The legend of Atlantis has fascinated people for centuries. Described by ancient Greek philosopher Plato as a powerful island civilisation that vanished overnight in around 9600 BC, it was said to have been swallowed by the sea after devastating earthquakes and floods. While many see it as a cautionary tale, the mystery has inspired endless theories and decades of searching. Could Atlantis still be out there?
Click through this gallery to discover the possible locations of Atlantis, plus other lost cities across the globe...
In 2011, a group of researchers announced they had located the site of Atlantis in the mud flats of Doñana National Park, near Cádiz in southern Spain. The US-led team of archaeologists and geologists used several methods to survey the site: digital mapping, deep-ground radar and underwater technology. This allowed them to discover several 'memorial cities' they believe were built by surviving residents following a tsunami that swept away Atlantis.
Then in 2018, a UK-based team of historians known as Merlin Burrows used satellite imaging to further suggest that this was the famous site. They found a greenish-blue patina on the ruins, which they said aligned with the patina detailed by Plato. However, archaeologists have voiced their scepticism. Ken Feder, a professor of anthropology at Central Connecticut State University, said the research raised alarm bells for a number of reasons – including Merlin Burrows’ decision not to publish it in a peer-reviewed journal.
The Greek island of Santorini has long been connected with Atlantis. It’s been suggested that the Minoan settlement of Akrotiri, which was destroyed by a volcano in around 1500 BC, correlates strongly with the site described by Plato. Indeed, the Minoan community was also wiped out by a volcanic eruption around the same time, in 1613 BC, while several findings at the site have been used as evidence it could be Atlantis.
In May 2022, a documentary on the Discovery Channel reinforced the idea that Akrotiri could be Atlantis. The film focused on artistic items discovered at the site, including paintings which were similar to those described by Plato, as well as an intricate shell found in 2020. The film stated that: “the ruins suggest a highly sophisticated civilisation flourished here for thousands of years before its abrupt end".
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Another Mediterranean location which has long been posited as a possible Atlantis is Malta. One reason for this is that the nation is dotted with stunning temples, much like the storied isle from Plato’s tale. In fact, Malta is home to some of the oldest freestanding structures in the world, suggesting that an advanced ancient civilisation once lived here.
A 2018 documentary claimed that a number of Maltese islands broke away from the mainland after a huge earthquake – it’s thought that these formed the location of the lost city. The idea that Malta could be Atlantis was put forward by Maltese architect Giorgio Grognet in 1854, who spent much of his life trying to prove it, while contemporary authors including Francis Galea and Francis Xavier have published texts supporting the notion.
The Portuguese archipelago of the Azores has been linked with Atlantis ever since the publication of Ignatius Donnelly’s Atlantis: The Antediluvian World in 1882. The author and US congressman argued that Atlantis was once a continent in the mid-Atlantic, which suddenly fell to the sea floor, leaving the forgotten kingdom submerged underwater. However, Donnelly’s thesis has been largely discounted since the discovery of plate tectonics.
In 2019, Portuguese archaeologist Nuno Ribeiro claimed that artwork found on the islands suggests the Azores were man-made and could have been inhabited by an ancient civilisation. The findings, revealed in a 2018 documentary, included a number of burial structures dating back two thousand years – which suggest an advanced civilisation travelled to and colonised these islands. Also in 2018, amateur investigator Blake Cousins claimed he’d found Atlantis in a location near the Azores, by looking at satellite images from Google Earth.
There are several reasons why Agadir, a sun-soaked city on Morocco’s Atlantic Coast, has been connected with Atlantis over the years. Its name is linked with the Phoenician word ‘Gades’, the region Plato said the forgotten metropolis was located. Moreover, it’s in the same country as the Straits of Gibraltar (seen here from above), a likely place for the Pillars of Hercules, which were said to be opposite the ancient settlement.
German computer scientist Michael Hübner proposed that the forgotten city is actually hidden in plain sight on the Moroccan coast. After studying Plato’s texts, he compiled a range of geographical traits and then used a mapping programme to do a statistical analysis, which led him to conclude that Agadir is a potential location for the lost city. The hypothesis is put forward in Mark Adams’ book Meet Me in Atlantis – he describes this as 'the most convincing on paper' out of all the theories.
Never mind a lost city: in the waters around the island nation of Mauritius, scientists think they’ve discovered a whole forgotten continent. The landmass, which has been named Mauritia by geologists, was formed by the breakup of the Gondwanaland mega-continent, which existed some 200 million years ago. According to authors of the paper, which was published in Nature Communications, there are several pieces of this undiscovered continent scattered across the Indian Ocean.
The discovery was made after analysing volcanic rocks around Mauritius, which were far older than the island nation: Mauritius is around nine million years old while the fragments they discovered dated back three billion years. The researchers say their results show 'the existence of ancient continental crust beneath Mauritius'.
Often referred to as Yorkshire’s Atlantis, Ravenser Odd is a medieval town which is believed to have sank off the coast of East Yorkshire. The settlement was built on sandbanks at the mouth of the Humber estuary in 1235 and was a thriving trading port, home to more than 400 houses. It also had a sea wall, harbour, marketplace and prison, according to historical records.
So what became of this once-prosperous town? It declined slowly over time from the beginning of the 14th century, due to being eroded and regularly flooded. It was then completely abandoned following a major storm in 1362, which caused it to become engulfed by the ocean. But in 2022, researchers at the University of Hull announced they thought they were close to locating the lost settlement – which could have wide-reaching impacts on our understanding of the region’s past.
Some 2,300 years ago, Thonis-Heracleion was one of the world’s greatest port cities, controlling all trade into Egypt. But at the end of the 2nd century BC, it’s thought that the prosperous settlement suddenly collapsed into the water – either due to an earthquake or severe flood, although no one quite knows for sure. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that a group of divers began to uncover artefacts which revealed secrets about the former site.
India’s answer to Atlantis is the submerged ancient city of Dwarka, which is thought to be located near the modern-day coastal town of the same name. One of seven holy pilgrimage sites in India, it was referred to in the Mahabharata (an epic Sanskrit poem of ancient India) as the kingdom of Krishna and is believed to have sunk underwater around 3,500 years ago.
The Hindu god Krishna is said to have lived here for more than one hundred years, and it is written that when he left Earth to join the spiritual world, Dwarka was claimed by the ocean. In the latter half of the 20th century a number of excavations have revealed intriguing artefacts around the site. These include distinctive pottery which dates back 3,000 years, as well as the remainder of fortifications on which city walls may have once stood.
One of three islands formerly known as the Arginusae Islands, Kane was a city which served as the site for a battle between Sparta and Athens during the Peloponnesian War in 406 BC. Although its existence has been known about for thousands of years, it’s never been found – yet a team of geologists and archaeologists believe they may have discovered it.
The researchers drilled underground to find that the former island is now part of a peninsula, connected to the mainland by deposits of soil and rock. They also found remnants of pottery, buildings and other artefacts which helped them identify the lost island. The scientists intend to use carbon dating to figure out how the landmass became joined to the mainland. Pictured here is Bademli Bay, near where the purported island once stood.
Cantre’r Gwaelod is Wales’ answer to Atlantis: a lost land thought to be located 20 miles (32km) west of Cardigan Bay, which has been immortalised in Welsh folklore for more than 800 years. One version of the legend states that the site was protected against the sea by a dyke which two princes guarded, but one of them got drunk and let water in through the floodgates, so the kingdom was drowned. Another version suggests that a maiden who was in charge of the floodgates became distracted by a suitor.
However, there has been little evidence for the existence of the site – until recently. In August 2022, it was reported that a medieval map had been discovered by academics which may prove that there is some historical basis behind the legend. The discovery was made by professors Simon Haslett and David Willis, who found that the two islands were clearly marked on the 13th-century Gough Map, an artefact held at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. They said that it clearly showed two islands, each around a quarter of the size of Anglesey, off the coast of Cardigan Bay.
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