Recent
studies of the ice cap at Sajama suggest the level of Lake Titicaca has been
subject to periodic changes of level over the last 11,500 years with alternating
periods of drought and flooding. When the lake is at its maximum level, the
water overflows down the river Desaguadero where it then continues to flood the
level Altiplano and Lake Poopo.
So,
just as people build cities on volcanoes or valley floors subject to flooding,
the people occupying the Altiplano next to Lake Poopo have been just as much at
risk to be submerged under the waters of the lake as those ancient people whose
constructions have now been found under the waters of Lake
Titicaca.
And
there remains one great city or civilisation known only by legend and which
people continue to doubt ever existed. It is the story of a city destroyed by
earthquakes and overwhelmed by a great flood, all of which took place in the
space of a single day and night.
The
name of this city is Atlantis.
The
story of Atlantis comes from the Greek philosopher Plato, who in turn claimed it
originated with the temple priests in Egypt. The respected historian Robert
Graves suggested Plato's story was a combination of different legends and I
would go as far as to say the story can be divided into three parts: first is
the purely geographic description of where Atlantis was located, second is an
account of a war which took place according to Plato at the time of the end of
Atlantis and thirdly is a description of the city itself, which is based on the
actual site but may also incorporate elements of Plato's own philosophy combined
with aspects of the people who took part in the aforementioned
war.
Remains
of coca have been found in the mummy of Ramses II in Egypt dating to 1200BC.
Imagine you are a Greek priest listening to a traveller giving an account of
where he came from and for this, I will use the words of
Plato:
First
of all I live on a continent the size of North Africa and Asia combined. It is
located in the Atlantic Ocean opposite
the Pillars of Hercules. In the centre of the continent, next to the sea and
midway
along the longest side of the continent
there is a plain. This plain is completely level, it is of rectangular shape and
elongated and is enclosed by mountains. It is high above the level of the ocean.
In the mountains there are many streams and villages also a great number of
mastodons. There are many mines including gold, silver, tin, copper and the
second most valuable metal – orichalcum – called tumbaga in our language and
which is a natural alloy of copper and gold. When the surface is polished the
copper dissolves out and the gold remains giving a sparkling
surface.
But
the part where I live was formerly the capital of the whole country. It is a
volcanic island located in the centre of the plain and five miles from the sea.
It
was originally the home of the god of rivers and watercourses, a friend to
mankind called Tunapa – in Greek as you say, Poseidon, who married a person
who lived on a hill called Asanaque or in Greek, Cleito and had four pairs of
twin offspring – although five pairs is sometimes recounted by the Greeks.
This
was before ships and sailing were invented and the God took hold of the island
and made it impregnable to man, with alternating zones of land and sea,
enclosing each other like concentric circles.
The
whole of the island was enclosed with a wall of stone and the stones were of the
most beautiful colours, black, red
and white. In the centre of the island was a temple sacred to the God and plated
with gold, silver and orichalcum.
Around
the perimeter of the level plain ran a giant canal which collected the streams
form the mountains and discharged them into the sea in the vicinity of the city,
and across the plain were dug numerous smaller canals and the land was cropped
twice a year.
 A fountain of water sprang forth from
the central island and this was conducted to the outer groves where there were
many plantations for the soil was most fertile.
The
people lived there for many generations but in the end their greed for material
possessions overwhelmed them so Kjuni (Zeus as they say in Greek) god of the sky
and thunderbolts and king of the gods decided to punish them and in the end the
city was swallowed up and disappeared into the sea.
So
the reader can see there is nothing outrageous in this description of Atlantis,
it is merely a geographic description of the continent opposite the Strait of
Gibraltar which is presently called South America. When it was first discovered
by the Europeans it was proposed to call it Atlantis, but it was later given the
name "America" after Amerigo Vespucci and so its true name became lost for ever.
And
the island described above is the island of Cerro Santos Villca at the village
of Pampa Aullagas on the southern shore of Lake Poopó.
Anyone
visiting the island will see that it has been destroyed by the earthquakes
mentioned above and is still covered in white, sedimentary lake deposits from
the time when the lake was at a higher level.
Behind
the village of Pampa Aullagas they will see the remains of an outer ring of land
with a gap between for the ships to sail through – exactly as Plato described
it. They will also see the wall of stone enclosing the island, the black, red
and white stones and the site has been inhabited for a long time by successive
cultures. It has a natural source of water as mentioned above and the water is
still conducted by channels to concentric cultivated plots – according to a
study by a vulcanologist even the soil has been imported to the island to
improve the cultivation.
So
up to this point, there is nothing outrageous in Plato's story, although Plato
said the island sank into the sea, the English philosopher Sir Fancis Bacon said
in fact it was the rising waters of the lake which submerged the island – and
isn't that just like what happened with the ruins found under Lake
Titicaca?
In
fact all around Pampa Aullagas are underground springs, so when it rains in
another part of the country it can rapidly flood the level Altiplano. And the
system of canals Plato mentioned is quite appropriate to the region, indeed when
the system of raised fields was restored in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca the presence of water in the small
channels raised the local temperature and vastly increased crop
production.
The
date of Plato's Atlantis has always been a problem since Plato made an error and gave the same date for the founding of
Atlantis as he did for the ending of Atlantis (about 9,500BC). But he talked about a war between a confederation of
nations which invaded Greece and Egypt and this could correspond to the invasion
by the "Sea Peoples" of Egypt around 1220 BC, also the attack by the Greeks upon
Troy in 1260 BC which was "the finest of the achievements of the Greeks" which
Plato wanted to record – in fact he gives the same number of ships for the
fleet of Atlantis as Homer did for the Greek fleet against Troy suggesting that
this part of the story was based upon Homer and if we substitute lunar months
for years in Plato's account then the "9,000 years" before Solon" becomes 1263BC
– the date of the Trojan war.
So
it is probable that either Atlantis existed in the period after 9500BC up to
1200BC when the Altiplano had varying water levels due to the climatic changes
or alternatively it was overwhelmed by the waters of Lake Coipasa when the
entire Altiplano became a giant inland sea in 11,000BC, since prior to that the
land would have been cultivable, free of the salt salars and the climate 6
degrees warmer.
Finally,
it is easy to dismiss Atlantis as merely a "co-incidence" on the Altiplano, but
there is one further factor regarding the site at Pampa Aullagas - from the
native Aymara and Quechua the name actually means sunken
pampa
or sunken level plain.
Atlantis
never was a sunken continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, or some
imaginary creation of Plato or cinematic fantasy of Hollywood, but in reality is
based upon an indigenous Andean culture.
And
at the end of the day, Atlantis was simply overwhelmed by climate change and
natural disasters typical of the
Altiplano.
