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Geheimnisse Versunkener Welten
Mysteries From Forgotten Worlds
- GenresNonfictionOccultHistory
251 pages
First published October 1, 1960
About the author
Charles Berlitz
98 books73 followersBorn in NYC, Berlitz was the grandson of Maximilien Berlitz, who founded the Berlitz Language Schools. As a child, Charles was raised in a household in which (by father's orders) every relative & servant spoke to Charles in a different language. He reached adolescence speaking eight languages fluently. In adulthood, he recalled having had the delusion that every human spoke a different language, & wondering why he didn't have his own like everyone else. His father spoke to him in German, his grandfather in Russian, his nanny in Spanish.
He began working for the family's Berlitz School of Languages, during college breaks. The publishing house, of which he was vice president, sold, among other things, tourist phrase books & pocket dictionaries, several of which he authored. He also played a key role in developing record & tape language courses. He left the company in the late 1960s, not long after he sold the company to publishing firm Crowell, Collier & Macmillan. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale Univ.
Berlitz was a writer on anomalous phenomena. He wrote a number of books on Atlantis. In his book The Mystery of Atlantis, he used evidence from geophysics, psychic studies, classical literature, tribal lore, archeology & mysteries & concluded that Atlantis was real. Berlitz also attempted to link the Bermuda Triangle to Atlantis. He claimed to have located Atlantis undersea in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. He was also an ancient astronaut proponent who believed that extraterrestrials had visited earth.
Berlitz spent 13 years on active duty in the US Army, mostly in intelligence. In 1950, he married Valerie Seary, with whom he had a daughter, Lynn. He died in 2003 at the age of 89 at University Hospital in Tamarac, FL.
He began working for the family's Berlitz School of Languages, during college breaks. The publishing house, of which he was vice president, sold, among other things, tourist phrase books & pocket dictionaries, several of which he authored. He also played a key role in developing record & tape language courses. He left the company in the late 1960s, not long after he sold the company to publishing firm Crowell, Collier & Macmillan. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale Univ.
Berlitz was a writer on anomalous phenomena. He wrote a number of books on Atlantis. In his book The Mystery of Atlantis, he used evidence from geophysics, psychic studies, classical literature, tribal lore, archeology & mysteries & concluded that Atlantis was real. Berlitz also attempted to link the Bermuda Triangle to Atlantis. He claimed to have located Atlantis undersea in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. He was also an ancient astronaut proponent who believed that extraterrestrials had visited earth.
Berlitz spent 13 years on active duty in the US Army, mostly in intelligence. In 1950, he married Valerie Seary, with whom he had a daughter, Lynn. He died in 2003 at the age of 89 at University Hospital in Tamarac, FL.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 15, 2011
I liked this book, even though it is not a scientific book strictly speaking. The author plays around multiple hypothesizes to explain the likelihood of an advanced, ancient civilization that may have existed in prehistoric times. The thing is that some of those hypothesizes are flawed by definition.
For example, to illustrate the possible existence of Atlantis, Berlitz relates the fact of the 10 Atlantis kings (who governed the lost continent) mentioned by Plato; with the 10 kings the Spanish explorers found in the Canary Islands. Being from the Canary Islands myself, I can tell you it is impossible the Spanish conquerors found 10 kings in Canary Islands as each island was ruled by different kingdoms. Ranging from one (El Hierro), up to twelve (in "La Palma" isle). So you can see that his hypothesis is based on wrong or false information, making the own hypothesis pointless straightaway.
Because Berlitz takes for granted some other sources, the whole book gives the impression of being a total rambling on the idea of the so-called "lost civilization". Anyhow, it is worth reading if you have some interest in anthropology or archeology, mainly because multiple topics are mentioned and they can provide you ideas for further reading in some other areas or subjects.
All in all, not a bad book but don't take it seriously.
For example, to illustrate the possible existence of Atlantis, Berlitz relates the fact of the 10 Atlantis kings (who governed the lost continent) mentioned by Plato; with the 10 kings the Spanish explorers found in the Canary Islands. Being from the Canary Islands myself, I can tell you it is impossible the Spanish conquerors found 10 kings in Canary Islands as each island was ruled by different kingdoms. Ranging from one (El Hierro), up to twelve (in "La Palma" isle). So you can see that his hypothesis is based on wrong or false information, making the own hypothesis pointless straightaway.
Because Berlitz takes for granted some other sources, the whole book gives the impression of being a total rambling on the idea of the so-called "lost civilization". Anyhow, it is worth reading if you have some interest in anthropology or archeology, mainly because multiple topics are mentioned and they can provide you ideas for further reading in some other areas or subjects.
All in all, not a bad book but don't take it seriously.
August 17, 2017
Entertaining pseudoscience. I loved it during my teens, when I preferred to believe that the ancients had a lot of secret knowledge which has since then been forgotten.
However, this will give one an insight into the past - and is very readable.
However, this will give one an insight into the past - and is very readable.
August 4, 2014
Speculations on prehistoric civilisations
10 February 2012
This is one of those speculative books that explores the question of whether there was any advanced civilisations prior to those of which we know. The book explores the concept of lost civilisations and looks for evidence supporting their existence than looking at civilisation that we already know. Unfortunately with ancient civilisations there are only two ways of trying to understand them: archaeology and literature. Further you need to look at both together to come to a good understanding (if that is ever possible) of the civilisation.
Without literature, archaeology is really only a pile of buried rubble, and while we can make some educated guesses, simply looking at old buildings and rocks scattered across the ground tells us very little. If we are lucky enough to have some literature then those scattered rocks can come to life. However, the problem with literature without archaeology is that it can be difficult (if not impossible) to determine the accuracy of these writings, particularly since all writing subjective.
The problem with these speculative civilisations is that we have even less than what has been mentioned. With Atlantis we have no archaeological evidence (though there is speculation that this particular civilisation could be located anywhere) and all we have is some philosophical text from Plato whose original intention could simply have been creating an imaginary society to outline his political philosophy. It is suggested by some ancient writers that the story was passed down to Plato from the Athenian lawgiver Solon, who obtained information from some Egyptian priests, however there is no supporting evidence of this from anybody before Plato.
I have read some reviews on this book, and it seems that it is suggested that the author takes some rather dubious evidence to support his hypothesis, and the one that comes to mind is his discussion regarding the 10 kings of the Canary Islands, though a native of the islands suggest that this is rubbish. Granted, there are lots of myths and unexplained phenomena around the world, but these theories are never going to be any more than hypothesis.
My position on this is that there was at one stage a world wide flood (as is supported by myths from multiple cultures) that destroyed all we new of the world beforehand. We know very little of what this world was like, even if we do look at the Bible. Pretty much everything was completely destroyed. There is some concept that all of the oil and coal that we find are the remains of this ancient civilisation, and while it is speculative, there is support among some of the creation scientists. The Bible also suggests that the society was technologically advanced as we are told that people developed music and entertainment, as well as iron working, however that is, as much as we are told. This is most likely because the compilers of the Bible had no concept of technology beyond what they knew. Apparently relics from this civilisation have been found in deep mineshafts, but once again, it is very speculative (and quite possibly a number of interests that would be very keen to suppress any more substantive evidence, even if it is a mining company that just wants profits).
10 February 2012
This is one of those speculative books that explores the question of whether there was any advanced civilisations prior to those of which we know. The book explores the concept of lost civilisations and looks for evidence supporting their existence than looking at civilisation that we already know. Unfortunately with ancient civilisations there are only two ways of trying to understand them: archaeology and literature. Further you need to look at both together to come to a good understanding (if that is ever possible) of the civilisation.
Without literature, archaeology is really only a pile of buried rubble, and while we can make some educated guesses, simply looking at old buildings and rocks scattered across the ground tells us very little. If we are lucky enough to have some literature then those scattered rocks can come to life. However, the problem with literature without archaeology is that it can be difficult (if not impossible) to determine the accuracy of these writings, particularly since all writing subjective.
The problem with these speculative civilisations is that we have even less than what has been mentioned. With Atlantis we have no archaeological evidence (though there is speculation that this particular civilisation could be located anywhere) and all we have is some philosophical text from Plato whose original intention could simply have been creating an imaginary society to outline his political philosophy. It is suggested by some ancient writers that the story was passed down to Plato from the Athenian lawgiver Solon, who obtained information from some Egyptian priests, however there is no supporting evidence of this from anybody before Plato.
I have read some reviews on this book, and it seems that it is suggested that the author takes some rather dubious evidence to support his hypothesis, and the one that comes to mind is his discussion regarding the 10 kings of the Canary Islands, though a native of the islands suggest that this is rubbish. Granted, there are lots of myths and unexplained phenomena around the world, but these theories are never going to be any more than hypothesis.
My position on this is that there was at one stage a world wide flood (as is supported by myths from multiple cultures) that destroyed all we new of the world beforehand. We know very little of what this world was like, even if we do look at the Bible. Pretty much everything was completely destroyed. There is some concept that all of the oil and coal that we find are the remains of this ancient civilisation, and while it is speculative, there is support among some of the creation scientists. The Bible also suggests that the society was technologically advanced as we are told that people developed music and entertainment, as well as iron working, however that is, as much as we are told. This is most likely because the compilers of the Bible had no concept of technology beyond what they knew. Apparently relics from this civilisation have been found in deep mineshafts, but once again, it is very speculative (and quite possibly a number of interests that would be very keen to suppress any more substantive evidence, even if it is a mining company that just wants profits).
July 3, 2025
I just finished The Mystery of Atlantis, a book that Charles Berlitz wrote three years prior to 1972's Mysteries from Forgotten Worlds, and I was surprised just how much material he duplicated from one book to the next. The intent of the Atlantis book was clear: to get us to take the Atlantis myth seriously. The aim is a little more broad and fuzzy in this book, but promotes the idea that ancient civilizations were more advanced and more connected than we might think, and that they may have had help from even more ancient civilizations - ones we don't know about. (Yes, Atlantis is well represented.) The subtitle promises that "This book will shake the archaeological world." I doubt it did, but I'm sure it had an impact on the general public, as Berlitz's other works of rampant speculation consistently did.
One consistent theme is that Berlitz believes ancient cultures were just as advanced as our own. Sure, we haven't discovered televisions or cars in the ruins of Jericho, but he believes the more we find the more surprised we'll be. He shares legitimate marvels such as the Antikythera device that tracked celestial movements, but more often gets hung up on overblown claims and occasional hoaxes that have captured his imagination. For example, Berlitz references maps from the 15th century and marvels at their accuracy. Hmm... fine, but exaggerated. But then he claims they were rendered based on older maps by "the ancient sea kings", and uses this assumption as proof that inaccuracies in the maps are actually indications of how those land masses looked thousands of years earlier. Or that the cartographers were mixing 2D and 3D mapping techniques. Or that Antarctica is actually two islands if you take away the ice. Or any number of other apologetic excuses to defend his foregone conclusion that these maps contain special knowledge. Another embarrassing example is when he interprets South American artifacts. On the back of the book he says a gold artifact from a 1,000 year old Colombian tomb is patterned after modern delta wing jet fighters. Historians know it to be a flying fish. An 800-foot carving called the "Candelabra of the Andes" (aka the Paracas Candelabra) is a very cool geoglyph, but Berlitz speculates with no justification that it may have been a seismograph, an ancient flight aid, and a tidal calculator. He devotes nearly a chapter to repeating overblown claims about the Great Pyramid of Giza, including arbitrary measurements: "One pyramidal inch multiplied by 100,000,000 gives almost, but not quite, the distance covered by the earth in its orbit around the sun." Whoaaaaaa. An ominous pyramid-based calendar suggests a period of decline from 1962 to 2001... that may have sounded prescient then, but in 2025 just makes me shrug. He states as plain fact that the story of Jupiter eating his children is proof that the ancients had developed optics strong enough to see the moons of Jupiter disappearing behind the planet. On that topic, he over-hypes the Nineveh Lens (aka Nimrud Lens) that was simply a polished rock crystal that provides about 3x magnification. From his description, you'd think it rivaled Mt. Palomar Observatory. Berlitz had an interesting story about Ctesias seeing swords used as lightning rods while visiting India in the 4th century. I looked up the original passage, which said nothing of the sort. Another story about explorers eating still-fresh 30,000 year old mammoth meat right after it had thawed? Also false.
You've got your work cut out if you want to fact-check this thing. I was constantly looking up the various objects and places Berlitz describes, and I'd say his hit rate compares poorly with a coin toss. He repeats many falsehoods, such as the idea that lemmings kill themselves en masse while swimming out to sea (which he uses as support for Atlantis, citing the lemmings must have previously migrated there). He repeats a myth about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria (a story he told, along with the lemmings one, in his previous book). He cites the common misunderstanding that roughly 90% of the brain goes unused (it doesn't). He quotes and defends the quack Velikovsky, whose catastrophist theories were based on pure speculation, and even suggests the biblical story of the sun standing still is explained by Velikovsky's notion that the earth got flipped upside down for a while (can you imagine the effect that would actually have?). I found it telling that Berlitz bemoaned that the word "amateur" gets a bad rap. He's clearly out of his depth on these far-flung topics, except when he's talking about language, his own area of specialty. I do think it's funny that Berlitz casually acknowledges the Tower of Babel story to be fiction, despite its appearance in other cultures, while accepting the Atlantis story on those same grounds.
One of the most irritating themes is that Berlitz keeps referring to speculative earlier, white-skinned races that created the great monuments around the world, and insists that the later cultures who inhabited them were "regressing". It's hard to see this as anything but racist. Quote: "If the mounds in the United States were built by culturally advanced Indian tribes who subsequently forgot about them it would seem to conform with the retrograde tendency of American and numerous other ancient cultures, wherein as one goes farther back in time one finds more advanced cultural patterns in proceeding eras than in the succeeding centuries. This is true in Mexico, where the Aztecs had not improved on the civilization of their predecessors, the Toltec or the Olmec, and in fact, although retaining great scientific knowledge, art, and literature, also practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism." I didn't see him saying that about white folks.
In my review of The Mystery of Atlantis, I joked about how Edgar Cayce's psychic prediction that Atlantis would re-emerge in the Bahamas in 1968 or '69 is alternatively dated as "in the '30s", "1940", and "1924". I laughed out loud when he dated the prediction in this book as "1923".
I haven't addressed all of my notes, but you get the idea. There's no central theory or thesis here: merely tidbits that are meant in aggregate to amount to something that feels important. I found interesting ideas and quotes sprinkled throughout, but on the whole this is a work that has done more to decrease public knowledge, rather than add to it.
One consistent theme is that Berlitz believes ancient cultures were just as advanced as our own. Sure, we haven't discovered televisions or cars in the ruins of Jericho, but he believes the more we find the more surprised we'll be. He shares legitimate marvels such as the Antikythera device that tracked celestial movements, but more often gets hung up on overblown claims and occasional hoaxes that have captured his imagination. For example, Berlitz references maps from the 15th century and marvels at their accuracy. Hmm... fine, but exaggerated. But then he claims they were rendered based on older maps by "the ancient sea kings", and uses this assumption as proof that inaccuracies in the maps are actually indications of how those land masses looked thousands of years earlier. Or that the cartographers were mixing 2D and 3D mapping techniques. Or that Antarctica is actually two islands if you take away the ice. Or any number of other apologetic excuses to defend his foregone conclusion that these maps contain special knowledge. Another embarrassing example is when he interprets South American artifacts. On the back of the book he says a gold artifact from a 1,000 year old Colombian tomb is patterned after modern delta wing jet fighters. Historians know it to be a flying fish. An 800-foot carving called the "Candelabra of the Andes" (aka the Paracas Candelabra) is a very cool geoglyph, but Berlitz speculates with no justification that it may have been a seismograph, an ancient flight aid, and a tidal calculator. He devotes nearly a chapter to repeating overblown claims about the Great Pyramid of Giza, including arbitrary measurements: "One pyramidal inch multiplied by 100,000,000 gives almost, but not quite, the distance covered by the earth in its orbit around the sun." Whoaaaaaa. An ominous pyramid-based calendar suggests a period of decline from 1962 to 2001... that may have sounded prescient then, but in 2025 just makes me shrug. He states as plain fact that the story of Jupiter eating his children is proof that the ancients had developed optics strong enough to see the moons of Jupiter disappearing behind the planet. On that topic, he over-hypes the Nineveh Lens (aka Nimrud Lens) that was simply a polished rock crystal that provides about 3x magnification. From his description, you'd think it rivaled Mt. Palomar Observatory. Berlitz had an interesting story about Ctesias seeing swords used as lightning rods while visiting India in the 4th century. I looked up the original passage, which said nothing of the sort. Another story about explorers eating still-fresh 30,000 year old mammoth meat right after it had thawed? Also false.
You've got your work cut out if you want to fact-check this thing. I was constantly looking up the various objects and places Berlitz describes, and I'd say his hit rate compares poorly with a coin toss. He repeats many falsehoods, such as the idea that lemmings kill themselves en masse while swimming out to sea (which he uses as support for Atlantis, citing the lemmings must have previously migrated there). He repeats a myth about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria (a story he told, along with the lemmings one, in his previous book). He cites the common misunderstanding that roughly 90% of the brain goes unused (it doesn't). He quotes and defends the quack Velikovsky, whose catastrophist theories were based on pure speculation, and even suggests the biblical story of the sun standing still is explained by Velikovsky's notion that the earth got flipped upside down for a while (can you imagine the effect that would actually have?). I found it telling that Berlitz bemoaned that the word "amateur" gets a bad rap. He's clearly out of his depth on these far-flung topics, except when he's talking about language, his own area of specialty. I do think it's funny that Berlitz casually acknowledges the Tower of Babel story to be fiction, despite its appearance in other cultures, while accepting the Atlantis story on those same grounds.
One of the most irritating themes is that Berlitz keeps referring to speculative earlier, white-skinned races that created the great monuments around the world, and insists that the later cultures who inhabited them were "regressing". It's hard to see this as anything but racist. Quote: "If the mounds in the United States were built by culturally advanced Indian tribes who subsequently forgot about them it would seem to conform with the retrograde tendency of American and numerous other ancient cultures, wherein as one goes farther back in time one finds more advanced cultural patterns in proceeding eras than in the succeeding centuries. This is true in Mexico, where the Aztecs had not improved on the civilization of their predecessors, the Toltec or the Olmec, and in fact, although retaining great scientific knowledge, art, and literature, also practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism." I didn't see him saying that about white folks.
In my review of The Mystery of Atlantis, I joked about how Edgar Cayce's psychic prediction that Atlantis would re-emerge in the Bahamas in 1968 or '69 is alternatively dated as "in the '30s", "1940", and "1924". I laughed out loud when he dated the prediction in this book as "1923".
I haven't addressed all of my notes, but you get the idea. There's no central theory or thesis here: merely tidbits that are meant in aggregate to amount to something that feels important. I found interesting ideas and quotes sprinkled throughout, but on the whole this is a work that has done more to decrease public knowledge, rather than add to it.
December 30, 2021
Datorită dezvoltării științei, omul a ajuns acum în pragul explorării spațiului, având în fața sa noi planete de cucerit, o situație oarecum similară cu cea a vest-europenilor din anul 1493, după ce Columb a descoperit că sunt posibile călătoriile transatlantice. Pe de altă parte însă, prin dezvoltarea aceleiași științe avansate, s-ar putea ca omul să se afle la doar cinci minute de Armaghedon. Dar indiferent în ce fază temporală sau a destinului considerăm că ne aflăm, educația noastră, tradițiile și viziunea general optimistă asupra istoriei ne-au condiționat să acceptăm mersul înainte al civilizației. Progresul civilizației se încadrează într-un model coerent, începând cu Mesopotamia și Egipt, dezvoltând perfecțiunea politică și religioasă în Palestina, Siria și Grecia, perfecțiunea legislativă și organizatorică în timpul Imperiului Roman, regresând întrucâtva în Evul Mediu, dar regăsindu-și ritmul alert al mersului înainte în timpul Renașterii, trecând apoi prin descoperirea Lumii Noi și prin revoluția industrială.
Marșul civilizației pare să explice capacitățile și gradul de organizare crescânde ale omului din cele mai vechi timpuri și până în prezent. Cu toate acestea, chiar în momentul în care omul, datorită progresului științific,examinează cu mai multă acuratețe urmele propriului său trecut, ies la lumină elemente neliniștitoare și tulburătoare, mai ales în ultimii ani. O întrebare iconoclastă se ridică în fața celor ce cercetează istoria antică: este posibil ca în îndelungata istorie a omenirii să fi existat alte civilizații despre care să nu știm nimic sau de la care nu auzim decât ecouri vagi, suprapuse adesea cu culturile mai mult sau mai puțin familiare nouă?
Marșul civilizației pare să explice capacitățile și gradul de organizare crescânde ale omului din cele mai vechi timpuri și până în prezent. Cu toate acestea, chiar în momentul în care omul, datorită progresului științific,examinează cu mai multă acuratețe urmele propriului său trecut, ies la lumină elemente neliniștitoare și tulburătoare, mai ales în ultimii ani. O întrebare iconoclastă se ridică în fața celor ce cercetează istoria antică: este posibil ca în îndelungata istorie a omenirii să fi existat alte civilizații despre care să nu știm nimic sau de la care nu auzim decât ecouri vagi, suprapuse adesea cu culturile mai mult sau mai puțin familiare nouă?
May 27, 2018
Pseudoscience at its finest! While there is little regard for scientific or academic rigor, I still found enjoyment from reading this book. The author references a wide range of archaeological, historical, mythological and geological points of interest. I took frequent breaks from reading to do internet searches to find details about things mentioned in the book. Although it is full of errors, dubious references and very loosely supported speculation there are so many different things mentioned that it makes for a good starting point for searching out further information on ancient cultures and archaeology.
July 2, 2023
In the 80s Charles Berlitz definitely was the man for speculative history. Here he presents unexplained civilizations before history and comes up with many great black and white photos of mysterious places to visit. You'll see the Piri Reis Map, unexplainable items, impossible buildings, sunken cities, information on lost planets... I grew up with all that stuff and still like it. Really recommended!
November 13, 2017
Another one of my grandfather's books. He was really obsessed with the occult and UFOs. This one is better than most spinning a set of tales around how much science has discovered about the world and then extrapolating from that.
May 1, 2023
Book is quite old at this point, with some claims that you can't take too seriously.
But it keeps your interest and acts as motivation to do your own research on many of the old civilizations and discoveries it covers.
But it keeps your interest and acts as motivation to do your own research on many of the old civilizations and discoveries it covers.
October 16, 2022
As with all of this genre, gunny, as long as you don't take it seriously ...
February 7, 2019
Time travel, ancient architecture, visits from astronauts? Ideas reading like some sci-fi novel. But then how do we explain some pieces of these archaeological finds from the past? They're thrilling, & create more questions than answers. Better than Chariots of the Gods in my own opinion. Fun for any history lover of past civilizations of the earth, whether you choose to accept any of these hypothesis or not.
January 14, 2016
I was very excited to read this book after being eternally intrigued by his most famous writing 'The Bermuda Triangle' but I face a little disappointment as most of the pieces were the same as the previous one. Still, you do get a mother load of strange and long forgotten historical facts about human orientation since its a Charles Berlitz book.
August 21, 2012
He is very through in his investigations, and unlike Erich von Däniken, he lists a bibliography of sources to trace down and read for yourself the original text.
May 29, 2023
The mysteries shared in this book are still mysterious. We need to do further research about its veracity.
Read
January 14, 2019I have the english and the german edition.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews