Mystic Places [antikvár]

Paradise LosiIhousands of years after it supposedly sank into the cold and gloomy depths of the Atlantic Ocean, the island continent of Atlantis lives on as one of histoiy's most tantalizing puzzles. If indeed such a place existed, Atlantis was a civilization unequaled before or since. Yet its chroniclers say that it vanished in little more than a single day, leaving not a trace behind.The oldest and fullest surviving account of the great island's rise and fall was provided by the Greek philosopher Plato in the fourth century B.C. According to Plato's description illustrated at left and on pages 15-17 Atlantis was a land where skilled agriculturists created sweet-scented orchards and where animals, including "a very large stock of elephants," flourished. Within its chief city were innumerable mansions outdone in grandeur only by the royal palace and by the nearby temple raised to honor Poseidon. But neither gold nor glory could save the Atlanteans from themselves. Their growing materialism mightily offended the gods, wrote Plato, and the whole civilization was condemned to a swift and spectacular end.Atlantis has often been linked with other places of mystery, among them the pyramids of Egypt and the stone slabs of Stonehenge. Unlike those brooding monuments, however, the land that Plato portrayed is no more tangible than memory or dreams. But many people believe that the drowned country's wealth of silver, copper, and gold still glimmers for the finding on the ocean floor. Perhaps one day, they say, some bold salvager may even bring to light Atlan-tis's fabled golden tablets, graven with the laws of earthly paradise.Dressed for a balmy climate and surrounded by wild animals that have nothing tofearfrom humans, Atlanteans pursue a life of cultivated leisure amid the gardens of a great mansion.