|
Cultural enigmas.
In Central America like the western seaboard of the Atlantic there is the profound enigma of
cultures like the Olmecs who seem to emerge as if from nowhere. Displaying great mastery of stone and architecture their skills testify to the hand of master builders, yet
there is hardly any evolutionary process leading up to this pinnacle of achievement. To all intents and purposes Meso-American culture explodes from the blue.
Teotihuacan
In Mexico, the ruins of Teotihuacan close to Mexico City provide an even greater sense of mystery. Here in a magnificent sprawling complex of pyramid mounds and broad open
avenues we find ourselves confronted with a seemingly unanswerable dilemma: Just who built the place?
Remarkably there is no obvious answer. It was certainly not the Aztecs, nor was it the Olmecs or the Maya. In fact all we know is that the architects of this exceptional
site seem to arrive out of nowhere and then with their work complete disappear almost as quickly.
People of Aztlan.
Remarkably the name Teotihuacan, when translated from the Nahua language means "The place where men become gods." The belief was that Teotihuacan was where the
great gods held council after the destruction of the island known to them as Nahuatl Aztlatlan. Aztec belief like that of so many other Indian tribes was that their origins lay in this halcyon island of
plenty, eastwards across the Atlantic. Aztlatlan was its name, and it's inhabitants were known as the people of Aztlan! Of course the similarity between this name and that of Atlas - reputed to be the
first king of Atlantis is obvious, so too the comparison between the name Aztlatlan and Atlantis.
Atl
Further intrigue comes from the word Atl. In the Nahuatl language it means water, a word it shares with the Berber people on the opposite shores of the Atlantic, in far away
Africa.
Further links.
A Saharan Atlantis?
The lost island of Antillia.
The lost kingdom of Tartessos.
|
