The Official, Authorized Website of Egerton Sykes & His Honest-to-Goodness Science of Atlantology

Cultural Evidence for Atlantis

Human Records

Maps

While the great astronomers and mathematicians of the past had worked out reasonable relationships between the stars in the heavens and the routes across the oceans, the number of reasonably good maps was never more than half a dozen in any period of early history until the science of marine cartography began to emerge in the early days of the Renaissance.

Sykes once commented that, "... right up to the 17th century, fragmentary remains of what can only have been Atlantis were shown in all the best maps of the world made by the most renowned cartographers."

Early Cartographers and Their Maps

Atlantis, Antilla, El Brasil, St. Brendan's Isle, and a host of other fragmentary remains of what may well have been the lost continent were shown in the best maps of the world until the 17th century. Such cartographers as Bianca, Hall, Juan Cora, Ortilius, Pareto, Pizigani, Roselli, Toscanelli, and Valesqua showed one or more of these islands on their maps.

How could a map drawn in 1513 manage to show coastlines of South America and portions of the Antarctic on a system of map making superior to that in use at the time?

In 1665, Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit Priest, published the first map of the Atlantean continent in his book Mundus Subterraneus, which greatly resembles the map included in the report of the German Oceanographic Research ship, Meteor, published just before World War II.

In December 1959 in New World Antiquity, in More On Early Maps, the editor published an excerpt from an article in August 1942's Signal, a German propaganda magazine about the original Toscanelli map found by Professor Sebastiano Crino in the National Library of Florence in 1939. The map was completed by Paolo dal Toscanelli, the great Florentine geographer, in 1457. The first copy was sent to King Alfonso V of Portugal, while a second copy was received by the navigator Columbus. Of the explanatory notes added to the map, the most interesting lies on the outer of the two strips of text inserted in the ocean west of Europe, which says, "Beyond this island there are no inhabited countries known nor a free passage for the steersman, for fog holds up the sailor". This new map of the world became the property of the Italian State.

In June 1963 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote The Piri Reis Map, in which he stated,

"How could a map drawn in 1513, sixteen years after the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, manage to show coastlines of South America and portions of the Antarctic, which had not yet been explored, on a system of map making which was greatly superior to that in use at the time? Mr. Hapgood (presented paper on this subject to the 10th International Congress on the History of Science) produces some very convincing arguments and tables of figures to show that the center on which the grid of the map was based was in Egypt at Cyrene or Syene, used by Eratosthenes (BC 276-196), the Librarian of the University of Alexandria, appointed by Ptolemy III, the mathematician and philosopher... If this assertion is correct, then the original document on which the Piri Reis and, in all probability, portions of the Onoteus Finaeus Map, were drawn, must have preceded the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria..."

Sykes was convinced that earlier versions of the Piri Reis map might be found in Asiatic Turkey, which had the largest store of untapped manuscripts now available to the western world; or perhaps in Arab or Soviet countries. Sykes also believed that the Phoenicians were the most likely candidates to have explored South America and Antarctica, and created the map.

In June 1964 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote The Great Exploratory Periods In The Atlantic in which he stated, "... the Renaissance map makers... The inclusion of such places as Hy Brazil, Buss Island, Antilla, etc, on their maps, simply meant that they were cribbing from earlier maps, not only Phoenician and Berber, but also the Piri Reis map, and anything else that was available."

In November 1965 in New World Antiquity, Sykes wrote Maps As Sources Of Historical Information in which he stated, "The recent publication by Yale University of the Vineland Map and the consequent historical repercussions, have raised certain queries as to the exact place which these maps should take in the records of the past... why is it that a map which is produced a long time after the actual event, invariably inspires so much more credence in academic circles than the narratives on the basis of which the map was originally drawn — In this particular case, the narratives that lie behind the map have been known for centuries: The Greenland Saga and the Saga of Eric, plus other fragments. In addition there has been a whole series of petroglyphs... in various parts of Canada and the United States... the petroglyphs have been dismissed as forgeries, the sagas as romantic fiction, and the travelers' tales as rubbish."

Sykes believed that the Yale map was authentic despite the controversy surrounding it. The reason was simply that the Vikings did come to America before Columbus. In the May 1966 issue of New World Antiquity, in The Russians And The Vineland Map, it was reported that the Russians disputed the authenticity of the Vineland Map.

In September 1968 in New World Antiquity, Sykes wrote Pre Columbian Atlantic Charts in which he stated,

"We have a historical series of maps dating back to Thales (640 BC) and Anaximander (550 BC), if not earlier... Piri Reis compiled his map from Western sources... The real sources of all the ancient sea lore appear to have been the Phoenicians, the Minoans (before 1400 BC), and the Etruscans, all of whom ventured outside the Pillars of Hercules, frequently with the backing of Egyptian money... the first maps were the work of Venetian adventurers and their Spanish and Portuguese competitors, with the backing of the knowledge of the Berbers who had a tradition of Atlantic sailing from the days of Carthage, if not earlier... story of Brandon... story of Maeldune... story of O'Corra... other Celtic explorers... The work of Edrisi... Nicolas of Lynn... The Egyptians left behind a couple of travel stories: The Two Brothers and the Shipwrecked Sailor; the Phoenicians left us the Voyage of Hanno; the Greeks left us the Odyssey and the Argonautica; the Irish left us the stories of Brandan, Corra, and Maeldune; the Welsh the Story of Madoc; the Norsemen the Vineland Sagas. That is nearly the lot, except for the relations of the Arab historians from Masoudi to Edrisi who managed to accumulate a vast store of information, much of which is still awaiting translation. The list of early map makers is truly a short one."

In November 1968 in New World Antiquity, Sykes wrote An Early World Map in which he asked his readers for more information about Edrisi's map inscribed on a great sheet of silver and given shortly before the death in 1154 of Roger the King of Sicily. The reference occurred in the Encyclopedia of Islam. This world map would appear to be the earliest in Europe.

In September 1969 in New World Antiquity, Sykes wrote The Piri Reis Map And Its Antecedents in which he stated,

"... whatever else the early travelers did most of them were not competent to draw maps. It is for this reason that some stress has been laid on Nicolas of Lynn simply because he was trained in the use of the astrolabe and the compass and being a mathematician cum astronomer the problems of charting a reasonably accurate course would not be too great. He seems to have been the only one so inclined after Pytheas."

In August 1971 in Atlantis, L.M. Young reviewed Charles H. Hapgood's Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings. Young discussed the evidence that indicated that many of the charts and maps thought to have come into existence around the time of Columbus originated from a civilization more advanced than that of Europe in the 16th century. Young wrote,

"... a very important chart was discovered in 1929... Found in the old Imperial Palace of Constantinople this was dated to 1513 and signed by a Turkish admiral now commonly known as Piri Reis (Piri Ibn Memmed) who states in one of the several inscribed legends that the western part of the map had been based on one drawn by Columbus... Putting aside for a moment the problems of the Piri Reis map, at least those of a geographical kind, Hapgood comparing the former with the portolans or medieval sea charts, noted these were oriented in the same manner. To be more explicit, unlike maps with the modern grid of latitude and longitude, the lines on the old charts radiate from a number of centers as if they were reproducing the points of the compass for which they are generally recognized to be. The Dulcert Portolano of 1339 is a good example... The compass seems to have appeared in medieval Europe during the 12th century... in Europe, the charts and portolans do not appear until the 14th century..."

In March 1972 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote A World Map Of The 6th Century BC in which he stated,

"The great era of Greek science began when Thales the astronomer and mathematician opened up his school at Miletus... Apart from his interest in Astronomy, Thales was also a geographer. He prepared a globe on which he mapped the world as it was known to sailors and travelers passing through the Port of Miletus plus the background of information gathered by both Egypt and Phoenicia and stored away in their great libraries. The pupil of Thales, Anaximander, prepared a map of the world which Hecateus, the famous historian, had cast on a bronze slab which was kept in the temple at Miletus, our source for this is Herodotus... all trace of it has been lost... The real problem is who drew the first real map. Here, although the Babylonian map is the oldest in existence at the moment, the real maps were those drawn by sailors and not by landsmen, these are to be sought in seaports..."

Metaphysics and the Occult

Helena Petrowna Blavatskaya's (1831-1891) Isis Unveiled in 1877 and Secret Doctrine in 1888, laid the foundations for an occult approach to the subject of Atlantis. She undoubtedly made Atlantis known to millions but the speculative nature of the theories she put forward, which were impossible to reconcile with the results of scientific research, caused a breach with orthodox science that has yet to be healed.

In his article, Archaeology And ESP, in the January 1978 issue of New World Antiquity, Sykes stated two important points — first, ESP is a function of the mind, no more mysterious than sight or hearing; and second, the essence of archaeology is to know exactly what it is that you are seeking and the ability to recognize it when you find it. Sykes once stated, "Whether conscious of it or not, the late Dr. Leakey had a gift for finding skeletal remains. Leakey's ESP was a tool of his trade." Sykes claimed that to use ESP, one must have an intuitive knowledge of the subject and the ability to focus one's mind on it to the virtual exclusion of everything else.

In Sykes' book, Parapsychology — A New Approach, which was reviewed in the July 1966 issue of Atlantis, Sykes commented that metaphysical events fell within the framework of natural laws and physical science as we know them, needing only a little study and understanding to realize exactly what was happening. There is no phenomenon that is not subject to the natural and ordinary laws of the universe. It takes a lot of work to realize that every human being has within him the potential appreciation of all the secrets of nature. The human brain outranks the finest computer for capacity.

Saucerology

In March 1969 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote Flying Saucers, in which he stated,

"I have been taken to task by several of our readers for my attitude of disbelief in Flying Saucers... what on earth is there to prevent them from landing here?... My home is in Brighton, my back garden is just large enough to accommodate a small size Flying Saucer, say 25 feet in diameter... the day that I find a Flying Saucer in my back garden, I shall be delighted to retract my statements."

In December 1971 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote Contacts With Cosmic Civilizations in which he stated,

"In 1959... V.K. Zaytsev, Sub- Professor of Leningrad University and Candidate of Philological Sciences, produced his report on Cosmic Memories in Records of Ancient Scriptures, in which he expressed his ideas and hypotheses on the question of direct contacts with cosmic civilizations... possible to find many indications that cosmic visitors had in fact come to the earth, in various records among the most ancient scriptures of the Jewish and Christian cultures..."

Indeed, the Tassili frescoes remained one of the most outstanding series of petroglyphs depicting beings wearing the protective clothing of an astronaut and their helmets bearing antennae.

Spiritual Aspects Of Man

Wander Towards the Light, edited by Michael Agerskoy, and published in Copenhagen in 1950, is a translation of Vanderer mod Lyset, which was first published in Danish in 1919. The book was reviewed in the May 1951 issue of Atlantis. Wander Towards The Light is a record of psychic research into the spiritual origins of humanity. Its account of the loss of Atlantis has several points in common with scientific theories.

In December 1964 in Atlantis, Dr. Japolsky published an explanation in terms of mathematics of the possibility of life after death. In Sykes' opinion, "... in the universe nothing is ever lost; it only changes its character".

In May 1972 in Atlantis, there was a review article about Sykes' Parapsychology — A New Synthesis which stated,

"... the human body is a reservoir of power sources that appears to exist in the form of electronic or radiation fields that can be activated by motivations still not clearly understood. Egerton Sykes gives fifteen separate fields each of which is briefly discussed...harnessed by individuals in early times."

The triggering mechanism for parapsychological practices was said to be contained in the endocrine glandular system. With respect to auras, Sykes commented that the phenomenon was a manifestation of bodily force fields. Sykes admittedly kept records of reported instances of levitation.

Astrology

In the March and April 1949 issues of Atlantis, Michael Kamienski reviewed Witold Balcer's Mystery Of The Zodiac. Kamienski stated that the zodiacal figures have a concealed symbolic meaning referring to the human life and to the life of the whole of mankind. Every 2160 years the vernal equinox point passes successively from one zodiacal constellation to another. The Zodiac and the oldest Astronomy dated back to Egypt. Archaeologists estimated the Egyptian Denderah Zodiac at 11,000 BC.

Dowsing

In May 1950 in Atlantis, Lt.-Col. C.D.A. Fenwick wrote Dowsing and Archaeology in which he stated,

"About a year after I had started to study the art, I learned that some dowsers claimed to be able to dowse over maps and photographs. This struck me as being almost too fantastic to be credible... dowsing is perfectly genuine and that its uses are not restricted only to locating underground water supplies. Physicists assure us that not only radioactive substances but all substances radiate to a greater or lesser degree, as do all certain fields of force, electric, magnetic, electromagnetic and so on... How the radiation causes the muscles to react, whether it travels by physical or psychical channels, or by both acting in combination, is still a matter for dispute but the last is the most likely answer. The range of frequencies that can be detected by any one dowser will depend largely on his sensitivity but it will usually include many that cannot be recorded by any known scientific instrument... reasonable to suppose that a human being is a more delicate mechanism than any artificial device... I hope that what I have told you will show how essential both training and experience are to a dowser and that the ability to get a reaction is relatively useless without the knowledge to interpret it correctly. The same applies to the archaeologist to an equal extent... It was said by the philosopher Heraclitus; 'If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is hard to be sought out and difficult'."

Sykes strongly believed that map dowsing surveys might be important to archaeology and the search for Atlantis.

Archaeology Based on Human Records

In 1955, Sykes stated that he liked to remind anti-Atlantologists about the fact that many historians and scientists did not believe that Troy had ever really existed, and in the end, Dr. Henry Schliemann found the remains of not one but three cities of Troy, one above another.

"May not the same be done for Atlantis?" Sykes asked.

Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann was a gentleman amateur whose genius and eccentricities infuriated academic circles of the time.

In 1959, Robert Payne published The Gold of Troy in London. In the November 1959 issue of New World Antiquity, Sykes' commentary on the book stated,

"In Europe, the majority of the greatest archaeologists of the last century were gentlemen amateurs whose eccentricities drove their contemporaries into fury, but whose persistence has enabled the present day generation of prosaic pedants to turn archaeology from being a great adventure into a somewhat dull occupation.'

In June 1960 in Atlantis, L.M. Young wrote The Great Schliemann in which he stated,

"... at the age of fourteen apprenticed to a grocer's... Here he worked from five in the morning to eleven at night for five years... until a chance encounter with a shipbroker... obtained a messenger's position at a counting house... though he still endured poverty and hardship, set to study principally what was to be his greatest asset, languages... quickly developed the qualities of the great merchant which he was to become... Schliemann not only accumulated wealth but also continued to acquire languages."

Heinrich was rumored to have begun his Atlantean investigations in 1883, seven years before his death.

Paul Schliemann

On October 20, 1912, Paul Schliemann published his sensational story on Atlantis in the Hearst Press' New York American. Sykes saw a copy of the article in the Hearst's Sunday, November 12, 1912.

In his fascinating tale, Paul Schliemann wrote about receiving "the confidential envelope" proclaiming that a special fund was deposited in the Bank of France to be paid to the bearer who is solemnly obligated to continue Heinrich's researches into Atlantis. Heinrich claimed that the discovery of Atlantis was worth a hundred Troys. Heinrich had noted the similarities between Egyptian and Mayan life. Paul made expeditions to Sais, the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Central America, Mexico, and Peru.

Paul examined the metal coin contents of owl headed vases. The vase bore on it the inscription, "From King Chronos at Atlantis", and Paul found a Phoenician engraving on one side, "Issued in the Temple of the Transparent Walls". The metal was tested by his grandfather, and found to be a platinum, aluminum, and copper combination. Paul Schliemann may not have been right, but he certainly provided an impetus to Atlantean research Paul also claimed that a papyrus in the Imperial Museum Library at St. Petersburg, which was from the Second Egyptian Dynasty (Pharaoh Sent in 4571 BC), recorded how a Pharaoh sent an expedition to the west in search of traces of the Land of Atlantis. Paul Schliemann stated that the Chaldean inscription of 2000 BC in a Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Lhasa decreed, "When the Star Bal fell on the place where there is now only sea and sky, the Seven Cities with their Golden Gates and Transparent Temples quivered and shook like the leaves of a tree in a storm. And, behold, a flood of fire and smoke arose from the palaces. Agony and cries of the multitude filled the air..."

Although the statements in the article were sensational, they carried conviction.

Paul did not follow up the newspaper article with an elaboration of his thesis and never finished his promised book on Atlantis. The complete silence after 1918 confirms the view generally held that young Schliemann died either during or just after the war. His wife remarried a prominent European statesman, M. Tsaldaris, who became Prime Minister of Greece on two occasions.

In January 1952 in Atlantis, Sykes published The Schliemann Mystery in which he told the sensational story about Paul Schliemann, Heinrich Schliemann's grandson, in great detail.

In January 1958 in Atlantis, Dr. N. Th. Zhirov wrote The Paul Schliemann Mystery in which he stated, "... this article is scientifically illiterate mystification, filled by detective adventure... I think that it is high time to exclude P. Schliemann's "document" from Scientific Atlantology."

Unlike Zhirov, however, Sykes never let go of the possibility that Paul Schliemann's claims were true.

In the January 1959 issue of Atlantis, in Le Plongeon, Paul Schliemann, And Hoerbiger, Sykes made it clear that he was frustrated that

"over a period of forty-five years not a single member of the Schliemann family has uttered a single word either in favor or against the story... Whether Schliemann was an unprincipled hoaxer or an honest man who has been maligned by fate, only his relatives can tell. Everybody who was with the Hearst Press in 1912 who was in any way connected with the original publication of the articles has now retired and died; there seem to be no other means of checking available..."

In January 1974 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote in Paul Schliemann And The Temple Of Translucent Walls, "Paul Schliemann may not have been right in his conclusions, but he certainly provided an impetus to Atlantean research which lasted until 1939. For one solitary news article to have an effect lasting twenty seven years shows how important it was."

Biblical Archaeology

Biblical Archaeology includes study of the Old Testament which Sykes described as "... a history written by human beings about human beings, and included the religious, political, and social foibles of its time." With respect to possible connections to Atlantis, Sykes recommended the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Book of Noah, the Sibylline Oracles, Letter of Aristeas, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Apocalypses of Baruch and Ezra, Book of Jubilees, Shepherd of Hermes, Didache, and Chenoboskian Gnostic Scripts.

In 1947, Sykes was denied a visa by the Turkish government in which he proposed to head an expedition to look for Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat. Sykes had wanted to date the Deluge. In the March 1949 issue of Atlantis, Sykes wrote Noah's Ark: The Secret Of Mount Ararat.

In July 1957 in New World Antiquity, Sykes wrote an editorial Archaeology and Religious Faith in which he stated, "One of the difficulties which are frequently encountered is the unwillingness of representatives of religious organizations to accept current archaeological and historical theory when it tends to conflict with their ideas."

In April 1964 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote Hinzpeter's Ideas On The Garden Of Eden in which he stated, "Apart from the Biblical sources we also have the Story of Gilgamesh and a series of other tales from Babylonia which tend to confirm that wherever Eden may have been situated, it was not in Mesopotamia... a memory of the almost fantastic period that immediately preceded to the break up of the Tiahuanaco moon."

In March 1966 in Atlantis, Sykes wrote George Hinzpeter And The Old Testament in which he stated, "George Hinzpeter considers that the Story of the Sun having stood still in the heavens really refers to the anchored moon, a fact which I am inclined to accept... We have to go to the Abyssinian satellite in its Late main Anchorage stage to find the origin of the Joshua story."

In March 1976, Sykes wrote History And The Stars for New World Antiquity and stated that,

"As a reference book the Old Testament is extremely good, but it is overloaded with political and religious prejudice, plus a tendency on the part of the scribes to take events from the remote past and attach them to the stories of their epic heroes and prophets. It is none the worse for that, I consult it almost daily, but these considerations must be born in mind".

Sykes considered the Bible to be the best history book available for the period between 2000 BC and AD 100.

In 1978 in New World Antiquity, Sykes wrote Difficulties Encountered In The Use Of Religious Source Material in which he stated,

"... the impossibility of describing events outside the range of knowledge of the period... it is not possible to describe the Creation or even the early stages of the evolution of humanity... What we have to accept is that religious history is as full of inaccuracies as any other form, and that while stories of cosmic disasters are obviously eyewitness accounts, for which considerable literary latitude must be allowed... later generations have adapted stories to fit in with the dogma of the era... the dates are usually wrong... I had hoped that the scrolls (the Dead Sea Scrolls) would provide access to really early material, but this has not so far been the case... The Old Testament, in spite of many inaccuracies, has always been the best source book on the Near East...The Thothic Books, when we find them, may be more scientific. The Greek classics, while useful, are at the bottom of the list simply because they have passed through too many hands."

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