The fabled lost city of Atlantis may lie in a salt marsh region off Spain's southern coast, according to a German researcher.

His study, which is reported online by the archaeology journal Antiquity and has not yet been peer-reviewed by archaeologists, is based on the analysis of satellite images.

They show ancient ruins that the author says appear to match descriptions by the Greek scholar Plato.


Satellite Image of Purported Atlantis Site
In this satellite photo, parts of the ancient temples of Atlantis can be seen around the ring-like structures near the center of the image, says an archaeologist.


The structures resemble two rectangular buildings and are hidden in a muddy region known as Marisma de Hinojos, near the port of Cadiz.

The study's author Rainer Kühne, of the University of Wuppertal in Germany, said descriptions of Atlantis as an island simply referred to this part of Spain, destroyed by a flood between 800 and 500 BC.

Kühne's theory is supported by the presence of the two rectangular features that match temple depictions in Plato's dialogues Critias and Timaios.

Associate Professor Tony Wilkinson, a U.K. expert in applications of remote sensing in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, described the structures visible in the satellite pictures as "interesting".

One feature, 230 meters long and 140 meters wide, could be a "silver" temple dedicated to the sea god Poseidon; the other, somewhat "quadratic" structure, measuring 280 meters by 240 meters, could be a "golden" temple devoted to Cleito and Poseidon.

Kühne said the structures agreed with Plato's description of the temples.

"These rectangular structures are surrounded by concentric circles. This agrees with Plato's description that the temples were surrounded by concentric circles of water and earth. Even the sizes are correct. According to Plato, the diameter of the largest circle was 27 stades, ie 5 kilometers. In the satellite photos, the diameter of the largest circle is between five and six kilometres," Kühne said.

Atlantis has piqued the imagination of scholars ever since Plato first mentioned it in about 360 BC.

In his account, the Greek scholar told of a city placed in front of the Pillars of Hercules, now the Strait of Gibraltar, which flourished for more than 9000 years. It was destroyed by the gods when its people became prone to sin and corruption.


Plato said Atlantis had concentric circles of water and earth, which Kühne said matched the concentric circles in the satellite images (Image: Rainer Kühne)
Legend has it the entire city was swallowed by the sea within a day and a night under the onslaught of an earthquake and subsequent tidal wave.

For centuries scholars and explorers have searched for it. The lost city of concentric rings of water and lands has been "found" in Sweden, Palestine, Central Asia, Crete, Carthage, Mexico and Antarctica.

One recent theory equates Atlantis with Spartel Island, which sank to the bottom of the sea 11,000 years ago. The island, just to the west of the Strait of Gibraltar, lies only 120 kilometres from the rectangular structures that Kühne spotted.

According to Plato, the Atlantean capital was placed about nine kilometres from the sea on the edge of a rectangular, smooth and even plain surrounded by mountains that reached to the sea. Apart from this, the country was very high and had a steep coastline.

"Near Cadiz there is a rectangular, smooth and even plain which lies at a south coast. It is the plain south-west of Seville through which the Guadalquivir [river] flows," Kühne said.

The mountains described by Plato would then be the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada.

Kühne noticed that the war between Atlantis and the eastern Mediterranean countries described in Plato's writings strongly resembled that of mysterious raiders known as the Sea People around 1200 BC.

The Atlanteans and the Sea People would then be the same, according to the German scientist.

"If the capital of Atlantis indeed existed near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, then we suggest that Plato's Atlantis tale is based upon an Egyptian report on the Sea Peoples and some Greek tradition on the Athens of that time."

The report on the Atlantean city and state may refer to a Spanish city, possibly identical with Tartessos, which was probably destroyed by Carthaginians during the 6th century BC," Kühne said.

Very interesting
Hope this means the good Dr doesn't have to re-write Atlantis Found :lol:

Seems interesting enough for me...
hopefully it is Atlantis that would be sooo cool B)

Sounds exciting to me! But I am "surprised" that Clive Cussler actually feels that Plato made up the story about Atlantis.

I came across this interview at:

http://www.raisethetitanic.com
/novel/misc_wp/interviews/yahoo_chat_12151999.html

Yahoo! Chat December 15, 1999

gdwtch_1999 asks: Do you feel that finding Atlantis will answer questions about the mystery or create more questions?
author_clive_cussler: Atlantis will never be found.
author_clive_cussler: Because it never existed.
author_clive_cussler: Plato wrote Atlantis just like I write fiction myself.
author_clive_cussler: I believe it's pure fiction.
author_clive_cussler: Geologically there's no continent that could have sunk in the middle of the Atlantic.
author_clive_cussler: Edward Casey, the psychic, said it was in the Caribbean.
author_clive_cussler: It can't be.
author_clive_cussler: If there was an earlier civilization in the Caribbean, something would have been found.
author_clive_cussler: I don't think Atlantis ever existed, Plato just made it up like I make up my stories.

And he made the same sentiment in Atlantis Found (24)!

That is some exciting information Tony...

Cool interview Helene th:

Good article!! I wonder what all the skeptics will say if they discover Atlantis?

Color me skeptical, but I got this one from a friend of mine the other day.



Fri Aug 6,11:52 AM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Kevin Smith

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.


Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 BC, was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.


Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography, and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.


"I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it's incredible," he told Reuters.


"Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest across the middle. They both have a central plain surrounded by mountains.


"I've looked at geographical data from the rest of the world and of the 50 largest islands there is only one that has a plain in the middle -- Ireland."


Erlingsson believes the idea that Atlantis sank came from the fate of Dogger Bank, an isolated shoal in the North Sea, about 60 miles off the northeastern coast of England, which sank after being hit by a huge floodwave around 6,100 BC.


"I suspect that myth came from Ireland and it derives from Dogger Bank. I think the memory of Dogger Bank was probably preserved in Ireland for around 3,000 years and became mixed up with the story of Atlantis," he said.


Erlingsson links the boundaries of the Atlantic Empire, as outlined by Plato, with the geographic distribution of megalithic monuments in Europe and Northern Africa, matching Atlantis' temples with well-known burial sites at Newgrange and Knowth, north of Dublin, which pre-date the pyramids.


His book, "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land," calculates the probability Plato would have had access to geographical data about Ireland as 99.98 percent.


Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores islands 900 miles west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean sea. Others locate it solely in the long-decayed brain of Plato.

det: Interesting

I read the Ireland article a few days ago too, looks convincing...

what about the man made road thats underwater that's southeast of florida. and all the anomalies and disappearances that occur there. :lol:

Well I read everything very interesting. However, archolgy is not my line of work but good luck to those that go after it. I hope they don't get a second mortage to find it. Big bust.


has anyone heard about some guys that supposedly found noahs ark by satellite and were going to look for it this summer? Hot rumor I heard no details though.

I understand that everyone who reads this section has an interest in the Lost City of Atlantis, but I am soliciting serious request for information regarding another site that I recently learned of and currently researching into that though, is similar to Atlantis has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, not many people have ever heard of this place and those who have, disregard it, and for a very good reason. (according to my research) Of the few scientist that have given this area notice, very few has given it any merit, and most scientist disregard it as a natural formation.
However, after further investigation, I have learned not just of this site, but others like it around the first spot spanning a distance of roughly 800-1000 square miles.
The major factor in the authenticity of the site lies not with the site itself but with the age of the site. Unfortunately dating the site itself is next to impossible because of the location. Which presents a large problem that ties into the answer to the first.

Does anyone have any good sources on Atlantis?

Like for instance, Plato, in what works did he write it, and where could I get a copy of that.

Trying to work on the flood aspect of the legend.

Not only does the "west" have its legends of Atlantis, but Southeast Asia (Orient) has its own legends of a similar place that sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago.

Though Atlantis itself is more than likely not a real place, there is evidence that supports a cataclysmic Flood* that happened sometime shortly after the last Ice Age (roughly 10,000-12,000 years ago)

*Please note that after the last Ice Age the Earth was changing and the ocean was still settling, so this Flood could have lasted over the course of a 100-1000 years; or it might have lasted 40 days and 40 nights. These are only theories. Please take these statements witha grain of salt.