The Atlantis Blueprint Read online

  In November 1982, Professor Charles Hapgood wrote to a young correspondent, Rand Flem-Ath, adding an amazing postscript to his life’s work on ancient civilizations:

  “There is evidence that the last displacement of the crust moved both American continents southward about 30 degrees, and absolutely devastated life and civilization on them…. “Furthermore, in recent exciting discoveries I believe I have convincing evidence of a whole cycle of civilization in America and Antarctica, suggesting advanced levels of science that may go back 100,000 years….”

  Hapgood was, admittedly, a maverick, but he would not have placed his whole reputation in jeopardy with some crank theory. He evidently felt that he had found evidence of science dating back 100,000 years, at a time when, according to paleontology, the most advanced human being on earth was Neanderthal man.

  Rand Flem-Ath replied immediately, asking for some hint of Hapgood’s reasons for this amazing assertion. For weeks there was no reply, then his letter was returned, stamped “deceased.”

  Hapgood’s last letter led Flem-Ath to his own quest for the origin of science and civilization, of which this book tells the story….

  Also by Rand Flem-Ath

  WHEN THE SKY FELL: IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIS

  (with Rose Flem-Ath)

  Also by Colin Wilson

  MYSTERIES: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE OCCULT,

  THE PARANORMAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL

  STARSEEKERS

  UNSOLVED MYSTERIES PAST AND PRESENT

  (with Damon Wilson)

  FROM ATLANTIS TO THE SPHINX:

  RECOVERING THE LOST WISDOM OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

  THE ATLAS OF HOLY PLACES AND SACRED Sites

  ALIEN DAWN

  For Rose, for ever…

  Rand Flem-Ath

  For my wife, Joy

  Colin Wilson

  Contents

  Analytical Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Preface

  1 HAPGOOD S SECRET QUEST FOR ATLANTIS

  2 THE BLUEPRINT

  3 THE GIZA PRIME MERIDIAN

  4 THOTH'S HOLY CHAMBER

  5 6,000 DEGREES CELSIUS

  6 ANCIENT VOYAGERS

  7 FALLEN ANGELS

  8 GOLDEN SECTION SITES

  9 WHAT THE TEMPLARS FOUND

  10 THE LEGACY

  Appendix 1 BLUEPRINTS FROM ATLANTIS

  Appendix 2 LETTER TO RAND FLEM-ATH FROM CHARLES H. HAPGOOD, 16 OCTOBER 1982

  Appendix 3 SACRED SITES LINKED TO THE HUDSON BAY POLE

  Appendix 4 SACRED SITES LINKED TO THE YUKON POLE

  Appendix 5 TRACING LOST SITES

  Appendix 6 SPENDING TIME AND WASTING SPACE: HOW ICE CORE DATING WENT WRONG

  Appendix 7 THE MECHANICS OF MANTLE DISPLACEMENT

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Analytical Table of Contents

  Preface

  Coins in a fountain – earth dragons – Feng shui – geomancy – cording the temple – from priest-craft to science – the blueprint – Rand and Colin’s collaboration.

  Chapter 1: Hapgood’s Secret Quest for Atlantis

  Hapgood’s death – his work – Mu and Plato’s Atlantis – earth crust displacement – collaboration with Albert Einstein – Einstein’s death – Professor Ma – Captain Arlington Mallery – Piri Reis – Hapgood approaches President Kennedy – Hapgood writes to Rand – a civilisation 100,000 years old?

  Chapter 2: The Blueprint

  Rand writes a screenplay – Donovan’s ‘Hail Atlantis’ – Athanasius Kircher’s map of Atlantis – ice-free Antarctica – Plato’s ‘true ocean’ and oceanographers’ ‘world ocean’ – the Hudson Bay Pole – Rand and Rose begin correspondence with Hapgood – William Fairfield Warren – Bal Gangadhar Tilak – Atlantis at Last! – Thomas Kuhn – John Anthony West and the Sphinx – the golden section – When the Sky Fell – other books – misaligned Mesoamerican and Middle East sacred sites – linkage by latitude to the Hudson Bay Pole.

  Chapter 3: Giza Prime Meridian

  1884 Washington DC conference on the prime meridian – Charles Piazzi Smyth opts for Giza – conference settles on Greenwich – Tiahuanaco 100 degrees west of Giza – 10 phi sacred sites – Lubaantum and the crystal skull – Portuguese bandeiristas in the Amazon – Percy Fawcett’s Amazon quest for Atlantean cities – Easter Island, Teotihuacan, Tula, Copan, Quirgua, Lubaantum and Quito on the Giza prime meridian – locating Fawcett’s Atlantean cities using the blueprint – Canterbury Cathedral on a sacred site.

  Chapter 4: Thoth’s Holy Chamber

  Herodotus and the Great Pyramid – Al-Mamum’s break and entry – Christopher Dunn and the pyramid – a magical spell cast upon Thoth’s Holy Chamber – The Secrets of Alkazar – misdirection – David Furlong and phi at Giza – a Fibonacci spiral running through the tips of the pyramids – red granite in front of the Sphinx – 28 degrees at Giza – breaking the spell that hides Thoth’s Holy Chamber.

  Chapter 5: 6,000 Degrees Celsius

  Nine skeletons in the Libyan Desert – the mystery of tektites – bore holes and high temperatures – Lord Rennell contacts Hapgood – 6,000 degrees Celsius – powdered metallurgy – Shawn Montgomery introduces Rand to Brown’s Gas – alchemy and glass – Jules Verne’s prediction – Yull Brown escapes the Iron Curtain – Shawn interviews Brown – gold mining in the Americas – portable forges – Dr Oswaldo Rivera and the age of Tiahuanaco.

  Chapter 6: Ancient Voyagers

  Stone balls of Costa Rica – ley lines – ancient Japanese pottery in America – David Kelley and the Mayan calendar – trans-Pacific voyagers – James Bailey and ancient mining operations – Chatelain and the amazing Ninevah number – Jane Sellers on Egyptian precession – John Lash on the Dendera zodiac – Homo erectus crosses the sea – when did civilisation begin?

  Chapter 7: Fallen Angels

  Enoch is abducted – James Bruce seeks the source of the Nile – the Ark of the Covenant – the Book of Enoch – Watchers – Angels with measuring cords – the O’Briens write The Genius of the Few – ancient geological survey – the Shining Ones – the Kharsag Saga – Uriel’s machine as a seismic device – From the Ashes of Angels – Seven Sages – Baalbek at 7N during Yukon Pole.

  Chapter 8: Golden Section Sites

  Rennes-le-Chateâu – Lincoln’s Key to the Sacred Pattern – Berenger Saunière’s fabulous wealth – the Knights Templar excavate King Solomon’s Temple – Gothic architecture – King Philip destroys the Order – Lincoln’s quests – Priory of Sion – the pentagram – Cornford and Poussin’s painting – German miners near Rennes-le-Chateâu in 1156 – the orbit of Venus – Nanking and Rennes at a golden section division – The mummies of Urumchi – Bruce Cathie locates the Chinese pyramids – Geneset – aligned churches on Bornholm – the underwater ‘pyramid’ at Yonaguni – Berriman’s ancient measures.

  Chapter 9: What the Templars Found

  Rosslyn Chapel and the Hiram Key – Critchlow’s Time Stands Still – origins of Freemasonry – Tintagel, Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Avebury and ancient latitudes – Korean pyramids at Pyongyang – the Yukon Pole – Jacques De Molay – Jesus in France? – Carthage at 30N during the Hudson Bay Pole – the golden wand and Cuzco – Viracocha involved in measurements – links between Cuzco and Quito – links between Baalbek and Ollantaytambu – Rosslyn as a 50/50 sacred site – Templars in America?

  Chapter 10: The Legacy

  Bill Denevan over the jungles of Bolivia – Thor Heyerdahl and the Canary Island pyramids – tomb robbers of the Sipan pyramid – the cocaine mummies – Robert Temple and the Hadji Ahmad map – the Yukon Pole – the X event – anatomically modern humans in South Africa – ocean currents of 100,000 years ago – the At
lantis Channel – Uriel’s machine in the south – satellite over Antarctica – the location of the city of Atlantis.

  Appendix 1: Blueprints from Atlantis

  A fax from John Anthony West – 10,500 versus 9,600 BC– friendly debate with Bauval – Dr Anthony Aveni and the misaligned Mesoamerican sites – sacred sites linked to former poles – geological markers and time capsules.

  Appendix 2: Letter to Rand Flem-Ath from Charles Hapgood, 16 October 1982

  Role of earth crust displacement in evolution – catastrophe myths – origins of agriculture article – elevation not a safe bet – 100,000-year-old civilisations – a new edition of Earth’s Shifting Crust – timescale for displacements – regions of maximum displacement.

  Appendix 3: Sacred Sites Linked to the Hudson Bay Pole (60N 83W)

  The half a degree (30 nautical miles) margin of error – sacred sites by latitude – sacred sites by distance to the Hudson Bay Pole.

  Appendix 4: Sacred Sites Linked to the Yukon Pole (63N 135W)

  Sacred sites by latitude – sacred sites by distance to the Yukon Pole.

  Appendix 5: Tracing Lost Sites

  Back-engineering the Atlantis Blueprint – Fawcett’s lost Atlantean city – Ojai in California – The Lost Horizon and Shangri-La – potential lost sacred sites in Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and the Sahara Desert.

  Appendix 6: Spending Time and Wasting Space: How Ice Core Dating Went Wrong

  A lottery at Disney World – conflicting ice core dates for the Lesser Antarctic ice sheet – Pythagoras and the antipodes – antipodal regions to Lesser Antarctica in Siberia, Alaska and Beringia – origins of ice age theory – Gould’s ‘Is uniformitar-ianism necessary?’ – a new tool called ‘the cross-polar point’ – thickest ice and former ice-free regions of Lesser Antarctica.

  Appendix 7: The Mechanics of Mantle Displacement

  Rotation of the inner core – the Hawaiian hot spot – astronomical factors in displacements – Donald Tim Seitz (Sr) and the earth-moon gravitational well – a terrestrial alternative – mantle displacements and earth’s tilt cycle – safe for another 29,400 years.

  Acknowledgements

  Rand Flem-Ath

  My wife, Rose, has often taken time from writing her own book to give me much invaluable help throughout the writing of The Atlantis Blueprint. Many thanks to Bill Hamilton of A.M. Heath for a marvellous job and for his infinite patience. A special thank you to Alan Samson for having faith in this book from the beginning. Also, grateful acknowledgement to Caroline North and Andrew Wille for their meticulous and insightful editing of our manuscript.

  Thank you to my friend Martin Schnell for his help with the exciting but exhausting job of tackling Charles Hapgood’s uncatalogued archives. The staff at the Yale/Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library were very helpful in permitting us to explore those materials. Likewise, the staff at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem allowed me the privilege of viewing the Einstein–Hapgood correspondence. Also, G. Thomas Tanselle of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation generously sent me copies of Albert Einstein’s writings about Professor Hapgood.

  As always, Ray Grasse’s humour and good advice continues to help keep me on an optimistic road. The friendship of Laura Lee, and her husband Paul, is a lighthouse in the sometimes stormy seas I’ve found myself in over the past few years. And thanks also to our mutual friends, Jo Curran and Rick Levine. Thanks also to Tony Wharrie.

  Shawn Montgomery contributed his great enthusiasm and knowledge of Brown’s Gas. Raymond Beaumont sent several timely articles about the peopling of America. Thanks also to Simon Cox, for getting us copies of The Shining Ones; Robin Pack, for his always thoughtful ideas; and Paul Stevens, for setting up and hosting our website in the early days. My introduction to Bruce and Wendy Cathie was a refreshing change when I most needed it. Bruce was the first to publish the coordinates of the pyramids in China. I’m especially thankful to many friends and colleagues at the Vancouver Island Regional Library who have been so supportive, including: Julie Berreth; Dave Devana; Penny Grant; Janice McLean; Kay Morley; Elizabeth Pack; and Leif Rosvold. Thanks to Lady Juliet Boobbyer for her assistance with the research of her father, Lord Rennell; and to Doug Kenyon of Atlantis Rising magazine, who was the first to publish the ideas that evolved into this book.

  The Atlantis Blueprint wouldn’t have been possible without the work of many scholars, amongst them Christian and Barbara Joy O’Brien, whose groundbreaking work in The Genius of the Few and The Shining Ones was ahead of its time. Also the marvellous books of Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas can’t go unmentioned. I am also in debt to three true pioneers: John Anthony West, John Michell and Nigel Pennick.

  Thanks also to Fred Hapgood and Beth Hapgood for their gracious co-operation.

  None of my work would have been possible without the foundation built by Charles Hapgood and Captain Arlington Mallery

  Finally, last but never least, gratitude to Plato and his marvellous legend of Atlantis, which will continue to inspire many generations to come!

  Colin Wilson

  More than most of my books, this one has been a collective effort, with co-operation and feedback from many friends.

  Charles Hapgood’s cousin Beth Hapgood has been tireless as a facilitator and establisher of connections – it was she, for example, who put the authors in touch with Elwood and Daria Babbitt, who in turn did their best to help us track down the missing notes for what was meant to be Hapgood’s revised and finalised edition of The Path of the Pole. Beth’s friend Jim Bowles also provided some important hints and clues.

  Shawn Montgomery of Toronto, whose role is described in the second and third chapters, also provided a vast amount of information on a subject that is his speciality – scientific mavericks and forgotten geniuses – in such embarrassing quantities that this volume could easily have been twice as long.

  Many authors in this field of ‘anomalous’ historical research have also provided important information or indicated valuable lines of research. These include John Michell, Andrew Collins, Robert Bauval, John West, Robert Schoch, Christopher Dunn, Robert Lomas, Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, John Lash, Ivar Zapp, Lynn Picknett, Stan Gooch, Christian and Joy O’Brien, Edmund Marriage, Emilio Spedicato, Alexander Tollmann and Bill Denevan.

  Eddie Campbell has earned my gratitude by introducing me to Henri Bortoft’s work on Goethe.

  It was the fortunate chance of meeting Gerd and Maria Walton on a Nile steamer that led to the discovery of Our Cosmic Ancestors by Maurice Chatelain, and of Chatelain’s research into the Nineveh and Quiriga numbers which has played such an important part in this book. It was on that same Nile trip that our guide, Emil Shaker, made some highly enlightening comments on Egyptian temple ritual.

  I am grateful to my friend Michael Baldwin, who has read most of this book in typescript, for sending me a copy of Jeremy Narby’s The Cosmic Serpent.

  My son Damon arrived one weekend with a copy of Stephen Oppenheimer’s Eden in the East, thus drawing my attention to a book that was of enormous importance in our research.

  Two old friends, Maurice Bassett and Ted Brown, have been indefatigable in helping me to find hard-to-trace volumes.

  My thanks also to Stephen Phillips for allowing me to quote from both his published and unpublished work in Chapter 11.

  Finally, my thanks to the London Library for the loan of such rare volumes as A.E. Berriman’s Historical Metrology and Peter Fleming’s Brazilian Adventure.

  Preface

  Rand Flem-Ath

  At a local shopping mall, a boy reaches for the coins that glisten beneath the water of a bubbling fountain. The adventurer pulls off his shoes but before he can climb over the lip of the pool to seize the sunken treasure his mother pulls him back and tucks a shiny penny into his fist. ‘Make a wish,’ she urges him. With dramatic flair the coin is tossed into the water and closely watched as it sinks to the blue-tiled floor of the fountain.

 
; As I watched the child’s initiation into the wishing ritual I wondered just how many coin tossers know the true origin of this romantic superstition.

  In ancient times flowing water was cherished as a gift from the gods. Wherever the earth goddess allowed it to appear was considered a sacred place. To express their gratitude, people would leave a small gift at the site. This tradition was retained even after humans learned to find water by digging wells.

  Then came a subtle but lasting change in our worldview. We began to control nature, to bend it to our own design. The original religious impulse to honour the gods and goddesses faded, and was transformed into acts of magic designed to appropriate their powers for our personal use.

  Today, when we pause in the midst of the bustle of a shopping centre or linger at a cool fountain while on holiday to toss a coin into a fountain, most of us are unaware that we are miming an ancient ritual. A shopping mall receives its water from an elaborate system of pipes and filters, its true origin possibly miles away. And in spirit it is even further removed from the idea of the gift from a goddess. It marks no sacred place.

  But in the ancient world location held tremendous significance. Certain places were so holy that only a handful of visitors were permitted entrance. A web of intricate meaning surrounded rivers, lakes and forests. In time, this significance was transferred to temples, pyramids and other monuments built upon sacred ground. There was profound meaning to where we lived and to where we worshipped, because so much depended on our relationship with the earth.

  With the coming of agriculture, humanity broke that covenant with nature. No longer did we feel subject to a careful order overseen by a powerful earth goddess. As hoes broke open the soil, we realised that nature could be forced to our will. But part of the price we paid for that power was fear: fear that the gods would seek vengeance for our disruption of nature.

  At Delphi, the ancient Greeks honoured a sacred rock called the ‘ omphalos’, which marked the ‘navel’ or ‘centre’ of the earth. A myth tells the story of its origin. From the opposite ends of the earth Zeus released two eagles. One flew west and the other east. Eventually the two birds crossed flight paths at Delphi, thus designating that city as the centre of the world. But before Delphi could be occupied, the sun god, Apollo, had to sanctify its ground through battle with a gigantic serpent, ‘Python’, who lived beneath the earth.