When the Sky Fell

1. The Enduring Mystery of Atlantis and a Bold New Theory

The mystery of the lost city has puzzled mankind for centuries, yet the Flem-Aths’ theory is so convincing it is hard to believe it has not been expounded before.

Centuries of speculation. The legend of Atlantis, a sophisticated civilization destroyed by a great catastrophe, has captivated imaginations for ages. Plato's account, derived from Egyptian priests, places its demise around 9600 BC, a date that aligns with significant global changes. Despite countless theories, its location and fate remain one of history's greatest puzzles.

A unifying explanation. The Flem-Aths propose a compelling solution by linking the Atlantis mystery to other global enigmas. They suggest that a single, dramatic geological event can explain simultaneous mass extinctions, preserved mammoths, the age of the Sphinx, ancient maps, and worldwide flood myths. This approach offers a cohesive framework where previous theories fell short.

Antarctica as Atlantis. The core of the Flem-Aths' argument is the startling claim that the lost continent of Atlantis lies beneath the ice of Antarctica. By re-examining ancient clues through the lens of a specific geological theory, they build a case that points convincingly to this often-overlooked continent as the site of the legendary lost civilization.

2. Earth Crust Displacement: Einstein's Endorsed Cataclysmic Theory

A great many empirical data indicate that at each point of the earth’s surface that has been carefully studied, many climatic changes have taken place, apparently quite suddenly.

Hapgood's radical idea. Charles H. Hapgood proposed the theory of earth crust displacement (ECD), suggesting that the Earth's rigid outer crust periodically shifts dramatically over its fluid interior. Unlike slow plate tectonics, ECD involves the entire crust moving as a single unit, causing rapid and devastating global changes.

Einstein's strong support. Albert Einstein was "electrified" by Hapgood's hypothesis, finding his arguments "very impressive" and believing that significant crustal shifts had occurred "repeatedly and within a short time." Einstein even wrote the foreword to Hapgood's book, lending significant scientific weight to the theory despite its challenge to gradualist geological notions.

Monumental consequences. An ECD would trigger incredible earthquakes, massive tidal waves, and abrupt climatic shifts as landmasses move into different latitude zones. This destruction could obliterate sophisticated civilizations, force mass migrations, and cause widespread extinctions, providing a single cause for multiple observed phenomena in Earth's history.

3. Geological Evidence: Mass Extinctions and Anomalous Ice Sheets

These repeated irruptions and retreats of the sea have neither been slow nor gradual; most of the catastrophes which have occasioned them have been sudden; and this is easily proved, especially with regard to the last of them, the traces of which are most conspicuous.

Sudden, widespread death. The late Pleistocene epoch, around 11,600 years ago, saw massive, simultaneous extinctions of large mammals across various continents, including North and South America, Australia, and Siberia. Geologists like Georges Cuvier recognized these events as sudden and catastrophic, challenging gradualist explanations like human "overkill."

Ice sheet anomalies. The current distribution of major ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica presents a puzzle for conventional climate models. Areas with the thickest ice receive the least snowfall today, while areas with thinner ice receive more. This suggests that the ice accumulated under different climatic conditions in the past.

ECD explains the pattern. Earth crust displacement provides a mechanism for these observations. As the crust shifts, some regions are rapidly moved into polar zones, accumulating vast ice sheets, while others are moved out, causing ice melt and rising sea levels. The geography of mass extinctions aligns with areas experiencing the greatest latitude changes during the last proposed ECD.

4. Archaeological Evidence: Sudden Agriculture and Ancient Sites

That the men who then escaped destruction must have been mostly herdsmen of the hill, scanty embers of the human race preserved somewhere on the mountain-tops.

Agriculture's abrupt rise. Around 11,600 years ago, humanity transitioned from hunting and gathering to agriculture almost simultaneously in different parts of the world. This sudden shift, after hundreds of thousands of years of the previous lifestyle, is a major archaeological mystery that traditional theories struggle to explain.

Highlands as refuges. Plato's account suggests survivors of the great flood retreated to highlands, preserving ancient skills like agriculture. Botanist Nikolai Vavilov's research supports this, showing that the origins of most domesticated plants are linked to high mountain ranges, aligning with areas that would have been safe havens from global tidal waves caused by an ECD.

Pre-Egyptian sophistication. Recent geological evidence suggests the Great Sphinx in Egypt is thousands of years older than previously thought, showing water erosion from a time before the area became desert. Astronomical alignments in the Giza pyramids and the Temple of the Sun at Tiahuanaco in South America also point to a sophisticated knowledge dating back to around 10,450 BC, hinting at a civilization predating known history.

5. Ancient Maps: Cartographic Proof of a Pre-Ice Age World

This book contains the story of the discovery of the first hard evidence that advanced peoples preceded all the peoples now known to history.

Maps defying their time. A series of ancient maps, known as portolans, accurately depict continents and coastlines long before they were officially explored by Europeans. These maps show details of areas like the Americas and Antarctica with a level of accuracy that required sophisticated surveying techniques unavailable to cartographers of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Evidence of advanced knowledge. Charles H. Hapgood and his students extensively studied these maps, concluding that they were based on much older source maps created by a sophisticated, worldwide maritime civilization that existed over ten thousand years ago. This civilization possessed advanced knowledge of geography, astronomy, and mathematics.

Passed down through history. Hapgood theorized that these ancient maps were preserved and copied over millennia, possibly studied in centers of learning like the Library of Alexandria and later Constantinople. Their reappearance in Europe during the Age of Exploration provided explorers like Prince Henry the Navigator and Ferdinand Magellan with crucial, otherwise unobtainable, geographic information.

6. The Piri Re'is Map: Antarctica Before the Ice

The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice cap by the Swedish-British-Norwegian Antarctic Expedition of 1949.

A map of impossible detail. The Piri Re'is map, dated 1513, is a prime example of the anomalous ancient cartography. It accurately depicts the coastline of Antarctica's Princess Martha Coast and Palmer Peninsula, areas that were not officially explored and mapped until the mid-20th century.

Antarctica without ice. Crucially, the map shows these Antarctic coastlines as they would appear without their current ice cover, which is over a mile thick in some areas. This suggests the source map was created at a time when this part of Antarctica was ice-free, supporting the idea of a dramatically different past climate.

Sophisticated techniques. The map was drawn using an advanced equidistance projection centered near ancient Syene, Egypt. This level of cartographic sophistication, including accurate longitudes for numerous points, was not achievable by European mapmakers until the invention of the marine chronometer in the 18th century, centuries after the Piri Re'is map appeared.

7. The Hadji Ahmed and Kircher Maps: More Cartographic Anomalies

Site of the island of Atlantis, now beneath the sea, according to the beliefs of the Egyptians and the description of Plato.

North America revealed. The Hadji Ahmed World Map of 1559 accurately outlines the continent of North America, including its northwestern coast, long before European explorers had fully charted these regions. This map depicts North America as it would have appeared around 9600 BC, with large ice sheets covering much of the continent, aligning with the ECD theory.

Kircher's Egyptian Atlantis. In 1665, Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher published a map he claimed was an ancient Egyptian depiction of Atlantis. While often dismissed, when viewed with south at the top (as Egyptians oriented maps towards the Nile's source), this map remarkably resembles an ice-free Antarctica in size, shape, and position relative to surrounding continents.

Consistent anomalies. The existence of these maps, showing accurate details of continents like North America and Antarctica in a pre-ice age state, created with techniques beyond the known capabilities of their time, strongly supports the idea that they originated from a much older, advanced civilization with global geographic knowledge.

8. Mythology Unmasked: Global Tales of Cataclysm and a Lost Land

The treatment of similar myths from different regions, by arranging them in large compared groups, makes it possible to trace in mythology the operation of the imaginative processes recurring with the evident regularity of mental law; and thus stories of which a single instance would have been a mere isolated curiosity, take their place among well-marked and consistent structures of the human mind.

Myths as potential history. While often studied for psychological or cultural insights, myths worldwide share striking similarities that suggest they might contain echoes of real historical events. The common themes of global cataclysm, falling skies, and great floods appear too consistently across unconnected cultures to be mere coincidence.

Challenging accepted views. Early thinkers like Thales dared to offer physical explanations for natural phenomena previously attributed to gods, marking the birth of science. Later, Euhemerus proposed that myths were exaggerated tales of real historical figures. The Flem-Aths build on this by suggesting specific myths directly reflect the trauma of an earth crust displacement and the destruction of a real place.

A shared human memory. The widespread nature of these cataclysmic myths, from the Americas to Asia and Europe, points to a shared human experience of a devastating global event. Rather than dismissing them as fantasy, examining these myths through the lens of a scientific theory like ECD can potentially unmask them as fragmented, yet persistent, historical accounts.

9. The Sun-Deluge Motif: A Worldwide Memory of Catastrophe

The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock.

The sky falls. A recurring motif in global mythology is the idea of the sky or sun deviating from its path, often followed by earthquakes and floods. The Utes, Okanagan, Cherokee, and many other cultures tell tales of a wayward sun or a sky that threatens to fall, reflecting a deep-seated fear of celestial and terrestrial instability.

Rituals to restore order. This fear led to rituals and monumental constructions aimed at securing the sun's path or preventing the sky from falling. The Inca's "hitching post of the sun" (Intihuatana) and the Anasazi's "sun dagger" alignments suggest ancient attempts to control or monitor the sun's movement after a traumatic event that disrupted the perceived cosmic order.

Echoes of displacement. An earth crust displacement would cause the sun and stars to appear in different positions relative to the horizon, making it seem as though the sky had shifted or fallen. This terrifying experience, coupled with the resulting earthquakes and floods, would be seared into collective memory and preserved in myths as a time when the world was violently overturned.

10. The Lost Island Paradise: Myths Pointing to Antarctica

Long, long ago, when the sun was young and no bigger than a star, there was an island far off in the middle of the ocean.

A common origin story. Many cultures, including the Haida, Sumerians, Aztecs, Japanese, and Iranians, share myths of a lost island homeland that was destroyed by a great flood or cataclysm. These myths often describe the island as being in a distant ocean, sometimes associated with whiteness or a polar location.

Antarctica's striking resemblance. Descriptions of these mythical lands bear a remarkable resemblance to Antarctica. The Okanagan speak of an island "far off in the middle of the ocean." The Aztecs' Aztlan is a "white island." The Iranian Airyana Vaêjo was covered by a "thick sheet of ice." Antarctica is an island continent in the middle of the World Ocean, largely covered in ice, fitting these descriptions.

Survivors spreading knowledge. The myths often describe survivors escaping the destruction by boat and bringing knowledge, including agriculture and sophisticated language (like the Aymara language's unique structure), to new lands. This aligns with the idea of Atlantean refugees dispersing globally after an ECD destroyed their Antarctic homeland.

11. Atlantis: An Advanced Civilization Lost Beneath the Ice

And the wealth they possessed was so immense that the like had never been seen before in any royal house nor will ever easily be seen again.

Evidence of advanced capabilities. The convergence of evidence from geology, cartography, archaeology, and mythology suggests that Atlantis was not just a real place, but an advanced civilization. Their ability to create accurate global maps, construct massive stone monuments like the Sphinx and Tiahuanaco, and potentially develop sophisticated language and agricultural techniques points to a high level of scientific and engineering knowledge.

Destroyed by cataclysm. The Flem-Aths argue that Atlantis, located on the ice-free portion of Lesser Antarctica, was destroyed around 11,600 years ago by the same earth crust displacement that caused global extinctions, floods, and climatic shifts. The continent was rapidly moved into the polar zone, burying the civilization under ice.

A heritage waiting to be found. The possibility that an advanced civilization lies preserved beneath the Antarctic ice is tantalizing. Such a discovery could reveal lost knowledge in science, engineering, and art, potentially solving problems we face today. However, exploring this pristine environment requires caution and international cooperation to protect its delicate ecosystem.

Last updated: June 17, 2025