Atlantis, where was it? How many people?
Its size?

tlantis, where was it? That is the question which many have already tried to answer. There are, in fact, many scientists and non-scientists who claim to have found Atlantis there, here or elsewhere. We can also see that there are almost as many hits of Atlantis as centers of interest. The first, of course, include the Greek islands, where the island Thera, which exploded in 1500 before Christ, is the star. Other locations often mentioned are: the coasts of Spain, the Bahamas archipelago, the region north of the island Madeira where there is a small ridge, the Celtic plate, under the ice of Antarctica, the Indonesian archipelago. Among other the places is the region from eastern Pakistan to Bangladesh, presented in a convincing manner by Mr Radek Brychta in 2001 and which would, in his view, be identical to the mythical country of Dilmun, also disappeared.

The place mentioned by Plato, which was partially confirmed by Cayce, lies in principle in front of columns of Hercules, we now call the Strait of Gibraltar. We can assume with a high probability that the island Atlantis was located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Regarding its size, it was also Plato and Cayce who had a good idea of what we should seek, and where we should look. These two gentlemen were both speaking of a small continent, rather than an island. Even when Cayce did not specify a size, it seems that it was certainly not a small island. Plato gave us a little more guidance, both direct and indirect. When Plato spoke of Atlantis in terms of size, he had specified that the island was larger than Libya and Asia together of his time. The size indicated by Plato was corresponding to a size larger than North Africa (Libya) and the Middle East (Asia) combined. We should therefore think in terms of thousands of kilometers and millions of square kilometers. Cayce, he, was not as precise, he spoke of an island that went from the African coast to American coast. Another indication given by Plato is rather an indirect indication, as he spoke of a plain two hundred thirty by three hundred fifty kilometers, protected by mountains from cold winds from the north. It's this plain of such a size, including mountains, that must find its place on an island. It's, regarding the size indicated, unlikely that an island of this size would have found its place somewhere in the Mediterranean.

On the other hand, it's neither Plato, nor Cayce, who give us a clue of the population, and their enumeration. Only a Maya legend states a quantity of sixty-four million. Plato, on the other hand, had left us with an indirect evidence in the form of the description of the army of Atlantis. He had detailed how the plain was divided and how many men and horses each plot had to provide for the defense of the country.

Extract what Critias says of the military:

« ...Regarding the number of soldiers that the plain had to provide in the event of war, it was decided that each district had to provide a leader. The size of the district was ten times ten stadia and there were a total of six myriads. As for the men who lived in mountains and across the country, their number, I was told, was infinite, and they were all divided by localities and villages between those districts under the authority of their leaders. But the chief was required to provide for the army the sixth part of a war-chariot, in order to bring the number to ten thousand, two horses and their riders, in addition a team of two horses without a seat, with a fighter armed with a small shield and the driver of those two horses who stood behind the fighters, two heavy armed soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three javelin-men, who were light-armed and four sailors to fill twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal city. For the other nine provinces, each had its particular organization, whose explanation would require a lot of time...»

Detail of the army and the number of men from each of the military:

Number	Function
60 000	Managers and leaders.
120 000	Knights, Horseman.
60 000	Chariot fighters armed with a small shield.
60 000	Chariot drivers.
120 000	Light infantry.
120 000	Heavy infantry and archers.
120 000	Slingers.
180 000	Fighters on foot and stone-shooters.
180 000	Javelin man.
240 000	Sailors.
1 260 000	Total number of soldiers.

Number of Equipments:

Number	Description
120 000	Horses
60 000	Hitches for two horses.
120 000	Coupling horses without a saddle.
10 000	Chariots of War and Battle Chariots.
1 200	Warships.

We can see from this description, that the enumeration of the population had to be accordingly high. There were already sixty thousand districts of 138 hectares each, giving a total size of the plain of 82'980 square kilometers. We should not forget that Plato had provided details of the plain, indicating that the rest, the people living in the mountains and elsewhere, was infinite. In addition, a small calculation shows that each district should provide the army twenty-one man and four horses. We must also bear in mind that an armed militia, or conscripts, could hardly have exceeded five percent the entire population without harming the economy. We should, therefore, consider that a district had at least four hundred and twenty people. Four hundred and twenty people per district leaves us with about three people per hectare. A hectare, on the other hand, could easily feed more people, especially in a region allowing two crops per year. It could therefore be estimated that the number of inhabitants per hectare, ie those who earned their lives on working the ground and those who were fed in an indirect way of crops, lies in the range of eight to twenty people per hectare. It's obvious that all these people didn't live in the plain, but that there should have been, apart from the main city, Poseidon, other towns and villages where people lived as well. Already the main city of Atlantis, Poseidon, had a total size exceeding the city of Paris, bounded by the Boulevard-Périphérique¹, a kilometer on each side. Plato describes that the central city of Poseidon was surrounded by a circular area of fifty stadia (5.88 km) wide closed by a wall with very dense construction. If we add up all the dimensions of the city of Poseidon, we get a city with a size of about fourteen kilometers in diameter. We can, taking into account that the city of Paris had in 2004 about two million people, estimate that the main city of Atlantis, Poseidon, would have had at least as many.

Regarding the enumeration of total inhabitants of Atlantis, we cannot estimate it with certainty. On the other hand the figures we can infer from the description of Critias, concern only the people of the plains and the main city. However, the plain had already at least, multiplying sixty thousand by four hundred and twenty, roughly twenty-five million people. An interesting aspect is the relationship between the enumeration of the population who lived in the plains and the estimated number we could find in town. We can therefore estimate that ninety-two per cent of the population lived in the countryside, as this was the case in Europe in the 19^th century.

We can estimate, taking into account that Plato didn't mention anything about people who lived in the mountains, or those who lived in the nine other states that Atlantis was composed of, that the enumeration of the Atlantean population should be a hundred million at least. What is interesting is that some pre-Columbian societies spoke in their myths of a distant country with sixty-four million people, which remains quite close to those estimates.

What do the dialogues of Plato say about the location and size of Atlantis?

Quote from Critias compared to the exploits of the Athenians:

« ...Indeed, the written monuments say your city once destroyed an immense power that walked insolently on Europe and Asia as a whole, from another world located in the Atlantic Ocean. You could then cross the ocean, because an island could be found there in front of this strait that you call, as you say, the columns of Hercules. This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined. From this island we could then move to other islands and then gain the whole continent that extends in front of them as the real border. Because everything that is inside the strait we are talking about looks like a port with a narrow entrance, while that which is beyond form a sea and the land that it surrounds, may be most truly called a boundless continent... »

At first glance, we can see that there is question of a small continent, which is at the center of an ocean. This ocean apparently was formerly called as now, the Atlantic Ocean. Then to give weight to his example, the Egyptian priest who had narrated it to Solon, had compared the Mediterranean Sea with a sea port so small it was vis-à-vis the ocean. (True!) We can also observe that we could cross the ocean, from the columns of Hercules to the island which was opposite of it. In addition, they mention that we could win from that island, Atlantis therefore, other islands. Then from these other islands we could win the whole continent that stretched in front of them and bordered this true ocean. Although Plato's intention was to praise the exploits of the Athenians at the time, gave us nevertheless good idea of the size and where Atlantis would be found.

The facts mentioned by Plato stick quite well with reality; the figures seem also to stick quite well. So we see that these facts and figures also stick with a small continent that had to be the size of one to two times the European union of fifteen. It's therefore unnecessary to correct the data of Plato and search anything, anywhere, just look for the right thing at the right place, it's that easy!