At the beginning of the twelfth century BC, on a spring or summer day, a comet crashed into a large peninsula to the northwest of Africa. This mass of land split open and sank into the Atlantic Ocean. On its west coast stood a mountain range, called the Keraunian Mountains. They disappeared into the sea as well, but not completely. Their summits are still sticking out of the water. They form an archipelago that is known as the Canary Isles.
One of the names of this large peninsula was Atlantis. There is nothing mythical about Atlantis. It was the motherland of a Celtic sea empire, encompassing the northwest of Africa, Western Europe, and the islands of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, including the British Isles. The empire even had colonies in America, and one of them was situated somewhere on the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
When the comet hit our planet, the immense impact brought about extraordinary earthquakes. They blocked the Strait of Gibraltar for many centuries, isolated the area where Atlantis had been, and contributed to the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Dark Ages began, and memories of the past faded away. Atlantis was forgotten. It had not only sunk into the sea but into oblivion as well.
Although it has vanished from sight and memory, Atlantis has left an amazingly large number of nameless traces in our ancient narratives, like flotsam from an unknown ship that has washed ashore all over the map. In this book, the author sets out to collect these traces and to puzzle them together with painstaking accuracy. The result is this History of Atlantis. A fascinating chapter of our past, which has completely remained in the dark until now, is brought to light. As if, in a figurative sense, the sunken land has finally risen again from its watery grave.
This book is based upon a new approach of a large number of Greco-Roman, Celtic, Arthurian, Germanic, Middle Eastern, Iranian and Indian sources, fairy tales, and other folktales. More than 700 endnotes. Extensive bibliography. Twelve maps.
