Cyprus Finest (issue 2, Spring 2018) #8 Cyprus Finest (issue 2, Spring 2018) | Page 24

LEGENDS AND MYTHS
Is this Atlantis
on Cyprus?
The disputes about the legendary island of Atlantis, where the Atlantean city was,
have dragged on for two millennia since the great Plato described it in his dialogues
“Timaeus” and “Critias”.
T
he answers to the questions, where was
Atlantis and where can you find the rel-
ics of this fabled Island, are still anybody’s
guess. The search for Atlantis has led to
hunts in the Atlantic near Morocco, in the Andes, in
Brazil, in Ireland, in Romania and even in Antarctica!
Many researchers have sought Atlantis in areas around
Balearic and Canary Islands. One researcher proposed
that Atlantis was on the current British islands and
Ireland, drowned because of melting glaciers. The fa-
mous diving researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau almost
proved that the remnants of the Minoan civilization
found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea belong
to the lost city of Atlantis.
Researcher Robert Sarmast discovered a rectangu-
lar stretch of land under water in 11 km from Cyprus,
which extends to the North-East towards Syria. He
insists that it is Cyprus that was the top of the hill and
the part of Atlantis. Why did Robert Sarmast seek
Atlantis on Cyprus? Some observe that above all,
descriptions of Atlantis resemble both the relief and
PLATO CLAIMS
ATLANTIS WAS RICH
IN METALS, AND
THOUGH SUCH
A FEATURE IS NOT
COMMON TO THE
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA ISLANDS IN
THE ANCIENT TIME,
IT WAS INHERENT
TO CYPRUS.
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natural conditions of the Mediterranean Sea Islands.
Plato claims Atlantis was rich in metals, and though
such a feature is not common to the Mediterranean
Sea Islands in the ancient time, it was inherent to Cy-
prus. Many researchers assume that the Mediterranean
Sea Islands are the debris of the lost civilization. As an
example, there is an advanced Cretan civilization that
mysteriously disappeared when the horrible earthquake
occurred.
What did Plato know about Atlantis? In his dia-
logues, he narrates that Atlantis disappeared in one
day— “in a horrible twenty-four hours”. Starting on
Atlantis, Plato warns that the name of the island itself,
like all the other names in his story, is not authentic but
translated into Greek. The Egyptians, who first wrote
the story about Atlantis, translated Atlantean names in
their own way. Solon (Athenian statesman, lawmaker,
and one of the “Seven Wise Men” of Greece) told Plato
of the island, and he did not see the need to leave the
names in their translated Egyptian form and so trans-
lated them to Greek.
The actual story of the island, according to the leg-
end, begins with the story about the Earth’s separation
between three brother Gods: Zeus, Hades and Posei-
don. Poseidon, who became the lord of seas, by the
lot, received the island of Atlantis, where that time only
three people lived: “one man named Evenor, who was
born of the Earth at the beginning, his wife Leucippe
and their daughter, the beauty Cleito”. He fell in love
with Cleito and she married him and bore him five pairs
of male twins, who are the first ten kings of Atlantis.
The god Poseidon was a caring father and shielded
the island with the water rings and two rings of land
to protect his family. The Atlanteans then built bridges
across the rings and dug canals so that ships could
pass into the city or directly into the central island with
five stadia (in total about one kilometre in diameter).
According to the legend, he also drew hot and cold
springs from the land, out of which flowed sweet