Atlantis is easily one of history’s most captivating legends and greatest unsolved mysteries. Countless researchers, historians, and scientists have dedicated their entire lives trying to find it or simply uncover evidence of its existence. Throughout history, our perception of Atlantis has evolved from generation to generation. Many people today believe Atlantis represented an ideal, peaceful society—despite the fact that the Atlantis described by Plato in his works was anything but peaceful or ideal.
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The Origins of the Atlantis Legend
The first historical mention of Atlantis appeared in the works of Greek philosopher Plato, specifically in his dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias,” written around 360 BCE. In these texts, Plato recounted a story supposedly passed down from one of his ancestors who had traveled to Egypt and spoken with priests there. These priests told him about the great island of Atlantis that had existed some 11,000 years earlier.
Plato described Atlantis as a massive continental island located roughly in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Their civilization experienced tremendous advancement and prosperity, excelling in virtually every field. The inhabitants possessed technologies far ahead of their time and were characterized by their strength, wisdom, and nobility—not to mention their extreme wealth resulting from the island’s abundant natural resources.
The island served as the primary trading hub for the entire region and boasted an exceptional military force powered by their advanced technology. However, as time passed, arrogance and pride consumed both rulers and citizens. They began to covet control over the entire world, transforming Atlantis from a symbol of advanced civilization into an emblem of tyranny and greed.
With their formidable power, they managed to conquer vast areas across different continents, imposing their dominion over parts of Africa and Europe. This continued until the morally superior Athenians (according to Plato’s description) united to oppose Atlantis’s might and tyranny. Impressed by the Athenians’ courage and disgusted by Atlantean greed, the Greek gods allegedly took revenge by destroying the island, sinking it completely. The island, along with its civilization and people, vanished forever—remaining a lost civilization without a trace to this day.
Legend or Reality?
The big question remains: Did Atlantis actually exist, or is it merely fiction?
Throughout history, many philosophers, researchers, and historians viewed Atlantis as a symbolic tale representing the pride and greed that possessed Atlantis’s people and rulers—a direct contrast to the idealized Athenian society that successfully halted the Atlantean forces and saved the world. In essence, the story seems designed to glorify the Greeks rather than focus on Atlantean civilization or history. After all, it’s difficult to believe that an entire continental island with all its people and their advanced civilization could vanish instantaneously without leaving any trace.
Atlantis remained a fictional legend and metaphorical story until the late 19th century, when a new idea emerged suggesting that the disappearance of an entire island might have a perfectly logical explanation—that natural disasters could indeed wipe a civilization completely off the face of the earth.
The Rise of Scientific Interest
The first person to propose this idea was American writer and politician Ignatius Donnelly. In his work, he discussed the possibility that Atlantis actually sank and disappeared due to floods, presenting historical evidence of ancient civilizations like Atlantis that also vanished due to natural disasters. He pointed to examples like the eruption of the Thera volcano on the Greek island of Santorini in the second millennium BCE, which triggered an earthquake and tsunami waves that completely destroyed the Minoan civilization.
While Donnelly’s general perspective that the island might have disappeared due to a natural disaster seemed reasonable, he went too far with his theories. He claimed that all ancient civilizations descended from Atlantis and that all major achievements of ancient civilizations—whether language, agriculture, art, architecture, or industry—originated from the Atlantean people after they reached Europe and Africa and spread their knowledge and progress at a time when the rest of the world’s peoples were essentially primitive. Naturally, such claims are difficult to accept rationally.
Following the tremendous success of Donnelly’s book, numerous other books emerged with various theories about the lost civilization. However, recently, some evidence has surfaced that certain individuals are using to try to prove that Atlantis was real, not just a symbol.
Modern Discoveries and Theories
In January 2015, a team of marine archaeologists made a strange discovery while examining a 2,500-year-old shipwreck near Sicily in the Mediterranean. They found 39 ingots of a strange red metal. After this discovery, Italian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa stated that the discovered metal was the one used in the famous currency known as “orichalcum,” which, according to Plato’s works, was mined on Atlantis itself and considered second in value only to gold—one of the sources of Atlantis’s wealth.
Another piece of evidence cited by those who believe in Atlantis’s existence addresses the skeptics’ argument that it’s impossible for an entire continent to sink and disappear underwater. The response points to how continents in ancient times could indeed split and sink, like the continent of Zealandia, which was recently discovered to have separated from Australia 60-85 million years ago. In fact, a massive plateau has been detected beneath the Atlantic Ocean waters in the area where Atlantis is believed to have been located—though this isn’t sufficient evidence that it’s part of the lost Atlantis, especially since no traces of any civilization have been found there.
The Fate of the Atlantean People
Speaking of civilization and peoples, what became of the Atlantean people after the island sank? According to Plato, all Atlanteans died and drowned with the island. However, French researcher Brasseur de Bourbourg asserted that a group survived the island’s sinking and fled toward the Americas, where they established a new civilization later known as the Maya civilization. Of course, these are just theories without concrete evidence.
Where Was Atlantis Located?
Researchers and historians throughout history have disagreed on the location of the lost continental island. According to Plato’s description, the island was in the Atlantic Ocean, where the volcanic Azores Islands are currently located. When the Portuguese discovered these islands in 1427, they were uninhabited but contained buried artifacts suggesting the islands had been discovered thousands of years earlier.
The ingots found in 2015 near Sicily sparked a new theory about the lost city’s location because some researchers believe the orichalcum currency was actually a mixture of copper and gold developed in the Andes Mountains of South America. Plato’s description of Atlantis geographically matches a volcanic island that sank there, specifically in Lake Poopó in western Bolivia, potentially making this the sought-after location of Atlantis Island.
Another theory connects the Minoan civilization with Atlantis. The idea they rely on is that Plato presented the story from a purely Greek perspective. A different translation of Plato’s story states that the lost city was located near Egypt, specifically in the Mediterranean Sea. When we focus on the history of the Minoan civilization, we find that it reflects the civilization of the lost island in one way or another, especially since the Minoan civilization is known to have possessed advanced technology that surpassed all the technology reached by Greek civilization. Among the ruins after the Thera volcano eruption, a mural depicting a natural landscape of an island in the middle of a large lake was found, closely resembling Plato’s description of Atlantis Island.
The Mystery Continues
Despite extensive research, theories, and books discussing the idea of the lost Atlantis, there is still no strong evidence confirming or denying the existence of the legendary continent. Nevertheless, believers in the reality of Atlantis refuse to give up and continue their journey in search of the lost Atlantis.
The allure of Atlantis endures precisely because it sits in that tantalizing space between myth and potential reality. Whether it was a real place that suffered a catastrophic fate or simply a philosophical teaching tool invented by Plato, the legend continues to capture our imagination and drive exploration. Perhaps that’s the true power of Atlantis—not as a physical place, but as an enduring symbol of humanity’s quest to uncover the mysteries of our past.
What do you think? Was Atlantis real, or just an elaborate myth with a moral lesson? The search continues, but the mystery of this legendary lost civilization remains one of history’s most enduring enigmas.
