Taal and Atlantis

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Me (chatting to two good old friends in 2022 on Facebook while Taal Volcano was erupting): About four years ago, I deleted my google blog started in 2007 mostly centering around Taal. I thought of reviving it these days especially now that the Goddess has awaken. My main article, which was also consulted with a certain Robin Day, a Canadian working as an ESL teacher more than a decade ago is below…

Taal, the Lost Eden/Atlantis? Destroyed like Italy’s Pompei?

Atlantis, the mythical paradise island was described by Plato including its destruction by cataclysm like Italy’s unfortunate Pompei. It is subject to various speculations including whether it really existed or not in the past or where it was located. Many “experts” claimed as any layman would expect it to be in the Atlantic Ocean. Hence the name.

But just asking was there any recorded major cataclysmic event which would qualify the present Atlantic Ocean to be the place where a continent as large as “Libya” (the old name of Africa) and Asia (actually just Asia Minor or most of Present-day Turkey) combined would have submerged?

Was there any relic or volcanic sediments which could give evidence on the Ocean west of the Pillars of Heracles (i.e., the Straits of Gibraltar) as the final resting place of the people with high-technology and morality?

We propose a new location for Atlantis in Southeast Asia and we support this claim with linguistic, Plato and Strabo’s text/report, ancient maps and myth analysis. Archaeological digs are scarce in this region, especially on the flooded continental sea shelves, and deep below volcanic deposits. We hope to stimulate investigations.

Dr. Arysio Nunez dos Santos, a Brazilian nuclear-physicist in his site http://www.atlan.org gives these comments on the Canaries islands as the one being pinpointed by supporters of the Atlantic Ocean location of Atlantis:

—-“Many Atlantologists have proposed that the Canary Islands are the remainder of a sunken Atlantis, being the lofty volcanic peaks left behind when the lost continent foundered. However, the Canary islands rise directly from the deep ocean floor, from a depth of some 3,000 meters below the surface. Indeed, they are a part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, having been formed by submarine volcanoes at the end of the Tertiary Age (circa 2.5 million years ago).Their lavas consist of basalts and trachytes, the typical material of submarine, non-explosive volcanism typical of sea bottoms”.

“Due to both their age and their origin, the Canarian volcanoes can hardly be invoked to account for the conflagration that erased Atlantis off the map. Instead, this type of basaltic, submarine volcanism is nowadays perfectly well understood geologically speaking. Such volcanoes result from the upwelling magma that forms the Continental Plates, according to the theory of Plate Tectonics, and are a feature of all oceanic regions of the world. Hence, the claims made by certain Atlantologists such as P. Termier, I. Donnelly, C. Berlitz and many others that the Canaries or the Azores, or the Madeiras are the remains of sunken Atlantis do not hold water at all”.—–

Dr. dos Santos went on to argue that in actuality the term west of the “Pillar of Hercules” is a perfect (Mirror of) illusion made by some unknown people to hide the original location of Atlantis. More likely the original Pillar of Hercules is something similar in the Far Orient. The nearest would be the strait situated between Aden in Yemen and the closest land in the Horn of Africa (Somalia and Ethiopia). Moving further east it could be the strait between Java and Sumatra. Although Dr. dos Santos himself stop at Indonesia or Sumatra as the exact location for Atlantis.

Dr. Dos Santos went on to speak about the Mirror of Illusion:

——“The motif of the Mirror of Illusion occurs even in the Americas and, particularly among the Gnostics such as the Cathars and others. The Phoenicians indeed held that the Pillars of Hercules of Gibraltar were a “mirror image” of those located in the Orient, as some of their coins specifically illustrate. Interestingly enough, Maya (the male avatar of the Maya) is the Great Architect, the luciferin deity of the Gnostics and the enlightened civilizer of humanity. Maya (masculine of Maya) is also the builder of legendary Lanka, the city and capital of the worldwide empire that was the actual archetype of Atlantis”.—–

In another article by a certain Bill Lauritzen on the web http://www.earth360.com/his.atlantis.html

On it he argued that the term “Atlantic Ocean” today is confusing. The fact is that the Ancient Egyptians consider all the waters which surround Africa as “Atlantic”.  In effect it means that the present Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Seas beyond (including the then unnamed Pacific) as “Atlantic”.

Mr. Lauritzen went on to say:

—–“In addition, there is evidence that the Atlantic Ocean did not originally refer to what it refers to now. In ancient times people may have considered what we now call the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to be part of the Atlantic Ocean. Alexander Bessmerty states, regarding the Asian scholar Karst.

Very remarkable is [Karst’s] observation that according to the earliest language forms the Atlantis sea was considered as double, with an eastern basin and a western basin. In its original sense the concept of Libya and Ethiopia was applied to countries in south-western Asia, in touch with the Indo-Arabian ocean; but this sense gradually fell into disuse and the words, losing their locality value, became applied to the African territory in the other Atlantic basin. For Strabo the South Asiatic sea is still an ‘Atlantic’ sea which he supposes to be joined to the western Atlantic sea ….

If one takes a globe and turns it over so that the South Pole is at the top, and then orients the globe so that Egypt is at the bottom and center (ancient Egyptians considered the south to be “up” on their maps, so this is the way they would have viewed it), one will see Africa sticking “up” into a large body of water. The continent of South America will be barely visible on the right, and the islands of Indonesia will be barely visible on  the left. This large body of water may have been the “Atlantic” at one time.

It should be remarked that Atlantis was located “in front of” the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar separating Europe and Africa). However, this could also mean “beyond” the Pillars of Hercules.”—–

With those discussions we cast doubt on the “present Atlantic Ocean” location of Atlantis.

Now if Atlantis was in Indonesia or Southeast Asia where exactly might it have been.

Geologists now have evidence of a massive landmass in Southeast Asia called Sundaland which sank in three stages during the final phases of the last Ice Age (Pleistocene circa 12000-9000 BCE).

Robert Hall, a British geologist working in Southeast Asia gives this finding about Sundaland:

—–“Sundaland includes the large area of shallow seas (Sunda Shelf) between Indochina, Borneo, Java and Sumatra. This continental region has been in a similar position with respect to Asia from the early Mesozoic and since then has been largely emergent or submerged to very shallow depths. It is now surrounded on three sides by subduction and collision zones.

Subsidence began between the Paleocene and Oligocene. It is not clear if basin initiation was synchronous or if there was a systematic diachroneity. The older parts of most basins are terrestrial, commonly unfossiliferous, and the deeper parts are unsampled. Some of the basins may contain sediment supplied from Asia following India collision but most was probably locally derived. For example, deep circum-Borneo basins are filled by sediment derived from Borneo which supplied sediment at a similar rate to the Himalayas during the Neocene. Such estimates of long-term sediment yields are consistent with estimates of current rates which suggest that SE Asian islands provide about 20- 25% of the sediment to the global ocean, although they represent only about 2% of global land area and are topographically rather low.

Despite long-term fall of global sea level since the early Miocene there was a change to marine conditions in about late Miocene. There was Miocene inversion in the southern part of the Sunda Shelf and also Mio-Pliocene mountain-building at the subduction margins of Sundaland. These events are difficult to explain in terms of plate motions, which suggest relatively continuous subduction at the Sunda- Java trenches.”—–

This same Sundaland continent (someone said bigger than the North American Continent) and its subsequent submergence inspired Oppenheimer’s “Eden in the East” book. “Eden in the East” affirmed the Biblical deluge of Noah as true, and it was this Flood which caused the so-called Austronesian expansions across the world which fertilized worldwide Neolithic cultures into blossoming inter-connected civilizations. The book further suggests the existence of a high culture and large population on the Sundaland basin before it sank.

But where exactly in Sundaland might Atlantis have been? Was it really the present Sundaland basin which was the exact place of Atlantis? Or was it in the outlying islands of Southeast Asia which were of course part of an older greater Sundaland continent?

Atlantis according to Plato was an island with almost oblong or rectangular-like dimensions of 558 kilometers long and 372 kilometers wide. Oppenheimer in some of his discussions somehow alludes to Islands Southeast Asia as locations for the center of Austronesian expansions. He suggests sometimes Moluccas, sometimes the other islands and sometimes Borneo. But Borneo was a landmass during those prediluvian times, and it still is today. How about Java? It has a volcano near it called “Anak Krakatau” which could have caused Atlantis to submerge, it may well be Atlantis. But theories on linguistics and Austronesian expansions put Java and Molluccas as speaking Hesperonesian languages or younger branches of Austronesian. These are according to the model of Bernd Nothofer and partly as well as by Professor Robert Blust, the most distinguished and most respected of Austronesianists.

Moreover, Java is part of that landmass which would make up the Sundaland continent.  Going back to Moluccas or Maluku of today a good part of it is populated by people who speaks non-Austronesian tongues. It is unlikely to be Atlantis.

How about the other places which speak Old Hesperonesian branches of Austronesian? And they are Sulawesi (Celebes isles), the Philippine Islands and Western Sumatra. Western Sumatra must also be eliminated because it is part of a landmass today and was before the Flood. How about Sulawesi? Seems perfect as square if part of it has not submerged. Although it would be more than 700 km
from the nearest ends even if it has not submerged.

How about Mindanao and the other Philippine Islands? Somebody would argue that they may not be the ones because no linguists before consider them as probably the “source” and archaeology there is young. No relics and fossils to conclude that they were the “first” since the earliest written documents are just around 900 AD. (The Laguna Copperplate, “A Philippine Leaf” by Hector Santos).

Let us go north perhaps up to Taiwan (Prof. Blust suggest this island and South China as the origins of Austronesians).

But first Luzon. In Luzon there is a volcano in the Western Central portion of the Island called Taal. Taal is a volcano within Taal Lake which is also considered by geologists as another older volcano. The center of Taal Volcano in turn is another shallow lake which is used as fishing ponds by the natives when it is not erupting. A total of 6,000 souls live in the island as of today. It is considered one of the most dangerous places in the Philippines and perhaps on earth because of its past deadly eruptions.

A good website on Taal describe it as:

—–“Taal is the most active volcanic center in the Southern Tagalog Volcanic Field (STVF), a region immediately south of the Metro Manila area. It is often dubbed as a killer volcano because the suddenness and violence of many of its eruptions has repeatedly caused disastrous lost of human lives and destruction of property. Although the volcano has been relatively quiet since 1977, swarms of seismic events excite the monitoring network from time to time. The latest swarm of earthquakes occurred last February 14, 1992, accompanied by ground cracking and increased steaming activity on the Volcano Island (seeGlobal Volcanism Network Bulletin, vol. 17, 1992).

Historically active Volcano Island, together with its underwater and lakeshore vents, is the best-known part of a much larger volcanic complex dominated by the 20×30 km Taal caldera, one of the great volcano-tectonic depressions of the world. This young volcanic complex has a long, but little-known history of catastrophic explosive volcanism affecting the southwestern part of Luzon, including the Southern Tagalog Region and the Metro Manila area. The explosivity that characterizes prehistoric and recent volcanism in the region is enhanced by the area’s proximity to sea level and high-water table, which results in powerful phreatomagmatic eruptions. Previous work shows that the caldera has produced eruptions one to two orders of magnitude larger and more devastating than those of Mount Pinatubo.

These have deposited massive amounts of ignimbrites, including the deposits of turbulent pyroclastic flows, and widespread tephra fall units in recent geologic time (Wolfe and Self, 1983;Geronimo, 1988). Accompanying this volcanism has been extensive volcaniclastic sedimentation, dominated by deposition of hyperconcentrated streamflows and lahars in low-lying subaerial and shallow marine environments.”——

What makes Taal interesting is its seemingly fitting the description of Plato’s Atlantis in some respect.

Plato’s Atlantis is said to be in the center of a vast island 558 km. long and 372 km wide.

Taal is located in the center (or central corner) of the island of Luzon. From Taal volcano island to the northern tip of Luzon (Aparri, Cagayan) is 558 km (plus or minus 20 km) and going southeast to Bicol peninsula at the furthest end of Sorsogon is just like it around 372 km (plus or minus 20 km). Luzon island is not of course rectangular these days. It is irregular. But in some of Oppenheimer’s and other geologic maps, there suggests a large chunk of real state on its eastern portion which was submerged at a depth of 50 to 100 meters (further studies on this are recommended).

The Taal Lake and the inner land and lake complex somehow fits the description of Plato’s Tripolis (or Three Cities). Atlantis is described as made up of six concentric circles of land and water. Each one a kilometer in width. That would make the center of the city around 6 km from the edge of the mainland. And even today Taal island is just like that around 6 km from that part of the mainland where there is a 9 km creek which goes to the Balayan Bay. And Plato’s Atlantis also has that near 9 km (deducing from Plato this is only around 9.13 km) creek which was used as a channel by sea-going crafts to and from the “Atlantic Ocean”. That creek is just off Cuenca and Alitagtag towns while traversing the towns of Malaue and Taal. The inner lake is some 2 km today which jives with the description that a center island was one kilometer in diameter and separated by another kilometer from the next soil.

Also, regarding the name: Taal means “native”, “ethnic” and “pure” in native Tagalog. Taal town is undoubtedly the purest Tagalog town in spirit.

Its officials impede the incursion of Chinese and other foreign-born from doing substantial business on it even up to this date. The word “Taal” suggests also that in the olden times it may have meant “three” therefore living up with the tradition of “Tripolis” or “Tripura”. In Pangasinense and some Northern Philippine dialects “Talo” means three. And a corresponding near-Atlas word for three is found in Capampangan with “atlo”.

The city of Atlantis was full of temples, gardens, exercising grounds, and baths (supplied by two springs of cold and warm water). The king’s palace and the Temple of Poseidon is said to be coated by silver and surrounded by statues. These are not impossible for Taal because just nearby is a group of islands called Romblon which is still popular today for marbles.

These are the exact passages from Plato’s Critias 6 and 7 in Italics: Our subsequent explanations on some passages are not in italics.

——The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed on this wise:-in the center was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of the ten princes first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, to be an offering to each of the ten.

Here was Poseidon’s own temple, which was a stadium in length, and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum.

A stadium is about 186 meters therefore Poseidon’s temple would be around 186 x 93 meters. Orichalcum is agreed to be an ore of copper. This is not spectacular for Taal since Marinduque is near where copper was largely mined up to recent days.

In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the heavens, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths; there were the kings’ baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable.

Of the water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil’

Echoes of the Garden of Eden!!

.. while the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and others for horses in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the center of the larger of the two there was set apart a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in.

Also, there were guardhouses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of whom were appointed-to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, near the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use.

The following describes the Three Zones and the abundance of sea-going crafts.

Enough of the plan of the royal palace. Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbor, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to
the sea.

That just described the distance of the harbor to the main island or zone. The distance given was 50 stadia or around 9 kilometers (actually 50 x 186 = 9130 meters).

The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all sorts night and day.

I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavor to represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land.

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 center inland it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island looked towards the south and was sheltered from the north.

This exactly describes the area of the greater island 3000 x 2000 stadia or 558 x 372 km. But another point of study is how much Plato’s figure is approximation. His stadias seemed to be gross rounding-offs. As we have stated before 558 x 372 km describes the probable area of Luzon in olden times and
even conspicuously today.

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.

Perhaps that just painted the surrounding Tagaytay and Cuenca/Alitagtag ridges or more generally the mountains and plains of Southern Tagalog.

I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by the labors of many generations of kings through long ages. It was for the most part rectangular and oblong and were falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth, width, and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have been artificial. Nevertheless, I must say what I was told.

It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea.

A river totaling 1,860 km in length winding through the whole island, meeting the city and draining to the sea. The length could have just been the addition of 558×2 +372×2 =1860 km. That is the circumference of the island. It also suggests the presence of four rivers just like in the Garden of Eden (where the four rivers are Euphrates, Tigris, Gihon and Pishon).

Further inland, likewise, 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: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city.—-

One of the previous volcanic cataclysms (the most devastating perhaps) may have destroyed this ancient city. And that volcano could be Taal.

That same city could have been the center of a very ancient yet advanced worldwide civilization which mapped the whole globe many thousands of years ago before the start of European colonizations as suggested by Charles Hapgood in his maps of the “Ancient Sea Kings”.

Another ancient writing which would implicate Taal as Atlantis is in the Mahabharata as suggested again by another website:http//:www.atlantisquest.html

It tells of the following:

——The Vishnu Purana (2000 B.C.), the oldest of the Hindu Puranas, speaks of Atala, the “White Island,” which is one of the seven dwipas (islands) belonging to Patala (Book II, chaps. i, ii, and iii). The Purana locates Atala geographically on the seventh (heat, or climate) zone, which according to Col. Wilford (the translator) is 24 to 28 degrees north latitude: which puts it in the same latitude as the Canary Islands just off the North African coast. …

The terms “Atala” and “White Island” are used also by the Bhavishna Purana. Here it is stated that Samba, having built a temple dedicated to Surya (the Sun), made a journey to Saka-Dwipa “beyond the salt water” looking for the Magas (magicians), worshippers of the Sun. He is directed in his journey by Surya himself (i.e., journeys west following the Sun), riding upon Garuda (the flying vehicle of Krishna and Vishnu) he lands at last among the Magas.

The Mahabharata contains more than one account of a powerful islandic empire in the Atlantic which sank to the bottom of the “Western Ocean” following a horrendous war. As in the Vishnu Purana, it is called “the White Island, Atala” (which can be linked linguistically with the word “Atlantis”). Atala is described as an “island of great splendor” and its inhabitants are said to worship only one God (Santi Parva, Section CCCXXXVII). Another description is remarkably similar to Plato’s, even down to its circular capital city, Tripura! Tripura is made in three parts, just as Plato’s Metropolis is divided into three parts by circular canals. The famed “Triple-city”, with all its inhabitants, is sent burning to the bottom of the ocean in a most unique manner (Mahabharata).

Atala is said to be inhabited by “white men who never have to sleep or eat”. (Santi Parva, Section CCCXXXVII) The Greek historian Herodotus (450 B.C.) describes a tribe of Atlanteans who “never dream and eat no living thing”. (History, Book IV) Can this be coincidence? And just as the god Poseidon is very much involved in the Atlantis story, likewise in the Sanskrit accounts we find Varuna (the Hindu Poseidon) very much involved in Atala.——-

Although this article also suggests the present Atlantic Ocean origin of Atlantis it gives us some clues on the names mentioned. Take note that Patala (the owner of Atala in the Vishnu Purana) is etymologically related to “Bathala” the Supreme Creator God of the ancient “Tagalogs” – the ancestors of the natives which presently surround Mt. Taal. And from this it follows that “Atala” is “Taal”.

But to dispute the western allusion of Atlantis we go to another article by linguist Paul K. Manansala on his reading of ancient Indic writings in his article “A new light in Vedic India”:

——“In the epics, Mt. Meru is a geographic reality located east of Jambudvipa (the Indian subcontinent).

The Mahabharata states that Sakadvipa, Svetadvipa and the Milky Ocean are located to the east of Meru. The location of Sakadvipa in the eastern quarter is also found in the astrological text, Brhat Parasara Horasastra.

The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatapurana, Laghubhagavatamrta and Varahamihira’s Brhat Samhita agree in placing the Milky Ocean to the east. All of these works except the the Ramayana and Brhat Samhita, which do not mention Svetadvipa, also place that island in the eastern quarter.

In the Puranas, geography apparently is made to conform more to cosmographic and astronomical thinking. Mt. Meru becomes equated with the North Pole. The world is made into a series of seven concentric rings of continents surrounded by oceans. The ethnogeographic and biogeographic material, though, largely agrees with the epics.

All the Puranas that mention Sakadvipa agree that the Milky Ocean surrounds the island/continent. In the same way, those writings that mention Svetadvipa place it on the “north shores” of the Milky Ocean. This has lead some to suggest that Sakadvipa and Svetadvipa were interchangeable names for the
same region.

Svetadvipa is mentioned as part of the geographic continents only in the Padma among the Puranas. The Yogavasistha also includes Svetadvipa as one of the seven island continents, but here Sakadvipa is also mentioned. Svetadvipa appears to take the place of Salmalidvipa in the Yogavasistha as compared to
the Puranic accounts.

Possibly Sakadvipa refers to a region bounded by the Milky Ocean while Svetadvipa was a more specific location within the ocean itself. Another possibility is that Svetadvipa is a late name for Sakadvipa with the latter staying in usage because of tradition.

All the sources agree in explicitly giving Svetadvipa and the Milky Ocean a southerly as well as an eastern location. The astronomers Bhaskara and Lalla both agree that the Milky Ocean was south of the Salt Sea.”——-

So much of those writings and about Taal, let us now go to Taiwan near the 23.5 degrees parallel (or Tropic of Cancer) remains of a submerged pyramid-like base structure were found on eastern Taiwan island of Yonaguni. Further northon the Okinawa chain of islands of Japan smaller and similar structures wer discovered. Could these be part of buildings used to measure equinoxes by the earliest stargazers given by their nearness to the ecliptic? Or are they part of the worldwide cultural remains of migrating Austronesians after their true Atlantean domains were submerged?

Time will tell the truth. And the time will come.

(Article by: Mr. Loreto O. Bagio, electronics and communications engineer,
Scientific Equipment Maintenance Center, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Mr. Robin Day, botanist and Professor of Dong Seo
University, Jurye, Busan, South Korea )

About Post Author

loreto

bagselite@yahoo.com

http://loretobagio.com

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