Does Atlantis really existed?

Question

We all have heard about Atlantis, at least some have.. does it really existed? is Plato the one that says it existed? if not who did? any existing proofs? what all facts is there about is existence?

Answer 1

Atlantis DOES exist! All Stargate fans know this to be true.

Answer 2

There's absolutely no evidence that a city anything like Plato's description of Atlantis ever existed. Plato described an extremely advanced culture that was based on an island in the Atlantic ocean. No indications have ever been found that such a place existed. Plato's story is a myth, and nothing more.
Man people have looked for 'the real Atlantis', but such a quest usually involves radically misreading Plato's text, and choosing an arbitary pre-classical city and calling it Atlantis. The most often mentioned candidate is the Island of Thera in the eastern Mediteranean. This Island was a flourishing comercial ceter during the Archaic period of Greek history, and was controlled my the Minoan state, based on Crete. It was destroyed after a volcanic erruption. However, the paralels between Thera and atlantis are circumstantial at best. Plato's story of Atlantis is best read as a myth, and attempts to find 'the real atlantis' should be made by those who study the psychology of mythology, rather than archaeologists.

Answer 3

There was a really good show on the History Channel about it this weekend. There were several Minoan cultures which existed around Crete and a small island about 10 miles away called Santorini. They all flourished until 1500 BC, then whoosh--they all disappeared. The reason is most likely the massive eruption which occurred on Santorini in 1500 BC. The eruption was estimated to be 10 times the size of the Krakatoa (the largest eruption in recorded history). It created an ash cloud about 1.5 miles across, sent ash as far as the Nile delta, and more importantly, created a tidal wave high enough to send pumice onto the tops of nearby hillsides. The beautiful buildings they've been finding were leveled to their foundations. And the descriptions Plato gave of Atlantis match many of the features of Crete and Santorini--both white and red stone quarries, a huge palace on the top of a mountain at Knossos, which was originally covered with white stone which would have made it shine, and which was far advanced in design and engineering, even beyond what the Greeks did. They had beautiful murals of natural scenes, and Plato said the Atlanteans lived in harmony with nature.

Answer 4

"The lost city of Atlantis" does not exist. It is based on a STORY written by Plato.

Some historians believe that Plato used fiction and fact when writing and this makes it more difficult to disprove or prove what he wrote. It is said that he recieved the information about Atlantis from an Egyptian Priest, but there is no way to varify this either.

Summary: Overzealous and underinformed history buffs constantly try to find links to it but there is no actual evidence of a place called Atlantis, or a place even fitting Plato's description, ever having existed.

Answer 5

Atlantis is mentioned in ancient literature, including some by Plato, so I am fairly sure that it did exist, but by most accounts it was destroyed. There are many candidates for the location of Atlantis, but no one yet has any positive evidence to support a specific location.

Answer 6

Plato did mention Atlantis but what is more convincing is the account of Julius Caesar's book on the Gauls. In it he says that the Celts were magicians, poets etc and that they came to England to learn their skills off the Druids. If that is the case then where do the Druids come from? Atlantis, maybe?

Answer 7

Remains of building have been found well below the ocean level, can remember the figure, only that is corresponds with the rise in sea level since the last ice age 7-10 thousand years ago. These remains have been found at what was the original shore line around the world.
The latest theory is that Atlantis was a World wide trading civilization drown as the ice melted. Not a sunken island.

Answer 8

Atlantis (Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, "Island of Atlas") is the name of an island first mentioned and described by the classical Greek philosopher Plato. According to him this island, lying "beyond the pillars of Hercules", was a naval power, having conquered many parts of western Europe and Africa. Soon after a failed invasion of Athens, Atlantis sank in the waves "in a single day and night of misfortune" due to a natural catastrophe which happened 9,000 years before Plato's time.

As a story embedded in Plato's dialogues, Atlantis is mostly seen as a myth created by Plato to back up a previously invented theory with real facts. Some scholars express the opinion that Plato intended to tell real history. Although the function of the story of Atlantis seems to be clear to most scholars, they dispute whether and how much Plato's account was inspired by older traditions. Some scholars argue Plato drew upon memories of past events such as the Thera eruption or the Trojan War, while others insist that he took inspiration of contemporary events like the destruction of Helike in 373 BC or the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415-413 BC.

The possible existence of Atlantis was actively discussed throughout the classical antiquity, but it was usually rejected and occasionally parodied. While basically unknown during the Middle Ages, the story of Atlantis was rediscovered by Humanists at the very beginning of modern times. Plato's description inspired the utopian works of several Renaissance writers, like Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis". More than ever, Atlantis inspires today's literature, from science fiction to comic books.


Inside the Mediterranean
Since Donnelly's day, there have been dozens—perhaps hundreds—of locations proposed for Atlantis. Some are scholarly or archaeological works whilst others have been made by psychic or other pseudoscientific means. Many of the proposed sites share some of the characteristics of the Atlantis story (water, catastrophic end, relevant time period), but none have been proven conclusively to be the historical Atlantis. Most of the historically proposed locations are in or near the Mediterranean Sea, either islands such as Sardinia, Crete and Santorini, Cyprus, Malta, and Ponza or as land based cities or states such as Troy, Tartessos or Tantalus (in the province of Manisa), Turkey, and the new theory of Israel-Sinai or Canaan as possible locations. The massive Thera eruption, dated either to the 17th or the 15th century BC, caused a massive tsunami that experts hypothesize devastated the Minoan civilization on the nearby island of Crete, further leading some to believe that this may have been the catastrophe which inspired the story.

Outside the Mediterranean
Locations as wide-ranging as Andalusia, Antarctica, Indonesia and the Caribbean have been proposed as the true site of Atlantis. The submerged island of Spartel near the Strait of Gibraltar would coincide with some elements of Plato's account, matching both the location and the date of submersion given in the Critias. In the area of the Black Sea at least three locations have been proposed: Bosporus, Sinop and Ancomah (a legendary place near Trabzon). The nearby Sea of Azov was proposed as another site in 2003. Various islands or island groups in the Atlantic were also identified as possible locations, notably the Azores (Mid-Atlantic islands which are a territory of Portugal), and several Caribbean islands. In Northern Europe, Sweden (by Olof Rudbeck in "Atland", 1672-1702), Ireland, and the North Sea have been proposed (Swedish geographer Ulf Erlingsson combines the North Sea and Ireland in a comprehensive hypothesis). Areas in the Pacific and Indian Ocean have also been proposed including Indonesia, Malaysia or both (i.e. Sundaland) and stories of a lost continent off India named "Kumari Kandam" have drawn parallels to Atlantis. Even Cuba and the Bahamas have been suggested. The Canary Islands have also been identified as a possible location, west of the Straits of Gibraltar but in close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea. Some believe that Atlantis stretched from the tip of Spain to Central America

Answer 9

Hello dear!
You are correct, Plato is mentioning it in two of his Dialogs, Timeo and Kritias. Everything else comes from these two books! As Plato states, High priests of Egypt told this Greek story to Solon! Greeks were not remembering this event (the battle between Greeks and Atlantians - some 11,500 years ago) since somehow at some point they stopped recording events!

Answer 10

first of all, watch your past and present tense!

there is a belief it existed and was actually included on early early maps and records of a land mass in the southern hemisphere which claimed to be the home of Atlantis - not a sub aquatic city, this outline matches the outline of the land mass now concealed under ice at the south pole!

supposedly home of the white bearded men who gave both Egypt and South America the Pyramids and became the recognisable face of 'GOD' figures in the Northern hemisphere as they travelled to and fro from their now icy land

sounds cool but may be bollix!

c