Lost lands
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Lost lands are islands, continents, or even whole planets believed by some to have existed during prehistory, but to have since disappeared as a result of catastrophic geological phenomena. Such lands, namely islands and continents, are generally thought to have subsided into the sea, leaving behind only a few traces or legends by which they may be known.
Legends of lost lands often originated as scholarly or scientific theories, only to be picked up by writers and individuals outside the academy. Occult and New Age writers have made use of lost lands, as have subaltern peoples such as the Tamil in India.
Phantom islands, as opposed to lost lands, are land masses formerly believed by cartographers to exist in the current historical age, but to have been discredited as a result of expanding geographic knowledge.
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[edit] Lost Lands
- Airyana Vaejo
- Agartha
- Atlantis
- Avalon
- Beringia, connecting Asia and North America
- Goodwin Sands (Lomea).
- Hollow Earth theory, which purports to place most of the listed "lost lands" within the Earth.
- Hyperborea
- Kerguelen Plateau
- Kumari Kandam
- Lemuria
- Cantref Gwaelod Lowland Hundred
- Lyonesse
- Maui Nui
- Mu
- Nibiru
- Ogygia
- Phaeton
- Planet V
- Planet X
- Quivira and Cíbola, also known as the Seven Cities of Gold
- Shambhala
- Terra Australis
- Tiamat
- Thule
- Shambhala sometimes referred to as Shangri-La
- Skherya
- Strand with the town Rungholt
- Sundaland, now the submerged Sunda shelf
- Troy
[edit] Origins
The following disciplines have given rise to lost lands:
- Mythology
- Philosophy (as with Atlantis)
- Catastrophic theories of Geology
- Occult writings
[edit] In literature and philosophy
The following individuals are known for having written on the subject of lost lands:
- H.P. Blavatsky
- James Churchward
- Ignatius Donnelly
- Burak Eldem
- Warren Ellis
- Plato
- Augustus Le Plongeon
- Zecharia Sitchin
- H.P. Lovecraft often invoked the names of lost lands of his own invention, a practice which subsequently gave birth to the Cthulhu mythos.
- Lost lands figured prominently in the philosophy of the Nazi Thule society in regards to researchers of the occult and Nazi mysticism such as Karl Maria Wiligut, Heinrich Himmler and Otto Rahn .
[edit] Accounts of a Hollow Earth
Some of these authors, such as H.P. Blavatsky and theosphist followers, believed in the existance of a number of lost lands within the Hollow Earth and held many "fictional" accounts of these places and their peoples to be true. Such accounts include:
- Vril: The Power of the Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published in 1870
- The Phantom of the Poles by William Reed, published in 1906.
- The Smoky God by Willis Emerson, published in 1908
- Agartha - Secrets of the Subterranean Cities
- Journey to the Earth's Interior by Marshall B. Gardner, published in 1913.
- Le Roi du Monde by René Guénon, published in 1924
- Amazing Stories magazine, which, beginning in 1943, published a plethora of material by Richard Shaver and Robert Palmer, detailing Shaver's experiences with the inhabitants of the Hollow Earth.
- The Hollow Earth - The Greatest Geographical Discovery in History Made by Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the Mysterious Land Beyond the Poles - The True Origin of the Flying Saucers, by Raymond W. Bernard, published in 1964.
- Flying Saucers from the Earth's Interior, by Raymond W. Bernard
- Agharta - The Subterranean World by Dr. Raymond Bernard
- Nazisme et sociétés Secrètes by Jean-Claude Frère, published in 1974
- World Beyond the Poles by Giannini
- Paradise Found by William F. Warren
[edit] In popular culture
- The lost lands were referred to in the Torchwood episode "Small Worlds" when discussing the origin of the chosen ones who become fairies. It was commented that many of the chosen ones go back millennia and come from the lost lands.
[edit] Further reading
- Raymond H. Ramsay, No Longer on the Map: Discovering Places that Never Were, Ballantine, 1972.
