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Atlantis Bolivia - page 3, Bolivian legend of Atlantis and the discovery of "America"
Most remarkable of all, a Bolivian legend called "The Legend of the Desaguadero"
tells of a city on the edge of a lake, punished by the gods and submerged by the sea, in exactly the same manner as Plato's.
In the Bolivian legend, Tunupa, the Aymara god also known in Quechua (language of the Incas) as Pachacamac or Viracocha was the Andean god of the waterways, lakes and rivers (i.e. the sea god) and a teacher of mankind - just as in Greek legend the equivalent god was Poseidon.
Tunupa/Pachacamac tried to persuade the people from their degenerate ways but failed so the chief of the gods decided to punish the city and it sank beneath the waters of the sea (lake).
Tunupa/Pachacamac was cast adrift in Lake Titicaca in a reed boat, but the boat travelled to the south opening up a waterway which became the River Desaguadero until Tunupa/Pachacamac arrived at Pampa Aullagas where he disappeared beneath the waters of the lake.
Tunupa disappears beneath the waters of Lake Poopo near Pampa Aullagas
Above, the city is punished by the chief of the Gods,
Illustration from "Legends of Bolivia" by Rene Rojas
There are local variations of the story and in the region of Pampa Aullagas it is said that Tunupa later re-appeared in female form and married a god who lived on a nearby hill, later creating the ringed formations at Pampa Aullagas (just as in Plato's story, Poseidon married a woman who lived on a hill and created the ringed defences of Atlantis). So here we have the origin of Plato's legend of Atlantis - an adaptation of a Bolivian Legend.
Also in Plato's version, the wife of Poseidon had five
pairs of twin sons and in Inca legend, after a great flood, Viracocha
"adopted" five pairs of sons. Viracocha incidentally means "Spume of the Sea". Other legends say the first Incas were born as
pairs of brothers/sisters.
So the first inhabitants of Atlantis were born in pairs and the Inca historian Guaman de Poma
tells us the first inhabitants of the Andes were born in pairs.
Additionally, The Aymara kingdoms which existed on the Altiplano also existed in
pairs, they were twin kingdoms.
orichalcum twins - twins are a common theme in the Andes
Artist's impression "Atlantis on the Altiplano" by
Major Lee Smart
Atlantis at Pampa Aullagas, Artist's illustration from
"Atlas of Atlantis" - click for this recommended book
which presents the various theories, background and locations proposed for Atlantis.
remains of
Atlantis, at Pampa Aullagas, "the mountain
that was low on all sides."
The test of any theory is first to write the theory, then to see if the observations fit the
premises of the theory.
The Altiplano is the only site that fits practically all of the
geographic points
of Plato's description.
Whether an actual city existed in the exact manner described by Plato
is more difficult to prove since it is not known to what extent he may
have embellished the original legend, perfecting it's geometry and
making it into the "superpower" he wanted to pitch in his battle
against his own ancient Athens.
But clearly we have geographical evidence, geological evidence and
mythical evidence from Bolivia, as well as the fact that the level
plain is itself eminently suitable for the water canal based culture
Plato described, and the water canal culture continues to this day.
We also have another form of evidence in the manner of the naming of the continent itself.
The continent remained lost from knowledge until 1492 when rediscovered
by Christoper Columbus sailing west in an attempt to reach the Indies.
Columbus had with him a map and believed he had reached what he called the "Indias" but Americo Vespucci was
first to identify the newly discovered lands as a "new" continent, or "New World"
The continent opposite the Pillars of Hercules which Columbus found was considered a "New World" by Amerigo Vespucci.
In 1507 the German cartographer Waldseemuller produced a world map on twelve panels which included the newly found continent. He decided to name the continent "America" in honour of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci who was first to recognise that the continent was a continent in it's own right, instead of being part of Asia as Columbus had thought.
Panel 1 has an inscription....
So the newly discovered continent came to be called America, but at the same time many people thought that what Christopher Columbus had in fact discovered was Atlantis. The first book to mention this was "The History of the Indies" by Franciso Lopez de Gomara. Published in 1552, the book was banned the following year and not reprinted until 1727.
The next book to definitivly state that South America was Atlantis was
"The History of the Incas" written by the great historian and classical
scholar Sarmiento de Gamboa following an official inquest into the true
history of the Incas
with the backing of the Viceroy of Peru. Sarmiento de Gamboa's book
clearly states that South America was Atlantis and at the time he was
writing was known by the names of "the western Indies of Castile or
America also called Atlanticus or the Atlantic Island". So the continent was also known sometimes
as "New Castile", "New Spain" or "Atlanticus", then latterly,
"America".
Sarmiento de Gamboa's book was sent to Philip II, king of Spain in 1572
and never heard of again being LOST for 300 years
The first map to show South America as Atlantis appears to be that of Sebastian Muller as part of his Cosmografia.
above, Map of the New World by Sebastian Muller, 1540, showing the name "Atlantis Island"
above, Detail of the Muller map showing the New World named as the "Atlantic Island", also known as Brasil or America.
The "Atlantis Insula" or map of "Atlantis Island" by French cartographer Guillermo Sanson, 1661.
The Atlantis Island remained a popular name and was shown as such on maps made by the French cartographer Guillermo Sanson in Paris in 1661.
But then following the Declaration of Independence by the United States in 1776 the name "America" became universally adopted and the name of Atlantis forgotten until resurrected in modern times.
No attention was given to the fact that the southern continent already had an indigenous name given by the Incas before the Conquest. Their name for the continent was "Tahuantinsuyo" meaning "land of the four quarters".
Location of Atlantis and Antisuyo in the empire of Tahuantinsuyo
One of these quarters was called "Antisuyo" meaning the kingdom of the Antis.
Antis is an Inca word meaning "copper" which could refer to the
abundance of copper on the continent or the people themselves who are
also copper coloured and a tribe of natives living to this day on the
eastern slopes of Peru are known as the "Antis". The very name of the
Andes themselves is also thought to be a corruption of the word
"Antis".
Atl is an Aztec word meaning "water" and the combination of "atl" and "antis" an excellent name for this continent since large parts of it are in fact under water in the wet season with severe flooding throughout Amazonia and Beni regions.
link to page with picture of Antis indians of 1869, Peru
