The myth of Atlantis would be lost, disappearing into the shadows of the Dark Ages. It wouldn't be until European explorers inaugurated an age of discovery, that the search for a lost island paradise began with fervor, a search that would begin with a dogged pursuit of the mythical isle by history's most famous explorer, Christopher Columbus.

The Holy Inquisition of Spain. Men of God scour the land, searching for any sign of deviation from the one true faith. In less than a decade, thousands have already perished, Jews and Moors, lapsed Christians and social outcasts, all consumed by the cleansing fire of religious zeal. In such an atmosphere of terror Spain would seem an unlikely starting point for Christopher Columbus's unprecedented voyage of discovery. Yet it was the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, the very people who accepted the inquisition in motion, that Columbus would have to appeal to finance his bold plan to cross the ocean. Long neglected by the history books, the great navigator had a secret reason to undertake such a perilous voyage. Columbus had heard of a lost island paradise of untold riches and wealth, a mythical land called Anthillia, a land that had replaced Atlantis in the Medieval imagination.

Since the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 6th century, much of the learning of antiquity had been forgotten. Suspicious of pagan wisdom, Christianity evolved a very different vision of the world, one defined by the battle between good and evil.

At the centre of this world was Jerusalem surrounded by the three known continents--Europe, Asia and Africa. Beyond these was another world, populated by people who were not descended from Adam and Eve, making them in the minds of many, children of the devil. But some like Columbus had radical ideas about the real geography of the world, ideas that had made them obvious figures of suspicion.
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inaugurate: v. 创新、开辟
cleanse:v. 纯净、清扫
deviation: n. 背离