I was fortunate enough to interview Tonnies just a few months before his passing and he shared with me a wealth of fascinating data on his thoughts, suspicions and conclusions. Let’s see what he had to say: “After devouring countless books on the UFO controversy and the paranormal, I began to acknowledge that the extraterrestrial hypothesis suffered some tantalizing flaws. In short, the ‘aliens’ seemed more like surreal caricatures of ourselves than beings possessing the god-like technology one might plausibly expect from interstellar visitors. Like [UFO researcher] Jacques Vallee, I came to the realization that the extraterrestrial hypothesis isn’t strange enough to encompass the entirety of occupant cases. But if we’re dealing with humanoid beings that evolved here on earth, some of the problems vanish.”

Tonnies continued: “I envision the cryptoterrestrials engaged in a process of subterfuge, bending our belief systems to their own ends. And I suggest that this has been occurring, in form or another, for an extraordinarily long time. I think there’s a good deal of folkloric and mythological evidence pointing in this direction, and I find it most interesting that so many descriptions of ostensible ‘aliens’ seem to reflect staged events designed to misdirect witnesses and muddle their perceptions. During the course of his research into the Cryptoterrestrial theory, Tonnies spent a great deal of time addressing the matter of alien abductions. For those who aren’t fully aware of the nature of the phenomenon, a bit of background data is required.

Regardless of whether people believe or don’t believe in the reality of the alien abduction phenomenon, there is no doubt that the vast majority of people have heard of it. It was, however, a phenomenon that was pretty much unknown until September 19, 1961. Yes, there were a few, earlier cases, but, for the most part, they were not publicized until after September 19. So, what, exactly is so significant about that particular date? The answer is that it was the date of a now-historic UFO event which occurred to a married couple from New Hampshire. They were Betty and Barney Hill.  At the time in question, the Hills were driving home from a vacation in Canada, when the journey suddenly took on strange and unearthly proportions.  It was on a dark stretch of road that the Hills caught sight of a curious light in the sky; it even seemed to be monitoring or shadowing them. They watched it for a while, and then something really strange happened: the Hills became confused, experienced a sense of missing time – of several hours, no less – and after getting home suffered from weird and traumatic dreams; they were dreams which suggested they may have been taken on-board the craft and even experimented on by weird-looking, humanoid figures. In no time at all, the dreams became definitive nightmares. Something had to be done. And, it was. 

When things got really bad for the Hills, and the nightmares and stress began to overwhelm them (Barney, for example, developed stomach ulcers), they sought help; it was a very good idea, as that same help led to answers for what happened on that mystery-filled drive back to New Hampshire. They were put in touch with a neurologist and psychiatrist who operated out of Boston, Massachusetts, named Benjamin Simon. Clearly aware that the Hills were in deep states of anxiety, he elected to subject them to regressive hypnosis – with the permission of Betty and Barney, of course. What followed next can only be described as incredible. Both husband and wife told near-identical stories of being taken from their vehicle, onto what can only be described as an unidentified flying object, and subjected to a series of medical procedures – most of which were very intrusive and stressful. Frightening, even. The encounter went on for roughly two hours. So detailed were the memories of Betty and Barney that the time Benjamin Simon worked with the Hills went on for months. 

Such was the phenomenal reaction to the story of Betty and Barney Hill, it prompted author John Fuller to write a book on the subject, titled The Interrupted Journey – an appropriate title, indeed – and which was published in 1966. Since then, the alien abduction phenomenon has grown and grown and spread like wildfire. We may never know for sure how many people believe they may have been kidnapped and experimented on by black-eyed, dwarfish beings from far away galaxies. After all, not everyone wants publicity – and particularly so not publicity of a very controversial type. In that sense, there may be as many silent abductees as there are publicly visible ones. To demonstrate the sheer level of experiences on record, though, it is worth noting that after Whitley Strieber’s 1987 alien abduction-themed book, Communion, was published Strieber and his late wife, Anne received letters from the public in no less than six figures. Other books, such as Budd Hopkins’ Missing Time and Dr. John Mack’s Passport to the Cosmos, have added to the controversy and given it more publicity.

As for what may be behind the abductions, certainly the most controversial and widespread belief is that alien entities are engaged in a massive, covert program to create what may amount to untold numbers of untold alien-human hybrids. Some researchers and abductees believe the outcome of the rise of the hybrids will be a positive one: the dawning of a new world, filled with prosperity and peace. Dr. David Jacobs, though, in his books, The Threat and Walking Among Us, concludes that the hybrid issue is downright dangerous, and that we are being infiltrated by aliens who, bit by bit, are infiltrating us with one goal in mind: complete control. That many abductees believe they have been implanted with devices that have an unclear agenda, adds weight to the theory that the alien abduction issue is a threat to both national security and the people of Earth. But, what if there was a far more down to earth explanation for the alien abduction phenomenon? That question brings us back to Mac Tonnies:

“I regard the alleged ‘hybridization program’ with skepticism. How sure are we that these interlopers are extraterrestrial? It seems more sensible to assume that the so-called aliens are human, at least in some respects. Indeed, descriptions of intercourse with aliens fly in the face of exobiological thought. If the cryptoterrestrial population is genetically impoverished, as I assume it is, then it might rely on a harvest of human genes to augment its dwindling gene-pool. It would be more advantageous to have us believe we’re dealing with omnipotent extraterrestrials rather than a fallible sister species. The ET-UFO mythos may be due, in part, to a long-running and most successful disinformation campaign.” Tonnies then turned his attention to the claims of Antonio Villas Boas, a Brazilian lawyer who claimed that, in 1957, as a young man and while living on his family’s farm at the time, he was abducted onto a UFO and had sex with a surprisingly hot-looking space-babe. Tonnies said of Villas-Boas’ story:

“After intercourse, the big-eyed succubus that seduced Antonio Villas-Boas pointed skyward, implying a cosmic origin. But the mere fact that she appeared thoroughly female, and, moreover, attractive, belies an unearthly explanation. Further, one could argue that the clinical environment he encountered aboard the landed ‘spacecraft’ was deliberately engineered to reinforce his conviction that he was dealing with extraterrestrials. “If cryptoterrestrials are using humans to improve their genetic stock, it stands to reason they’ve seen at least a few of our saucer movies. As consummate anthropologists, they likely know what we expect of ‘real’ extraterrestrials and can satisfy our preconceptions with a magician’s skill. Their desire for our continued survival, if only for the sake of our genetic material, may have played a substantial role in helping us to avoid extinction during the Cold War, when the UFO phenomenon evolved in our skies; much to the consternation of officialdom.” It is indeed a fact that in the early to late 1950s, countless people across the planet claimed close encounters with very human-looking aliens, who demanded we lay down our atomic weapons, lest we turn our planet into a radioactive wasteland, all but bereft of life.

Of course, this begs an important question: why would aliens from a planet in a star-system who-knows-how-many light-years away, even care about what might happen – of a cataclysmic nature – on our world? Well, a good argument can be made that they wouldn’t care. Why should they? But, if, as Tonnies suspected and suggested, the ‘aliens’ are really Cryptotererstrials from right here, then their fears that we might destroy the Earth become far more understandable: they are forced to share the planet with the most violent and destructive species on the entire planet: us, the human race. Tonnies says of what became known as “the Space Brothers”: “Commentators regularly assume that all the Contactees [a term for those who claimed encounters with human-like aliens, chiefly in the 1950s] were lying or else delusional. But if we’re experiencing a staged reality, some of the beings encountered by the Contactees might have been real and the common messages of universal brotherhood could have been a sincere attempt to curb our destructive tendencies. The extraterrestrial guise would have served as a prudent disguise, neatly misdirecting our attention and leading us to ask the wrong questions; which we’re still asking with no substantial results.”

When, in 2008, Tonnies began to talk and write publicly about the Cryptotererstrial theory, he got mixed responses from UFO researchers, as Tonnies himself admitted to me: “The cryptoterrestrial theory has met with mixed reactions. Some seem to think that I’m onto something. Most UFO researchers are, at best, extremely skeptical. Others think I’m parroting John Keel’s ‘superspectrum’ [Keel was the author of the acclaimed 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies], a variation on the ‘parallel worlds’ theme that in turn shares memes with Jacques Vallee’s ‘multiverse.’ Both ideas suggest that we somehow occupy dimensional space with our ‘alien’ visitors, doing away with the need for extraterrestrial spacecraft while helping explain the sense of absurdity that accompanies many UFO and occupant sightings. Keel and Vallee have both ventured essentially ‘occult’ ideas in cosmological terms; both the ‘superspectrum’ and the ‘multiverse’ require a revision of our understanding of the way reality itself works. But the cryptoterrestrial hypothesis is grounded in a more familiar context.”

Tonnies expanded: “I’m not suggesting unseen dimensions or the need for ufonauts to ‘downshift’ to our level of consciousness. Rather, I’m asking if it’s feasible that the alleged aliens that occupy historical and contemporary mythology are flesh-and-blood human-like creatures that live right here on Earth. Not another version of Earth in some parallel Cosmos, but on Earth. While I can’t automatically exclude the UFO phenomenon’s ‘paranormal’ aspects, I can attempt to explain them in technological terms. For example, I see no damning theoretical reason why ‘telepathy’ and ‘dematerialization’ can’t ultimately be explained by appealing to cybernetics, nano-technology and other fields generally excluded from ufological discourse.” He concluded: “The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis manages to alienate champions of the extraterrestrial hypothesis and those who support a more esoteric, ‘inter-dimensional’ explanation. It offers no clear-cut reconciliation. It does, however, wield explanatory potential lacking in both camps.” Echoing Tonnies’ words were those of long-time UFO investigator, Timothy Green Beckley, who has his own tale of the Cryptoterrestrial kind to share: “Some people might suggest that because the Space-Brothers look so much like us that they could be from somewhere right here on Earth – an ancient race, maybe. There are a lot of cultural legends about advanced beings living underground: UFOs coming out of the oceans, lakes, caverns. The whole hollow-Earth thing is a little hard for me; but the caverns theory I can take.

“I remember once incident, 1970s, where I was lecturing and a gentleman – a professor at the college where I was lecturing – came up to me and told this story about how he was driving outside of a town in Michigan. It was rather late at night, and he saw these lights in the woods. He pulled over, and there was no other traffic coming in either direction; but there was already another car parked at the side of the road. “He described seeing some sort of ship in the distance – a UFO. A group of human-like aliens got out, walked to the car, which was a Cadillac, or something like that. He watched them and could see they looked human. They just got in the car and drove off. But then, a couple of weeks later, he sees one of the same guys in a supermarket. These reports sound far-fetched; but there’s so many of them of what seem to be aliens being able to move among us. But, if they’re really from here, that might explain it.” Now, we get to the issue of a U.S. Government cover-up concerning the Cryptoterrestrials.

While Mac Tonnies’ admittedly intriguing theory was simply that – a theory – there is an even more intriguing aspect to this story, one which comes from a former employee of the U.S. Government. He writes under the pen-name of E.A. Guest. His real name, however, is Walter Bosley, who served in both the U.S Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He has revealed a startling story told to him by his father, who was also a respected figure within the U.S. military. In the 1950s, Bosley’s father worked on various projects that would ultimately have a significant bearing upon the manned space-program, including “training pilots in altitude chambers” and “flight medicine training.” At one point in his career, Bosley’s father was ordered to attend a briefing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. It was a briefing on none other than the legendary UFO crash outside of Roswell, New Mexico in early July 1947. Despite what UFO researchers – and a sizeable amount of the public think – Bosley says his father told him that nothing of an extraterrestrial nature crashed at Roswell on that fateful – and, for the crew, fatal – day. In Bosley Jr.’s very own words: “According to my father, these vehicles came from inside the planet. The civilization…exists in a vast, underground system of caverns and tunnels beneath the southwest and is human.”

“Occasionally, they come and go, emerging in their vehicles and occasionally they crash. They are human in appearance, so much so that they can move among us with ease [and] with just a little effort. If you get a close look, you’d notice something odd, but not if the person just passed you on the street.” Significantly, Walter Bosley says: “I believe that the ET hypothesis has been used by the ‘aliens’ themselves, because it is most readily embraced by people who have had encounters with them.” Bosley’s words bring us back to Mac Tonnies, and his theories on the conspiracy-filled Roswell affair of July 1947. In his 2009 book, The Cryptoterrestrials, Tonnies speculated on the possibility that the Roswell craft was balloon-like and built, flown, and disastrously crashed, by ancient humanoids that lurk in the depths of the planet. Controversial? Yes. But he made some interesting observations on this possibility. In Tonnies’ own words:

“The device that crashed near Roswell in the summer of 1947, whatever it was, featured properties at least superficially like the high-altitude balloon trains ultimately cited as an explanation by the Air Force. Debunkers have, of course, seized on the lack of revealingly ‘high-tech’ components found among the debris to dismiss the possibility that the crash was anything but a case of misidentification; not even Major Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer who advocated an ET origin for the unusual foil and structural beams, mentioned anything remotely resembling an engine or power-plant.” Tonnies continued, in a fashion that emphasized the Cryptoterrestrials may not be as scientifically and technologically advanced as they might prefer us to think they are: “The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis offers a speculative alternative: maybe the Roswell device wasn’t high-tech. It could indeed have been a balloon-borne surveillance device brought down in a storm, but it doesn’t logically follow that is was one of our own. Upon happening across such a troubling find, the Air Force’s excessive secrecy begins to make sense.”

Regardless of what you, me, or indeed any number of the well-known Roswell researchers/authors – such as Bill Moore, Kevin Randle, Stan Friedman, or Don Schmitt – might think or conclude, the fact is that Tonnies’ Cryptoterrestrial theory is probably the only one that allows for the Roswell crash site to have been comprised of very unusual, non-Homo-sapiens, but, at the same time, incredibly simplistic technology. The alien theory should, of course, require highly advanced technology to have been recovered – yet, we hear very little on this matter, aside from talk of fields full of foil-like material with curious properties. Accounts of the military coming across alien-created “power-plants” and “engines” – as Tonnies described them – are curiously absent from the Roswell affair. It’s that aforementioned foil and not much else. Perhaps, Tonnies was indeed on the right track when it came to Roswell. Maybe, Walter Bosley, who still pursues the story, is still on the right track. And, just perhaps, it was the Roswell affair that – quite out of the blue – led the U.S. military to realize, to both its amazement and its fear, that we are not the only species of human on the planet. And, in the process, a huge cover-up was initiated to ensure that the world never gets to know the true story of Roswell’s Cryptoterrestrials. If you buy into it, all.

When it comes to UFOs and natural disasters, the first thing that comes to mind is all of the UFOs that seem to appear around volcanoes, both active and inactive. The very active Popocatépetl stratovolcano located in central Mexico is a prime example – the ring of cameras surrounding it to provide early warnings of eruptions to local residents regularly record unusual objects and shapes that seem to be entering, exiting and flying over Popocatépetl. Because the quality of these video cameras is low, the objects could be ash, erupted rocks, birds, bugs, planes, drones or other flying objects. However, that doesn’t cover all of them, and the high number of UFOs around other volcanoes suggests to many that they may be ships using the volcano to travel to and from an underground base where extraterrestrials may be refueling or monitoring Earth. Another natural disaster often linked to UFOs is earthquakes, especially the phenomenon known as “earthquake lights.”

These luminous flashes appear similar to auroras and there is no consensus as to what part of seismic activity may be causing them – from tectonic plates scraping to electrical grids sparking. While earthquake lights generally appear during or after the seismic events, a former CIA agent and UFO researcher has come forward recently with the claim that pre-earthquake UFOs are actually warnings of pending quakes … and both we and seismologists should start paying more attention to them. In fact, one scientist has long agreed with him. Could these phenomena also explain some of the Popocatépetl and other volcanic UFOs?

“It is widely acknowledged that as much as 95% of publicly reported UFO activity can be linked to secret, classified, or sensitive projects and airborne national security operations.”

Andrew Bustamante describes himself as a former covert CIA intelligence officer, a US Air Force combat veteran, and Fortune 10 corporate advisor. He is perhaps best known as a speaker and consultant – through his “Everydayspy” Program, he offers to teach others how to use the mental, physical, and social spy skills he learned in the CIA to “master their mind, leverage their talents, and achieve their potential.” Bustamante is also a UFO researcher and explains in a report from Everydayspy how all governments take UFOs very seriously – despite what we’ve been led to believe. That interest is at an all-time high due to rapid advancements in air travel, drone technology, and the commercialization of space travel. This has resulted in a historic worldwide high in aircraft crashes, inflight emergencies, near-miss collisions, and unidentified aerial phenomena sightings. Bustamante says that 95% of these are caused by humans. He discusses some of the other 5% on a recent podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and CIA Contractor.

“There's so much in the sky that they see it all the time and we don't know what we're looking at. A satellite looks pretty clear – it moves in a straight line – but the stuff that's up there isn't always a satellite. I've seen strange glowing orbs, like balls of light that change direction, and I have no idea what that is. Could it be an alien aircraft or a domestic aircraft that forgot to turn off its headlights? Maybe.”

Or maybe not. Bustamante first brings up the idea of ball lightning – another unexplained luminescent aerial phenomenon shaped like balls or orbs that are most often seen with thunderstorms but rarely behave like conventional lightning. Besides their different shapes and colors, they are visible longer (up to a minute), travel slower, move erratically in all directions and behave in other ways that defy conventional weather or electrical science … so it is no wonder that they are often thought to be of alien or sometimes demonic origin. Bustamante then moves to another natural phenomenon and the strange unidentified aerial phenomena associated with them … earthquakes and earthquake lights.

“There's also pre-indicators of earthquakes, such as a geological effects that release electromagnetic energy into the atmosphere. When the energy comes up from a fault line and comes into contact with certain conditions in the atmosphere it creates lights in clouds, and all of a sudden lights in clouds are floating.”

While most earthquake researchers say the earthquake lights occur during the actual quake activity and aftershocks, Bustamante’s experiences and research suggest to him that these earthquake UFOs occur BEFORE they happen and should be studied as harbingers of upcoming seismic activity – both earthquakes and volcanoes.

"Every time the earth moves violently, which happens pretty often, there's a strong possibility of you seeing a UFO. They can produce a number of things like luminosities, electromagnetic disturbances which some people may interpret as unusual observations or sometimes even UFOs."

A recent article about UFOs and their connections to natural disasters in The U.S. Sun quotes the late Dr. Michael Persinger, a professor of psychology at Laurentian University who studied how subtle changes in geomagnetic activity could cause parapsychological phenomena, and how tectonic movement in the Earth's crust could cause luminous phenomena attributed to UFOs. His Tectonic Strain Theory (TST) suggested that luminous phenomena and associated physical effects in humans were caused by manifestations of tectonic strain and could precede earthquakes by as much as weeks.

"They can produce a number of things like luminosities, electromagnetic disturbances which some people may interpret as unusual observations or sometimes even UFOs."

Persinger did not like calling these luminous phenomena “UFOs” because they have natural causes and are not extraterrestrial. However, he confused the issue by attributing so many other psychological phenomena with earthquakes and seismeic disturbances.

"You can get paralyses, feelings of foreboding, dream-like states, and a number of peripheral effects."

We could defintiely use an earthquake warning system

Former CIA covert intelligence officer Andrew Bustamante thinks all leading governments are well aware of UFOs and studying them intently. He believes that 95% of UAP are explained by human-made technology. He also believes that some of the other 5%, particularly orbs and luminescent UFOs, are warnings of impending earthquakes and other seismic activities. The late Dr. Michael Persinger believed that low level seismic activities could cause lights as well as psychological forces which might cause humans to interpret these lights as extraterrestrial UFOs when they’re actually earthquake warning signs.

With the recent huge losses of life and damages caused by quakes and volcanic eruptions around the world, is it time to listen to Bustamante and Persinger and link some UFO orbs to earthquakes and volcanoes and treat them as early warning signs?

A new theory doing the rounds on the internet in recent times is that, the geological feature in the Sahara desert known as the “Eye of the Sahara” is the legendary kingdom of Atlantis. My initial reaction was one of skepticism, since Plato had described Atlantis as a large island, as big as Libya and Asia Minor combined, located beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. However, I decided to take a closer look at what the proponents of this idea are claiming to check if that conforms to the descriptions of Atlantis found in the Critias[1] and the Timaeus[2].

The Eye of the Sahara, also known as the “Richat Structure”, is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert of Mauritania. It is about 45 km in diameter and forms a conspicuous bull’s-eye in the otherwise featureless expanse of the desert. Since the feature is so large, one cannot really make out the whole structure from the ground. The overall contours were seen only after NASA started sending people to space, and was used as a landmark by shuttle crews. The Gemini-mission astronauts were the first to photograph the formation in the 1960s. Later, Landsat satellite images provided precise information about the size, height, and extent of the structure. 

The Eye of the Sahara in Mauritania, Western Africa.

Source: Google Maps

Richat Structure, photographed from the International Space Station, NASA Earth Observatory, Public Domain

The Richat Structure of Mauritania.

Credit: NASA, Public Domain

When the feature was first studied in the 1930s and 40s, it was thought to have been an impact crater, and was known as the Richat Crater. However, subsequent studies revealed that the structure lacks any impact proxies, and, therefore, must have formed due to terrestrial processes. The dominant theory is that it is a highly eroded geological dome. An underlying alkaline igneous intrusion of the Cretaceous age uplifted the overlying sedimentary rocks in the form of a dome. Subsequently, the differential erosion of alternating hard and soft rock layers of this geological dome, created the circular distribution of ridges and valleys. Today, the Eye of the Sahara is somewhat sunken below the level of the surrounding landscapes.

Extensive field mapping and aeromagnetic data has revealed that the sedimentary and igneous rocks have formed two concentric ring dykes around the central dome. A recent journal paper (2021) provides precise data of their dimensions.[3] The central dome is spread over a surface area of about 4 sq.km. It forms a rough topography with vertical structures as high as 40 m. The inner ring dyke, located 3 km from the center, has an estimated thickness of about 30 m. The outer gabbroic ring dyke is located 8 km from the center of the structure with a thickness of about 70 meters. 

The central zone of the Richat Structure displays a large unit of collapse breccia with hydrothermal internal sediments of Cretaceous age.

Credit: Michel Jebrak, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

With that overview, let’s investigate why it has been proposed as a likely location of Atlantis. To the best of my knowledge, the hypothesis was first advanced by Martin K. Ettington in his book The Real Atlantis: In the Eye of the Sahara (2018), although I can’t be sure if someone else had made the connection earlier. A YouTube video, posted on the Bright Insight channel in 2023, provides additional arguments. Let us see if the evidence stacks up in favor of this hypothesis.

At first sight, the Richat Structure does bear an uncanny structural similarity to Atlantis since it has two concentric bands of ring dykes separated by eroded valleys. As per Plato’s description of Atlantis in the Critias, the central island of Atlantis - on which was located the hill where Poseidon and his mortal wife Cleito lived – was enclosed by two zones of land and three zones of water. The text states, 

“Poseidon breaking the  ground, enclosed the hill in which she (Cleito) dwelt all round, making  alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as  with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from the centre.”

Let us look at the dimensions of the central island and the land and sea zones of Atlantis. As per the Critias, “The (central) island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia.” The measure of a Greek stade (pluralstadia) is generally taken as 180 meters. Thus, the diameter of the central island was 900 meters. This gives an estimated area of 0.63 sq.km, which is 6-times less than the area of the central dome of the Richat structure (4 sq.km). Nevertheless, the areas are comparable in magnitude. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that the central dome of the Richat Structure covers such a large area. You do need a lot of space for the royal palace, temples, statues of gold, fountains, groves, baths, gardens, buildings, guard houses and docks that had been built on the central island of Atlantis, where the kings and their family lived. 

A comparison of Atlantis and the Richat Structure.

As per the Critias, the outermost zones of land and sea of Atlantis were three stadia (540 meters) in width, the inner zones of land and sea were two stadia (360 meters) in width, while the zone of sea which surrounded the central island was one stadium (180 meters) in width. Here is the relevant section from the text: 

“Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width.”

The dimensions of the zones of land and sea in Atlantis do not match with that of the Richat Structure. The inner ring dyke has an estimated width of only 30 meters as opposed to 360 meters in Atlantis, while the outer dyke has a width of 70 meters as opposed to 540 meters for Atlantis. The width of the ring dykes seem too small to support a city with all its amenities. However, on careful reading of the Critias, I found that these two zones of land had gardens, places for exercise for men and horses, a race course etc. It seems to me that these two zones were used primarily by the army for protecting the central island, with the zones of water acting as “moats”. People who provided support services to the royal palace may have also lived here. It was not a place meant for common people. If that were the case, the narrow widths of the ring dykes would have sufficed. 

The width of the zones of water surrounding the central island of Atlantis doesn’t correlate with the Richat Structure either. The first zone of water was said to be one stadium (180 meters) wide, whereas in the Richat structure, the inner dyke is 3 km from the center, which means the width of the eroded valley is approx. 2 km (since the radius of the central dome is approx. 1 km). The second zone of water was two stadia (360 meters) wide, while the outer dyke in the Richat structure is 8 km from the center, which means the width of the eroded valley is nearly 5 km. The third zone of water was three stadia (540 meters) wide, while the width of the third eroded valley works out to nearly 14.5 km (assuming the Richat Structure is 45 km wide).

The overall diameter of the concentric zones of Atlantis was 27 stadia i.e. 4.8 km, while the diameter of the Richat Structure is around 45 km. So, the Richat Structure is nearly 10 times larger. Even though the dimensions do not match, it is quite interesting that the width of the zones of land and water are in increasing proportion in case of Atlantis as well as the Richat Structure.   

As per the Critias, the concentric bands of land and sea was in the southern part of the island, around 50 stadia i.e. 9 km from the surrounding ocean. The Atlanteans had built a canal from the sea to the outermost zone of water. This is what the text states:

“And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress.”

However the Eye of the Sahara is located nearly 500 km from the Atlantic coast, and there is no sign of any canal linking it to the ocean. Even if we assume that the canal may have existed in the past and got covered over during the YD period or by subsequent erosional processes, it is impossible for water to have flowed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Richat Structure, which is located 400 meters above sea level! During the Ice Age, sea levels were a further 120 meters lower. How on earth would sea water flow up such a gradient? 

Plato also mentions that the Atlanteans had built bridges from the central island to the rest of the city. They also cut channels through the zones of land, so that ships could reach the central island. Every passage to the city was guarded by gates and towers, and a wall surrounded each of the city's rings. The walls were constructed of red, white and black rock, and were covered with brass, tin and orichalcum. Moreover, the entire city was encircled by an outer wall which was at a distance of 50 stadia i.e. 9 km from the outermost zone. The Critias states,

“Leaving the palace and passing out across the three harbours, you came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations.”

The ordinary people lived outside the concentric zones, but within the outer wall of Atlantis. This means there was a significant urban sprawl outside the concentric zones. The overall diameter of the city of Atlantis, therefore works out to (50 + 13.5)*2 = 127 stadia or 22.86 km, which is roughly half the width of the Richat Structure (45 km).

Clearly, the dimensions of the Richat Structure and Atlantis don’t match up. But what about the archaeological remains of Atlantis? If a large civilization like Atlantis had flourished in the Eye of the Sahara, and then got destroyed by a global catastrophe sometime during the Younger Dryas period, then it would have left some material traces – pottery fragments, carved stone blocks, tools and utensils made of gold, silver, brass, tin, orichalcum, wood, ivory etc. which the Atlanteans were said to have used in profusion. But archaeologists have found nothing of that sort. Instead, what they found was an exceptional accumulation of Acheulean artifacts.[4] Acheulean is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by oval and pear-shaped hand axes associated with Homo erectus. They were produced during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Europe. It is thought that Acheulean technologies first developed about 1.76 million years ago, and lasted until as late as 130,000 years ago.[5] In addition to Acheulean artifacts, 

“Sparse and widely scattered Neolithic spear points and other artifacts have also been found. However, since these sites were first discovered by Theodore Monod in 1974, mapping of artifacts within the area of the Richat Structure have found them to be generally absent in its innermost depressions. So far, neither recognizable midden deposits (i.e. old dump for domestic waste) nor manmade structures have been recognized and reported from the Richat Structure. This is interpreted as indicating that the area of the Richat Structure was used for only short-term hunting and stone tool manufacturing.”[6]

Thus, the archaeological evidence for an Atlantis-like civilization is completely absent in the Richat Structure, and the area seems to have been inhabited by Homo erectus in a very remote past and later by Neolithic hunter-gatherers.

The island of Atlantis was much larger than the city, which, as we have discussed was around 127 stadia in diameter and surrounded by an outer wall. Beyond the city wall, Atlantis had large fertile plains that extended for hundreds of kilometers. As per the Critias,

“The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia (540 km), but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia (360 km).”

So, we are basically talking of an enormous, oblong-shaped island, surrounded by high mountains, which measured 540 km by 360 km. The city of Atlantis, with its concentric zones of land and water in the center, was located at the southern end of the island, 9 km from the sea.

The Richat Structure, however, is not an island, but is located inland, nearly 500 km from the Atlantic coast. An interesting correlation here is that, one of the diameters of Atlantis was around 540 km, which is quite close to the distance between the Richat Structure and the Atlantic coast i.e. 500 km. The region beyond the Richat Structure would have been green and fertile during the African Humid phase (9500 BCE – 3500 BCE), supporting farmlands, forests, rivers, lakes and abundant wildlife of every kind. In that respect it conforms to the fertile outer plains of Atlantis. Plato states that a large circular ditch encircled the plain around the city. No sign of such a circular ditch exists around the Richat Structure in the present day.

“It (the circular ditch) was excavated to the depth of a hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium (180 m) everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length (1800 km). It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea.”  

Finally, let us talk about the location of Atlantis specified by Plato. Plato was very clear that Atlantis was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which is now known as the Straits of Gibraltar. In fact, the extremity of the island was close to the Strait, for Plato wrote that, the twin brother of Atlas ruled over “the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Heracles, facing the country which is now called the region of Gades.” To reach the Richat Structure, on the other hand, one need not cross the Strait of Gibraltar by boat, but travel overland though Africa. 

One of the interesting points that Martin Ettington had raised in support of his argument is that, ancient Greek maps, based on “The Histories” (c.450 BCE), written by Herodotus, shows a place called Atlantes in north-west Africa, near Mount Atlas. He claims that this is an indication that the Greeks knew that Atlantis was in Africa and was not an island in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is a highly presumptive deduction, for according to Herodotus, “Atlantes” is not a place, but a group of people who live near Mount Atlas and derive their name from this mountain. This is what he wrote:

“Another ten days' journey from the Garamantes there is again a salt hill and water, where men live called Atarantes. These are the only men whom we know who have no names; for the whole people are called Atarantes, but no man has a name of his own. When the sun is high, they curse and very foully revile him, because his burning heat afflicts their people and their land. After another ten days' journey there is again a hill of salt, and water, and men living there. Near to this salt is a mountain called Atlas, whose shape is slender and conical; and it is said to be so high that its heights cannot be seen, for clouds are always on them winter and summer. The people of the country call it the “pillar of heaven”. These men get their name, which is Atlantes, from this mountain. It is said that they eat no living creature, and see no dreams in their sleep…I know and can tell the names of all the peoples that live on the ridge as far as the Atlantes, but no farther than that. But I know this, that the ridge reaches as far as the Pillars of Heracles and beyond them.”[7]

It is obvious that the “Atlantes” people are not related to the island-kingdom of Atlantis described by Plato, but derive their name from Mount Atlas, which borders the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Incidentally, Mount Atlas, which is regarded by the natives as the “pillar of heaven” derives its name from Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology, who was condemned to hold up the heavens for eternity after the Titanomachy. Atlas also became the first king of the ancient region of Mauretania (modern-day Morocco and west Algeria, not to be confused with the modern-day country of Mauritania which is to the south and where the Richat Structure is located). Plato had mentioned that the first king of Atlantis was Atlas, but this Atlas was a different person, being the son of Poseidon the god of the sea and Cleito, a mortal woman.

On the whole, there are some interesting correlations between the Richat Structure and Atlantis, as well as many disparities. Let me sum up the correlations first. The central dome of the Richat Structure occupies a large area of 4 sq.km, which is 6-times larger than central island of Atlantis, but still within the range of comparison. The Richat Structure has two concentric ring dykes, and three eroded valleys, corresponding to the two zones of land and three zones of sea in Atlantis. The width of the zones of land and sea in Atlantis are in increasing proportion as are the widths of the ring dykes and eroded valleys in the Richat Structure. During the Ice Age, the Richat Structure would have been surrounded by the fertile, green plains of the Sahara with abundant natural resources, just as Atlantis was said to be enclosed by fertile plains.

However, there are many points which do not match up. The diameter of the concentric zones of Atlantis was 4.8 km, which is 10-times less than the diameter of the Richat Structure i.e. 45 km. The width of the zones of land in Atlantis are much larger than the width of the ring dykes in the Richat Structure (30m and 70m wide). There is no way that the eroded valleys between the dykes could have been filled with sea water during the Ice Age, since it is 400 m above current sea level, and would have been nearly 520 m above sea level during the Ice Age. There is no sign of a channel linking the Richat Structure with the Atlantic coast, which is nearly 500 km away. There are no archaeological remains of a high civilization or a permanent habitation at the site, other than tools associated with Homo erectus and Neolithic hunter-gatherers. No evidence has been found of a circular ditch in the outer plains. Finally, Plato had described Atlantis as a massive island located beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, measuring 540 km by 360 km, and surrounded by steep mountains that descend to the sea. The Richat Structure, on the other hand, is an inland geological feature, roughly 45 km in diameter, which can be reached from within the Straits by traveling overland.

So, what do we conclude from this? I think, going by the large number of disparities, it would be quite a stretch to claim that the Eye of the Sahara is the Atlantis described by Plato. On the other hand, we know that legends undergo a lot of modifications and exaggerations over time. The story of Atlantis had been transmitted by means of oral tradition for more than 9000 years after Atlantis was destroyed, before it was written down by Plato. We can’t assume, therefore, that everything Plato wrote about Atlantis was correct. The original Atlantis may not have looked exactly the same as Plato described it. We also know that the people of the ancient times were not big on geography. The ancient Greek maps of the world were quite childish when compared to modern globes. Hence, the descriptions of the geography of Atlantis by Plato may not have been spot on. So, we need to loosen up a bit, and start asking some questions.

What if the original Atlantis was not really an island, but an inland geological feature like the Richat Structure, which gave the impression of being an island because it was surrounded by multiple zones of water? Over time, this could have led to the idea that the entire kingdom of Atlantis, 540 km by 360 km in dimension, was an island.

Could it not be that there were rivers and waterways which connected the Richat Structure with the Atlantic coast during the Ice Age, and the kings and merchants of Atlantis used to sail up the Atlantic coast and enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar, which gave rise to the notion of a large island-kingdom located beyond the Straits of Gibraltar?

What if the eroded valleys between the ring dykes were not filled with sea water but with freshwater that was brought in through canals from the many rivers and streams that crisscrossed the Sahara during the Ice Age? Plato mentions that the Atlanteans built many canals which connected their rivers with these zones of water. After the African Humid phase ended, these rivers and canals may have dried up and disappeared. The remnants of one possible canal can be seen towards the southern end of the Richat Structure. Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was built on an island in the middle of a freshwater lake called Lake Texcoco. So, why not Atlantis? In fact, it would make a lot more sense for a city to be built in the middle of a freshwater lake, for that would give you easy access to water for drinking and other household purposes.

We can see from the images that the ring dykes in the Richat Structure are not continuous but have breaks in some places. Perhaps, this is how the water from the outer zones flowed into the inner zones, and not through a single channel as Plato had described? It would make sense to have multiple points of entry and exit into such a large island-city, in order to reduce travel time, effort and traffic logjams in the water zones.

It is now scientifically established that fragments of a large comet struck the Earth at the Younger Dryas boundary and set off a global chain of cataclysms – wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, acid rain etc. - that destroyed the civilizations of that period. What if the cataclysms of the Younger Dryas struck the Richat Structure with such ferocity that it was virtually scrubbed clean of all the artifacts produced by the Atlanteans? Perhaps, that is why archaeologists have found Acheulean artifacts associated with Homo erectus (c.1.7 Mya – 130 K BP), followed by Neolithic stone tools (from c. 8000 BCE), and nothing for the period in-between, which is the time when Atlantis is said to have flourished? Maybe, all the evidence of an Atlantean civilization have been washed away to sea?

So, where do we stand? If we are looking for a precise match between the Atlantis described by Plato and the Eye of the Sahara, then we are not going to find it, for there are plenty of dissimilarities. However, if we go by the spirit of the story of Atlantis, and not get bogged down by too many details, knowing fully well that the legend must have undergone distortions and embellishments in course of oral transmissions over nearly 9000 years, then there is a glimmer of hope that the Eye of the Sahara could, indeed, be the location of Atlantis. It may well have been the “real” Atlantis, which served as an inspiration for the legend. The latitude of the Richat Structure (21.7° N) is very close to the Tropic of Cancer, which means it would have enjoyed moderate climate even during the peak of the Ice Age. That, combined with a green, fertile Sahara, would have provided all the natural resources needed for a large civilization to thrive. Perhaps, future discoveries will shed more light on whether this line of thinking has any merit or not.

References

1. [1] Plato, Critias (360 BCE), tr. by Benjamin Jowett, https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm$
2. [2] Plato, Timaeus (360 BCE), tr. by Benjamin Jowett, https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/timaeus.htm
3. [3] El Houssein Abdeina, Sara Bazin, Gilles Chazot, Hervé Bertrand, Bernard Le Gall, Nasrrddine Youbi, Mohamed Salem Sabar, Mohamed Khalil Bensalah, Moulay Ahmed Boumehdi, "Geophysical modelling of the deep structure of the Richat magmatic intrusion (northern Mauritania): insights into its kinematics of emplacement", Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2021) 14:2315, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-08734-4
4. [4] “Richat Structure”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
5. [5] "Acheulean", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheulean
6. [6] “Richat Structure”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
7. [7] Herodotus, The Histories, 4.184.1-4, 4.185.1, https://www.arcus-atlantis.org.uk/atlantis/indices/index-locorum-h-o.html#herodotus4-184