Will We Ever Find Atlantis? | Explain

Will We Ever Find Atlantis? | Explain

 For thousands of years, one of the most enduring tales from Ancient Greece has been that of Atlantis, the legendary civilization somewhere at the bottom of the sea. There have been plenty of theories on it,some seemingly backed up by archaeological evidence around the world, while some even claim that the city could be thriving to this day. This is theWorldOinfo, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; will we ever discover the city of Atlantis? Are you a fiend for facts? Are you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to theWorldOinfo for more Articles like this one? for more fascinating content! The Atlantis legend owes its life to the Greekphilosopher Plato, who wrote about it in his dialogues, including in “Critias' ' and“Timaeus' '. Plato says that Atlantis was a great city overseen by Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, and the Atlanteans were the most remarkable people in the Greek world. However, they gradually got drunk on pride and self-confidence, so their city grew corrupt and debased. Though Plato’s explanation of exactly what happened to Atlantis has unfortunately (and somewhat frustratingly) been lost, it's said that it was Zeus who sent this once great city to the seafloor, as punishment. Plato dates this momentous event as having happened roughly nine thousand years before he was writing, and the dialogues themselves are around 2,500 years old. So, we’re talking truly ancient history…but the story of Atlantis was never really intended to be taken literally. Throughout the many centuries since Plato’stime, it has always stood as an allegory to show the perils of vanity and self-importance,and as a warning to remind people not to cross the gods. Today, the fact that Atlantis is sometimes billed as a historical legend rather than a totally fantastical story is due in large part to the work of Ignatius L. Donnelly, an American Congressman in the nineteenth century. He wrote “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World'',in which he claimed that Plato’s city was based on truth. Donnelly’s writings have since been widely dismissed as pseudoscience, but that hasn’t stopped the general idea of Atlantis existing,waiting to be discovered somewhere, from taking hold. One of the darkest and more unfortunate aspectsof it was that it was at one time championed by the Thule Society, a German collectivewhich eventually came to be hugely influential in the Nazi Party. Some of them reportedly believed that theAryan race was superior because they were descended from Atlanteans… while both AdolfHitler and Heinrich Himmler were famously interested in occult archaeology,including in Atlantis. But the Atlantis story has captured attention in far less dangerous ways, too, and there are many credible historians who also believe there may be a kernel of truth to it - with some linking it to the ancient Minoan civilization. A Bronze Age society existing between circa2,700 BC up to 1,100 BC, the Minoans lived primarily on the island today known as Crete,but they had settlements elsewhere in the Aegean Sea, too. Quite why the Minoan civilization eventually fell is still a matter of debate, but it’s widely believed that the eruption of Thera In roughly the sixteenth century BC was either wholly or partly to blame. Thera, or Santorini as it’s known today,is a volcanic island and caldera, and its ancient eruption is thought to have been one of the biggest in human history - dealing a blow to the Minoans that they simply never recovered from. Considering that, in Ancient Greek stories,the wrath of Zeus is often itself depicted as “fire and earthquakes'', the similarities between what might’ve been inflicted on Atlantis and the Thera eruption are perhaps easy to see. If what happened to Atlantis is partly based on the fate of the Minoans, then, it means that we might, in fact, have already found the city. Or, at least something very much like it. One of the grandest ruins in all of Europe Is Knossos, a vast archaeological site on Crete thought to have once been the hub ofMinoan culture. Though the ruins have existed for thousands of years, they weren’t discovered until the late nineteenth century – just a few years before Ignatius Donnelly wrote his book expanding on the Atlantis legend. It took decades to fully excavate Knossos,though, due to Cretan civil wars and then World War One. But this didn’t stop it from eventually becoming one of Europe’s most important archaeological sites; a remnant of the first advanced society on the continent. So much so that, if Atlantis were discovered today and it turned out to be another Minoan ruin, it’s possible that it actually wouldn't live up to Knossos; that it would be less impressive, and offer less insight. But, crucially, Knossos isn’t underwater. And it’s that which truly keeps our interesting Atlantis going. Many modern searches have turned their attention to the Strait of Gibraltar, thanks to Plato’s fairly vague direction that Atlantis was “beyond the Pillars of Hercules” - on either side of the Strait. However, while the northern “Pillar” is today known as the distinctive Rock of Gibraltar, the southern “Pillar” has never been conclusively identified, let alone anyone finding an underwater city anywhere “beyond” them. There are plenty of other candidates for theAtlantis myth, though, including from within Ancient Greece itself. Pavlopetri is an underwater lost city, off the coast of Laconia. It’s thought to be around 5,000 years old;it currently consists of at least fifteen buildings all submerged in relatively shallow water; and it’s believed to have been destroyed somewhere around the tenth century BC by a series of earthquakes. Pavlopetri has been called the basis for theAtlantis story by many, and is today protected as “underwater cultural heritage” by UNESCO. Its discovery in 1967 was undoubtedly exciting,but it wasn’t fully mapped and explored until the early twenty-first century, when robots were used to trawl the ruins. Even if Pavlopetri isn’t Atlantis, it's arguably the closest thing we have to it, helping to shape our general picture of whatAtlantis would look like. Elsewhere, some of the most ancient ruins in the world also already exist underwater. Atlit Yam, for example, is a Neolithic village off the coast of Israel, which originally stood 8,300 years ago. And then there’s what’s sometimes called“China’s Atlantis”; the city of Shi Cheng, or Lion City, which was submerged on purpose in 1959 to create a reservoir. Today, tourists can visit Qiandao Lake, beneath which much of the 2,000 year-old Shi Cheng has been near-perfectly preserved and is now open for diving expeditions. Clearly, something like Shi Cheng could never be a contender for Atlantis, given that we know precisely when and why it was flooded over, but sites like these still show how historic buildings change and disintegrate underwater - further influencing what we imagine Atlantis to be. Of course, not one of the many underwater ruins on Earth is populated by anything other than fish and sea creatures. And until we find such a place - a fantasy civilization supporting Atlantean merpeople (or something similar) - the legend of Atlantis Is sure to roll on. As we’ve already proven with sites likePavlopetri, confidently identifying any sunken ruin, placing it at any specific point in time, is no mean feat. So, we may never be absolutely certain that any newly found archaeological site is the source of Plato’s inspiration. Add into the equation that the ocean is vast and famously unexplored, and there are no doubt many more ruins, sites of interests,and even shipwrecks to uncover far beneath the waves - which could one day lead us to the ultimate in underwater finds. And, if the Atlantis legend ever were given a real-world location, it would move from being a fictitious land to a genuine ancient civilization - becoming a must-see site for anyone interested in Greek and Early history. But, until then, the search goes on, with varying degrees of confidence that anything will ever be found. Perhaps Atlantis really is just a story passed down through the ages… but if any elements of it are true then there’s an incredible archaeological discovery still to be made, and the race is on to make it! What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other articles from theWorldOinfo, and make sure you subscribe for our latest content.