The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed

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The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 164 ratings · 53 reviews

The astonishing true story of Atlantis

In 1500 B.C. a supervolcano beneath the Greek island of Santorini exploded in a near-apocalyptic eruption. Buried beneath the rubble and waves was the world's most remarkable lost civilization. . . .

"New York Times" bestselling historian Gavin Menzies presents newly uncovered evidence revealing, conclusively, that "the lost city of At

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Hardcover, 380 pages

Published (first published 2011)

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Jun 21, 2012 Elizabeth Sulzby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: prehistory-archeology, source-material

This book confirms my thought that I should return to Knossos on Crete. Menzies describes other rediscovered palaces of the Minoan era--before the great eruption of the volcano on Thera/Santorini. He also charts the evidence that during 7000 BCE and afterwards, the Minoans were not just trading/adventuring seafarers in the Mediteranean area, but traveled around the world. Recently discovered evidence from the oil pithoi, serving pieces, artwork all suggest that Menzies is correct but the most in...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Smitha rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don’t recall where I got to know about this book, but I had it in my wish list. When I got my hands on it finally, it was amazing how the book took hold of me.

Gavin Menzies takes us on his journey to rediscover the Lost Empire of Atlantis. He builds up on his theory that the Minoan empire was more accomplished that it is assumed. He tries to bring together facts and goes on to try to prove that the Minoan civilization had extensive sea faring abilities and that they might have discovered Ameri...more

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Mar 31, 2012 JBradford rated it 3 of 5 stars

Gavin Menzies is a retired submarine captain from the British Royal Navy, whose retirement hobby is pursuing unlikely beliefs about long-past history. In this book he recounts his pursuit of a belief that the sometimes-thought mythical country of Atlantis was in fact an island nation that was a collection of city states comprising the Minoan nation on Thera (now called Santorini) and Crete and other nearby islands in the Mediterranean, with that civilization having been destroyed when the volcan...more Gavin Menzies is a retired submarine captain from the British Royal Navy, whose retirement hobby is pursuing unlikely beliefs about long-past history. In this book he recounts his pursuit of a belief that the sometimes-thought mythical country of Atlantis was in fact an island nation that was a collection of city states comprising the Minoan nation on Thera (now called Santorini) and Crete and other nearby islands in the Mediterranean, with that civilization having been destroyed when the volcano on Santorini blew up in c. 1450 B.C.. leaving a hole 7.5 miles long by 4.3 miles wide and 1300 feet deep, and creating a tidal wave that Menzies believes simply wiped out the Minoan civilization at a single stroke. Once he came to this belief, after touring the ruins of Knossos while vacationing on Crete, Menzies and his wife went on a whirlwind tour of the Mediterranean and indeed the world, finding more evidence of his growing theory, even to the point of concluding that the Minoans traded not only with Egypt but also with China and had sailed across the Atlantic and up the Mississippi River to mine tin on the Penquaming Peninsula in Minnesota. He has scads of references and lot of maps and pictures, all of which are interesting and even fascinating, but I have a strong suspicion (without having had the time or energy to check things out myself) that he tends to find things that support his beliefs and ignore things that don’t. This is not at all uncommon. I recall many decades ago, when I lived in Minnesota, getting all excited about the supporting evidence for the belief that the Kensington Stone had been left in Minnesota by a band of Norsemen who had made their way up the Hudson River and then halfway across America via the Great Lakes … only now I find what appears to be much the same evidence (Indian legends about white men, European-type relics, etc.) being used to support the claim that it was instead a commercial enterprise of Minoans who had sailed up the Mississippi River.

This is not to say that I disbelieve it-only that I am not ass yet convinced! But the writing is passionate, the pictures are fascinating, and the overall story is interesting.
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Mar 03, 2012 Christine Leov Lealand rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an awesome book and I haven't even gotten to read it yet but my husband has read continuously to me from it as he has read it. Astonishing and wonderful information abounds in this meticulously researched book which proves that human beings from Europe traveled and traded with almost the entire planet in pre-historic times from at least 4000BC.
Those who are mariners will identify with his conviction that ancient peoples did not hesitate to sail the planet in search of the goods they wan...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Jeff Barlow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Gavin's book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis, is handicapped by the writing style, as many have noted. But, it's worth plowing through some of the dry prose to hear his story. First off, hats of to this guy. He has organized a research team and pursued years systematic research of the ancient world because he loves it. How many of us every pursue our passions like that?

But beyond that, and I'm talking to you skeptics, where there is smoke, there's fire. The Minoans and Druids and Egyptians aren't s...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Paul Lunger rated it 3 of 5 stars

Gavin Menzies in his latest book takes a much closer & in depth look into the society of the Minoans (3200-1450 B.C.) who are believed & may very well have been the people behind the myths & legends of Atlantis. In a journey that goes from the Mediterranean to North America & back, Menzies follows the clues & artifacts of this one powerful society & pieces together evidence that proves this ancient society may've done a lot more than people realize. Across the pages the r...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks-on-kobo, history

The legend of a fabled Atlantis is found in Plato’s writings and has generated a multitude of books and movies. In this book, Menzies builds the case that the island of Santorini (Thera in ancient times) was the center of a worldwide trading empire and a truly advanced civilization. He takes advantage of a detailed fresco unearthed in Akrotiri and preserved in a museum in Crete and recent discovery of a sunken bronze age boat in the eastern Mediterranean as well as his own nautical knowledge to...more The legend of a fabled Atlantis is found in Plato’s writings and has generated a multitude of books and movies. In this book, Menzies builds the case that the island of Santorini (Thera in ancient times) was the center of a worldwide trading empire and a truly advanced civilization. He takes advantage of a detailed fresco unearthed in Akrotiri and preserved in a museum in Crete and recent discovery of a sunken bronze age boat in the eastern Mediterranean as well as his own nautical knowledge to reinterpret ancient history.
The bronze age (beginning about 2900BC in the Mediterranean) marks a period when it became possible to smelt copper mixed with tin form bronze which was used for tools, decorations and weapons. One of the mysteries about this age has been the source of all of the copper that it used. Menzies states that this came from the nearly pure copper ore found near Lake Superior. Interestingly there are abandoned copper mines in that region that date from the bronze age. There is no evidence that the native peoples used copper in any great amounts. Further a bronze age boat found sunk in the eastern Mediterranean had in its hold, nearly pure copper ingots that are a good match for the copper mined from L. Superior. (more on L. Superior copper mines http://www.philipcoppens.com/copper.html )
To argue that the Minoans mined the copper in N. America and brought it back to make bronze requires that they have the ability to navigate the Atlantic reliably. Menzies argues that they did, indeed, have this capability. The many stone circles found in Europe and elsewhere were observatories built by the Minoan empire specifically as navigational aids.
All of this assumes a very advanced civilization, one that had a profound influence on the Egyptian dynasties that existed at the time and on later Greek civilization. The Minoans held men and women in equal regard and they worshipped principally female deities (see the Crucible and the Blade). Bull leaping is frequently depicted in Minoan art and believed to be part of ritual.
The eruption of the volcano at Santorini (Thera) was followed by a tsunami that swallowed the center of the Minoan empire an sank it into the sea. This is confirmed by archaeological evidence and fits with Plato’s description of the demise of Atlantis, written 1000 years later.
This is another book to add to the list that presents evidence that Europeans had been to N. America long before Columbus and the age of European exploration. If they truly did not know where they headed, it was because of the loss of the knowledge of the ancient civilizations. For more on that see The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman.
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Dec 12, 2011 Jason Tiearney rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I have always enjoyed the Atlantis myth and did some of my own research on it in college, with the conclusion that it was never intended to be more than a myth. I have heard the Minoan argument before and find myself agreeing with the thought that the Minoans could have been the basis of an extensive mythology for later Greeks.

What interested me most about this book was the direction it took to establish the Minoans as a world empire. Some of Menzies' evidence, particularly the bronze-related fi...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Fred rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: personal-enrichment, ancient-history

This is a pretty fantastic book, and Atlantis is really only mentioned about a dozen or so times throughout the book I think. Most of it is devoted to the premise that the Minoan civilization on Crete (circa 3,000 BCE - 1400 BCE) was more then a predecessor of the Mycenaean and Greek civilizations but a world spanning maritime trading empire.

At first the theory sounds like something out of the next National Treasure movie, but Menzies did a lot of research that I have to admit wouldn't have bee...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Eling rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I guess a lot of people have taken issue with Menzies' writing style in this book. I definitely found it to be oddly casual at times (he seems to spend an awful lot of time describing drinks & his past adventures), and strangely organized as well.

The book (and his theory)'s development follows his own meandering journey as he uncovers/connects previously unknown & unconnected information -- and while this is sort of interesting from a "oh, so this is how he got from this idea to that on...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Tony Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting and somewhat believable, but poorly edited. Mensies will be on a roll in telling the story of the fascinating history of the Minoan civilization and the Bronze Age, and suddenly he will go off track as he struggles to add filler-text from his personal diary (boring). But once back on track, his pursuit of the history of the prosperous explorers and seafarers from Crete catches the reader's interest, especially as we try to see how he is going to fit his theories together. If nothing...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Owen Spencer rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is not a book about a magical place populated by superbeings. It's about a real, Bronze Age empire that began in Crete and other isles of the Mediterranean, and was eventually distroyed by natural disasters. The author does an excellent job of keeping things interesting, and presents loads of credible evidence demonstrating that Bronze Age (1000 BC - 4000 BC, approximately) sailors traversed the globe, and even mined copper out of the Great Lakes of North America(!). History is undergoing a...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Vanessa Baldwin rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you are even a little Type A and have a problem with ambiguity, this book is not for you. The author has a very fun and exciting THEORY that the Ancient Minoans were amazingly advanced navigators and seafaring traders who traveled to places (like North America) far before anyone has suspected (before Columbus, before the Chinese, before the Vikings, even) during the Bronze Age. In order to present his case, he discusses various archaeological discoveries that I've never heard of before and th...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Thom rated it 3 of 5 stars

Author Gavin Menzies makes a compelling -- if not always empirically scientific -- argument that the modern-day Greek island of Santorini is indeed the fabled lost city-empire of Atlantis. For a closet Coast-to-Coast A.M. listener like me with a passing interest in UFOs, the paranormal, and other unexplained phenomena, I found it an enjoyable diversion. Of particular interest was the connection Menzies asserts between Minoan bronze-age artifacts and the ancient copper mines of Lakes Superior and...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Benjamin rated it 1 of 5 stars

There are many interesting facts sprinkled in, but it felt to me that this book is a bit out there in terms of scientific robustness. Between actual, interesting, hard scientific facts Menzies throw in random, unscientific, personal postulation to "connect the dots" to make his case. The book would have been stronger if it stuck to the science, been more rigorous and objective, and stopped straying into the world of conspiracy theory. My favorite, where he cites a "USA Today article" as suddenly...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Danny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book, listened-to

The interesting part of this book isn't the theory that the Minoans from Crete and Santorini composed the culture known as Atlantis. It's that Menzies believes that these Minoans were early world travelers, creating a global economy long before people were thought to sail across the ocean. The most surprising claim is that Minoans traveled to the Great Lakes region of North America to mine copper. He also argues that the Minoans created stone circles, such as Stonehenge and other similar creatio...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Kati rated it 3 of 5 stars

I still haven't made up my mind about this book. I found parts of it very interesting and possible, if not probable whereas other parts seemed entirely conjured. Menzies' argument is basically that the Minoan civilization (destroyed by a volcanic eruption) was the basis for the myth of Atlantis.

Menzies contends that the Minoan's dominance was due to a strong naval fleet engaged in a massive trading network throughout the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.Menzies seems to suggest that their trading n...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Les rated it 1 of 5 stars

Menzies has done it again. 'Th Lost Empire of Atlantis' is filled with speculation taken as fact as he had done with his previous books on pseudo archaeology. He may have been in the Royal Navy (indicted for a ship collision during his service) but he knows nothing about ancient seafaring, navigation, ship building, or trade. His speculation about the Minoans is also laughably wrong. Buried in his exploration of the ancient world is some good hard facts but the reader would be better served read...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Harry Lane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Menaies posits the existence of a bronze age empire that reached across half the planet. He appears to have made an intuitive leap to this conclusion, then set about gathering evidence for it. The facts he cites are compelling as he presents them, but do not in my mind add up to incontrovertible proof of his thesis. I was also somewhat put off by the "gee whiz" tone of some of the writing. Even so, the book is well worth the time to read, and one can look forward to further discoveries to shed m...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, on-hold

Some good research here, but some leaps as well. However there are some amazing facts uncovered, which, when put together provide a strong case for the Minoans having got much of their copper from America. It sounds outlandish, because it doesn't sit well with traditional history, yet there are some very good pieces of physical evidence - and anyone who doesn't like it has to explain the Minoan votive carvings on the Mississipi and around Lakes Michigan and Superior. And also, where the missing...more

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Nov 22, 2011 LinseyM rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'll give this 2.75 stars. Ok, I've read/heard the Minoans as Atlaneans bit before. There is some evidence. They were an advanced society that probably got wiped out by a natural disaster akin to a volcano or a tsunami. I can buy the they had advanced see capabilities and had a navy and that led to significant trade with Italy, Africa, and even India. Did they make it to Spain and Britain - sure it is possible. Now, did they build Stonehenge and its actually a sacred Minoan place instead of buil...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Maryfox rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book didn't grab me the way 1421 did. That may be because I already knew much of the background information on Crete and Santorini. I found this very slow going and didn't have the patience to slog through to the interesting parts, so I went to Gavin Menzies' web site where I got the gist of his findings/theories. I did try to go back afterwords to read the pertinent chapters, but his pace put me off. My impression is that this book is more about Gavin and his wife than about ancient histor...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Susan Paxton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting - Menzies is a member of the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks!" school, so some of his evidence is not compelling, but I think this former Royal Navy submarine commander makes a good case for the widespread contacts of the Minoan civilization. Definitely a good read too, as much of it is in travelogue format as Menzies and his wife travel about following clues and doing research.

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Jan 13, 2012 Gevera Bert rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy the fractured writing style and the subject matter was boring (and shouldn't have been). The book was misnamed; if it had been accurately titled "Minoan Crete: Ancient Superpower" I never would have picked it up. It's not about Atlantis at all, that's a marketing ploy. I tried to skim it but when I got to the part where he says the Minoans built Stonehenge I had to give up.

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Feb 01, 2012 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fascinating theory about the advanced Minoan civilization on Crete 2,500+ years ago. The author has found evidence from around the world that the Minoans traveled by ship as far as the American continent and sustained a vast trade empire until a tsunami caused by a volcano erupting on neighboring island Thera destroyed their country, civilization, and much of their knowledge. He believes that the Minoans, their civilization and their fate were written about and became the legend of Atlantis. It...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Miranda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this forensic history adventure. The author had some interesting evidence that was thought-provoking and makes you look at pre-written human history slightly differently. Worth the read if you enjoy history, treasure hunts and playing a little Sherlock Holmes.

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Nov 27, 2011 Frode rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mr. Menzies makes a good case for the Minoans in this book. He manages to treat the technical/mechanical aspects of his research with a rather human face. I found the material interesting and in some ways compelling.

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Apr 16, 2013 Dennis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gavin Menzies is an author, sailor, journalist, lecturer and historian and he makes his case with solid evidence that Atlantis did truly exist. For an excellent review click on the book icon at upper left.

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May 15, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, history

Forget Mills & Boon, this is one of the most thrillingly romantic books I've read in some time! I'm not a Bronze Age scholar, but as far as I can tell, it is well researched and simply presents for the lay reader a body of information that is accepted among experts in the field. It will completely shatter everything you thought you knew about a range of ancient cultures from the Minoans to the Egyptians to the earliest 'discoverers' of the New World. The audio production is superb and the im...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Catherine Gentry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-historical-fiction

An excellent book which synthesizes the research in various fields and validates the existence of Plato's "Atlantis" aka the Minonian Civilization during the Bronze Age.

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About Gavin Menzies

Former British submarine commander and amateur historian.

Menzies is most known for his book "1421: The Year China Discovered the World" which claims that the Chinese admiral Zheng He discovered America in 1421.

In his follow up book "1434" He claims that the European Renaissance was sparked by the Chinese.

More about Gavin Menzies...

Books by Gavin Menzies

1434 The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance

Who Discovered America?: The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas

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