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The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization
The most comprehensive reconstruction of the history and fate of the legendary ancient civilization of Atlantis.
• Draws together compelling evidence from geology, astronomy, myths, and ancient texts to prove the existence of Atlantean civilization and its catastrophic end.
• Includes a vivid narrative that re-creates the last days of Atlantis.
• Represents 20 years worth of research across the globe.
All human cultures, from classical and biblical to native North and South American, share the myth of an ancient deluge, often coinciding with a rain of fire from the heavens. What accounts for this shared myth of environmental catastrophe? Now, in The Destruction of Atlantis , author Frank Joseph links this worldwide cultural phenomenon to the story of the lost civilization of Atlantis, which in a single day and night disappeared into the sea in a violent cataclysm. In the most comprehensive account of this legendary island, Joseph provides compelling evidence that Atlantis was at the root of all subsequent human civilizations. Brilliantly refuting years of modern skepticism, Joseph combines evidence from archaeology, geology, astronomy, and ancient lore to locate Atlantis in the context of Near Eastern Bronze Age society at the end of the 13th century B.C. The author seamlessly combines hard scientific evidence with a stunning imaginative re-creation of what it must have been like to walk the streets of Atlantis in its last days. The resulting portrait of a mighty empire corrupted by an overreaching lust for wealth and power offers an important lesson to our own materialistic civilization poised on the brink of ecological disaster.
• Draws together compelling evidence from geology, astronomy, myths, and ancient texts to prove the existence of Atlantean civilization and its catastrophic end.
• Includes a vivid narrative that re-creates the last days of Atlantis.
• Represents 20 years worth of research across the globe.
All human cultures, from classical and biblical to native North and South American, share the myth of an ancient deluge, often coinciding with a rain of fire from the heavens. What accounts for this shared myth of environmental catastrophe? Now, in The Destruction of Atlantis , author Frank Joseph links this worldwide cultural phenomenon to the story of the lost civilization of Atlantis, which in a single day and night disappeared into the sea in a violent cataclysm. In the most comprehensive account of this legendary island, Joseph provides compelling evidence that Atlantis was at the root of all subsequent human civilizations. Brilliantly refuting years of modern skepticism, Joseph combines evidence from archaeology, geology, astronomy, and ancient lore to locate Atlantis in the context of Near Eastern Bronze Age society at the end of the 13th century B.C. The author seamlessly combines hard scientific evidence with a stunning imaginative re-creation of what it must have been like to walk the streets of Atlantis in its last days. The resulting portrait of a mighty empire corrupted by an overreaching lust for wealth and power offers an important lesson to our own materialistic civilization poised on the brink of ecological disaster.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2002
9 people are currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Frank Joseph
72 books48 followersFrank Joseph is the pen name of Francis Joseph Collin, a former activist with the American Nazi Party/National Socialist White People's Party and the founder of the National Socialist Party of America. In 1979, Collin was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison, and he lost his position in the party.
Upon his release from prison, Collin reinvented himself under the pseudonym of Frank Joseph, a New Age writer and a pagan worshiper. In 1987, he had his first New Age book published, The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization.
He wrote articles for the magazine Fate, and between 1993 and 2007 he was also an editor of Ancient American. This magazine focuses on what it considers to be evidence of ancient, pre-Columbian transoceanic contact between the Old World and North America, with the implication that all complex aspects of North America's indigenous cultures must have originated on other continents.
Upon his release from prison, Collin reinvented himself under the pseudonym of Frank Joseph, a New Age writer and a pagan worshiper. In 1987, he had his first New Age book published, The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization.
He wrote articles for the magazine Fate, and between 1993 and 2007 he was also an editor of Ancient American. This magazine focuses on what it considers to be evidence of ancient, pre-Columbian transoceanic contact between the Old World and North America, with the implication that all complex aspects of North America's indigenous cultures must have originated on other continents.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 1, 2018
The three stars are more so for the reason that I so badly want Atlantis to be real. What a discovery that would be. Unfortunately the author seems to hold a lot of disdain for those who dismiss Atlantis as merely a myth. Surely he has to understand why it is viewed that way though. I've always bemoaned the loss of the Library at Alexandria. Perhaps the secrets of Atlantis were destroyed there. Or perhaps it really is just a myth. But isn't it fun to imagine that it's not?
February 4, 2024
Podeszłam do czytania z otwartym umysłem, ale bez wielkich nadziei. Na początku miejsce ma rekonstrukcja wydarzeń i kiedy czytałam o statkach, wpływających do portów na imponującej architektonicznie wyspie, przestraszyłam się, że to zwykła fantastyka, a liczyłam na konkretne, rzeczowe dowody. No i na szczęście się nie zawiodłam, autor w późniejszych rozdziałach zasypuje czytelnika argumentami z dziedzin geografii, geologii, archeologii, astronomii i oceanografii, odnosząc się do wielu pozycji i cytując różnych naukowców. Książka zawiera prawie 13 stron przypisów i jest to dobry znak, no ale, jako że nie posiadam dostatecznej wiedzy z wymienionych dziedzin, należy mieć na uwadze, że w sumie wiele możnaby mi wmówić i brzmiałoby to przekonująco. A to właśnie ma do siebie ta książka. Brzmi bardzo przekonująco i czyta się z zaciekawieniem, choć nagromadzenie specjalistycznej terminologii oraz nazw własnych pochodzących z przeróżnych części świata bywało czasem nużące.
Najbardziej interesującym i zaskakującym fragmentem książki zdecydowanie było przytoczenie i porównanie mitów o potopie. Jak zauważa autor, na całym świecie, w niezależnych od siebie miejscach, w kulturach, które nie powinny mieć ze sobą żadnej styczności, wciąż przewija się bardzo podobna historia o katastrofie, która rozpoczęła się upadkiem meteorytu, wywołującego pożary i trzęsienia ziemi, a zakończyła potopem. W każdej z nich pojawia się również wątek ocalałych ludzi, którzy dotarli do przodków plemion, zamieszkujących dany teren i opowiedzieli historię swojej ojczystej wyspy pochłoniętej przez ocean. Taki zbieg okoliczności działa na wyobraźnię.
Książce udało się mnie przekonać, że gdzieś na Atlantyku pod metrami mułu mogą znajdować się pozostałości po cywilizacji, która zniknęła z mapy świata przez reakcję łańcuchową katastrof naturalnych, a to w sumie najlepsze, co mogę o niej powiedzieć.
Najbardziej interesującym i zaskakującym fragmentem książki zdecydowanie było przytoczenie i porównanie mitów o potopie. Jak zauważa autor, na całym świecie, w niezależnych od siebie miejscach, w kulturach, które nie powinny mieć ze sobą żadnej styczności, wciąż przewija się bardzo podobna historia o katastrofie, która rozpoczęła się upadkiem meteorytu, wywołującego pożary i trzęsienia ziemi, a zakończyła potopem. W każdej z nich pojawia się również wątek ocalałych ludzi, którzy dotarli do przodków plemion, zamieszkujących dany teren i opowiedzieli historię swojej ojczystej wyspy pochłoniętej przez ocean. Taki zbieg okoliczności działa na wyobraźnię.
Książce udało się mnie przekonać, że gdzieś na Atlantyku pod metrami mułu mogą znajdować się pozostałości po cywilizacji, która zniknęła z mapy świata przez reakcję łańcuchową katastrof naturalnych, a to w sumie najlepsze, co mogę o niej powiedzieć.
April 9, 2015
This is a silly book.
But perhaps I should explain a few things before getting into that. I was at my local library and happened upon a book display. One of the featured books, Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, caught my eye. I have been meaning to read it for ages. It seems to be a cornerstone in what has become the modern skeptical movement and is referenced all the time, usually for Sagan's "bologna detection kit" designed to help the user determine if his or her beliefs are based in something real or in some kind of wishful thinking, something that is very handy to have nowadays. I looked through the book and found a library receipt from last year. It showed a previous patron took out The Destruction of Atlantis the same time as The Demon-Haunted World. I couldn't resist and had to check it out, which you may have already deduced by the fact that I've bothered to write this review. Luckily I found another book in the same section, Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions by Ronald H. Fritze, which turned out to be a nice scholarly look at pseudo-scholarship, including, but not limited to, the writings of pseudo-history, and the modern belief in Atlantis. It served as a nice primer before taking on the folly that is The Destruction of Atlantis.
The author Frank Joseph makes several classic mistakes in the introduction, you know, besides having Zecharia Sitchin pen a forward. Joseph immediately makes it about his personal journey since his discovery of the "reality" of Atlantis in a non-fiction book by L. Sprague de Camp, unread by myself, which he seems to have completely misinterpreted, because as far as I can tell, it was meant to debunk the myths of historical Atlantis, not affirm them, and was at least a few decades old when Joseph says he found it, apparently not understanding scientific knowledge often gets outmoded as new data are discovered are analyzed over time. In framing it this way he makes the book indirectly about his personal quest to prove Atlantis's existence and the adversity he faces, which strikes me as a false note for someone trying to portray himself as a credible historian.
Another major blunder in the introduction is to completely hand wave away the collective knowledge of experts in fields relevant to the study of the ancient world by denigrating them completely and implying they all have small and unimaginative minds and a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. This preemptive ad hominem is a classic fallacy of the pseudo-intellectual and is typical of the uninformed cynicism of revisionist non-experts in over their heads. Somehow Joseph is the real expert for traveling around the world to take note of superficial similarities and coincidences between various ancient cultures to imply they all have a cultural link to an unproven ancient Atlantis and the archeologists, anthropologists, geologists, and historians that have spent decades in their respective fields of study are all mistaken. It clearly hasn't occurred to Joseph that they might have a legitimate reason to take issue with his work and the work of other so-called Atlantisologists. It is true great discoveries have overturned established science and history, as pseudo-intellectuals and cranks of all stripes love to point out. But it is also true that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that is something this book doesn't quite give the reader.
The rest of the book is full of the classic mistakes of a dyed-in-the-wool pseudo-historian. I think Joseph is dismissive of the work of actual scholars because he either genuinely misunderstands the rigors of professional scholarship or he simply chooses to ignore how facts are established, either way, it frees him up from any formality and allows him to interpret the data however he thinks best establishes his conclusion that Atlantis existed in ancient times and was destroyed in a cataclysm, which he clearly formed before doing any research.
Joseph dismisses experts but cherry picks their words, often without quoting them directly, instead from articles where they're interviewed. He conflates real experts with non-experts and then promotes the like of Edgar Cayce, Coast to Coast AM, Ignatius Donnelly, and Immanuel Velikovsky. He misunderstands quite a few basic concepts he discuss, including catastrophism and uniformitarianism. He never acknowledges the work of real historians to explain apparent anomalies except when convenient for the argument or when it's time to denigrate them and or impugn their integrity to hide the weakness of his argument. And he makes the silly and obvious point about how modern society is like Atlantis, in how we're destroying the planet and endangering ourselves.
Cynicism has a corrosive effect on the credibility of institutions. There are enough legitimate problems to complain about without having to invent them or impugn the integrity of real researchers and learned people and accuse them of working for moneyed interests to further one's own petty interests and promote a thinly researched and poorly reasoned book for an audience of the credulous and the magical thinkers. It's the promotion of ignorance like this that keeps people for asking real questions and learning how to think critically.
But perhaps I should explain a few things before getting into that. I was at my local library and happened upon a book display. One of the featured books, Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, caught my eye. I have been meaning to read it for ages. It seems to be a cornerstone in what has become the modern skeptical movement and is referenced all the time, usually for Sagan's "bologna detection kit" designed to help the user determine if his or her beliefs are based in something real or in some kind of wishful thinking, something that is very handy to have nowadays. I looked through the book and found a library receipt from last year. It showed a previous patron took out The Destruction of Atlantis the same time as The Demon-Haunted World. I couldn't resist and had to check it out, which you may have already deduced by the fact that I've bothered to write this review. Luckily I found another book in the same section, Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions by Ronald H. Fritze, which turned out to be a nice scholarly look at pseudo-scholarship, including, but not limited to, the writings of pseudo-history, and the modern belief in Atlantis. It served as a nice primer before taking on the folly that is The Destruction of Atlantis.
The author Frank Joseph makes several classic mistakes in the introduction, you know, besides having Zecharia Sitchin pen a forward. Joseph immediately makes it about his personal journey since his discovery of the "reality" of Atlantis in a non-fiction book by L. Sprague de Camp, unread by myself, which he seems to have completely misinterpreted, because as far as I can tell, it was meant to debunk the myths of historical Atlantis, not affirm them, and was at least a few decades old when Joseph says he found it, apparently not understanding scientific knowledge often gets outmoded as new data are discovered are analyzed over time. In framing it this way he makes the book indirectly about his personal quest to prove Atlantis's existence and the adversity he faces, which strikes me as a false note for someone trying to portray himself as a credible historian.
Another major blunder in the introduction is to completely hand wave away the collective knowledge of experts in fields relevant to the study of the ancient world by denigrating them completely and implying they all have small and unimaginative minds and a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. This preemptive ad hominem is a classic fallacy of the pseudo-intellectual and is typical of the uninformed cynicism of revisionist non-experts in over their heads. Somehow Joseph is the real expert for traveling around the world to take note of superficial similarities and coincidences between various ancient cultures to imply they all have a cultural link to an unproven ancient Atlantis and the archeologists, anthropologists, geologists, and historians that have spent decades in their respective fields of study are all mistaken. It clearly hasn't occurred to Joseph that they might have a legitimate reason to take issue with his work and the work of other so-called Atlantisologists. It is true great discoveries have overturned established science and history, as pseudo-intellectuals and cranks of all stripes love to point out. But it is also true that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that is something this book doesn't quite give the reader.
The rest of the book is full of the classic mistakes of a dyed-in-the-wool pseudo-historian. I think Joseph is dismissive of the work of actual scholars because he either genuinely misunderstands the rigors of professional scholarship or he simply chooses to ignore how facts are established, either way, it frees him up from any formality and allows him to interpret the data however he thinks best establishes his conclusion that Atlantis existed in ancient times and was destroyed in a cataclysm, which he clearly formed before doing any research.
Joseph dismisses experts but cherry picks their words, often without quoting them directly, instead from articles where they're interviewed. He conflates real experts with non-experts and then promotes the like of Edgar Cayce, Coast to Coast AM, Ignatius Donnelly, and Immanuel Velikovsky. He misunderstands quite a few basic concepts he discuss, including catastrophism and uniformitarianism. He never acknowledges the work of real historians to explain apparent anomalies except when convenient for the argument or when it's time to denigrate them and or impugn their integrity to hide the weakness of his argument. And he makes the silly and obvious point about how modern society is like Atlantis, in how we're destroying the planet and endangering ourselves.
Cynicism has a corrosive effect on the credibility of institutions. There are enough legitimate problems to complain about without having to invent them or impugn the integrity of real researchers and learned people and accuse them of working for moneyed interests to further one's own petty interests and promote a thinly researched and poorly reasoned book for an audience of the credulous and the magical thinkers. It's the promotion of ignorance like this that keeps people for asking real questions and learning how to think critically.
April 29, 2008
Although Joseph's background leaves little to be desired, his research is thorough. The correlations he makes are near startling and certainly raise more questions. Good book for controversial information on Atlantis.
July 28, 2021
Compelling, But...Something’s Not Totally Resonating
To be quite honest, I’m not sure what to think about this book or its author. It kept me glued to its pages, for sure. And there was at least one bit of evidence that Joseph presents that has essentially changed my mind about where Atlantis may have been located. According to Joseph, it seems more likely that – based on a preponderance of evidence – the main island of Atlantis (which he doesn’t believe was a continent, per se) was located just outside the Straits of Gibraltar, also known as the Pillars of Heracles. And from the evidence he presents, it does seem more likely to be its actual location.
Then again, it could also be possible that – as I believe is the case with Santorini – this latest location outside the Straits of Gibraltar/Pillars of Heracles is rather an island outpost, and not the main area of Atlantean government, since I am reminded of Rand and Rose Flem-Ath’s WHEN THE SKY FELL: In Search of Atlantis and their suggestion that Atlantis – as suggested by Charles Hapgood – is actually located where Antarctica is today. True? Well, your guess is as good as mine I suppose.
However, as for the time of the demise of Atlantis – and regardless of, yet again, his preponderance of seeming ‘evidence’ – I’m not sure I’m willing to suspend my disbelief enough to accept JOSEPH’S belief that the sinking of Atlantis occurred in circa 1200 BC. There’s too much other evidence that indicates that the actual date for Atlantis’ destruction was around 9,500 BC/11,500 BP, and this is based on geological, archaeological and other scientific findings which support the 11,500 BP date.
Yet, there is other evidence that indicates that something else … astronomical … occurred at the time Joseph states Atlantis sank beneath the waves. And that may be why he’s pinning his beliefs on this date. Or where he’s skewing it?
Bottom line: some of his postulations work. But one just doesn’t resonate. And it’s a big one. For me, anyway. I also came away from this particular book with the feeling that something here was contrived. That there was obfuscation afoot; a purposeful redirection of interest. Our interest.
Compelling book, though. Full of footnotes and facts. Page turner even. But don’t let that fool you. Even the most well documented piece of work can turn out to be mis – or even dis-information. In fact, there may just be enough ‘fact’ to obscure the false data. You’ll have to read it to see what you think.
To be quite honest, I’m not sure what to think about this book or its author. It kept me glued to its pages, for sure. And there was at least one bit of evidence that Joseph presents that has essentially changed my mind about where Atlantis may have been located. According to Joseph, it seems more likely that – based on a preponderance of evidence – the main island of Atlantis (which he doesn’t believe was a continent, per se) was located just outside the Straits of Gibraltar, also known as the Pillars of Heracles. And from the evidence he presents, it does seem more likely to be its actual location.
Then again, it could also be possible that – as I believe is the case with Santorini – this latest location outside the Straits of Gibraltar/Pillars of Heracles is rather an island outpost, and not the main area of Atlantean government, since I am reminded of Rand and Rose Flem-Ath’s WHEN THE SKY FELL: In Search of Atlantis and their suggestion that Atlantis – as suggested by Charles Hapgood – is actually located where Antarctica is today. True? Well, your guess is as good as mine I suppose.
However, as for the time of the demise of Atlantis – and regardless of, yet again, his preponderance of seeming ‘evidence’ – I’m not sure I’m willing to suspend my disbelief enough to accept JOSEPH’S belief that the sinking of Atlantis occurred in circa 1200 BC. There’s too much other evidence that indicates that the actual date for Atlantis’ destruction was around 9,500 BC/11,500 BP, and this is based on geological, archaeological and other scientific findings which support the 11,500 BP date.
Yet, there is other evidence that indicates that something else … astronomical … occurred at the time Joseph states Atlantis sank beneath the waves. And that may be why he’s pinning his beliefs on this date. Or where he’s skewing it?
Bottom line: some of his postulations work. But one just doesn’t resonate. And it’s a big one. For me, anyway. I also came away from this particular book with the feeling that something here was contrived. That there was obfuscation afoot; a purposeful redirection of interest. Our interest.
Compelling book, though. Full of footnotes and facts. Page turner even. But don’t let that fool you. Even the most well documented piece of work can turn out to be mis – or even dis-information. In fact, there may just be enough ‘fact’ to obscure the false data. You’ll have to read it to see what you think.
September 13, 2023
AMAZING
I expected this book to be a work of pure fiction, but it wasn't.
Instead the author speaks of world wide disasters that could've led to Atlantis sinking.
And he offers proof from civilizations around the world. Ramses III even noted the destruction of the island in 1198 BCE.
Expect to learn a lot (the book is dense with facts) and references to other almost simultaneous disasters, including The Great Flood.
And a bonus: there's a second book!!
I expected this book to be a work of pure fiction, but it wasn't.
Instead the author speaks of world wide disasters that could've led to Atlantis sinking.
And he offers proof from civilizations around the world. Ramses III even noted the destruction of the island in 1198 BCE.
Expect to learn a lot (the book is dense with facts) and references to other almost simultaneous disasters, including The Great Flood.
And a bonus: there's a second book!!
April 19, 2021
Interesująca. Porusza na prawdę ciekawy temat. Jest napisana względnie prostym językiem. Podoba mi się fakt, że w książce temat jest ujęty na wiele sposobów, z punktu więzienia różnych osób, kultur. Niektóre fragmenty były bardzo nużące, ze względu na to odejmuję 2 gwiazdki.
Nie mniej jednak,
Polecam!
Nie mniej jednak,
Polecam!
August 7, 2023
I give this book 3.5 stars. The author presents a compelling argument for the existence of the lost civilization of Atlantis. Much prehistory is cited from around the world in support of his theory - a bit overwhelming for me with no background in the subject. A fascinating read.
August 5, 2017
Interesting and makes a compelling case for Atlantis. It drags on a bit with details, but it is very thorough.
April 12, 2011
This was one of Frank Josephs earlier works, I have to say it was a bit repetitious and the book could have been done in half the pages. It was an interesting read, he presents a good arguement about myths being more historically viable then the written word, considering man's history on burning libraries like Alexandria & time destroying carved petroglyphs.
August 2, 2011
I am completely convinced. Atlantis was real. It existed, and it was destroyed. It's destruction is remembered in the human race's subconscious. Read this book. Discover for yourself. Immense yourself in further reading and research. It's what I plan to do.
October 10, 2015
Good book but at times a little too much information.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews