts a large degree of popularity to Plato’s cautionary story.  The resurgence of interest in the “post-apocalyptic” genre in literature and film is a testament to a latent belief that we will, indeed, perish horribly in some kind of self-inflicted catastrophe. 

In answer to the question “Did Atlantis exist?”, I can only answer “Maybe” or, perhaps better, “Sort of.”  It all depends on exactly what we mean when we ask the question.  Are we willing to accept a thoroughly plausible, “grounded” explanation for Plato’s story?  Or do we insist upon the sensational, the outlandish, the conspiratorial, the spiritually self-aggrandizing?  In the following brief study, I can offer a small degree of satisfaction to those who prefer the former, and nothing at all to those demand the latter.   

The reader will not find here the next Da Vinci Code.  Neither will he be tempted to run to his astrologer for interpretive advice.  Lastly, Indiana Jones will not take the job. He probably won’t even return your phone calls.

What I have tried my best to present in these pages is a logical analysis of Plato’s story.  Boring though logic can be , if logical fallacies can be avoided a person has a fighting chance to obtain a workable hypothesis. And, sometimes, especially when dealing with arcane matters for which little or no evidence exists, a workable hypothesis is all one can really hope for. 

      

INTRODUCTION

According to Plato’s _Critias_, 9000 years had elapsed from the time of the war of Atlantis and the Mediterranean powers to Solon’s visit to Sais in Egypt in c. 590 B.C.  Sometime after this war occurred the earthquake in which Atlantis, greater in extent than Libya and Asia, sank beneath the sea.

The problem with this calculation of 9000 years is simply this:  in Plato’s _Timaeus_, we are told that is was the Athenians – Solon’s own people – who by themselves had defeated the Atlanteans.  As we know from a combination of archaeology and written sources, Athens did not come into existence until around 3000 B.C.  Furthermore, although the city seems to have more or less weathered the Dorian Invasion, its only solitary defeat of a massive invading force did not occur until the Battle of the Plain of Marathon, fought c. 490 B.C.  In this battle, the Athenians, without help from allies, defeated Darius the Great and his Persians.

The Persian or Achaemenid Empire at the time of Darius embraced and had spread beyond both Libya and Asia.  I find it odd that no one has thought to associate this geographical entity with the Atlantis described by Plato.

PART ONE:

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

Let us propose, for the sake of argument, that what Solon actually received while in Sais was not, originally, a story of the distant past, but instead a prophecy.  The prophecy told of the upcoming war of the Greeks and the Persians.  The reference to Atlantis being outside the Pillars of Herakles in the Atlantic Ocean is an error; the real pillars were probably those twin pillars erected at the Bosphorus by Darius the Great himself:

(Herodotus) “And having viewed the Bosphorus, he [Darius] erected two columns of white marble on the shore… Now these columns the Byzantines some time afterward removed into their city, and used in building the altar to the Orthosian Artemis, except one stone; this was left near the Temple of Bacchus in Byzantium…”

This Artemis Orthia/Orthias/Orthosia is said to have been named from the mountain called Orthosium or Orthium in Arcadia.  The heroine Atalanta, for whom the Atalante (or Atalanti) place-names in Boeotia are named, is associated in Greek myth with both Boeotia and Arcadia.  Furthermore, Atalanta was a favorite of Artemis.

The Persian Anahita, goddess of all the waters and the source of the cosmic ocean, was identified with Artemis.  It stands to reason, then, that the text inscribed on one or both of the pillars of Darius mentioned Anahita and it was for this reason that the Byzantines adopted the said pillars for the altar of their own Artemis Orthosia.

One cannot help but wonder if Darius's inscription also invoked Verethraghna, the Persian equivalent of Herakles.  Although our only real evidence of the presence of Verethraghna in Achaemenid Zoroastrianism comes from the late period and has to do with a calendar day named for this deity, it is generally believed that the faience tile from Persepolis, showing a falcon battle standard, is a representation of Verethraghna.

The founding at Herakleia near the Bosphorus, according to Gocha R. Tsetskhladze in his “The Greek Colonization of the Black Sea Area (1998)”, took place:

"ca. 560-550 B.C.  Pseudo-Symnos says, 'they founded it, having set off from Hellas, about the time when Cyrus [the Great] took Media,' i.e. about the time of Astyages' defeat by Cyrus... The new colony was just over 200 km east of the entrance to the Black Sea..."

A large component of Megaran Herakleia Pontus was actually Boeotian, a group who claimed Atalanta as their own.

Herodotus also describes the twin pillars of Herakles (= Phoenician Melqart) at Tyre on the coast of Lebanon.  During the reigns of Darius and Xerxes, Tyre was a part of the Persian Empire.  He also briefly discusses another temple to 'Tyrian Herakles' on the island of Thasos off the coast of Thrace.  This Thasos was subdued by Darius.

Sometime between 469-464 B.C., not long after the Greeks defeated the Persian Xerxes, son and successor of Darius the Great, at Platea in 479, a terrible earthquake struck the region of Sparta.  The most important accounts of this earthquake are found in Thucydides, Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus:

(Thucydides) "In the ensuing summer the Peloponnesians and their allies, under the command of Agis the son of Archidamus, the Lacedaemonian king, came as far as the isthmus. They intended to invade Attica, but were deterred from proceeding by numerous earthquakes, and no invasion took place in this year. About the time when these earthquakes prevailed, the sea at Orobiae in Euboea, retiring from what was then the line of coast and rising in a great  wave, overflowed a part of the city; and although it subsided in some places, yet in others the  inundation was permanent, and that which was formerly land is now sea. All the people who could not escape to the high ground perished. A similar inundation occurred in the neighbourhood of Atalantè, an island on the coast of the Opuntian Locri, which carried away a part of the Athenian fort, and dashed in pieces one of two ships which were drawn up on the beach. At Peparethus also the sea retired, but no inundation followed; an earthquake, however, overthrew a part of the wall, the Prytaneum, and a few houses. I conceive that, where the force of the earthquake was greatest, the sea was driven back, and the suddenness of the recoil made the inundation more violent; and I am of opinion that this was the cause of the phenomenon, which would never have taken place if there had been no earthquake."

(Plutarch) “a greater earthquake than any before reported rent the land of the Lacedomonians into many chasms, shook Taygetos so that sundry peaks were torn away, and demolished the entire city [of Sparta] with the exception of five houses."

(Diodorus) “While the Athenians were thus religiously employed, the Lacedaemonians, with their confederates in the Peloponesses, encamped in the isthmus, and there consulted together concerning the invading of Attica again.  But there then happened such terrible earthquakes in several parts of Greece that it so terrified and possessed them with fear and awe of the gods that they all returned to their respective countries.  For the horrible concussions of the earth were so great, that many cities near the sea were sunk and drowned.  And whereas that tract of land near Locris was before a peninsula, by the violence of the earthquake a channel was made through the isthmus, and the place turned into an island now called Atalante."

According to Strabo (Geography 9.1.14, 9.4.2), there were two islands of Atalante, one off the Boeotian-Lokrian coast and the other near the Athenian port of Pieraios.

Plato says of the sinking of Atlantis in _Timaeus_:

“… and in a single day and night of misfortune all your (i.e. Greek!) warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea.”

So what we have is an empire the size of Atlantis, being defeated by the Athenians around 490 B.C., the final defeat of the Persians on the Greek mainland in 479 B.C., and the destruction by earthquake and tsunami of an island named Atalante between 469 and 464 B.C.

But then what do we make of this 9000 years?  From Solon’s time of 590 B.C. to the Battle of Marathon in 490 was only a century and to the “sinking” of Atalante in 469 (at the earliest) merely 121 years.

The solution to this problem resides in the fact that 9,000 here mistakenly alludes to the years that have passed since the war between the Atlanteans and the Athenians, when in reality the number refers to the number of warriors Athens sent to Marathon to battle Darius the Great.

In his “Description of Greece”, Pausanias (iv. 25. 5) says the Athenian force was under 10,000 strong.  But later (xx. 2) he claims that inclusive of boys, old men and slaves, the number did not exceed 9,000!  Cornelius Nepos (“Miltiades”, 5) states there were 9,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans at Marathon.  Plutarch (_Parallela, I) also numbers the Athenians at 9,000.  Justin increases the amount to 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans.

It is obvious, then, that the number 9,000 as found in Plato’s account does not refer properly to the years intervening between Solon’s visit to Sais in Egypt and the war between the Atlanteans and the Athenians, but is instead the number of Athenian warriors present at the Battle of Marathon in c. 490 B.C.

If the Persian Empire was ‘Atlantis’, where was its great capital city?  The Persians had several chief cities, among them Persepolis, Pasargadae, Ectabana, Susa and Babylon. Ectabana was the capital of the Medes, but was taken by Cyrus the Great, father of Darius.  Susa was Elamite, but was conquered and rebuilt by Darius; Herodotus in his “Histories” mentions only Susa as Darius’s chief city.  Babylon was also not originally part of the Persian heartland. Pasargadae and Persepolis, the former a capital of Cyrus, the latter of Darius, are the only two primary cities actually found in the Fars region, named for the Parsi or Persians.  Of these two cities, Persepolis sounds in some respects like Plato’s city of Atlantis.  For example, Plato says of Atlantis that

“The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum.”

Diodorus Siculus, in describing Persepolis, states that

“The citadel is a noteworthy one, and is surrounded by a triple wall.  The first part of this is built over an elaborate foundation.  It is sixteen cubits in height and is topped by battlements.  The second wall is in all respects like the first but of twice the height.  The third circuit is rectangular in plan, and is sixty cubits in height, built of a stone hard and naturally durable.”

Atlantis’s central hill is echoed in that of Persepolis, according to the British Institute of Persian Studies:

“The site is marked by a large 125,000 square meter terrace, partly artificial and partly cut out of a mountain, with its east side leaning on Kuh-e Rahmet ("the Mountain of Mercy").

Unfortunately, Plato's  city of Atlantis is said to be on an extremely broad plain. The description of this plain does not resemble that of the Marv Dasht Plain upon which Persepolis sits.  Nor can it be said to be the Kur River Basin, the largest alluvial plain in southwest Iran, which itself contains the Marv Dasht.

(Critias) “The whole country was said… to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it [the plain] was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia.  This part of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north.”

Plato says the plain of Atlantis is 3000 stadia long and 2000 stadia wide.  Much debate has focused on what exactly Plato meant by a stade.  As he was an Athenian from Attica, from the period 428/27-348/47 B.C., the obvious solution to this problem is to propose that he was referring to the Attic stade, which was equivalent to 184.9 meters (on the Attic stade being of this size, see Footnote 10 to J.L. Bergren’s and Alexander Jones’ _Ptolemy’s Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters_, Princeton University Press, 2000).  The size of the plain using 184.9 results in an area of 205,350 square kilometers or 127,599 square miles.

There is yet another major problem in identifying Persepolis with Plato's Atlantis: the absence of canals at the former site.  I at first tried to explain the presence of "canals" at Persepolis in the following two ways.  From CAIS  (The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies):

"Archaeological excavations and geophysical studies by the joint Iranian-French team in Fars province led to unearthing of an irrigation channel belonging to the Achaemenid dynastic (550-330 BCE) in an area between Persepolis and the city of Estakhr in Fars province.

The remains of an irrigation channel belonging to the Achaemenid dynastic era have been discovered in the northern part of Persepolis which according to geophysical studies must have continued to the Estakhr city. Archaeological evidence shows that this channel was constructed using natural elements. However, in some parts the channel was blocked by hard cliffs but the people of the time scraped the stone and by using rubbles they constructed the path of the channel to direct the water of Polvar (Sivand) River to Marvdasht Plain where the ancient palace of Persepolis is located,” said Mohammad Feizkhah, Iranian head of Iranian-French archaeology team in Marvdasht, Fars province.

Last year the remains of another irrigation channel had been discovered in Persepolis which was used to collect water in the palace. However, this new discovered channel is longer than the previous one. “This channel is 4 kilometres in length and is considered a long channel considering the time during which it was constructed and the limited facilities that were available at that time. The channel started from Polvar River with a steep slope and the closer it got to Persepolis, the less steep it became which indicates that the purpose of its constructors was to speed up the transferring of water to Persepolis during that time,” added Feizkhah.

Archaeological excavations in Marvdasht Plain in Fars province are currently being carried out by a joint Iranian-French team. Moreover, a geophysical map is being prepared by experts which would help the archaeologists get more familiar with the area near Persepolis. Last year this team succeeded in discovering some residential settlement areas belonging to the Achaemenid dynasty in this region. Discovery of a big dam belonging to the same period was one of the other prominent accomplishments of this team of archaeologists and experts in this historical area."

CAIS also has this on drainage canals discovered at Persepolis:

"Archeologists, renovation experts and surveyors plan to venture into 2,500-year-old drain canals in Persepolis in order to dredge them.

”Achaemenid engineers designed these ducts to collect rainfall and waste water from the great palaces and archeologists have already recognized 2 km of these canals, whose height varies between 1.2 m to 2 m while measuring 0.45 m to 1.2 m in width.

“Since most water on the surface of Persepolis enters these ducts and since they have become run-down over the years, we intend to dredge as many as 100 sq m of them,” said Hassan Rahsaz, the technical head of Persepolis, adding the operation would cover those canals located beneath the southern part of the treasury and the so-called Half-Built palace.

”A team of 6 experts are going to enter the ducts, hoping to find some valuable artifacts and potteries in there. Another team had dredged 610 m of the canals in 2002."

It is also possible that the story of Atlantis’s famous canals may well owe its origin to the ancient qanats or underground canals of Persia.  These were more sophisticated than any other watering system in the ancient Near East, and were to be rivaled only much later by the Romans with their aqueducts.  To quote from George B. Cressey’s “Qanats, Karez, and Foggaras”, American Geographical Society, 1958:

“Qanats are found across the Arab world and beyond: in Iran they are present by the thousands.  The essential idea is that of a gently sloping tunnel, often along the radius of an alluvial fan, which extends upslope until the water table is tapped and emerges at the downslope end to supply an oasis.  To give access to the tunnel, vertical shafts are dug at closely spaced intervals.  The length of a qanat ranges from a few yards to tens of miles, and the upper end may be several hundred feet below the surface… By this means thousands of acres are irrigated and hundreds of villages receive their sole water supply.  The idea is of Persian origin and dates back more than 2,000 years; the palace city of Persepolis is thought to have been supplied by qanats about 500 B.C.”

Neither explanation - the presence of irrigation channels or qanats at Persepolis - adequately account for the canals of Atlantis.  And the "3000 stadia by 2000 stadia" can also not be related to any plain at Persepolis.

The best candidate for the city of Atlantis turns out to be Susa, which in the “Histories” of Herodotus is the only known capital of Darius.  We know of several rivers in the vicinity of Susa, which lay on the Susiana Plain, and there were certainly man-made canals there.  An early Elamite prince named Karibu-Sa-Susinak boasts of building the canal of Sidur at Susa.  To quote from Pierre Briant's “From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire”:

"Xenophon claims it [Babylon] a 'considerable city' and describes the traffic he saw all around: 'There are canals that branch off the Tigris.  There are four of them.  They are a plethra [approximately 30 m] wide and very deep'... Navigation was not restricted  to the great north-south routes represented by the Euprates and the Tigris.  The two rivers and their tributaries were linked by many canals, which especially facilitated trade between two extremely important Achaemenid centers, Babylonia and Elam (Susiana)."

The following passages are from Strabo, Book XV, Chapters 2-12.  They represent the best ancient description we have of Susa. 

"I might almost say that Susis also is a part of Persis; it lies between Persis and Babylonia and has a most notable city, Susa. For the Persians and Cyrus, after mastering the Medes, saw that their native land was situated rather on the extremities of their empire, and that Susa was farther in and nearer to Babylonia and the other tribes, and therefore established the royal seat of their empire at Susa. At the same time, also, they were pleased with the high standing of the city and with the fact that its territory bordered on Persis, and, better still, with the fact that it had never of itself achieved anything of importance, but always had been subject to others and accounted merely a part of a larger political organisation, except, perhaps, in ancient times, in the times of the heroes.  Memnon is said to have been buried in the neighbourhood of Paltus in Syria, by the river Badas, as Simonides states in his dithyramb entitled Memnon, one of his Delian poems. The wall and the temples and the royal palace were built like those of the Babylonians, of baked brick and asphalt, as some writers state. Polycleitus says that the city is two hundred stadia in circuit and that it has no walls.

“Although they adorned the palace at Susa more than any other, they esteemed no less highly the palaces at Persepolis and Pasargadae; at any rate, the treasure and the riches and the tombs of the Persians were there, since they were on sites that were at the same time hereditary and more strongly fortified by nature. And there were also other palaces — that at Gabae, somewhere in the upper parts of Persis, and that on the coast near Taocê, as it is called. These were the palaces in the time of the empire of the Persians, but the kings of later times used others, naturally less sumptuous, since Persis had been weakened, not only by the Macedonians, but still more so by the Parthians. For although the Persians are still under the rule of a king, having a king of their own, yet they are most deficient in power and are subject to the king of the Parthians.

“Now Susa is situated in the interior on the Choaspes River at the far end of the bridge, but its territory extends down to the sea; and its seaboard is about three thousand stadia in length, extending from boundaries of the Persian seaboard approximately to the outlets of the Tigris. The Choaspes River flows through Susis, terminating at the same seaboard, and has its sources in the territory of the Uxii; for a kind of mountainous country intrudes between the Susians and Persis; it is rugged and sheer, and has narrow defiles that are hard to pass, and was inhabited by brigands, who would exact payments even from the kings themselves when they passed from Susis into Persis. Polycleitus says that the Choaspes, the Eulaeus, and also the Tigris meet in a kind of lake, and then empty from that lake into the sea; and that there is an emporium near the lake, since, on account of the cataracts, purposely constructed, the rivers cannot receive the merchandise that comes in from the sea nor bring down any either, and that all traffic is carried on by land; for the distance to Susa is said to be eight hundred stadia. Others, however, say that the rivers which flow through Susis meet in one stream, that of the Tigris, oppose the intermediate canals of the Euphrates; and that on this account the Tigris, at its outlets, has the name of Pasitigris.

“Nearchus says that the coast of Persis is covered with shoal-waters and that it ends at the Euphrates River; and that at the mouth of this river there is an inhabited village which receives the merchandise from Arabia; for the seaboard of the Arabians borders next on the mouth of the Euphrates and the Pasitigris, the whole of the intervening space being occupied by a lake, that is, the lake that receives the Tigris; and that on sailing up the Pasitigris one hundred and fifty stadia one comes to the raft-bridge that leads from Persis to Susa, being sixty stadia distant from Susa; and that the Pasitigris is about two thousand stadia distant from the Oroatis; and that the inland voyage on the lake to the mouth of the Tigris is six hundred stadia; and that near the mouth there is an inhabited Susian village, which is five hundred stadia distant from Susa; and that the voyage inland from the mouth of the Euphrates to Babylon, through a very prosperous land, is more than three thousand stadia. Onesicritus says that all the rivers empty into the lake, both the Euphrates and the Tigris; but that the Euphrates, again issuing from the lake, joins with the sea by its own separate mouth.

“There are also several other narrow defiles as one passes out through the territory of the Uxii in the neighbourhood of Persis itself; and Alexander forced his way through these passes too, both at the Persian Gates and at other places, when he was passing through the country and was eager to spy out the most important parts of the country, and the treasure-holds, which had become filled with treasures in those long periods of time in which the Persians had collected tribute from Asia; and he crossed several rivers that flowed through the country and down into the Persian Gulf. For after the Choaspes, one comes to the Copratas River and the Pasitigris, which latter also flows from the country of the Uxii. There is also a river Cyrus, which flows through Coelê Persis, as it is called, in the neighbourhood of Pasargadae; and the king assumed the name of this river, changing his name from Agradatus to Cyrus. Alexander crossed the Araxes near Persepolis itself. Persepolis, next to Susa, was the most beautifully constructed city, and the largest, having a palace that was remarkable, particularly in respect to the high value of its treasures. The Araxes flows from the country of the Paraetaci; and this river is joined by the Medus, which has its source in Media. These rivers run through a very productive valley which borders on Carmania and the eastern parts of the country, as does also Persepolis itself. Alexander burnt up the palace at Persepolis, to avenge the Greeks, because the Persians had destroyed both temples and cities of the Greeks by fire and sword.

Alexander then went to Pasargadae; and this too was an ancient royal residence. Here he saw also, in a park, the tomb of Cyrus; it was a small tower and was concealed within the dense growth of trees. The tomb was solid below, but had a roof and sepulchre above, which latter had an extremely narrow entrance. Aristobulus says that at the behest of the king he passed through this entrance and decorated the tomb; and that he saw a golden couch, a table with cups, a golden coffin, and numerous garments and ornaments set with precious stones; and that he saw all these things on his first visit, but that on a later visit the place had been robbed and everything had been carried off except the couch and the coffin, which had only been broken to pieces, and that the robbers had removed the corpse to another place, a fact which plainly proved that it was an act of plunderers, not of the satrap, since they left behind only what could not easily be carried off; and that the robbery took place even though the tomb was surrounded by a guard of Magi, who received for their maintenance a sheep every day and a horse every month. But just as the remoteness of the countries to which Alexander's army advanced, Bactra and India, had led to numerous other revolutionary acts, so too this was one of the revolutionary acts. Now Aristobulus so states it, and he goes to record the following inscription on the tomb: "O man, I am Cyrus, who acquired the empire for the Persians and was king of Asia; grudge me not, therefore, my monument." Onesicritus, however, states that the tower had ten stories and that Cyrus lay in the uppermost story, and that there was one inscription in Greek, carved in Persian letters, "Here I lie, Cyrus, king of kings," and another written in the Persian language with the same meaning.

Onesicritus records also the following inscription on the tomb of Dareius: "I was friend to my friends; as horseman and bowman I proved myself superior to all others; as hunter I prevailed; I could do everything." Aristus of Salamis is indeed a much later writer than these, but he says that the tower has only two stories and is large; that it was built at the time of the succession of the Persians, and that the tomb was kept under guard; and that there was one inscription written in Greek, that quoted above, and another written in the Persian language with the same meaning. Cyrus held Pasargadae in honour, because he there conquered Astyages the Mede in his last battle, transferred to himself the empire of Asia, founded a city, and constructed a palace as a memorial of his victory.

“Alexander carried off with him all the wealth in Persis to Susa, which was also full of treasures and equipment; and neither did he regard Susa as the royal residence, but rather Babylon, which he intend to build up still further; and there too treasures lay stored. They say that, apart from the treasures in Babylon and in the camp, which were not included in the total, the value of those in Susa and Persis alone was reckoned at forty thousand talents, though some say fifty; and others have reported that all treasures from all sources were brought together at Ecbatana and that they were valued at one hundred and eighty thousand talents; and the treasures which were carried along with Dareius in his flight from Media, eight thousand talents in value, were taken as booty by those who slew him.

“At all events, Alexander preferred Babylon, since he saw that it far surpassed the others, not only in its size, but also in all other respects. Although Susis is fertile, it has a hot and scorching atmosphere, and particularly in the neighbourhood of the city, according to that writer. At any rate, he says that when the sun is hottest, at noon, the lizards and the snakes could not cross the streets in the city quickly enough to prevent their being burnt to death in the middle of the streets. He says that this is the case nowhere in Persis, although Persis lies more to the south; and that cold water for baths is put out in the sun and immediately heated, and that barley spread out in the sun bounces like parched barley in ovens; and that on this account earth is put on the roofs of the houses to the depth of two cubits, and that by reason of this weight the inhabitants are forced to build their houses both narrow and long; and that, although they are in want of long beams, yet they need large houses on account of the suffocating heat; and that the palm-tree beam has a peculiar property, for, although it is rigid, it does not, when aged, give way downwards, but curves upwards because of the weight and better supports the roof. It is said that the cause of the heat is the fact that lofty mountains lie above the country on the north and that these mountains intercept all the northern winds. Accordingly, these winds, blowing aloft from the tops of the mountains and high above the plains, do not touch the plains, although they blow on the more southerly parts of Susis. But calm prevails here, particularly at the time when the Etesian winds cool the rest of the land that is scorched by heat.

“Susis abounds so exceedingly in grain that both barley and wheat regularly produce one hundred-fold, sometimes even two hundred; on this account, also, the people do not cut the furrows close together, for the crowding of the roots hinders the sprouting. The vine did not grow there until the Macedonians planted it, both there and at Babylon; however, they did not dig trenches, but only thrust into the ground iron-pointed stakes, and then pulled them out and replaced them at once with the plants. Such, then, is the interior; but the seaboard is full of shallows and without harbours. On this account, at any rate, Nearchus goes on to say that he met with no native guides when he was sailing along the coast with his fleet from India to Babylonia; that the coast had no mooring-places, and that he was also unable to find any experienced people to guide him.

“Neighbouring Susis is the part of Babylonia which was formerly called Sitacenê, but is now called Apolloniatis. Above both, on the north and towards the east, lie the countries of the Elymaei and the Paraetaceni, who are predatory peoples and rely on the ruggedness of their mountains. But the Paraetaceni are situated closer to the Apolloniatae, and therefore treat them worse. The Elymaei carry on war against both that people and the Susians, whereas the Uxii too carry on war against the Elymaei; but less so at the present time, in all probability, because of the might of the Parthians, to whom all the peoples in that part of the world are subject. Now when the Parthians fare well, all their subjects fare well too, but when there is an insurrection, as is often the case, even indeed in our own times, the results are different at different times and not the same for all; for some have benefited by disturbances, whereas others have been disappointed in their expectations. Such, then, are the countries of Persis and Susis.”

The Susiana Plain, like that of the Kur River Basin, is not anywhere near large enough to be Plato's Atlantean Plain.  But according to Strabo, the seaboard of Susa is three thousand stadia in length.  This is the exact length of Plato's Atlantean Plain. The Pasitigris is the modern Karun, which flows through Susiana.  The Oroatis is the Tab/Hindyan, now called the Zohreh.  The two rivers provide a south-north measurement of two thousand stadia - the width of Plato's Atlantean plain.

Arrian, citing Nearchus in his _Indica_ (XLII) confirms this distance of two thousand stadia:  "The length of the voyage along Susian territory to the mouth of the Pasitigris is two thousands stades."

Pliny the Younger in his _Natural History_ gives the same length of three thousand stades for the coast of Susa, only he calls it the coast of Persia:

“Here is the beginning of Persia, at the river Zohreh, which separates Persia from Elymais [i.e. Elam]... Persia itself occupies 550 miles of coast, facing west.”

The confusion over or conflation of Susa and Persia (i.e. what is now Fars) in the early sources may in part be due not only to their being adjacent regions, but to the early political relationship that once existed between them.  According to Professor Daniel Potts of The University of Sydney, ancient Elam was essentially the prototype for the later fusion of Susa and the Persian heartland at Persepolis and Pasargadae.  Anshan, modern Tal-e Malyan, is in the Kur River Basin very near to the two Persian cities. The twin centers of the Elamite Empire were Anshan and Susa.  The empire was destroyed by the Assyrians, creating a vacuum which the Persian Achaemenids were more than happy to fill.

PART TWO:

THE ELAMITE EMPIRE

To quote from Professor Potts on the extent of the Elamite Empire:

“There's no real evidence that Elamite control extended beyond Khuzestan and Fars, and for Fars there's really no evidence of the east, i.e. anywhere east of Shiraz, but certainly it did go down to Bushehr (ancient Liyan, where Elamite inscriptions have been found) on the Persian Gulf, so it's more or less a big triangle extending from Susiana in the west, across (east) to Tal-e Malyan (Anshan), and down to the Liyan on the Persian Gulf coast. Beyond that it's all speculation. More or less on the northern limits of the Elamite-controlled region we have Elamite inscribed bricks attesting to Elamite temples and royal construction projects from the area near Lordegan (Tol-e Afghani) in the Bakhtiyari mountains and from near Yasuj.”

The modern province of Khusestan is primarly composed of the Susiana Plain.  If we add together the areas of Khuzestan (64,055 sq. km.), Bushehr Province (22,743 sq. km.) and Fars Province (122,608 sq. km.), we get a total of 209,406 square kilometers.  This is again very close to Plato’s figure of +205,000 square kilometers for the Atlantean Plain.  If we then deduct the eastern half of Fars, and the southern half of Bushehr, and add in that portion of Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari Province (16,332 sq. km. total) which contains Lordegan, and that portion of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province (15,504 sq. km. total) which contains Yasuj, we again come very close to Plato’s figure.

The Susa-Persia region also matches Plato’s description of the great plain surrounded by mountains, which drop away on the southern side towards the sea.  According to Dr. E. S. Sherratt of the University of Sheffield, “The Zagros Mountains effectively lie from northwest to southeast of the Susiana Plain.”  The Kur River Basin is completely ringed by mountains, although these mountains to the west and south eventually drop down to the sea.  This last can readily be observed in a satellite image (courtesy Dr. Petrie Cameron), which shows the varied terrain of Southwestern Iran, where the folds of the Zagros separate the lowland plains of Khuzestan (which abut Mesopotamia) from the highland plains of Fars.

Another point in favor of Susa as the city of Atlantis is Plato's insistence on placing sacred bulls within the latter's Temple of Poseidon.  The god of Elamite Susa was named Inshushinak or Insusinak, and he took the form of a bull.  According to Professor Matthew W. Stolper of the University of Chicago, the etymology of this god's name may go all the way back to Sumerian times:

"The conventional explanation is that it is originally Sumerian, not Elamite - en (lord) + Shushin (Susa) + ak(a) [genitive], for 'Lord of Susa".  This could well be.  Of course, it could also be a sort of scholarly folk-etymology, ancient or modern.  I don't know of ancient evidence for this interpretation.  But I don't have a better idea, either."

Close to Susa is the famous ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, dedicated to Insusinak and described byThe Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) thusly:

“Chogha Zanbil was long considered the only surviving ziggurat in Iran, but excavations of Konar Sandal at the Jiroft ancient site in the southern Iranian province of Kerman have revealed that it is another ziggurat.

Chogha Zanbil is a major remnant of the Elamite civilization, which was constructed in the Elamite city of Dur Untash. It is located near Susa , the ancient capital of Elam , and was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978. Built about 1250 BCE under the direction of the Elamite ruler Untash-Gal during the Middle Elamite period (c. 1500–c. 1000 BCE), the complex was dedicated to Inshushinak (Insusinak), the bull-god of Susa. The square base of the ziggurat, 344 feet (105 meters) on each side, was built principally of brick and cement. It now stands 80 feet (24 meters) high, less than half its estimated original height.”

According to the Wikipedia article on this ziggurat,

“It was built about 1250 BCE by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honour the great god Inshushinak.  Its original name was Dur Untash, which means 'town of Untash', but it is unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever lived there. The complex is protected by three concentric walls which define the main areas of the 'town'. The inner area is wholly taken up with a great ziggurat dedicated to the main god, which was built over an earlier square temple with storage rooms also built by Untash-Napirisha. The middle area holds eleven temples for lesser gods. It is believed that twenty-two temples were originally planned, but the king died before they could be finished, and his successors discontinued the building work. In the outer area are royal palaces, a funerary palace containing five subterranean royal tombs.  Although construction in the city abruptly ended after Untash-Napirisha's death, the site was not abandoned, but continued to be occupied until it was destroyed by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in 640 BCE. Some scholars speculate, based on the large number of temples and sanctuaries at Chogha Zanbil, that Untash-Napirisha attempted to create a new religious center (possibly intended to replace Susa) which would unite the gods of both highland and lowland Elam at one site.”

Susa as the City of the Bull-god Inshushinak once had its own ziggurat mountain-temple; this has not survived, but we have a record of the Assyrian Ashurbanipal having destroyed it.  We can propose, then, that this ziggurat-mountain of the bull-god is the ‘Atlantean’ hill of Poseidon and that the capital of ‘Atlantis’ is Susa.

One also cannot help but wonder if Plato did not make yet another connection with Susa as his city of Atlantis.  I have mentioned above that the bull god of Susa bore a title, “Lord of Susa”, which appears to be not Elamite or Persian, but Sumerian.  Several Sumerian deities have bull-like attributes, notably the father god Anu and the moon god Nanna (Sin).

But the Sumerians also knew of a star-bull who ushered in the Spring, this being a reference to the Vernal Equinox being placed in Taurus sometime between the fourth and second millenniums BC. In Babylonian astronomy, the constellation was listed as "The Heavenly Bull" (MUL, ‘star’, GU ‘bull’ AN.NA, ‘of heaven’).  Because it marked the spring equinox, it was also the first constellation in the Babylonian zodiac and was thus known as "The Bull in Front”. The Bull of Heaven known best from the Gilgamesh Epic was closely associated with Inanna in early Mesopotamian art. One of the earliest depictions shows the bull standing before the goddess's standard.  As the animal here has three stars depicted on its back (the cunieform sign for 'star-constellation'), there is good reason to regard this as the constellation later known as Taurus.

In the northeastern quadrant of the constellation of Taurus lie the Pleiades, also known as the ATLANTIDES, because the stars that make up this grouping were daughters of Atlas. Is it too much of a stretch to propose that Plato or his source knew the Bull of Susa was to be associated with Taurus, and that this star deity thus had something to do with the Atlantides?  And that Susa was, therefore, the city of Atlantis?

CAIS tells us, furthermore, that Susa was quite large, which again would match Plato's description of the city of Atlantis:

"The ruins of Susa, situated at the north of Ahwaz, form a number of immense tells which cover an extent of four and a half to six square miles on both banks of the Kerkha."

Admittedly, Persepolis has its own bulls.  The most remarkable are the two at the Gate of All Nations.  But there are also protomen capitals surmounted by bulls and the bull statues of the Throne Hall of Xerxes.

Darius the Great followed the Zoroastrian religion.  His god Ahura-Mazda had created a great bull, which was sacrificed by Mithra.  From the dying bull proceeded all wholesome plants and herbs that cover the earth; from his spinal marrow came corn, from his blood the vine.  At the end of the world Mithra would descend to earth on another bull, which would again be sacrificed.  From its fat would be brewed the elixir of immortality.

Yet all in all, we are never told in Zoroastrianism that Ahura-Mazda was the bull.  And Persepolis's mountain-encircled position is difficult if not impossible to reconcile with the access to the sea 'Atlantis' supposedly enjoyed.  Through rivers and doubtless canals, Susa did engage extensively in traffic with the Persian Gulf.

In summery, we can say that Plato, who lived from 428/427 to 348/347 B.C., had a story about Solon receiving a prophecy concerning the future of the Greeks from an Egyptian priest at Sais.  This prophecy told of the war of the Greeks against the Persians under Darius, culminating in the victory of the former over the latter at Marathon.  The prophecy concluded with a reference to the great Spartan earthquake, which would ravage the island of Lokrian Atalante.  Included in the story was a description of the Persian capital of Susa.

By virtue of the fact that a story featuring such an accurate prophecy was obviously first told only after the future events it purported to relate had actually transpired, we can safely surmise that the tale of ‘Atlantis’ was not concocted until the Spartan earthquake of c. 469-464 was already a matter of history.  Details of the story were garbled or lost, indicating it was probably oral in nature until being committed to writing by Plato.  The 9,000 Athenians present at the Battle of Marathon were wrongly taken for the number of years spanning the interval from the war of Atlantis and the Greeks to the time of Solon.  This great war was made utterly anachronistic by placing it in the past, rather than in Solon’s future, where it belonged.  The Pillars of Herakles marking the western terminus of the Mediterranean were substituted for those on the eastern side of the sea.  And the island name Atalante was wrongly associated with that of Atlas and the Atlantic, as well as with the Persian Empire itself.

Of course, it is also possible Plato himself made all these alterations in the story intentionally – and may even be the sole author of the tale.  He may not have been beyond such creative efforts if they served the purpose of philosophical edification.