Their accuracy sometimes exceeds what modern astronomers can do, even with the best of computer programs. They had an almost superior ability to predict astronomical dates and ephemerides both in the distant past and in the distant future. These dates they inequivocally indicated by means of accurate alignments embedded in the Great Pyramid and in other artifacts that many traditions attribute to the Atlanteans.
Likewise, the Great Pyramid also embodies such geodetical measurements as the lengths of the Polar Meridian and the Equatorial Circle to a precision that favorably compares to those obtained recently by geodetical satellites. We discuss these matters in detail in our book on Atlantis, to which we refer the interested reader.
18) Terraced Mountain Cultivation. As we said above (see item 17), the greatest of human inventions was that of Agriculture. Agriculture allowed the fixation of Man to the soil and, hence, the rise of civilization and the development of all arts and sciences. But, exclusive of an slash-and-burn agriculture that does not allow this fixation, some means to renew the fertility of the soil in a permanent fashion had yet to be found.
In the modern world, this is achieved by the chemical synthesis of fertilizers or, in rare instances, by composting the residues of animals and plants. In the ancient world, the renovation of the soil was insured by two basic processes. The first one consisted in taking advantage of the yearly floods of rivers such as the Nile, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Indus, the Ganges and the Irrawady. The floodwaters brought the silt that was deposited in the fields, renewing the soil and irrigating the plantation.
This process is still widely used in the Far East, where it probably originated in Atlantean times. The other process utilizes volcanoes to insure the renovation of the soil. Volcanic cinders are immensely fertile. Volcanic fly ash descends with the rains, covering the soil and fertilizing it. Such was the reason the ancient civilizations often arose vicinally to volcanoes: in Italy, in Peru, in Mexico, in Crete and, particularly, in Indonesia. Indeed, it seems that volcanic-based agriculture developed earlier than flood-based agriculture.
As all things indicate, the first site of all to utilize this advanced technique was Indonesia, the true site of the Garden of Eden and of the origin of civilization. Indonesia is the most volcanically active region in the world. Even today Indonesia derives its peerless fertility from the many volcanoes that make both its glory and its periodic doom.
However, for the volcanic cinders to be really useful, another clever invention had to be implemented: that of terraced agriculture. Volcanic regions such as Indonesia are mountainous. In mountains, the rains tend to wash down the soil, preventing their agricultural use. The use of terraces, however, prevents this down-washing, conserving both the water and the fertilizers of the agricultural soil.
The rain water is stored in dams at the top of the mountains, and is made to wind its way along the terraces, where the plantation is done. The result is an enormous production which often yields two and even three crops a year. This feature was pointed out by Plato in his description of Atlantis. If the great philosopher was not lying shamelessly, we are led to conclude that irrigated, terraced agriculture was indeed an Atlantean invention.
Terraced agriculture is to be found, even today, in most areas of Atlantean influence where volcanoes exist: the Indonesian islands, Japan, China, Southern Italy (Etna, Vesuvius), Crete (Thera), the Peruvian Andes, Mexico, etc.. The tradition of terraced agriculture goes hand in hand with the one of stepped pyramids.
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