How Atlantis Actually Looked According to Plato

More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato described a civilization that existed far beyond the familiar world of ancient Greece. He called it Atlantis, an enormous island power situated beyond the pillars of Herakles. Plato did not describe Atlantis simply as a mysterious island swallowed by the ocean, but gave very detailed dimensions for its capital, canals, agricultural plain, and the appearance of its defenses, with walls plated in bronze, tin, and the mysterious reddish orichalcum, combined with his descriptions of red, black, and white stone, as well as the underground quarries from which they were extracted. He didn't write about a fantastical city with flying vehicles, machines, or crystal energy sources, but a wealthy and highly organized kingdom filled with monumental architecture, engineered waterways, fertile agricultural lands arranged in precise grids, harbors, temples, palaces, and an extraordinary capital built around concentric rings of land and water. Whether Atlantis was history, legend, political allegory, or some combination of these remains debated, but Plato left enough physical detail that we can attempt something fascinating, reconstructing how Atlantis would actually have looked if we followed his description as closely as possible. Using the detailed measurements given in Plato's Critias, a French Rosicrucian writer named Raymond Bernard wrote the book, The Invisible Empire, in which he included blueprint-like diagrams reconstructing Atlantis' enormous agricultural plain, network of canals, and famous capital, all strictly based on the exact dimensions and measurements given by Plato. From these blueprints, we can see that the city stood close to the sea, but was surrounded inland by an enormous plain, while mountains rose beyond it and enclosed the region toward the north. The plain measured roughly 345 miles long and 230 miles wide, creating an agricultural territory of extraordinary size. Much of this landscape was geometrically organized, rather than left in a natural state, divided by roads, fields, waterways, settlements, and irrigation channels. Seen from the mountains, the capital would have appeared as a brilliant circular complex near the coast, surrounded by an immense green agricultural grid disappearing toward the horizon. Plato describes 60,000 agricultural allotments, each associated with the administrative and military organization of the kingdom. The most important feature surrounding the plain was a colossal perimeter ditch, or canal. Plato describes it as roughly 100 feet deep and one stadium wide, running around the entire plain for a stated total length of 10,000 stadia. Its purpose was much greater than simply marking the edge of the agricultural territory, because it formed the main collecting channel for water descending from the surrounding highlands. Rivers and streams coming down from the mountains entered this enormous perimeter waterway instead of flowing randomly across the plain. This design is not historically unheard of. As we know, the ancient Aztecs constructed an extensive system of canals, aqueducts, causeways, and artificial agricultural islands around their capital of Tenochtitlan. Waterways served simultaneously as transportation routes and part of a sophisticated agricultural system, while Chinampas created highly productive cultivated zones supplied by the surrounding waters. Although the scale and geometry were very different from Plato's Atlantis, the comparison demonstrates that an ancient capital could be integrated into a vast engineered waterscape in which agriculture, transportation, freshwater management, and urban life operated together. According to Plato, the forests in these mountains provided Atlantis with an abundance of timber transported through the canal network, while lakes and meadows created additional reservoirs of freshwater and fertile environments. At the opposite end of the system stood Atlantis and the ocean. Water that began as rainfall or springs in the mountains descended through rivers, entered the surrounding ditch, passed through or alongside the agricultural network, approached the capital, and finally escaped into the sea. At the southern edge of the enormous agricultural plain stood the feature that made Atlantis instantly recognisable, its concentric capital of alternating rings of land and water. The centre stood the original hill where the main temple complex stood. Around this central ground were alternating circular zones of water and land. Counting outward from the centre, there were three rings of water separated by two rings of land, producing five concentric zones around the central island. The result was a city composed of a central acropolis, three circular harbours, and two enormous inhabited land rings connected through an elaborate system of bridges, gates, tunnels, docks, and canals. The central island was approximately five stadia, or roughly half a mile in diameter. This was the sacred and royal heart of Atlantis, containing the palace complex, the sanctuary of Poseidon and Cleto, the great temple of Poseidon, sacred groves, springs, baths, monuments, and residences associated with the rulers. The surrounding water separated this precinct physically from the rest of the capital, turning the royal centre into a naturally fortified island. Anyone approaching the palace by land therefore had to cross successive waterways and controlled bridges before finally reaching the innermost sanctuary. Immediately surrounding this central island was the first and smallest ring of water. Beyond it came the first ring of land, followed by another water ring, another land ring, and finally the third and largest circular waterway. Plato gives different widths to these zones, so Atlantis was not simply composed of several identical circles placed inside one another. The dimensions expanded outward, making the entire complex progressively broader as it approached the outer city. These waterways were not decorative moats. They were functioning harbours large enough for ships, and the outer rings in particular formed enormous protected maritime basins running completely around the city. A ship inside one of them could travel around Atlantis without entering the open sea, reaching docks and waterfront districts distributed along the circumference. The capital was therefore built around maritime transportation in much the same way that other ancient cities were built around streets. The three water rings were connected with one another by channels cut directly through the intervening rings of land. These openings transformed what would otherwise have been three isolated circular lakes into a connected harbour system. The connection with the ocean was provided by the great sea canal. This enormous straight waterway extended approximately six miles from the outermost circular harbour to the coast and was roughly 300 feet wide. It was also extraordinarily deep, approximately 100 feet according to the dimensions given in Plato's account. The openings through the land rings were particularly sophisticated. Plato describes bridges being constructed across the channels so that roads could continue between the different parts of the city. Beneath these bridges the waterways were covered over in such a way that ships could pass underneath through enclosed passages. The result was something resembling enormous maritime tunnels running beneath the principal crossings. These tunnels were specifically large enough to accommodate a single vessel. A ship travelling inward would therefore leave the open circular harbour, enter a dark covered channel beneath a bridge and fortified land ring and emerge into the next enormous basin. Above it people, horses, carts and soldiers could cross between the districts without interrupting maritime traffic below. Atlantis consequently possessed two transportation networks operating across the same geography. Roads and bridges above, waterways and ship passages below. The circular land zones themselves were heavily developed rather than being empty defensive barriers. Plato describes houses, docks, military facilities, temples, gardens and other structures distributed through the capital. Because each ring had water along both its inner and outer edges, an extraordinary proportion of the city possessed direct waterfront access. Buildings could face one harbour on one side of a land ring and another harbour on the opposite side. The outer ring was especially associated with intense maritime activity. Here were docks, shipyards, warehouses, naval stores, merchants, sailors, craftsmen, soldiers and visitors arriving from throughout the Atlantean territories. Plato describes such enormous activity around the harbours that the area was filled with noise both day and night. Rather than a quiet ceremonial city, the outer districts of Atlantis would have resembled one of the busiest ports in the ancient world. According to Plato's Creteus, Atlantis did not look like the uniform white marble Greek city often shown in modern artwork. He describes a much more colourful and metallic city. Plato says the Atlanteans quarried white, black and red stone from beneath the central island and the surrounding rings. They used these contrasting stones in their buildings, sometimes combining the colours to create a deliberately varied and attractive appearance. The excavated quarry spaces were also transformed into covered docks, meaning parts of the city would have contained buildings and harbour facilities carved directly into the rock. This meant that beneath portions of the spectacular circular city existed another architectural world of excavated chambers, waterways, storage areas and protected places where ships could disappear beneath the inhabited rings. The red, black and white layers of exposed stone would have made the entrances particularly striking, especially where the quarry faces remained visible around the waterline. The city's fortifications were especially spectacular. The wall around the outermost zone was coated with bronze, the next wall with tin and the wall surrounding the central acropolis with orichalcum, which Plato describes as shining with a fiery or reddish brilliance. This means the concentric city would have presented bands of coloured masonry and reflective metal rather than endless white stone. The most magnificent building was the Temple of Poseidon on the central island. Inside stood a colossal golden image of Poseidon driving a chariot drawn by six winged horses surrounded by 100 nereids riding dolphins. Plato says the statue was so enormous that Poseidon's head nearly touched the temple ceiling. Numerous additional golden statues dedicated by Atlantis' kings and citizens surrounded it, making the interior exceptionally elaborate and richly decorated. The central island also contained the Royal Palace, which successive kings expanded and embellished over generations, each attempting to surpass his predecessor. Around it were sacred enclosures, fountains supplied by hot and cold springs, elaborate baths, gardens, temples, barracks and other monumental structures. If it sounds astonishing, we have to consider that there was another ancient city built according to a remarkably similar circular concept. In 762 AD, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur founded the round city of Baghdad, an enormous planned capital approximately one and a quarter miles across, organised around a powerful central precinct. Like Atlantis, the most important political and religious buildings stood at the centre, with the Caliph's Palace and Great Mosque surrounded by concentric defensive zones. Four monumental gates and broad radial avenues connected this protected centre with the outside world and the major trade routes of the empire. Another historical comparison can be made with the port of ancient Carthage. The Carthaginians constructed the famous Cothon, an artificial harbour complex that included a circular military basin with an island at its centre, surrounded by docks and covered shipsheds capable of housing a large naval fleet. From above, its carefully engineered circular geometry bears a striking conceptual resemblance to Plato's description of Atlantis, where ships occupied artificial waterways surrounded by specialised maritime infrastructure, although in a much smaller scale. Nevertheless, Carthage demonstrates that sophisticated circular harbour systems were well within the capabilities of ancient engineers. But the engineered capital represented only one part of Atlantis, because Plato also describes an island possessing extraordinary natural abundance. One of his most surprising details is the presence of elephants. He specifically says that elephants existed on Atlantis in great numbers, explaining that the island provided sufficient food not only for domesticated animals, but also for the largest and most voracious creatures. This means the landscape surrounding the capital should not be imagined simply as Mediterranean scrubland surrounding a marble city. Plato also describes abundant timber, roots, herbs, fruits, cultivated crops and aromatic plants. The mountains provided wood in enormous quantities, while the lowlands produced food for both humans and animals. Rivers and lakes occurred throughout the surrounding highlands, creating fertile valleys before their waters descended toward the engineered plain. Atlantis therefore combined highly controlled agricultural territory with extensive forests, mountains, waterways, pasture and wildlife. One of the most remarkable natural features of Atlantis was found at the very centre of the capital, where Plato describes two abundant springs emerging from the ground near the royal and sacred precinct. One produced cold water, while the other produced hot water, and both were said to flow generously throughout the year. Rather than leaving these springs in their natural state, the Atlanteans incorporated them directly into the architecture of the central island. Water therefore became part of the palace complex itself, flowing among temples, gardens, bathing facilities, reservoirs and sacred spaces. Plato emphasises that the water was exceptional both in quantity and quality. The inhabitants constructed reservoirs around the springs, creating elaborate pools supplied continuously by naturally flowing water. Some of these bathing areas were left open to the sky, while others were covered so that they could be used during winter. The result was something resembling an enormous thermal complex occupying part of the most prestigious district of Atlantis. The closest historical comparison may be the enormous imperial bath complexes of ancient Rome, particularly the baths of Caracalla and the later baths of Diocletian. These were not simply places to wash, but monumental complexes containing vast heated halls, cold and warm pools, gardens, courtyards, exercise areas, fountains and richly decorated gathering spaces capable of accommodating thousands of people. Atlantis differed in one remarkable respect, however, because Plato describes its hot and cold waters as emerging naturally from springs at the very heart of the royal island, rather than depending entirely on an artificial heating system. Imagined on the scale of Rome's greatest baths, these springs would have made the centre of Atlantis appear as a vast landscaped thermal sanctuary where monumental architecture, gardens, flowing water and naturally heated pools surrounded the palace and temple of Poseidon. Speaking of Rome, the end of Atlantis does not sound much different than that of the Roman Empire. According to Plato, the end came after a long period in which the civilization had reached extraordinary wealth and power. The Atlanteans originally possessed what he describes as a more noble character, valuing virtue above their immense quantities of gold, land, ships and other possessions. Over generations, however, this character gradually changed as the divine element within them became increasingly diluted by their human ancestry. Their enormous wealth began to dominate their ambitions and Atlantis transformed from a prosperous kingdom into an increasingly expansionist power. Plato describes a subsequent period of extraordinary earthquakes and floods, compressing the final catastrophe into a remarkably short period. The island of Atlantis sank beneath the sea. If the physical layout Plato describes is followed, the scale of what disappeared would have been extraordinary. The question that naturally follows Plato's detailed description is whether Atlantis was based on a real place and, if so, where it was located. One of the most popular theories identifies it with the Minoan civilization and the island of Santorini, where the catastrophic eruption of Thera devastated a sophisticated maritime society, although the location and chronology do not match Plato's account. Another theory places Atlantis in southwestern Spain near the ancient civilization of Tartessos, a wealthy Atlantic trading region beyond the Strait of Gibraltar that was vulnerable to powerful earthquakes and tsunamis. The enormous concentric richet structure in Mauritania has also been proposed because of its striking resemblance to Atlantis from above, although geology shows that its rings are natural formations and no Atlantean city has been discovered there. Another possibility is that Plato combined memories of several real civilizations and catastrophes, Minoan maritime power, ancient hydraulic engineering, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic destruction and submerged prehistoric landscapes into a single extraordinary civilization. No location has yet produced archaeological evidence matching Atlantis as Plato described it, so whether the story preserves the distorted memory of a real lost civilization or represents an extraordinarily detailed philosophical creation remains one of its greatest mysteries.