Warning! If you haven’t read this book yet, you should not read this webpage. It is designed as a virtual tour of ATLANTIS STOLEN and contains pictures, descriptions, and references to scenes from the book which will spoil the plot. Please view this after reading ATLANTIS STOLEN.
Prologue
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The factorij became a settlement outside Fort Amsterdam. The fort was situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan and was meant to defend the fur trade operations of the Dutch West India Company in the North River (Hudson River). In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625.
By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to 2,000 people, with 1,500 living in New Amsterdam. Prior to 1664, the population had exploded in nine years to almost 9,000 people in New Netherland, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near Fort Orange, and the remainder in other towns and villages.
New Amsterdam was renamed New York on September 8, 1664, in honor of the Duke of York, in whose name the English had captured it. After the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667, England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands agreed to the status quo in the Treaty of Breda. The English kept the island of Manhattan, the Dutch giving up their claim to the town and the rest of the colony, while the English formally abandoned Surinam in South America, and the island of Run in the East Indies to the Dutch, confirming their control of the valuable Spice Islands.
New Amsterdam Circa 1660, with modern day New York superimposed. Note the fortified wall to the north-eastern end, which is now Wall Street, the site notorious for the world’s banking.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Landing at Tenzing–Hillary Airport in the tiny township of Lukla, Nepal. Voted one of the most dangerous airports in the world for twenty years in a row!
Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla Nepal
Chapter Twenty-Three
The view of the sunrise turning the Five Treasures of Snow golden, depicting the route to a secret chamber built by the Master Builders. At the center of the mastiff is Mount Kanchenjunga – the world’s third highest mountain.
Five Treasures of Snow
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sam and Tom take a powerful motor yacht down the Congo River deep into the jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Real Heart of Darkness stuff…
Congo River, DRC