THE WAY TO THE ATLANTIANS: HERODOTUS` NEW INTERPRETATION

This study is devoted to searching for the location of the Atlantians described by Herodotus. The beginning of the study reveals four factors of the Prism of Time that influenced the distortion of information concerning the Atlantians (that reached us in the texts of Herodotus), which shall be taken into account when conducting this study: “The factor of information transfer”, “The factor of changes” (the factor of natural changes), “The misinterpretation factor”, and “The dissonance factor of worldviews”. Further, the article presents the results of the study of the way to the Atlantians described in sections 168–187 of Book IV of “The Histories” by Herodotus. At the same time, the author of the article has established that this fragment of text consists of at least three independent parts: section 168 — the first sentence of section 181 (part 1); the third sentence of section 181 — the fourth sentence of section 185 (part 2); section 186 — section 187 (part 3). The first and third parts contain descriptions of the Libyan tribes (the territory of modern Libya and Tunisia), and the second part describes the tribes of Nubia (the territory of modern southern Egypt and the North of modern Sudan). Moreover, during the study, it has been proven that the second part of the fragment is a separate story that is not connected with either the first or the third parts of the fragment. For unknown reasons the scribes and editors of the Herodotus texts artificially placed a description of the tribes of Nubia and Atlantians (the second part of the fragment) between the descriptions of the Libyan tribes (between the first and third parts of the fragment). In this regard, the article separately examines the way to the Atlantians described in the second part of the fragment, which ran from Thebes in the direction of the South (upstream of the Nile) through the Nubian Desert, in which Nubian tribes lived, further through the Ethiopian highlands and Afar triangle to the Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (with the modern name of “Bab-El-Mandeb”). The research reveals the following inconsistencies in the early studies of the Atlantians and Atlantis: – The Nubian Desert was confused with the Libyan Desert; – The Ethiopian highlands were confused with the mountains of the Atlas system; – the Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (with the modern name of “Bab-El-Mandeb”) was confused with the “Pillars of Heracles” (modern Strait of Gibraltar). Moreover, based on the results of this study, it has been found that the Atlantians described by Herodotus lived in the territory of the modern Ethiopian Highlands, the highest peak of which is always hidden in the clouds and is called Mount Ras Dejen (15,157 feet or 4,620 meters). In addition, to clear up the confusion that arose due to the distortion of the information under the influence of many factors, the article also provides comments on the geographical landmarks that Herodotus mentions on the way to the Atlantians: the mountain that Herodotus called Mount Atlas; the strait which Herodotus called the “Pillars of Hercules”, and so on. Also, the article suggests that the mythical or fictional island of Atlantis described by Plato could be located in the Red Sea in front of the Strait or the modern Gulf of Aden — in front of the Strait from the ocean (where, by the way, an unexplained anomaly, so-called “Gulf of Aden Swilly” has been recently found). However, in any case, this new data is the basis for a complete revision of the strategy and conducting new research to search for Atlantis and study the life activities of the Atlantians.