Editor's note: the first part of this section is a straightforward historical account of Atlantean architecture till 600 evidently written by my source. To this I have appended a contemporary account of the city of Atlantis.

The area of the future Atlantean Empire had been the scene of a number of great earlier empires, and all of these had left behind relics and ruins of their buildings. The Marossan Empire was still visible during the First Atlantean Empire in the remains of awe-inspiring stone structures, often of enigmatic, geometrical forms. In particular, tall towers were scattered about the Marossan and western Keltish areas, the remnants of religious monuments. The Dravedean and Numedean Empires were represented by the relics of more obviously functional buildings – State institutions, theatres and temples. In addition, Empires and states still in existence after 200, such as the Eliossiens, Marossans, Chalcrans and Helvrans, also had impressive buildings to their credit, superior to anything Atlantean, at least until after about 310.

Before 360, Atlantean building styles and materials were variable throughout the Empire. There were essentially three main building materials, which indigenous peoples, the old Empires, and Atlantis herself used for centuries to come, depending on geographical area. South of the Helvengio, in Manralia, the City States, Razira and the deserts, brick and mud were the usual tools of construction. In the central parts, in Atlantis, Helvris and the Lio-Marossan states, as well as the former Dravedean and North Numedean Empires, stone was more common. Finally, in the north and east, in the lands of the Kelts, and in Dravedean and some Chalcran and Ughan areas, wood was generally used. Clearly, the different cultures made use of whatever were the local resources, but sometimes Empires imported different types of materials from abroad. Stone, and sometimes marble, were always regarded as the finest materials, suitable for the grandest buildings, and examples could be seen in the monuments of the ancient empires, as well as the practice of the modern-day Helvrans and Marossans.

The earliest Atlantean architecture, of which we have any record, dates from the pre-Imperial period from about 120 to 200. This was called "Heroic" Art by later Atlantean critics (or "Fulgonuya Enscoulpha" in Atlantean), and witnesses the use of stone in grandiose and monolithic styles for religious and state buildings. After 200, there was little important change in style, but the types and numbers of large stone buildings increase, to include national and local government, and the first market-places and communal centres. The architecture remained massive, but with more decoration. There was little to distinguish Atlantean from Helvran or Chalcran architecture at this stage. This architecture, like contemporary art, was named "Communal Art" ("Saindeya Enscoulpha").

Between 300 and 360, Atlantean architecture developed rapidly, in the style called First Empire Romantic. Most important are two main influences from outside. Firstly there was Romantic fancy from some Chalcran areas; this was followed by the cool classicism of Eliossie and Marossan. The Romantic epoch was one of eclecticism, which included wild decoration in stone and wood, and grand vistas with many pillars and arches. Of course, the houses of ordinary people were little affected, except perhaps for the addition of a flight of steps at the front, or pillars round the door.

There was a turn to classicism after 350 in all the arts, and this formed the basis of Second Empire Classicism from about 380 onwards.

Classical Atlantean style was influenced strongly by the architecture of Eliossie, and its slightly debased image in Marossan. The features of this architecture were the use of undecorated stone, tall walls and porticos, and many pointed pillars and arches. In Marossan the stone was often painted pink or blue. Atlantis borrowed the simplicity and geometrical regularity of this style, but amalgamated it with her own ideas, which can be traced to the Romantic and fanciful features of the building she put up after 270. Thus pillars remained, but were mixed with rounded arches. Similarly, the geometrical flatness of the northern styles were softened by the use of curves and rounded features to buildings. After 380, the typical grand Atlantean building, a palace, State institution, monument or church, was symmetrically constructed in stone, with an imposing entrance up a flight of steps. It usually had two wings, with a curved entrance-way, made of pillars or arches with rounded tops. It often had a dome over the centre, or towers over the wings, and was usually white, with some pastel shades and patterned decoration in places. Increasing interest in landscaping led to such buildings being placed in a cultivated garden or landscape, and often several buildings would be linked together as a group.

One other feature, particularly typical of Atlantean architecture, remains to be mentioned. This was the common use of a high column at one end of a building. This was the result of religious tradition, as all Atlantean churches were originally in the open air, and when they turned to actual structures, were tall, tapering towers, open to the sky. This was to allow worshippers to commune more closely with the gods. Later, the churches were fully roofed, except for a narrow opening at the top. The feature of a tall tower was adapted and added to secular buildings, initially as a religious feature, for all the inhabitants there would collect at the foot of the tower for prayers at certain times. After about 350, towers were increasingly added to large private mansions as well as public buildings, and architects began to use them as an aesthetic feature, as much as for their religious connotations. In the typical Classical building, this tower, long and tall, as in present-day mosques, was attached to the side of the building. Usually it was entered from the roof of the main building, and a sort of small room joined on to the tower, allowing access into it for a few people, at the level of the main building’s roof. The tower had a small opening at the top, but after 450 or so, it was only actually used for worship by very religious families.

After about 480, that same Romantic movement, which swept through all the arts, also affected architecture. The result was buildings with more decoration and colour, and more flowing lines. Whereas in Classical buildings, everything was symmetrical, with two wings, and a circular, pillared, central entrance, now the wings were often curving, with domes above them. Pillars, which might appear anywhere around the building, were given pointed, rather than round arches after about 510. As Romanticism became more extreme later in the sixth century. Large buildings became increasingly fantastical and "baroque", in the sense of European architecture of our seventeenth century. Domes multiplied and were given pointed tops, and the size of palaces or large mansions grew all the time, surrounded by fantastic landscaped gardens. Similar buildings were also constructed for the perfomance of Total Works of Art, those Romantic amalgamations of music, drama, dance, architecture and landscape, which became so popular in this period. To our eyes, such buildings would appear like imaginary fantasies of Eastern or Indian palaces.

At the same time as these developments for the large buildings of the aristocracy and well-off landowners, the housing of ordinary, Class 3 and 4 people became more utilitarian, with the increasing use of brick, covered with plaster or stucco. Exterior patterning and decoration were also applied liberally over the surfaces of these houses. The first blocks of flats appeared for lower-class citizens, two or three stories high. This style became universal in Republican areas after 590, and the grand architecture of the wealthy was either demolished or abandoned. In Imperialist areas, fantastical Romanticism also disappeared, and was replaced by square, defensive-looking, militarised buildings, forbidding and austere, and made of stone. After the establishment of the Third Empire, the two strands, Republican and Imperialist, coalesced, and produced smaller, softer buildings, made of brick, but with stone or plaster cladding.

We can illustrate the foregoing styles of architecture by looking briefly at the four Imperial Palaces, built between the mid 200s and the mid 500s.

1. The first Palace built for the Emperors was begun by Carel I about 240. It was built on cliffs above the coastline, a couple of miles to the north of the centre of old Atlantis. It was added to and extended by Cao-Melion in the 270s, and this Emperor also laid out some pleasure-grounds behind it. None of these buildings have survived now, even as foundations, and even in Atlantean times, they had been demolished or altered beyond recognition within 3-400 years. The Palace would appear to have have included a number of partly separated, relatively modest buildings, built of a mixture of wood, plaster and stone, in a monumental, bulky style, all with low-pitched roofs. By the time of the Emperors Cao-Thildo I and II (343-352), the Palace must have seemed small and old-fashioned, and it was "made over" in a grander style, which anticipated the Classical architecture of a few decades later. The only other major change to this Palace was made by Atlaniphon II after 420, when he remodelled the gardens in the fashion of the latest landscaping style. It was used to imprison Crehenerex III for a while, after his capture by the Republicans in 588, and later taken over by them as a weapons storehouse. It was used as a last-ditch defence by the Republicans in 630, and was bombarded by the Imperialists, when they recaptured the city at that time. The remains of it were demolished by order of Ruthopheax I soon after.
2. But by this time, Atlantis city had grown so far that it now completely surrounded the Palace and its grounds, and Atlaniphon III, an Emperor fascinated by all the arts, who always preferred to live in the countryside, away from urban life, decided to build a completely new Palace about 8 miles NE of the centre of Atlantis. This - called the "New Palace"- was built by some of the greatest architects of the time in the pure Classical style. We have many reproductions and descriptions of it, and therefore know in some detail what it looked like. It centered on a huge and grand edifice, with the Classical curved centre with dome, and two wings, slanting gentle backwards, with the traditional tower at the end of one of them. There were also many smaller buildings, all set within pseudo-natural landscapes, and surrounding the whole, a large area of countryside, tamed, but with a few early Romantic touches, such as manmade waterfalls. This Palace became the residence of all Emperors when at Atlantis, and the old Palace tended to be given over to Imperial Controllers as offices. The second Palace was changed and improved by Thildo I and Finfon after 478, when further romantic touches were added, such as the extension of the two wings of the main building, so that they curved back round in a sort of bow, and the erection of a second tower at the end of the other wing.

   After the fall of the Second Empire, it was used for a while to imprison Crehonerex III, then taken over for Government use, having been stripped of its "fripperies". During the Third Empire, it was renovated, and used again as a local government centre, and army base to keep an eye on the now closed city of Atlantis. By the time of the Fourth Empire, after 751, it was again refurbished, and eventually made into a tourist attraction as a museum of Atlantean history.

3. The Imperial Palace in Cennatlantis was constructed at the same time as many other government buildings were put up in the city, which was soon destined to become the capital city of the Empire. Atlanicerex oversaw the building, which was placed right in the centre of the new city – this Emperor was much more taken with urban life than some of his predecessors and successors. In style, it was restrainedly Romantic, its outstanding feature being its swaying, curved design. The central part of the building still had two arms or wings, but these now stretched out in this curved way, surmounted by domes, and between them nestled smaller, curved, single-storey buildings, completely separate. The main central section was raised high, and consisted of three stories, while the main wings had two. The whole edifice was surrounded by natural woodland and parkland. The building was not liked by later Emperors, who preferred to live away from city centres, and frequently preferred to reside in large country houses, rather than in Atlanicerex’s Palace. Thildo II, as we shall see, built a new Palace in the country, and Ruthopheax I and II did the same in Third Empire times. Atlanicerex’s Palace was in any case damaged by the Republicans after 590, and during the Third Empire, was patched up, and used as a "town-house" by members of the Imperial family. It was much more seriously damaged, along with many other government buildings, during the siege of Cennatlantis in 745-6, and the uprising of 750. Much of it was thereafter demolished.
4. Thildo II built a fourth great Palace in the country near Gentis after 557. As befitted this megalomaniac man, it was a wildly extravagant affair, in the most extreme Romantic style. It dominated the local countryside, and its main feature was the plethora of pointed domes, of all colours and finishes, which seemed to float above the intricately decorated main buildings. Its interior was intended to be filled with furniture of the most modern designs, but Thildo was overthrown before much of this could be finished. The outside was still incomplete, too, as were the intended landscaped grounds, but the next Emperor, Meison I, refused to live in this Palace, or do anything much more to it. It was left to his successor, Crehonerex III, to lavish more money on the palace, and bring it nearer to its originally envisaged completion. In this turbulent period of the Empire’s history, Crehonerex’s disbursement of large funds of public money on this extravagant building upset and angered many of those opposed to his style of government. It is not, therefore, surprising, that as soon as the Empire was overthrown, and this palace fell into republican hands, it was eagerly looted and completely demolished.

Now I’ll turn right round, and pretend to walk eastwards into the town. I first walk through the oldest part of the town, with small stone or wood built houses, a market, and some ancient temples, and a small, half-ruined castle on a hill. After half a mile, the city opens out, and becomes much grander and wider. I now see monuments, statues, temples, and large houses, all of stone or marble, but still somehow antique in appearance. In fact I know that all this area is still the old city, as it was in the First Empire, although quite a few of the oldest buildings have since been knocked down, and rebuilt more recently. Particularly impressive is the massive statue of the Great Atlaniphon, erected by Atlaniphon II in 420. The main road now splits into two, and first I shall take the Marossaraita, which eventually leads all the way north to Marossan. I see the Great Library of Siphirix ahead, which has been recently refurbished, and looks from the outside like the most modern building. Then to the left, also thanks to Siphirix, is the Great Council edifice itself, where I hope I shall soon be sitting – if only I have passed the tests I took yesterday! This is a strange building to look at – though very impressive, of course -, because the oldest part, now the Council of Nobles, looks small and quaint beside the huge block of the Great Council itself. The part that is now the Council of Nobles was in fact the Great Council in Siphirixo's time, but more recently, it became too cramped, and the magnificent new building was put up by the Great Atlaniphon.