By Dan Satherley
Debates have raged for over 2000 years whether the famed lost city of Atlantis was located, or if it even existed.
It has been 'found' several times, in places as far-flung as the Black Sea, the Canary Islands and Antarctica, but no one has ever found the smoking gun that would put it beyond doubt.
Perhaps until now.
The National Geographic Channel is set to screen a documentary, Finding Atlantis, in which a team of archaeologists will announce the discovery of a buried town in western Spain they believe could be the sunken city Greek philosopher Plato spoke of in the fourth century BC.
Over the last two years Dona Ana Park, north of Cadiz, has been analysed with radar, digital mapping and other technological tools, revealing a submerged city, built in the multi-ringed, concentric pattern Plato described.
"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archaeology, that makes a lot more sense," says team leader Prof Richard Freund of the University of Hartford.
What makes the site different though is that not only is it located just past the 'The Pillars of Hercules, believed to be the Strait of Gibraltar, where Plato said it would be; but it was apparently destroyed by a tsunami.
According to Plato (who claimed the story of Atlantis came from Solon, who got it from the Egyptians), Atlantis sank "in a single day and night", a fair explanation for an ancient tidal wave. Lisbon, on the west coast of neighbouring Portugal, north of Dona Ana Park, was hit by an earthquake and 20m tsunami in 1755, so it is not unheard of in the area.
The newly-discovered ruins are accompanied by a layer of methane, which is unusual, and according to Prof Freund, an important piece of the puzzle.
“Finding this one layer of methane is a very telltale sign of a society that is destroyed in one fell swoop," he told Reuters. "This was in the middle of nowhere, and there was no methane layer found in the area except where we were working.”
Evidence of smaller 'memorial' towns built in Atlantis' image further inland is the "twist" Prof Freund believes is the smoking gun. Atlanteans who fled the tsunami would have created new towns in the image of their ruined city, the team hypothesise.
"There are more than 100 of them, and they come from all different places in the area," says Prof Freund. "In crime, you follow the money. In archaeology, you follow the stones."
Several different locations have been mooted as the true Atlantis over the years. The most popular and perhaps best candidate to date has been the island of Thera, which suffered a massive volcanic eruption around the 16th century BC, sending a devastating tsunami towards Crete almost wiping out the Minoan civilisation.
Other researchers have pinpointed Sicily, Turkey, Malta, Britain, Cuba, Mexico and even Antarctica.
Prof Freund admits that no matter how much evidence they gather that Dona Ana Park does sit atop the real Atlantis, not everyone will be convinced.
"It's never like finding the Titanic. It's never like finding Tutankhamun's tomb. That's the way, in the best of all circumstances, that you find something intact.
"You'll not be able to convince all the people all the time."
The documentary airs later today (NZ time).
3 News
source: newshub archive
