The ancient Atlantis story by Plato raises many questions about Atlantis.
To this day, there are still many people who are curious to know if Atlantis existed, the location of Atlantis, and what happened to Atlantis.
Plato’s dialogues tell everyone what happened to Atlantis, but can he be believed?
The myth of Atlantis portrays the place as a utopian civilization where even the Greek Gods mingled.
The tragedy of Atlantis is that it suffered a catastrophic earthquake, which ended up submerging Atlantis under the Atlantic Ocean.
Ever since then, the disappearance of Atlantis has created one of the greatest mysteries of all time.
No one can say for sure what happened to Atlantis apart from maybe Plato, the famous philosopher from ancient Greece.
It is predominately from Plato that the Atlantis story was born. So it seems as if the only way to know the truth is to find Plato. But where can you find Plato?
Poseidon, God of the sea, probably knows what happened to Atlantis, but he’s hard to find as well.
Many people wonder whether Plato made up the myth of Atlantis, but why would he do that? I have read Plato’s greatest work The Republic, the must-read masterpiece, so I know he can make stuff up, but to me, Atlantis seems to have been a real place.
The big question still is did Atlantis truly exist long ago during ancient times?
This great mystery will probably only get solved when someone discovers Atlantis, and there are no doubts about it. If only someone could find a map of Atlantis to speed up the process, something like the Rosetta Stone.
People are continually searching for Atlantis, or for some much-needed proof to verify existing theories about the location of Atlantis.
Until then, we can stir our imaginations by watching movies about Atlantis.
I highly recommend watching Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961) if you haven’t seen it before. It will make you wonder about Atlantis even more.
By the way, the famous mythical island continent that vanished under the sea, is also known as the lost city of Atlantis.
My Atlantis Story
Let me tell you about my own Atlantis story as an introduction to this mysterious legend.
One day I browsed for Polaroid cameras on Gumtree, a massive online Australian marketplace similar to eBay, which sells various things from electronic gadgets to boats.
I came across this mysterious user called Atlantis, who had an incredible selection of Polaroid cameras for sale.
The Atlantis collection looked incredible. Atlantis seemed to have every type of dream Polaroid camera for sale, and all of them appeared to be selling for reasonable prices.
Here is the main Atlantis picture used in the advertisement.
Atlantis even had a very rare Polaroid Big Shot for sale.
I already owned a Polaroid SX-70 land camera. Actually, I hadn’t owned it for very long before seeing this ad.
You can read about my first-time Polaroid SX-70 camera experience here. It got pretty weird in my first series of polaroid photos, but the thing is, it got me hooked.
On reflection, my first Polaroid report seems to have been an epic battle between the two Greek Gods, Apollo and Eros for supremacy.
My second series of photos, about the lost city of Atlantis and Plato, can be found here
As you can tell, I focus on Greek mythology and ancient Greek legends where I can.
Finding Atlantis
Atlantis stories are mysterious, and this Atlantis story is no exception.
After a week or so, I decided to contact the mysterious Gumtree user called Atlantis after my curiosity took over.
I already owned a Polaroid camera, so I kept asking myself why I needed to buy another one, but it’s not every day that you find Atlantis.
Strangely enough, though, the Atlantean disappeared by the time I decided to make contact. The advertisement vanished without a trace, so I wasn’t sure what had happened.
I thought I was too late and that bargain hunters must have snapped up all of the cameras from Atlantis.
Gumtree can be a very shifty online marketplace. Every so often on the News, they televise various bizarre and insane stories involving Gumtree users.
You see people stealing cars and motorbikes from sellers, people get bashed, and all kinds of crazy stuff happen when buyers and sellers meet up for Gumtree transactions.
A few weeks later, I was surprised to see the same Atlantis ad again, and all of the Atlantis Polaroid cameras still seemed to be for sale.
It crossed my mind that Atlantis could be a scam, but I still had high hopes Atlantis was legitimate.
I could see an SX-70 camera for sale (like the one I already owned) and a different SX-70 sonar model camera for sale at $300.
When I saw the ad the last time, I was sure the sonar model was selling for $350, so that meant I’d save $50. So maybe lady luck was on my side.
Atlantis described the camera as being in perfect working order. It looked great, so I wanted to check it out.
Due to Atlantis having a massive range of cameras for sale, I contacted them via their main advertisement, which showed a shelf full of Polaroid cameras. In addition, Atlantis also had 10-20 other Polaroid individual camera ads on display.
When I contacted Atlantis, I asked for an address so I could come over and buy one.
Soon after, I received a reply (most likely an auto-reply), telling me that the ad was no longer available.
Atlantis had vanished before my eyes, which reminded me of the myth of Atlantis and the misfortune it suffered when it vanished beneath the sea.
I’ll continue this freaky Atlantis story later on.
Temple of Atlantis
Here’s my very first picture of Atlantis that I took with my SX-70 sonar. Yes, I bought another camera, one that worked by sending out sonar waves.
The Temple of Atlantis could also pass as the Temple of Poseidon in this pic.
As you can see, one of the statues is holding up a three-pronged trident, the symbol of Poseidon, God of the sea.
Atlantis Picture
The beauty of the Polaroid SX-70 Autofocus camera is that it uses sonar technology, which bounces off the target, to determine the distance.
It allows the camera to focus automatically, making it much easier to take photos.
My other SX-70 land camera requires manual focusing. The advantage of the sonar model is that you can take photos much quicker.
In most of these photos, the sonar worked fine. However, there were quite a few other hick-ups, as you can probably already tell.
If you compare this Atlantis picture to the feature image at the top, you can see that this picture of Atlantis appears washed out. You can’t see any of the blue ocean either.
The Temple of Atlantis is primarily white, which probably gives the Atlantis temple a more authentic look, similar to an ancient Greek temple. However, creating this effect wasn’t my intention.
You can easily see that the feature image is more colorful and way darker.
Atlantis Submerged
The polaroid photo also has a small strip of white showing at the top caused by an issue I had with the dark slide.
The dark slide should eject every time you insert a new film packet into a Polaroid SX-70 camera.
It didn’t come out when I first placed the film packet into this camera for some reason, making me think I had a broken camera. The rollers made a noise, so they seemed to be trying to eject it, but nothing came out.
Eventually, I realized the dark slide was stuck on the film underneath, so I loosened it up a bit by pulling on the dark slide. This action exposed part of the first film in the cartridge.
It did the trick, and my new camera worked fine after that. I was relieved, especially after all the hassles with my other SX-70 land camera.
Even though it was a very sunny day, I didn’t place the picture of the Atlantis temple in a dark place straight after taking it.
Doing that improves the chances of a good quality picture developing. It is best practice to place the film in a dark place as soon as possible, especially for the first few seconds.
The Atlantis picture was the first picture taken with my new sonar model, so it made me happy that my camera worked at least.
Plato’s Atlantis: The Story of Atlantis
When thinking about Atlantis, I started thinking about how the legend of Atlantis came about.
Those thoughts led me to ponder over Plato, the ancient philosopher from ancient Greece.
I knew of this giant mural showing a picture of Plato on the side of a building wall, so I went there to take this picture.
Plato Picture (Settings)
When I took the photo, I set the exposure dial to about 2/3 dark.
I wanted to do this because this large roller dollar was on the left-hand side, and I wanted to try to blur the big roller door into the picture to make it disappear.
In my opinion, the pic turned out well. It makes it look a bit more mysterious. However, some yellow lines didn’t appear in the picture, which disappointed me.
You can also see another white door directly under Plato. It’s almost symbolic, like a doorway into another world.
I’m not sure where this particular door leads. But, looking back, I should have tried to open it.
The building showing Plato is an Art Gallery, so maybe it was a fire exit or another way to enter/exit as the main entrance was situated a bit further away.
Did Plato Dream Up Atlantis?
People who are interested in Atlantis often wonder whether Plato dreamed up Atlantis.
Unfortunately, no one knows for sure. Here’s a sculpture I wanted to take a picture of known as The Dream.
In the very first SX-70 series pics, I tried to take a picture of this sculpture, but that turned out weird, nothing like this picture.
It turned out much better this time, but obviously, it is nowhere near perfect.
You can also see a girl sunbathing on the sand at the beach on the right side.
The unique thing about The Dream is an inscription on a sign saying: Stand on the board and pretend to ride the wave of your life, but please don’t climb or hang from the sculpture – there might be one big WIPEOUT!
Similar to the legend of Atlantis, a giant tidal wave may have caused the final devastation of Atlantis, which probably occurred in addition to a volcanic eruption and earthquake.
Atlantis Dream
One very unexpected thing happened to my camera when taking this photo. When I pointed my SX-70 Sonar camera towards The Dream, the camera kept attempting to focus when I pressed the shutter button halfway down.
Doing this allows you to make sure the camera is focused. It was the only occasion I tried it. For all other shots, I just pressed the button fully down.
However, in this case, the camera kept repeatedly going in and out of focus. I can’t remember what I did to solve it, but luckily the picture didn’t turn out to be one giant blur.
It is a bit like a dream, unclear in its meaning.
How did Atlantis sink?
In the Atlantis story, massive waves destroy Atlantis causing it to submerge into the ocean.
For some reason, I went crazy with the exposure dial in this photo and turned the exposure dial heaps more to the dark side — probably around 4/5 of the way to the dark side.
The reason why is because it was my next picture after The Dream.
I was desperate to see a darker blue sky in one of my photos, so I went way overboard on this occasion, and this is the result.
The green lawn even turned blackish. What gets me is that the brick fence in the background looks perfectly fine. You can even see people walking on the beach.
Escape from Atlantis
After that, I decided to take a photo of a white sailing ship and an island of rocks.
I had to act fast before the boat disappeared behind the rocks since it was going in that direction.
It made me think about the people from Atlantis, who were known as Atlanteans.
I wondered if any of the Atlantis people managed to escape from the destruction of Atlantis. If they did, where did they go after Atlantis?
I would have preferred to have taken the picture with the white sailing ship a bit further away from the rocks. But the boat had nearly disappeared by the time I grabbed the camera from my bag.
The picture turned out pretty good. You can even see a couple of seagulls sitting on the water in this picture.
There are also heaps of shag waterbirds on the rocks. Zoom in and have a closer look.
I had the exposure dial set to about 2/3 dark for this pic.
Atlantis People – Atlanteans
The pic you see below is my favorite polaroid taken with the SX-70 sonar in this collection of 8 polaroids, which is a whole cartridge.
One sunny day I decided to visit a popular beachside square to take a picture.
I wanted to rely on luck, so I decided before I arrived to take a photo as soon as I got there.
The photo would include whoever I saw on these wave-like seats at the time. It didn’t matter who they were. Even if the seats were empty, I still planned on taking a photo.
Here it is. It makes me wonder who the two attractive girls were at the very front.
It was a wonderful day, and the colors in the polaroid turned out to be magic, especially the blue sky, white clouds, and green grass.
However, something in the picture seems a bit out of place. Take another look at the picture. Can you guess what it is?
The photo didn’t turn out as perfect as I would have liked.
So I will tell you a secret, I digitally modified this image, so it’s not a 100% polaroid photo.
I couldn’t help myself. The original polaroid photo turned out bad.
The photo combines a standard digital image (slightly blurred) and the original polaroid photo I took.
The purply wave-like seating where the people are sitting did appear in the original Polaroid photo.
However, I had to darken and brighten up the polaroid picture because the original photo looked very faint.
When I saw how the picture developed, I wanted to travel back in time to retake it.
I didn’t place the photo in a dark place after taking it because I didn’t want to look like a weirdo so that probably didn’t help either.
You can see the original picture further down, where I show every photo taken in this Atlantis series of pictures.
The above pic is something like a dream photo. I would have loved to have taken something like this with my sonar camera. I wonder if I fooled anyone?
Atlantic Tower – Atlantic Ocean
Plato indicated that the island of Atlantis was found beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
As a result, many people believe that the island of Atlantis must have existed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It made me think about Atlantic Tower, an iconic circular tower offering fantastic ocean and river views when up on the higher floors.
The 12th floor of Atlantic Tower used to be a revolving restaurant. The floor plate used to rotate around, doing a complete circuit in just over an hour, giving diners plenty of stunning views of the surrounding areas.
I took this picture from across the road. The street had two lanes on either side of the road, plus car parking spaces, so it was from a fair distance away.
To get this picture, I set my sonar only a touch darker, even though the sun was directly behind me. It turned out pretty good, even though it is slightly underexposed.
In this case, I wasn’t sure what the sonar would do because some tree branches were on the side, but the automatic focussing seemed to have worked well.
One day I want to go up to the top of the Atlantic Tower and take a picture through the window of the former revolving restaurant.
I asked George from Letters to Barbara for some Polaroid photo tips in his post about the Greek Island of Anafi.
So I’ll have to go up there one day and see if I can take a good picture.
The Atlantic Tower had been shared office space at the time of taking this photo, so I’ll probably have to act like I’m interested in being an office dweller to gain access.
Atlantic Tower is also an accommodation provider where you can get fantastic views from the balcony of your room, provided it is high enough, and you can see the beach.
Is Santorini Atlantis?
Plato stated that Atlantis could be found in the Atlantic Ocean, but that’s not to say that the Atlantic Ocean has to be the Atlantic Ocean of today.
Atlantis may even be the Greek Island of Santorini (named Thera in ancient times). It seems to be a very likely candidate.
A massive volcanic eruption around 1600 BCE caused a significant section of Thera (Santorini) to sink under the Aegean Sea. Could Atlantis be Santorini?
Plenty of strange theories about Atlantis keep surfacing. One of the weirdest is that aliens destroyed Atlantis. You can get an idea of this strange theory in the Atlantis video game myth.
The truth is that the Greek Gods must have destroyed Atlantis for some reason. Poseidon, God of the sea, seems the most logical Greek God to blame.
Where is Atlantis?
For my final photo, I wanted to take a picture at this secluded spot showing a fence line going into the ocean. Waves ended up destroying a part of it.
I wanted to take a photo here at sunset, but I couldn’t wait any longer due to my eagerness.
The sunset was unbelievable on the first day I went searching for the place, but I never found my Atlantis in time.
The day I went back, the sky was very overcast. So I decided to take a picture as a wave crashed into the fence. It worked out quite well.
The clouds in the picture look similar to the sky on that day. However, the rocks turned out a lot darker.
In reality, they were more browny red. I set the exposure dial only slightly further to the dark side, even on a darker day. Not sure why I did that. I should have centered it.
I think I’ll have to return here one day to take a sunset photo.
Plato Atlantis Pictures
Here are all of the pictures taken with my Polaroid SX-70 Sonar. As you can see, photo number 2 (my second photo) turned out extremely faint.
A mysterious rectangle also appears in the middle of the photo. Later on, it made me think about parallel dimensions. Maybe Atlantis still exists in another dimension somewhere.
The picture was flapping around in my hand while it was developing as it was a windy day, so maybe that caused the issue.
I never realized until after my second set of Polaroid photos that all Polaroid dark slides have various messages.
The message on this dark slide doesn’t suit my Atlantis story unless I’m oblivious to it, but the one in my first polaroid post is incredible!
So what happened to Atlantis?
Well, I tried to contact Atlantis again, but this time through a specific SX-70 sonar camera advertisement.
I received a reply this time, so I arranged a meeting time. The person gave me an address and told me to text them when I arrived at a particular street corner.
When I arrived, it was like a ghost town. If you wanted to meet up for a drug deal, this is the place you’d think about as being a great location.
There was a railway line on one side of the street. There was a large cemetery across the road, and then I noticed homeless people in a nearby corner of a car park.
They had a bonfire going inside a large metal drum. The whole area looked very deserted.
Does Atlantis exist?
I texted Atlantis and told them I wanted to meet in a public place where more people were around.
Atlantis replied that they didn’t have a car. I texted back, telling Atlantis to forget about it.
Then I get a reply thanking me for wasting their time.
Did Atlantis exist? I guess I’ll never know because I never met up with Atlantis.
The Mystery of Atlantis
The ads kept on disappearing and reappearing on Gumtree. What still gets me is that Atlantis had a rating of Highly Rated, as you can see in the pic below. How on earth?
A few days later, I noticed that Atlantis had changed the price of the Polaroid SX-70 sonar to $450. Then the ads would mysteriously disappear again.
A few weeks later, the price had reduced to $250. None of the cameras ever seemed to sell, so it was all very mysterious.
So no, I didn’t buy my new Polaroid SX-70 sonar camera through Atlantis.
After driving to meet Atlantis and being let down by the experience, I browsed through Gumtree again that night.
There I could see a Polaroid SX-70 Sonar Autofocus for sale that looked okay. I had seen it before as it had been for sale for quite a long time, even before the Atlantis advertisements.
It didn’t look as good as the one from Atlantis, but the photos weren’t that great, so it was hard to tell.
This particular Polaroid SX-70 camera was selling for $220.
I contacted the seller, Henry, and he seemed friendly enough. He had tested it with black-and-white film and assured me that the sonar seemed to work fine.
I offered him $200 for it. He came back with a price of $210. He also generously included postage in the price, so I accepted the deal.
I’m so glad I purchased it. The camera is in great condition, and I’d describe it as excellent.
The Legend of Atlantis
The moral of this Atlantis story is that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
Maybe I missed out on finding Atlantis, but even if I did, it doesn’t matter.
The main thing I learned from my Atlantis story is not to worry — something better can always come along.
So, what happened to Atlantis? I haven’t got a clue.
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