Original post from 2018...
I enjoyed the National Treasure movies. Indiana Jones 4 and the Da Vinci Code series followed and sort of became National Treasure like movies that included following and deciphering clues to a big reveal at the end. The movies have been pretty grounded which I like in terms of not too much science fiction.
In the third movie, page 47 refers to a large lost civilization in North America with a name written in hieroglyphs, but translated to Providence. Larger than Cibola. They discover a hidden civilization in North America that was established around the time of the Egyptian pharaohs underneath the present day historical sites like Cahokia. They were discovered by early settlers in the 1600's. In the movie however, clues were left behind that indicate a much older advanced civilization in North America pre-dating the Mayans rivaling and exceeding the Egyptians.
The story says the Cahokia Mounds were built on the site of a large stone pyramid similar to Giza made of granite excavated from present day Minnesota. Not all of the "10,000 lakes" were naturally made.
The pyramid and "all-seeing eye" (also known as Eye of Providence) on dollar bills and U.S. symbols actually refers to the Providence pyramid that the Cahokia people built on top of and shared the legends of to the European settlers before they disappeared. The Freemasons brought the world treasure over to the new world intending for it be stored in this ancient city, but instead hid it in New Amsterdam/New York City during the American Revolution where it was forgotten and lost until rediscovered in the first movie. President Thomas Jefferson, a Freemason, heard these legends and was adamant about controlling this area so much that he agreed to acquire the land from the French through the Louisiana Purchase. After initial surveys and findings at the site in the 1800's, the U.S. government ran their nationwide Public Land Survey System grid from one of the study sites that followed ancient roads. The layout of Washington D.C. is known to have symbols built in. These symbols and the layout itself mirror a lost city in the Mississippi Valley that was discovered by early settlers.
Sadly, during the Civil War, much of this history was lost and forgotten about except by a few Americans, including Abraham Lincoln. His assassination left the last bit of evidence of Providence in the President's book. In the 1900's, the St. Louis Arch was built nearby by a Freemason that secretly honored the ancient civilization leaving clues behind on it.
The big reveal at the end of the movie is a hidden pyramid with pharaohs and emperors preserved in it going back nearly 10,000 years. There is no evidence why the civilization fell other than symbols found engraved in the sealed ancient pyramid are found in cave drawings and carvings of almost all North American native tribes thousands of years later suggesting either the Native Americans either descended from the ancient people or came from the Bering land bridge later and were responsible for the demise of Providence.
The post credits scene shows a small isolated village in northern Canada with symbols and pictures that call-back to Providence suggesting that this community is directly descended from the original ancient civilization.
Yes, this story is a take on the legend of Atlantis. Not an underwater civilization popularized in many movies and stories, but a land in or across the Atlantic Ocean.
By the time of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians in 5th century B.C., they began passing down stories of a kingdom or civilization in the "Atlas Sea" or what is now known as the Atlantic Ocean, earning the nickname "Atlantis" by the Greeks and passed down to future generations. It is even theorized that centuries later, Roman leader, Julius Caesar sought the legend himself as the leader of Rome and the reason he went to Egypt in 48 B.C. was to take documents from the Library of Alexandria to find information. Instead the Library was "accidentally" set ablaze in battle after he grabbed what he needed and brought back the documents to Rome where they ended up part of the larger "World Treasure" in the first movie. Just a few years later, his ambition's got him "assassinated". The first temples and pyramids built in known history were based on the legends. Over time, evidence was lost due to theft and weathering of landmarks. The Crusades, wars, and Bubonic Plaque in the Middle Ages further led to loss of the oral legends.
Before the conflicts of the Middle Ages though, the first Europeans seeking out this land were the Vikings of Scandinavia in the 11th century through Iceland and Greenland. After the early explorations and failing to find evidence of this civilization, they met the early Native American tribes we know today in eastern Canada and near the Great Lakes. They passed along stories to the Norsemen leading to much of their mythology. It would be nearly another 400 years before another European nation would make it across the sea searching for land and fortune in the New World. Magellan was the first to document many symbols shared across the world by the early 16th century before being "killed" in the Philippines in 1521. When the British settled around present day Boston in the 1600's and established a colony there, they named one of their first communities after the legend. The name of the city of Providence, Rhode Island was found to be a nod from those earliest European settlers who interacted with the Native American tribes upon the first settlements in New England. Several hundred years later, World War I and II evidence emerges to have been driven by Axis leaders based in Germany and Italy desire to find and destroy this ancient civilization by taking over Europe, Africa, Indo-Asia, and eventually the Americas with the help of Japan.
Nearly all evidence of the legend was lost until Ben Gates sees the clue on Page 47 in the President's Book along with finding similar symbols and stories found in the Alexandria Scrolls from the first movie's treasure and matching symbols in the second movie's Cibola, along with recently discovered Gobekli Tepe, and the Rosetta Stone found in 1799. This leads Ben to believe that the story of Atlantis originated from this very early ancient civilization. After being proven correct in both of the first movies, Ben is given resources by several nations along with secret help of a few, high-level Freemasons to pursue the legend and unlock one of the biggest discoveries in human history. He is faced by members of an ancient organization based out of present day Germany and Italy looking to "silence" him and destroy proof of the civilization, as they have done for over two millennia.
