Hyperborea, a sacred land of eternal happiness

Legends and myths all over the world always hold mysterious and incredible stories. Extraordinary tales are hereditary from one generation to the next, sometimes intriguing enough to be explore further in real life. One compelling enigma comes from the ancient civilizations that humans have ever built, Hyperborea. Some researchers considered Hyperborea to rival the lost civilization of Atlantis, but some believed that this is the actual notorious Atlantis. There are many versions of the story as it has been often mentioned in Nordicist debates and conspiracy theories. In Greek mythology, Hyperborea was home to an ethnic giant in ancient history who lived with the cold north wind (Boreas).

Ancient civilizations had grown before humans were able to make historical records. Regarding Hyperborea, people in modern times associate it with prehistoric times. At that time, Hyperborea was inhabited by a very powerful people who had a fairly advanced civilization. It was a flawless land where Alcaeus, a Greek poet who lived in 600 A.D. once recorded Apollo’s journey there. Although Hyperborea is believed as a land in mythology, there has also been speculation for hundreds of years if its existence is true on earth. This raises questions and assumptions about the actual location. Some ancient literature including one written by Herodotus mentions that Hyperborea is located on a large continent in the arctic circle or the north pole.

In the mythology, Hyperborea was usually described as a continent-bound land bordered on the north by the great, earth-encircling river Okeanos (Oceanus), and on the south the peaks of the legendary Rhipaion (Rhipaean) Mountains. Its main river was the Eridanos whose banks were lined with amber-weeping poplar-trees and its waters home to flocks of white swans. Blessed with eternal spring, the land producing two crops of grain per year, but most of the countryside was wild and covered with beautiful forests -the so-called “garden of Apollon.” Hyperborea was inhabited by long-lived race untouched by war, hard toil and the ravages of old age and disease. Living a life as a worshiper of gods, the life of its inhabitants is both simple and democratic. It was as if all the inhabitants of this territory were one universal family. Its citizens occupy the area around the bodies of water. The settlements that are built are picturesque and sturdy. The communities were intelligent, possessing secret knowledge of skills, applied arts, and spiritual expressions. They believed that gods protect the earth they live in by bringing ideal humans along with ideal universe. There are no coercive rules, relations between inhabitants are built on the principles of compassion and love. Since there is no evil, there is no concept of sin.

It is said that after moving to Eurasia and Mesopotamia, the inhabitants of Hyperborea spread to what is now America, Siberia, the Scandinavian countries, to southern Africa. Although only legends and myths remain, there are still those who believe that Hyperborea did not just disappear, but mysteriously turned into another world realm or into a different dimension which cannot be found in the material world. It is said that, after several millennia, the inhabitants of Hyperborea, seemed to gather abundant spiritual energy and manifested it to the earth.

According to some historians, this ancient mythical land is also called Arctida. Arctida is the ancestor of all world cultures. In the past, this land was a very favourable place for prosperity and human life. Hypothetically, this ancient landmass is situated in the northern part of the planet near the North Pole. Many have tried to find its possible location, but so far, its existence has not been proven and has not been confirmed by anything other than myth. Experts can only learn about Hyperborea from ancient Greek legends and drawings on ancient engravings, for example, on the Mercator Map, presented by Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1595. The map is a conformal cylindrical projection that was originally created to display accurate compass bearings for sea travel. An additional feature of this projection is that all local shapes are accurate and correctly defined at microscopic scale. In the centre of the map, is an image of this legendary continent, and around the shores of the Arctic Ocean with easily recognizable modern rivers and islands. According to the descriptions of many chroniclers of ancient Greece, located in the centre of Hyperborea, 4 great rivers flowed out and fell into the sea, which is why on the map this mysterious place looks like a round shield with a cross.

Scientists suggest that Hyperborea is no longer exists because of climate change and war. Most likely, the people who inhabited this continent, due to changing climatic conditions, began to migrate south. Even Lomonosov, the first native Russian to be appointed to the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in 1742 best known for his observations of the transit of Venus, wrote that for a very long time the temperature in Siberia and to the north was so warm that even elephants could feel comfortable there. This is confirmed by the fossilized remains of palms and magnolias found in Greenland. Climate can change because of the displacement of the earth’s axis. Ice ages also contributed to this. The glacier happened so fast that mammoths froze to death. The war version is not supported by any facts or documents. Scientists only have Plato’s records. He argues that the lost civilization ceased to exist as a result of the destructive war waged between Hyperborea and Atlantis.

Confirmation of the existence of this lost continent is only possible with experience. This indicates that one should look for traces of Hyperboreans; various artifacts, ancient maps, and monuments. Remarkably, such evidence is currently available. A deliberate search for this place has never been carried out, but some researchers believe that the ruins of an ancient observatory and mysterious rock inscriptions have been discovered in Russia’s Northwest and consider them to be remnants of the ancient Hyperborea civilization. However, it is said that the ruins evolved in a natural way, without man’s intervention. There are other facts that are puzzling researchers: in 1922, a Russian scientific expedition −set out for the Lovozero and Seydozero regions (now they are in the Murmansk region) − led by Alexander Barchenko discovered a skilfully cut stone oriented to the cardinal points. This finding belongs to a more ancient period than the Egyptian civilization. At the same time, Barchenko found a mysterious underground entrance in the vicinity of Lake Seydozero, one of the most mystical places in Russia’s Northwest. Surrounded by mountains, the lake is hidden in the very heart of the Kola Peninsula. Its name means “the sacred lake” in the language of the indigenous Sami people. His findings were classified as confidential; no one saw the entrance to the cave and the researcher himself was shot. Today, Barchenko’s research is being continued in Russia by the Cosmopoisk organization. As it turns out, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence in the district that supports this version of the mystical land location. However, no matter what the conclusions, there are places, not necessarily real, that enter into the imagination of a culture and shape its vision of the world. Hyperborea was such a place for the ancient Greeks.