UPDATED RESEARCH ON ATLANTIS
(January 2002)

Plans are underway to increase the scope of the underwater film already in the possession of the Ancient Mediterranean Research Association. This film clearly demonstrates the existence of Atlantis off the coast of Spain. The results of new on-site research will be placed on the A.M.R.A. website during 2003. Additional research materials on Atlantis, including books, slides and previously unseen documentary material will also be part of the A.M.R.A. website during 2003. The research is based on photographs, onsite explorations, underwater photography, and computer disks produced by Dr. Maxine Asher and her staff from 1958 through 2002. The materials to be placed on the website are the most complete collection of Atlantis materials that can be found anywhere in the world today. A.M.R.A. will also keep the website updated with any new discoveries which emerge relative to the scientific basis for the existence of Atlantis.

Ancient Mediterranean Research Association
A NONPROFIT EDUCATIONAL CORPORATION

RECENT SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR
THE EXISTENCE OF ATLANTIS
 Spring, 1996

 The Ancient Mediterranean Research Association has conducted onsite investigations of Atlantis in Spain, and in the Mediterranean, since 1972. The results of this research strongly suggest that the last piece of Atlantis, as described by Plato in the "Timaeus" and "Critias"’ is submerged under two hundred feet of water in and near the Straits of Gibraltar. The ruins, discovered by a Spanish diving team, are midway between Tarifa and Ceuta Spain, close to the "Rock" itself.  An estimate of the size of the remains was originally made in 1973 by the A.M.R.A. diving team, under the direction of Francisco Salazar Casero.  Using scuba equipment,  and an underwater metal detector, a five-man crew estimated the ancient city to be three city blocks wide and approximately half a mile long.  Efforts to precisely photograph what is believed to be Atlantis, were made in 1993.  The results were significant, but inconclusive due to killer sharks in the area, fierce currents, and weather conditions that only supported diving during a few weeks of the summer months.  Further problems were encountered due to the presence of military controls and police who patrol the area to prevent drugs from coming into Spain from Morocco.

The city itself is composed of "muros and ladrillos" (walls and walkways of brick), under which are embedded artifacts, partially hidden in the sand.  To date, divers have not observed inscriptions in the remains, but pre-Phoenician inscriptions do exist underwater at the Temple of Hercules, at La Calleta, near Cadiz. By measuring water depth, and according to the location given by Plato and by Arab sources, the underwater remains are believed to be Atlantis.

The city discovered by A.M.R.A. approximates Plato's descriptions.  A recent CNN release (1998) shows what could be the entire city of Atlantis painted on a wall in Hadrian's tomb in Rome.  However, the Spain site is in the proper location, and of the proper age. (9-10,000 B.C.). Preservation of the remains may be due to the fact that the land was drowned by the Great Flood, rather than undergoing destruction by man or natural catastrophe such as earthquake. (Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1989,3).  This information comes from an examination of ice cores at the North Pole, showing a fast climatic shift in sub-arctic Europe at the close of the last glacial cold period, 10,700 years ago.  A greenhouse effect during that period caused a sudden warming trend and the polar ice quickly melted.  In September 2000, famed underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard also proved definitively that the Flood took place.  Ballard found a huge city 300 ft. underwater in the Black Sea which had been inundated by a Great Flood.

Plato wrote that Atlantis sank in a day and a night. This may be close to the truth. The quick melt caused waters to rush down into the Atlantic Ocean from the north, at a rate of 11 inches per day, ultimately creating more than a 200 foot rise in sea level across the Atlantic Ocean in 9600 B.C. (OMNI, 38). The sudden influx of water drowned all existing land in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean, as well as the Atlantic Ocean, giving rise to the flood myths of the American Indians and the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark.  A Los Angeles Times article (July 1998) shows that the Antarctic ice sheet is melting again and could cause a similar flood on Earth very shortly.

Plato stated that he received his description of Atlantis from the Egyptian priests at the city of Sais, formerly near Alexandria. Recent excavations at Cadiz produced two mummies in their sarcophagi, undoubtedly Egyptian in origin.  One is a man and the other a woman who rests her hands on her chest.  She is covered with snakes and, at the end of each one, is a scarab. (Quintero, 123-126).  Co-incidentally, the Spanish diving team discovered Egyptian tombs in the Straits of Gibraltar (Letter from the Spanish diving team to Asher, May, 1978), which may indicate that Atlantis and Egypt co-existed in time. This fact ties in closely with the metaphysical readings of Edgar Cayce, regarding the Atlantean leader Ra Ta, who sojourned to Egypt in approximately 12,000 B.C.  The libraries formerly at Alexandria, destroyed in 396 B.C., are now being rebuilt by a grant from the United Nations.  These libraries are believed to have housed information about Atlantis. The libraries were located less than fifty miles from Sais, the city known in Plato’s time, that disappeared more than 1,000 years ago.

Atlantis has been placed in other locations besides Spain. Significant discoveries in the Bahamas, from 1969 until the present time, may have been part of the Atlantis complex in an earlier time period. This concept is based on the theory that Atlantis once spanned the entire Atlantic ocean in a series of islands which were submerged sequentially due to flood, cosmic upheaval and the lack of a strong platelet support. (Science, 1083). In addition, NASA researcher Kevin Pang reported that Atlantis was formerly at Santorini in the Aegean Sea (Associated Press Release, Dec. 1989) Pang’s research supported the theory of Dr. Angelos Galanopolis, that Plato errored in his dating and that Santorini, or Thera, which was destroyed in 1476 B.C. was Atlantis. Plato spoke of a war between the Atlanteans and the Greeks. This may mean that Greece also co-existed with Atlantis, and was drowned at the time of the Great Flood, re-emerging about 3000 B.C.

Plato spoke exclusively of the Gates of Hercules as the site for Atlantis, now the present-day Gibraltar and Tangier. This location for Atlantis was verified by large numbers of Spanish and Portuguese archeologists. Adolfo Valencia estimated that Atlantis extended to 10,000 estadios (1,800 kilometers) from Gibraltar, which would bring it as far as Malta. (Valencia, 18). Since Malta and Cyprus house some of the oldest civilized remains in the Mediterranean, the extension of Atlantis to Malta is possible. (Lewis, 57). In addition, the original city of Kadesh (before the flood)), was believed to be one of the cities of Atlantis, as was Tarshish. "Biblical commentators often explain that the Tarshish referred to here (the Bible), and in other biblical passages, was probably a place called Tartessus, which they associate with a Phoenician colony near Cadiz, in Spain." (Biblical Archaeology Review, Jan/Feb 1990,59). The famous German archaeologist, Adolph Schulten, excavated Tarshish at Huelva, just north of Cadiz. His magnificent work, in Spanish, called Tartessos, is the most significant piece of research in the area of biblical archaeology in our time.

From June 1989, to the present time, Dr. Maxine Asher has researched and documented hundreds of previously undisclosed sources about Atlantis, written in medieval and archaic Spanish, and housed in the private libraries of Cadiz, including museum collections. This privileged information revealed a number of conclusive facts to support the existence of Atlantis in Spain. For example, it is written that the biblical Abraham acquired sacred scriptures, prepared thousands of years before his own time, describing the Hetea Tribe the first settlers of Cadiz. The Heteos were related to the Pelasgians, and their land was known as Heberia (Hebreo or Hebrew). Later, this name changed to Iberia (Quintero, 121,123). This leads the author to believe that the majority of people who inhabited Atlantis were Semitic in origin and that the Rock, referred to in the Book of Psalms, was the rock of Gibraltar. "Which turned the Rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters." (Psalms,14:8). The first Kadesh (Cadiz) is also cited in Psalms relative to the Flood. "The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh" (Psalms 29:8).

In 1973, Dr. Asher discovered pre-Phoenician inscriptions on the pathway leading to the rock of Gibraltar. This discovery was supported by letters from Dr. Cyrus Gordon, then of Brandeis University, written to Dr. Asher. (Gordon letter to Asher, 1973). The inscriptions were incised into blocks originally cut out of caves around Gibraltar by General Francisco Franco. They may possibly have been relics from the caves into which the survivors fled, after the Great Flood. Writes Augustin de Horozco "…in the first period of Cadiz, this island was land joined with Andalucia and was divided by a furious storm or deluge which also separated Sicily from Italy, from the Negroponto of the Peloponnesus to other islands…. there were floods, earthquakes, great shakings, all of which consumed much land and its populations." (Horozco, 6). Horozco also says, "….a rapid catastrophe occurred. There was a tsunami that went across the Mediterranean." (Horozco, 18). Written information from the libraries at Cadiz also described crystals imbedded in the soil of Chiclana, near Cadiz, the result of a gigantic earth upheaval, and the marismas, a marshy area still extant between Cadiz and Huelva. The marismas are a large underwater reserve several dozen miles in length and width, the result of a huge flood, which drowned the area in ancient times, They are strong evidence that the Great Flood indeed fell upon Cadiz and Gibraltar.

Four hundreds miles west of Cadiz, Russian scientists claimed to have located remains of Atlantis near the Azores. (Los Angeles Herald Examiner, April 5, 1981, A-6). That the flood may have extended from the Azores, far into the Mediterranean, is clearly noted in the Caves of Nerja, near Malaga Spain, where skeletons and artifacts, from a highly civilized culture dating to 20.000 B.C. have been uncovered. (Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 1978,19,20). At the cave of Tajo de las Figuras near Cadiz, are petroglyphs depicting men escaping a great flood in primitive boats. Also noteworthy are the Caves of Antequera, near Granada, where flood survivors are believed to have taken refuge.

The significance of the information cited above, coupled with letters, maps, photos, documents, and tapes from the Spanish diving team to Dr. Julian Nava and Dr. Maxine Asher, over a twenty year period, strongly supports the theory that Atlantis does exist in Spain’s offshore waters, the last piece of the ancient continent as described by Plato, drowned in the Flood of 9600 B.C.

REFERENCES

Asher, Maxine. "The Atlantis Conspiracy," Los Angeles AMRA, 1973.

Asher, Maxine. "Ancient Energy - Key to the Universe," San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1979.

Asher, Maxine & Miller, Ann "Tapping into the Force," Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads Publishing Co., 1990.

"Atlantis Story Connected to Huge Eruption," Associated Press, December, 1989.

Scheuer, Joan G. "Searching for the Phoenicians in Sardinia," Biblical Archaeology Review Jan/Feb, 1990, p. 53-59.

Charnes, Gloria. "Underground Adventure on the Spanish Coast," Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 1987, p.19-20.

Horozco, Augustin de. Historia de la Ciudad de Cadiz. Cadiz: Don Manuel Bosch, 1845.

"Soviets Say They Have Found Ruins of Atlantis," Los Angeles Herald Examiner, April 5,1981, p. A1& A6.

"Ice Age Lost Its Cool Quickly," Los Angeles Times, June 19,1989.

Lawren, Bill. "Flood Assurance". Omni, February, 1990, p.38.

Lewis, H. A Guide to Remote Paths & Lanes of Ancient Malta. Bucks England, Colin Smythe Ltd. 1974.

Psalms. The Old Testament.

Quintero, Pelayo. Primeros Pobladores Hallazgos Arquelogicos. Delgado de la Junta Superior de Excavaciones. Cadiz: Manuel Alvarez, 1917.

Unpublished letters of Francisco, "Paco" Salazar to Maxine Asher 1972-1991.

Emiliani,Cesare. "Paleoclimatological Analyses of Late Quaternary Cores from the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico," Science, September 26, 1975. 1083-1087.

Schulten, Adolfo. Tartessos. Madrid : Espasa Calpe S.A., 1984.

Valencia, Adolfo Vila. Historia de Cadiz. Cadiz, 1977.

Unpublished letter from Cyrus Gordon to Maxine Asher, 1973.

Email: info@atlantisresearch.com

THE WAVES OF ATLANTIS

A NEW BOOK BY INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN WRITER, ARCHAEOLOGIST AND SCHOLAR
DR. MAXINE ASHER