Imagine these unending stretches of flower and vegetable gardens, palaces, temples, canals and islands connected by drawbridges and levees, over such a great area. It was truly a paradise much more beautiful than that which Plato described. Except for my yet unproven statements that Atlantis extended to the West Indies, we do have scientific proof that this paradise existed just as I have stated. However, the man-made landscaping, the large buildings and temples, the canals, bridges, statues, and whatever else that existed in this area could not hide the fact that Atlantis was really no more than a thin, unsteady, rich carpet covering a large swamp. Moreover, it was in an area where rain fell much of the year -- and still does. Monstrous hurricanes did -- and still do -- blow in from the Atlantic, often forcing the inhabitants to reclaim the land and build all over again. The Atlanteans had also adopted some of the more barbarous customs of their Phoenician fathers, such as human sacrifice and self-mutilation. Although the Atlanteans had more than enough to eat, good habitations, and abundant festivities, the constant threats of ravaging rains and hurricanes, along with the uneasy awareness that at any moment any of them could be chosen to have their hearts cut out on a sacrificial block -- or have their heads cut off for just losing a ball game -- certainly did not help them sleep more securely at night. There was no denying that the other side of the Atlantean coin was Patala or Hell!
     A Mexican political activist, Gary S. Trujillo, discussed the importance to Mexico of Mr. Wilkerson’s discovery on his website:

     Professor Wilkerson’s discovery prepares all humans everywhere to accept the truth that ancient Amerindian civilizations were already in place at the time of the Egyptian, Sumerian, and Indus Valley civilizations. This being the case, we find ourselves in the position of being forced to admit the possibility that at one time, both the Eastern and Western hemispheres enjoyed some kind of relationship.
     The reader should know that Sanskrit words always, and without exception, describe the state or function of place names. They are not names per se, but ideographs. Each word is composed of extremely short syllables, compounded in such a way as to convey accurate and vivid mental pictures. Before sinking under the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea, Atlantis was probably known as Ashtalantes. Ashtala = “ground; plain; mound; raised, dry ground; land (as the opposite of water.)” The many thousands of low-lying islands forming the nation of ancient Lanka were called Atholhu, derived from the Sanskrit Asthala.  Our English word for “low-lying coral island,” Atoll, was derived from the Maldivian (Divehi) Atholhu. This “history book” word tells us that the geography of most of Atlantis, as well as that of Lanka, was generally neither mountainous nor on plains, as Plato believed; it consisted mainly of a long series of atolls extending outward from both sides of Sri Lanka or Ceylon, becoming a belt that stretched around nearly the whole globe. Even during the heyday of Atlantis and Lanka, these two nations were probably being slowly dissolved into the ocean, just as the Maldives are now.
     The above “history book” word aids us in learning how the Americas were probably settled. The ancient forefathers of the Amerindians and Atlanteans followed those islands to the Western Hemisphere as well as crossing over to Alaska from the northern Bering Strait. A number of authorities conjecture that there had to be some kind of connection between the Maldives and Easter Island, which lies about 2,000 miles off the Chilean coast. In those days, these atolls could have extended up to the South American mainland.
     Perhaps some of my readers are beginning to think that I believe most Amerindian tribal and place names originated in India. I admit that such names are more numerous and visible in Latin America. However, some tribes and places have non-Hindu names. The true name of the Zapotecs of Oaxaca, Beni-Gulaza, not only announces their Hebrew origins, but even their reason for being in Mexico: Beni = “Sons of;” Gulaza derives from the Hebrew Gulata, which means “Exile; Diaspora.”
     Columbus knew what the name of the Antilles (islands of the West Indies) would be before he arrived there.

     Robles y Gutiérrez also discussed in detail the so-called Piri Reis map of the world, reputed to be at least 4,000 years old. Robles y Gutiérrez said that it would have been impossible for Columbus not to have had some acquaintance with this ancient map which many authorities believe was saved when the Moslems burned the world-famous library at Alexandria, Egypt to the ground.
     For those who believe that the word Atlán isn’t sufficient proof that Mexico once belonged to the land of Atlantis, more evidence is available. The Nahuatl word for “water” is Atl. Perhaps it evolved from the Atlán meaning “Not-Surface.” Therefore, Atlán came to mean “Nation of Water,” also “from, in, into, on, or through the water.” Atlanteca = “Citizen of Atlán or Atlantean.” The ancient Indians and the Nahuatl-speaking tribes in the Americas shared the same word for “Hill; Mountain”: Skt. Tepe; Nahuatl, Tepetl/Tepec. The early Mexicans also used it as an epithet of “Region.” Although I have no proof of this, the real name of Atlantis could have been Atlántepec.
     American Chicano political activists and poorly-informed historians like to mention a place called Aztlán as the primordial founding city of the Toltecs and Aztatecas. But there never was an Aztlán in Nahuatl mythology. It was called Aztatlán. On Mexico’s West coast, there is an Aztatlán, Nayarit. The Sanskrit word Asta means “Place of the Setting Sun” or “Westernmost Extreme or Boundary.” Could Aztatlán be the westernmost boundary of what was once Atlantis or “The Westernmost Land of God Shiva?” Additionally, the “Aztecs” were never Aztecas, but Aztatecas. Again, Asta means “Westernmost Extreme or Boundary.” Teca may be a mexicanization of the North Indian Attac from which was probably derived the Greek AUTOCHthon, meaning “springing from the same earth.” Aztateca = “Westerner.”
     In his book, Hindu America, India-Indian author Chaman Lal states:

     The eastern entry to Mexico would also refute the theory that the primordial Tollán (Shiva Land?) was Tula, Hidago, Aztatlán, Nayarit -- or California as the Chicano political activists loudly declare. Tula (Shiva?) is slightly northwest of Mexico City and many hundreds of miles north-northwest of Mayan Yucatan. Aztatlán lies a few hundred miles northwest of Mexico City, on the Pacific Coast. Some 16th century Spanish priest-scholars speculated that the Aztatecas first entered Mexico from what is now either Florida or the Texas Gulf Coast. It seems probable that the ancestors of both the Aztatecas and the Mayans crossed at least part of the Atlantic Ocean (The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean?) to get to America.
     In the 1970s, Mexican investigator, Eduardo Robles y Gutierrez, published his book, La Atlántida Está en México (Editorial Diana; Mexico City). While he was working in Vera Cruz, he discovered the foundations of an ancient city in and near the region known as San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. Three small villages, each sitting on and amidst important archeological ruins, are located there: Tenochtitlán, San Lorenzo, and Potrero Nuevo. To reach this area, one must start at the dirty, greasy oil town of Minatitlán, situated on the Coatzacoalcos River about 30 miles west of its mouth on the gulf coast. The Coatzacoalcos and its tributaries drain all of the northern half of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. At one point in its course, the river splits and flows around a huge swampy island called Tacamichapa. According to the local people, this island belonged to Doña Marina or La Malinche, the famous Indian mistress of Hernán Cortés. The west branch of the Coatzacoalcos, which skirts Tacamichapa, is called the Chiquito River. After two hours’ travel from Minatitlán, the boat reaches the Chiquito. After another three to four hours’ travel through swamps and green jungle, the boat reaches the village of Tenochtitlán, so named because of the ruins there.
     Through research, Robles y Gutiérrez found out that the early Spanish residents of the port of Coatzacoalcos tore down the ruins of the buildings that had rested on the foundations of San Lorenzo. They sent the fabulous artifacts they found buried in the ruins, such as jade objects, precious metals and other treasures, even its finely polished stone building blocks, to Spain. In a later chapter, you’ll learn that those treasures could have been transported to Quivira, centuries before the Spaniards reached America.
     An ancient harbor of concentric circular channels, with high banks or dikes lining the channels, had once existed there, exactly as described by Plato. Robles y Gutiérrez said that the extremely fertile plains and jungles in the area are criss-crossed with the ruins of many ancient irrigation canals and lagoons, some with masonry still lining their banks and with drainage ducts still intact. He said that if the Mexican government just cleaned out and repaired those canals and ducts, water could start flowing through most of them again, enabling the country to cultivate millions of acres profitably and cheaply.
     The following are some quotes from his book:

     Robles y Gutiérrez’ book is extremely brief; I have quoted from it only minimally in order to avoid plagiarizing his entire work. Robles y Gutiérrez’ views are important because he thoroughly compares the geographical and other physical details mentioned by Plato with those in the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán area. If, after reading my book, any reader fails to be convinced, he should read La Atlantida Está en Mexico. As far as I’m concerned, Robles y Gutiérrez’ observations will settle the Atlantis riddle to the satisfaction of even the most iron-shelled skeptics.
     Although the archeologists excavating this site may not believe in the Atlantis myth, their description of the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán archeological zone clearly reveals their awe and wonderment of a site whose true purpose they have not yet ascertained. The famous archeologist and specialist of the Olmec Culture, Michael D. Coe, wrote in his book America’s First Civilization:

     Robles y Gutiérrez believes that the foundations he found were those of the capital of Atlantis. However, it may be true that all Atlantean harbors were circular. The Phoenicians were known to build harbors composed of concentric circular channels. Many ruins in the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán area belong to the Olmec culture. The Olmecs, like the Aztecs, were Atlantecas or “Water People.” Their farming methods were identical to those of the Aztecs. Other than being one of the tribes of Atlantecas living in Mexico, could they have also been the Atlanteans described by Plato?

     So where would “The-No-Longer-Existent-Surface” or Tlan/Tollán (Shiva-Land) be? Could it be a now submerged large body of land, the water over which we presently call the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea? We must also be prepared to accept the fact that perhaps Atlantis never did sink under the sea. Perhaps the Olmec civilization was Atlantis itself.
     If it is true that some Amerindian languages derive from Sanskrit, how does ancient India fit into the picture? My answer is, “Even Atlantis (the part of present-day Mexico stretching from Nayarit down to Chiapas), the state of Michoacán (not part of Atlantis) and Mayapan belonged to ancient Mahabharata (Greater India i.e., “The Indian empire”). (See my book India Once Ruled the Americas.) Hindu books such as the Mahabharata discuss long and close contact with Patala or Atala (Hell). However, these myths seem to speak more favorably of the Yucatan Peninsula even though it was the “Hell” of the far-flung nation of islands called Lanka: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and all other parts of Central America dominated by the Mayans. They also called this lowland region Naga-shtali  (“Naga Sanctuary”). Even today, the Caribbean side of the Mayan lowlands is called Nacaste. It is interesting to note that the Olmecs called the Mayan lowlands Coatzacoalcos (Serpent Sanctuary).
     Some of the literature I have read about Atlantis stated that the Atlanteans were a race of tall, blonde, highly-intelligent giants who escaped to Europe. This idea is erroneous because there is no linguistic evidence that I know of, to prove that the Atlanteans sought refuge in Europe. However, there is a lot of evidence that thousands of survivors of the Lanka disaster did go to Europe. Few Westerners know that ancient Lanka was a highly developed civilization that stretched from Madagascar in the west to the Malayan archipelago in the east -- and beyond as I’ve already mentioned. Like Atlantis, it, too, sank under water between 2500 and 1900 BC, about the time that Abraham and Sarah also escaped from “the other side of the flood,” as the Bible states. The only parts of Lanka that stayed above water were today’s Sri Lanka (Ceylon), which lies just south of the tip of the Indian continent, including the Maldives and the Andaman islands -- also the Mayan lands of Mexico and Central America. The sea is still claiming the Maldives. As I have already stated, authorities say that these 1,300 or so small islands will also be totally submerged by 2050 A.D, thus closing the final chapters on Atlantis and Lanka forevermore.
     Many Atlantean survivors escaped to Mexico which was, at the time, the western part of the Atlantean confederation.
     What good can come from accepting the truth that Mexico, a.k.a. Atlántepec, has been Atlantis all along? It goes without saying that all these long millenniums of constant speculation will come to an end. The worldwide congregation of Atlantean enthusiasts can dedicate all their resources and energies to finding the ruins in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, such as the ones already found just off the coast of Bimini island.
     Even the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle may be solved. When and if skeletons of the Atlantean civilization are brought up from the briny deep, I’m sure anthropologists will prove beyond all doubt that the Olmecs themselves had been a tribe of Atlanteans. The Mexicans may clean up and rehabilitate all those ancient irrigation canals and lagunas, becoming one of the world’s leading growers and exporters of rice and fresh vegetables. Robles y Gutiérrez stated that the San Lorenzo area alone was fully capable of feeding over one hundred thousand people the year round, with enough surpluses available for profitable exportation.
     I am neither a real archeologist, a pseudo-archeologist, nor a wannabe archeologist. My readers should know that the “Atlantis” described in this book may not be the same as Plato’s “Atlantis.” I’m just proving that there was once a part of the world called “Atlantis” -- that a part of Mexico once had the Sanskrit name Atlán, Tlan, or Tollán, whose citizens were known as Atlantecas and Atlantl. We must remember that Plato was writing of an Atlantis/Atalante, not of a Tollán/Atlán/Atlantepec. I have reasoned that since the Sanskrit version of this name, Talan, is lacking the prefix A and the suffix Tis, not all of “Atlantis” sank under the Atlantic. Part of it survived : Central Mexico. Also, Gene D. Matlock’s “Atlantis,” if I may enjoy some immodest honors along with Plato, had a harbor in the shape of concentric circles, about thirty miles inland. According to Plato, it was about five miles inland. The eastern side of Mexico has always been lashed by violent hurricanes. Because the harbor was built inland and with high banks lining the circular channels when it was then Ashtalantes (Land of Raised Ground), it was almost impossible for violent storms to destroy the large and small ships anchored there. My “Atlantis” also had a wide passage to the Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s West Coast. The ruins found off the coast of Bimini Island suggest that the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea did not exist at one time as seas. Although this “Atlantis” was never the same “Atlantis” of elephants, great armies, highly educated citizens and greatness that Plato mentioned, sooner or later, many more magnificent ruins will someday be found under the waters off the coast of the states of Veracruz and Tabasco. I am tempted to guarantee it. I hope I’m not being simplistic by intuiting the possibility that Mexico, whose real name is Atlantis, and which really does lie beyond the Pillars of Herculus (Gibraltar), is Atlantis.
     Plato’s Atlantis had millions of acres of fertile farmland giving two and more crops a year, criss-crossed with well-maintained irrigation canals. Plato also stated that certain beautiful red, white, and black stone blocks quarried there were used to build Atlantis’ temples and homes of the privileged castes. Even today, these stones are quarried in the Mexican state of Zacatecas and used to build Mexico’s beautiful Catholic temples and cathedrals. In every respect, my “Atlantis,” both in name and geographical configurations, was almost the mirror image of Plato’s. But whether it was THE ATLANTIS, the one described in tens of thousands of books and articles, we may never know. However, I feel sufficiently confident to state that if my “Atlantis” is not the real “Atlantis,” no one will ever find the one Plato mentioned. So if Plato’s “Atlantis” is not mine as well, then where is it?
     Plato believed that Atlantis sank under the Atlantic about 9,000 BC. I dare to assert that my “Atlantis” began to sink under the sea between about 2,500 and 1,900 BC, exactly as the Hindu myths say, but only by degrees. The Old Testament and Hindu myths mention two major floods: the one that sent Noah and his family to Armenia in approximately 5,000 - 4,000 BC, and the flood that drove Abraham and Sarah out of India ca. 2,500-1,900 BC. I believe Plato had possibly combined these and other flood stories. Even so, he produced enough valid facts about the real Atlantis, that point directly at the Americas.
     It may also be true that later devastating floods destroyed a number of Amerindian civilizations. The Yaquis speak of a flood that destroyed Northern Mexico in about 600 AD. Their myths mention a savior named Yaitowi. The Hopis call him Yaiowa. The Zuñis revere one of these benefactors as Ahiyute. In Ancient India, the term meant Ahi-Yuddhi (Snake Warrior). For the Acomas, a benefactor was Ojuyewi. In Sanskrit, this word would be Eu (Chief) Ju (Jew) Yahweh (Lord). Before the coming of the Europeans to the Americas, a strange group of people from what is now the central plateau of Mexico often entered the territory of the O’odham people in Sonora and Arizona, accompanied by warriors called Juddhi/Yuri. They told the O’odham that they were Juh-Kam. The Tohono O’odham dictionary gives the following translation for this compound word: Juh = “Sun; Jew.” Gam = “A member of a special group or tribe.” “K” and “G” are related sounds. Therefore, Juh-Kam = Juh-Gam. In Sanskrit, Ju (Dyaus, pronounced “Jyau”) also means “Sun; Jew.” Skt. Gan = “Special group; tribe; sun-worshiping cult. Is there any need for me to translate the Yuman Judabah? Does the word Juh sound familiar? One does not need to know a lot about linguistics to recognize the similarity of Yaitowi and Yaiowa to Yadava, the tribal name of the original Indo-Phoenicians. These strangers from Mexico also worshiped serpents. Even today, the Navajos call Mexicans Nakaii.
     The Yaquis believe that in olden times a group of valiant and sympathetic foreign warriors passed through Northern Mexico. These are remembered as Yori/Yuri (People Who Came Before) . In English, these words would be pronounced as Yodi/Yuti/Yuddhi, nearly exactly in sound as the Sanskrit word for warriors: Yuddhi.
     Scientists have confirmed that in the middle part of the first millennium, AD, floods and other natural catastrophes wreaked havoc of biblical proportions on the Americas.

     The fall of the Moche nation caused many thousands of its citizens to emigrate to what is now the state of Michoacán, Mexico. They were probably taken there on the ships of the Indo-Phoenicians, now known as Yadavas. Linguistic, religious, and cultural relics in Michoacán, traceable to Peru, proved that this migration really happened.
     South America wasn’t the only part of the Americas that was devastated by El Niño weather conditions. They also caused the downfall of the mighty Mayans in Southern Mexico and Guatemala.

     Intermittent droughts and flooding spread up to the American Southwest, interrupting the lives of the pueblo Indians, destroying the cities and well-tended farmlands of the Anasazi and the Hohokams. Compounding the problems of these Indians were intrusions by ravenously hungry cannibal Toltecs from Central Mexico. They swept upon the settlements in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, killing and eating as many victims as they could catch. The survivors fled to other parts of the Southwest, trying to begin their lives anew. Tribes like the Arizona Supai sought new homes at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. There, they were able to live out their lives in peace until the Spaniards found them about five hundred years later.
     The Americas weren’t the only part of the world to experience calamities during the first millennium AD. Temperatures dropped drastically in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India. Just as they had done several times in the past, hordes of Indian refugees poured into the Middle and Near East, even spilling into Europe. These were later to become the barbarians who brought down the mighty Roman Empire. Some of these tribes also invaded the Americas, among whom were the Yaquis. This fierce warrior caste had been known in China and India as Yuechis (Pronounced YWEH-kees).
     Troubles with Brahminism and Islam forced the Hopis and other immigrants to contract the Indian-remnant of the Phoenicians, the Yadavas, to take them to the Americas between 900 and 1200 AD and get them settled on new lands. Probably landing at what is now Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, the Yuddhi (Yori) mercenaries led the Hopis northward through “Greater Quivira,” also called Suré after the Hindu Sun God Surya/Shur, to fertile desert lands similar to the ones they had inhabited back in Afghanistan. At that time until after the arrival of the Spaniards, the American Southwest was famous for its bumper corn crops. That’s why the Phoenician-Yadavas probably named it Sibola/Shibola/Shiboleth (Golden Corn). In time, the same name, Cibola, came to designate “Buffalo,” the principal food of the Plains Indians.
     At that time in history, the word Pani had evolved to Vahanna, which in Sanskrit means “Transporter of goods, etc.” After staying with the Hopis long enough to help them build their first villages and harvest their first crops of Cibola (corn), the Yuris (Yuddhis) and the Bahannas, as the Hopis called them, began the long trek back to their ships anchored in the Balsas River, near Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, promising to return again with more people and supplies. There is also evidence that they could have sailed in ships down to the Gulf via the Rio Grande.
     I believe some of these Yuris and Bahannas themselves decided to stay in Suré with their Indian immigrant brothers, the Yaquis, rather than return to face the troubles India was having with the Brahmans and the invading Moslems. I say this because the Yaquis themselves claim that at one time they were the hereditary protectors of the O’odham clans and Pueblo cultures. A branch of the Hopis is also named Bahanna.
     Like all other tribes, the Pimas recognized the Yaquis as their supreme authority. (Yaqui Myths and Legends, by Ruth Warner Giddings; p. 91.)
     The Opatas were probably Uris who refused to return to India because their other tribal name is Uri. The Spaniards regarded the Opatas highly. This affection was mutual. For this reason, the Opatas no longer exist as a separate ethnicity.
     Some of these Panis also migrated to the Great Plains states. Their traditions state that they came from either Mexico or the American Southwest. Even today, they hold on tightly to their tribal name of Pani, which the White man writes and spells as “Pawnee.” Perhaps they were the ones who named the buffalos. The Uto-Aztecan word for Buffalo was Bisonte, from which we derived the English word “Bison.” The Aztecs used a general word applicable to both cattle and pigs: Pitzontli. Some Uto-Aztecan peoples, such as the O’odhams, call the buffalo Pisin. Bisonte and Pishin, derived from the Hindu god and protector of cattle: Pusan/Pushan. God Shiva was also depicted as a bull. In Northern India, Shiva was often called Bishan and Pishin. It may interest some readers to know that the O’odhams came from the same area in Northern India, now Afghanistan, in which Shiva was known as Pishin.
     What I have just said may seem far-fetched to some readers because we have naively accepted the Hopi claims that they have been living in Southwestern America for thousands of years. But how could an illiterate people with no written records, and whose places, names, religion, and other factors were identical to those of their previous homeland in Afghanistan, be so certain that they are autochthons on American soil? Not even many American descendants of European settlers can be sure of their Old Country descendancy!
     My own immigrant ancestor, John Matlock, arrived in America from England on the ship Griffin, in 1675. Yet, when I was a child, my grandfather Frank Matlock swore that his grandfather, William Robert Matlock, had immigrated to the United States from a place called “Dorey,” Ireland at about the beginning of the Civil War. He taught us to respect Irish traditions and the “wearin’-o’-th’green.” When I did our family genealogy, I found out that this “Dorey,” Ireland was Medora, Indiana! Not even now will some of my Matlock relatives accept the truth that we have descended from England, not from Ireland. Yet, the Matlocks had a bible with entries dating from 1711 and court records proving they were here before the 19th century. Even so, this evidence was not enough to shake their faith in the “Dorey, Ireland” myth. If written records and a relatively short period in the United States were not enough to keep the Matlocks aware of their English origins, how can we trust the myths of the Hopis who were totally illiterate until the arrival of the Spaniards?
     Back in India, Brahmin hegemony, Moslem conquest and Buddhist isolationism forced India to withdraw inward. Indian exploration and colonization of the Americas came to a complete stop by about 1200 AD. From that century on, the world had to wait for Eric the Red, Leif Erickson, and Christopher Columbus to “discover” America anew. And I know from experience that there will be no lack of skeptics who won’t accept the fact that America had been “discovered” for several millenniums before the arrival of those explorers. In another chapter, I hope to melt down this skepticism once and for all.
     Even today, the world is being wracked as usual by huge floods and earthquakes, and more are to come. People are still entering America by every means possible. I have read about Central Americans who have actually walked here on foot. We should not be too surprised and mystified by the downfall of Atlantis and Lanka -- and the presence of Indian nations on American soil before the arrival of the Europeans.
     Should we continue our fun guessing games about Atlantis for another few millenniums? Or should we confidently begin our search for the submerged half of Atlantis from Mexico’s southeast coast?