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CHAPTER 11<br />
The Mystery of Atlantis<br />
AROUND 580 B.C., WHEN the Athenian statesman Solon had<br />
finished compiHng the code of law that made him immortal, he<br />
took a long vacation and went to Sais, then the capital of Lower<br />
Egypt. Sais was the center of culture at that time and people of<br />
fame and talent used to congregate there to hone their intellects.<br />
It was there that Solon met the high priest of Egypt, Sonchis,<br />
who very generously showed him the greatest part of the famed<br />
Egyptian archives, dating back many thousands of years, and<br />
also told him a fascinating story about a terrible disaster that<br />
had occurred 9,000 yeais before. It was the story of the sunken<br />
continent of Atlantis.<br />
This legend, which is still considered by many as pure mythology,<br />
was retold by Solon to his nephew Dropides, who in turn<br />
transmitted it to his descendants, one of whom told it to the philosopher<br />
Plato. Two of Plato's most famous works, Timaeus and<br />
Critias, have preserved most of the legend of Atlantis in all its<br />
passionate and tragic greatness.<br />
Personally I am convinced that the story of Atlantis, as Solon<br />
heard it from Sonchis and as Plato has given it to us, is true from<br />
beginning to end and that some day the ruins of Atlantis will be<br />
found, just as one after another we found the once legendary<br />
Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Knossos. Meanwhile, we can look at
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