This chapter tracks a route to Atlantis. Following all geographical data related to Atlantis and projecting it on the Earth geographical asset it becomes unequivocally clear that the only place that suits Plato's description of Atlantis is South America.

In the previous chapter we gathered enough information for enlightening the path which leads to Atlantis. We saw how Atlantis didn’t come out from the needing of explaining moral or political ideas. Indeed it was placed by Plato in an historical background surrounded by a deep interest for naturalistic knowledge and civilizations’ development. Atlantis has been put by Plato among concepts of Cosmology, geology and oceanography.

If Plato was honest, as we believe, and told the truth who should show us he was right ? Science. Why ? Simply because we stated Plato’s dialogues had a scientific feature. So actual science can confirm or deny what Plato wrote. Once again our starting point is the description given in the Timaeus. Reading the main passage we easily collect Atlantis’ crucial information: before the pillars of Heracles and outside them, greater than Asia Minor and North Africa, between Atlantis and an opposite continent lot of small islands worked as a natural bridge, Atlantis sunk under the sea. Today science offers us a large variety of physical world representations: from satellite photos and from geographic maps. Moreover it knows the evolution of Earth continents and the principles of their changing. Atlantis itself was a continental island so the principles of geology can help us.   

The first question we are going to answer is: can continents sink ?  No. The sinking of a continent would mean Earth’s crust collapsing over itself and that never happened in the history of our planet. This event is certainly impossible thanks to crust’s stiffness. The continents, which are the superficial part of crust, can be only flooded by raising waters. Atlantis was destroyed at the end of last ice age, like Plato said, and today the sea level is not more than 200 meters above the old one thanks to ice melting. Atlantis was really big and, above all, was featured by very high mountains: this means it couldn’t be entirely flooded and swallowed up by waters but just its coasts, like Africa or Europe, were “eaten” by the raising sea levels. Plato clearly made a mistake or got confused: an island like Atlantis, with mountains, rivers, plateaus and huger that Libya and Asia can’t be physically erased by earthquakes or volcanic explosions. Looking at an Atlas where Earth in 12,000 BC is drawn we notice how the continents are still the same in the same position and how the ice had a different expansion. Only continental coasts and Indonesian archipelago where over sea level differently than today.  

 So Atlantis, if existed, still exists in the same place. This even means it can’t be in the middle of the ocean which we call Atlantic. The mid Atlantic chain of mountains arises from over than 2 km under actual sea level and 9,000 before Solon they were certainly still underwater: the Azores were just a little bigger than today but they couldn’t reach the dimension of a continent at all! The same is for the Caribbean or Canary islands. Curiously enough Atlantis seems not to be in the place Plato said. We can’t deny that because science showed in that area a large continent probably existed not before 3 millions years ago.

There is an element that successfully solves the mystery. Read here what Plato said about the geographical features of the place were the capital city (also called Atlantis) flourished:

 “Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high on any side.”

 “The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them also many wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work… It was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch”

 The capital of Atlantis laid over a plateau. What does this mean ? It means, thanks to the conclusion of the previous passage, that this plateau, if existed, must exist still today since it couldn’t be flooded thanks to the high mountains that protected it from sea and it’s position far above the sea itself (lofty). Moreover Plato gave a detailed description of this plain: it was rectangular (2:3 is the relationship between its sides), enclosed by high mountains, it looked towards the sea, it was in the centre of the island and part the mountains which surrounded this area abruptly fall over the sea.

Now remember these features and just let us solve another problem. Plato, for Atlantic ocean, of course, didn’t mean only the actual Atlantic which comes from a conventional division of Earth’s unique water mirror in three parts. For Plato the Atlantic was all the sea beyond the pillars of Heracles, thus including even the Pacific and Indian oceans. Now that we know even this concept we repeat the question: Where is a continental island, rich of high mountains, rivers, minerals, bigger than Libya and Asia Minor and in front of the Pillars of Heracles ?

The answer is so simple and solves the mystery of Atlantis: since hundredths of thousands and thousands years ago there has been only one island with all these features. Atlantis is the South America (1). What is the final proof ? We spoke about the rectangular plateau and said, thanks to scientific arguments, that today it must be, if really existed, in the same position given by Plato. Now look at the centre of South America on the side of the Andes (2) . There is the so called Altiplano (3), a Plateau surrounded by the Andes, rectangular with a proportion of 2:3, and of course looking to the Pacific from one side, where the mountains fall directly to the sea. It his 3700 m over seal level. Are these the exact elements Plato gave for Atlantis’ plain or not ? Can be this a coincidence ? We think of no and this shows how Plato’s dialogues really told the truth. And there is much more to say.

In fact, speaking about the capital city of Atlantis Plato even said:

 “And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress”

 And about the large canals which featured the plateau:

 “...straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea…”

 It’s clear from these passages that the plateau had an inland sea. The sea mentioned by Plato couldn’t be the ocean since the whole plain was lofty and far above the sea level. It’s obvious canals can’t be built to link the waters of a plateau to the ones of an ocean since they would go down through mountains.

The question, this time, is: does such a sea exist in the Altiplano ? Of course and it’s called today Lake Poopò. This mirror of water, which had the southern extremity just in the middle of the Altiplano is getting dry but still lies on the plain. The capital city was just 9 km far from the sea and centered in the plain (from one side): it is possible it really lies south of lake Poopò. Looking at the altimetry (4) of the Altiplano we notice how the mountains that surround it on the North are higher. Plato, in fact, said:

"This part of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north"

Another questions is: do the huge canals of the plain lie still there ? Thanks to the expeditions of a British explorer, Jim Allen, a part of a huge canal, corresponding to the same measures given by Plato, has been reviewed in the middle north of the Altiplano. Other channels are probably hidden beneath the ground. Allen even visited other meaningful elements of the Altiplano, such as lake Poopò and some hills just south of it: the hills that likely keep the last secret of Atlantis: the city of concentric rings. All his expeditions gave birth to this theory that’s evolving step by step actually and always bring new positive elements. Please read what Plato wrote about the walls that encircled the rings of the city:

  “The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered with a coating of copper, and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum.”  

 Three different metals were used to cover and decorate the walls. This means they were abundant in Atlantis. Try to give a look to the mineral resources of the Altiplano (5): we do not need to comment that. Moreover Bolivia is even  the best country in exporting tin while Perù is the same for copper! However the whole South America is rich of metals and minerals like Plato stated for Atlantis. And now, speaking about metals, we’re going to understand what orichalcum was. In the passage above we read it flashed of a red light (other authors translated it flashed like fire) and in the following one Plato gives a more complete description:

 “In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, solid as well as fusile, and that which is now only a name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, being more precious in those days than anything except gold”

 Orichalcum was naturally present in the earth and was really valuable: in fact it was even used for adorning temples together with silver and gold. What can it be ? Probably enough it’s not a natural element like gold or silver checked in the chemical table. Of course it is not even an artificial element. It can be a natural alloy.  In fact just in South America, and not in any other part of the world, a natural alloy of copper and gold is dug out together with all other natural resources of the country. Being a mixture of gold it can be considered valuable and being a mixture of gold (yellow) and copper (red) surely it suits perfectly the idea of red light or fire light.

Coincidence are becoming too much and even the smallest detail given by Plato finds confirmation and evidence in the Altiplano or, generally, in South America. Going on we must notice how Plato underlined the richness of Atlantis regarding the natural resources, the fine clime, the abundance of rivers and forests. These elements all fit South America without any doubt as before the end of last ice age it was in an advantageous position far from ice extensions.  

 Anyway Plato said Atlantis was abundant of elephants and there were even horses. In South America these kinds don’t exist actually. Another mistake or isn’t Atlantis South America ? Well we can comment this problem. Before the end of the ice age Earth was inhabited even by kinds of animals that nowadays don’t live any more because they were wiped out or condemned to extinction by the catastrophes which came with the ice melting. For example the mammoth has been wiped out and the same for Toxodons. Around the world lot animal bones’ piles have been found. And these piles reveals bones of different kinds of animals, all killed by the same cause maybe while trying to get safe. In Alaska for example bones’ piles of tigers, lions, wolfs and mammoths were found. It is likely that some species were successful in surviving in a zone and die in another since we believe a few number of each kind survived to the catastrophe. It’s possible elephants and horses were wiped out in the American continent. Curiously enough a Mayan relief seems to represent an animal like an elephant but people are still very unsure about that. Some mastodons of ice age have been really found in South America (Columbia); they probably were successful in travelling through the narrow strait which from Mexico leds to this continent. Andes instead were rich of a relative of the Elephant: the Cuverionius. It's possible they came to South America in a larger number or that they were even imported (of course we're hypotizing the existence of intelligent civilizations).

Beyond all we know for certain that North America was rich of mammoths and mastodons up to 12,000 years ago. They belonged to the same family of elephants and they were all very similar. These giant animals were practically spread in all continents and joined North America coming from Siberia across the Bering Strait that was a bridge of land during those times since the level of the sea was lower. Even horses were in North America. It is possible they also migrated to South America passing from Central America. That even shows how different was the clime in the world and in the American continent there were even lions and the extinct sabre toothed cat.      

 This theory is nothing but an extension of the traditional credence of the island in the middle of the Atlantic. Since the Atlantic were Atlantis lay was the whole oceans of Earth it’s simple verifying how South America is just between the actual Pacific and Atlantic oceans that for ancient Greeks were just a unique extension of water (called Atlantic).  The islands that from Atlantis worked as bridge up to the opposite continent are the Pacific ones and of course the continent encircling the sea is Eurasia. So Plato really told the truth: Atlantis was in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. And now we already saw this island was South America and really features the geographic details furnished by Plato. What else could we say for admitting Atlantis has been rediscovered ?

Jim Allen’s efforts have been very strong and efficacious and his explorations on the Altiplano still give encouraging results. Being an expert of aerial photography analysis (i.e. he’s able to know physical elements and lot of information regarding the geography of the place just looking to photos taken by aeroplane for example) he has been successful in finding out the regular shape of the Altiplano and the relative huge canal. In fact it’s hard recognising them from common physic representations of South America since the Altiplano is a brown stain mixed with the brown colour of the Andes thus confusing its regular shape. Looking at South America and the Altiplano from space we really feel convinced of their identification with Atlantis.

The Altiplano shows a fine rectangular shape and its shortest side starts from the sea towards the centre of the continent (exactly like Plato stated).  Looking at the position of South America from a cylindrical projection map we see how, to tell the truth, it’s a little under Gibraltar and not perfectly opposite. The problem is that we are looking at a wrong representation of the relative positions of continents because we’re representing a spherical surface (where continents actually lay) in a flat 2D surface. If we look South America position from space (6)  we see how it’s really opposite Gibraltar since the ideal tangent which comes outside the strait points directly to the upper part of our Atlantis thus corroborating the right position of South America.

 We show lot of geographical evidence that would be enough for correctly identifying Atlantis with South America. The next step, of course, involves the search for archaeological proofs. On one hand we already told about the large canal (7) which certainly belongs to an unknown civilization and it’s a work of mankind. On the other hand we have the mysterious Tiahuanaco, a stone city placed just North of the rectangular plateau, near Titicaca lake. No one knows who built this city and some legend told how it was built by gods thanks to the sound of a horn. It has dock’s braces and probably one time laid over Titicaca (in fact its waters are now slowly retiring). The most amazing element of Tiahuanaco is the "Gateway to the Sun" (8), a large unique monolith were some symbols are carved out. Some images seem to represent the Toxodons, an extinct animal, while other symbols seems to refer to cosmologic subjects. Actually archaeologists think it was built after Christs' birth and that it was abandoned in 1300 BC. Anyway they're not able to explain where its inhabitants went or what compelled them to settle away. It's more likely  they left the city much more time before. Today Tiahuanaco is a desolated city of poor ruins made by bare rock: it's hard it could be a civil site in 1300 BC. Someone tried to date back the city thanks to astronomical coincidences (Arthur Posnansky claimed it was built around 15,000 AC). The last date would be confirmed by the fact that the Gateway to the Sun and some local amphoras shows representations of the extincted animals already mentioned. Another clue can be revealed by the map of the city that has dock' s braces as it had been once next to the sea. Looking at the past levels of Titicaca lake we can state that more that 12,000 years ago it was really higher and Tiahuanaco was inside a small island. We have an unknown city just in the place were Atlantis is supposed to be: isn’t that another convincing coincidence ?
Andes, expecially around the Altiplano, are full of clues involving unknown civilizations. Nazca lines could be an additional example. These are huge drawings of bare rock (they can engage an area up to some hundreths of mq) visible only from a certain quote, so thet people thought it were drawn by people able to fly. another clue can be represented by Macchu Picchu (9), built with huge stones in an hostile area. This place was probably designed for holy rituals. The fort of Sacsahuaman, which features huge block of stones cut and placed like puzzles, wasn't surely work of Incas: in fact in their chronicles we get aware of their failure when one time they tried to strenghten its walls by carring other huge stones. Unfortunately, during this operation, a stone fell killing hundreths of men and wounding much more ones. 

We need just one more archaeological proof: the capital city, that likely enough was buried underground. Beyond the area of the Altiplano South America is full of incredible prehistoric ruins that today no one can explain. Most of them are just inside the Amazonian forest, an inaccessible place where many explorers lost their lives looking for forgotten civilizations and treasures.