Chapter IX: The Current Search For Atlantis

The information I am going to present used as a source newspapers, magazines, and associations.

While some of our scientists are purposely looking for Atlantis, others just seem to run into 'interesting formations'. Even though they first claim not to be interested in the Plato's sunk city, one can read beyond the lines and understand that what they are really hoping for is to find Atlantis, in a struck of luck.

I bet that any scientist would like to have his/her name bound to Atlantis, just like Schliemann had his bound to the legendary city of Troy.

 

1997-1998: UK, Cornwall

(BBC News: December 29, 1997)

A Russian team from the Moscow Institute of Meta-History is looking for Atlantis 100 miles off Land's End, off the south-west coast of England.

After re-reading the Greek texts, the team focused on this site, located at the edge of the Celtic Shelf. Before the Ice Age, the area was above sea level.

They are also basing their research on the Cornish myth of Lyonesse, the City of Lions, that reportedly was located between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

It is also known that Land's End thrives with ancient sites, stone circles, huge dolmens, chamber tombs, standing stones, and megalithic structures.

 

1997-1998: Bolivia, South America

(BBC News: December 29, 1997)

A British team is looking for Atlantis in Bolivia, under a lake. The research presumably started in March 1998. Colonel John Blashford-Snell, one of the British explorer, declared, according to BBC News, that here is enough evidence in Plato's work to justify a search in Bolivia.

By using satellite mapping technologies to analyze the topography in Bolivia, they found striking resemblances between the area and the Plato's sunk land.

2000-2002: Cabo de San Antonio, Guanahacabibes Peninsula, Bahamas

(BBC News: December 7, 2001; National Geographic: May 28, 2002)

The search for treasure-laden Spanish ships in Bahamas turned into a more exciting discovery.

In 2000, explorers working off the western coast of Cuba claim they've found the ruins of a submerged city, built thousands of years ago. Using sonar equipment, the Canadian firm Advanced Digital Company discovered and filmed stone structures at about 1,900 to 2,500 feet (600 to 750 meters) underwater. The images brought by the explorative robot showed huge, smooth blocks with the appearance of cut granite. Some were built in pyramid shapes, others were circular. The initial evaluation of the age of the stones was believed to be around 4,000 BC.

The director of research at Cuba's natural History Museum, geologist Manuel Iturralde, declared about the ruins: "If I had to explain this geologically, I would have a hard time." However, he also adds: "Nature is able to create some really unimaginable structures."

If the discovery proves to be a sunk city indeed, the oral and written traditions of Maya, who described an old  land being swallowed by the sea, might gain new interest in the scholar's view .

A deeper investigation was to start in January 2002. The first step would be toward determining the origin of these curious structures.

 

2002: Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, South India

(National Geographic: May 28, 2002)

Local lore had long mentioned the existence of seven magnificent temples in the area, however six of them were submerged, when the angry gods sent a flood. The seventh temple still stands on the shore.

Graham Hancock, a best-selling author, had long been researching these myths. On his exploration to find the underwater city, he was sponsored by Great Britain's Scientific Exploration Society (SES) and India's National Institute of Oceanography.

Following the directions of the local fishermen, the team led by Monty Halls discovered underwater structures off the shore. He says the scale of the site, covering an area of several square miles, was impressive and the site was very close to the shore. "The initial feeling was one of disbelief."

The marine archeologist Kamlesh Vora declared that they've found "foundations of walls, broken pillars, steps, and many scattered stone blocks. The structures are made of granite stone, which is locally available." The stones lie 20 feet under the sea.

"Here man was everywhere," Halls says.

The ruins were believed to be constructed 1,500 to 1,200 years ago.

The research continued.

On February 26, 2005, the new team announced the findings of ancient relics 50 km away from Mahabalipuram. A silted up Pallava sculpture was recovered, after the water receded following the December 26 tsunami. Piece of pottery were also revealed, and the divers discovered underwater structures, like temples.

A joint team of the Indian Navy and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) carried out the offshore and onshore explorations.

"There were some more structures, some more temples. A part off these temples was also extending in the sea. And there are also submerged structures offshore. Now some of the structures, which were recorded and documented earlier are at present buried under the sand cover so we could not trace them but we know where they are," said Alok Tripathi, Director General, ASI.

 

2002:  Spartel Island, Strait of Gibraltar

(National Geographic: January 4, 2002; BBC News: October 30, 2003 )

The expedition is led by French geologist and pre-historian, Jacques Collina - Girard, helped by the leaders of the team that found the Titanic, George Tulloch and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Left picture source: Geological Society

Prof. Collina-Girard claims that Atlantis is to be found in the Strait of Gibraltar and, more likely, was a small mid-channel island. He examined the patterns of human migration from Europe into North Africa 19,000 years ago and built a map to understand the look of the coastlines back then. Oceanography, by studying the records from coral reefs, showed that the sea level was 422 feet (130 meters) lower than today and then the rise in the sea level accelerated to 12 feet (3.7 meters) per century. An island was revealed to have laid before the Pillars of Hercules but it must have sunk 11,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age.

Back then, the sea swallowed six other islands, all at the western end of the Strait and a bit further west. They were framing 'an inland sea', a part of the Atlantic, just like Plato had said. Also, beyond the islands, one could reach the big continent. Today these lands are shoals, and can be located along the coast of Morocco and Spain, at 175 - 410 feet (53 - 123 meters) underwater. However, Prof Collina - Girard is not implying a disaster that has wiped out the island, but he blames the submerged land on the slow rising waters after the ice melted.

Searches were going on about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Tarifa (Spain), and 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Tangier (Morocco). The professor calculated the waters to have raised at a pace of 8 feet (2.4 meters) per century, during Atlantis's last 300 years.

As for the destruction of Atlantis by a volcanic eruption, the area is not volcanic at all and the data don't fit Plato's account. We might overlook the volcanic eruption though, since the Greeks were familiar with them and this part of the Atlantis's story might have been only an embellishment.

Also, the island was supposed to be the size of Libya and Asia combined, but Spartel was only 8.75 miles (14 kilometers) long and 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide. However, Prof. Collina-Girard says that Plato's story simply doesn't square with the geological evidence.

In the fall of 2001, Prof. Collina - Girard published his work in the French journal, Comptes Rendus de l'Academie de Sciences (Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences).

The project spokesman James McCallum said they'd identified an area that could have been the island's harbor. In July 2004, a two-man submersible captained by Paul-Henri Nargeolet will investigate the submerged land. However, as they declared, they won't be searching for temples and majestic underwater structures, as Plato had described Atlantis, but for tools, weapons, or even walls.

 

2004: Marisma de Hinojos, Spain

(BBC News: June 6, 2004; Discovery News: June 8, 2004)

Scientist Dr. Rainer Kühne, from the University of Wuppertal in Germany, claims he has found Atlantis in a salt marsh region called Marisma de Hinojos, near the port of Cadiz, off the southern Spanish coast. The place was destroyed by a flood between 800 BC and 500 BC.

The satellite images used for the investigation show relics of an ancient place. The photos match the description of Atlantis as told by Plato. They even show remains of what may once have been concentric rings surrounding two rectangular buildings hidden in the mud. Plato mentioned the rings being made of earth and water. As for the rectangular-shaped forms, Dr. Kühne thinks they might be the temples Plato depicted. The sizes seem to match, even if a bit larger with 20%: both the diameter of the largest circle and the diameter of the island.

Plato also mentions a plain, rectangular, smooth and even, that was surrounded by mountains that reached to the sea. The plain might be the one stretching between Spain's southern coast and Seville, as for the mountains, they could be Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada.

After a study, Kühne reached the conclusion that the Sea People who attacked the Mediterranean countries (like Egypt) during 1200 BC might be the Atlanteans.

Another resemblance with Plato's story comes from the land being rich in copper, and Sierra Morena has mines of copper.

According to the online version of the journal Antiquity, the research continues.

 

2004: Cyprus and Syria

(BBC News: November 15, 2004; Discovery Channel: November 15,2004)

U.S. researcher Robert Sarmast and his team spent six days scanning the Mediterranean seabed, between Cyprus and Syria.

The possible manmade straight walls, having a length of 1.25 mile (2 kilometers) were detected by their sonar at 1.5 kilometers below sea level. The site is found 80 kilometers off the southern part of Greece. The wall discovered seemed to be sited on a flat-topped hill, just like in Plato's account. "The dimensions are exactly perfect," Mr Sarmast said.

The team plans on making a three-dimensional computer map of the site, before they return for further research.

 

2004: Spain and Ireland

(National Geographic: August 19, 2004; Reuters)

Ulf Erlingsson, a Swedish geographer, the author of Atlantis From a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land, believes that what Plato did was to combine elements belonging to Western Europe and North Africa. Both places bear monoliths. So Erlingsson studied the biggest 50 islands on earth and came to the conclusion that Ireland may be what Plato was actually calling Atlantis. The megalithic structures found in these areas date back to 3,000 BC, so Plato might have as well referred to them when mentioning temples and palaces.

(Hill of Tara, Ireland, on the far right. It is best known as the seat of the High Kings of Ireland and has been an important site since the late Stone Age when a passage-tomb was constructed here. Next to it, Newgrange - Courtesy of www.usm.maine.edu)

Ireland is an island that, just as Plato has described, has an open plain that opens to the sea and is surrounded by mountains, and Ireland's size matches the Atlantis's measures: "Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles [480 kilometers] long, 200 miles [320 kilometers] wide."

While Erlingsson tells that Plato's Atlantis is an utopia, he supports the idea that the actual description of Atlantis's geographical data  is based on a real island. He claims that he has calculated and he is sure that Atlantis is based on Ireland. Besides, nearby Dogger Bank, the island was struck by a tidal wave in 6,100 BC.

The hill where Cleito was born resembles Tara, which is the legendary seat of the high king of Ireland, while the palace of Poseidon resembles Newgrange.