Nat-Geo Naked Science - Atlantis

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Nat-Geo Naked Science: Atlantis

What do you know about the lost city of Atlantis and what happened when it collapsed? Myth tells us that the golden civilization became so corrupt and depraved that it was destroyed by the angry gods, but the main question is "did Atlantis ever exist?"

In 350 B.C. Plato wrote about an ancient civilization that disappeared in one day in a catastrophic event. Is the story simply a myth or have remains of a real Atlantis been discovered? This episode examines the city that Plato described and analyzes a four leading sites that present-day explorers believe could be the remains of the ancient city.

Plato wrote 40,000 words describing Atlantis in specific detail. His description forms the criteria which is used to evaluate four sites that some claim could have been Atlantis. The city had concentric circles of land and water, was made of red, black and white rocks, its people sacrificed bulls, elephants grazed, and it was destroyed by a
catastrophe about 9000 B.C.

The island of Malta has intriguing temple ruins that date back to 3600 B.C. There is evidence of bull sacrifices having been made there. Elephants could have existed, having migrated there before ocean levels rose and Malta was still connected to the mainland. There is soil evidence of an ancient flood, perhaps a tsunami, striking the island. On the negative side, the rocks are all brown, there no evidence of circular waterways, and the temples don't date back far enough.

Offshore of the Bahama Islands lies a collection of unusual white rectangular rocks known as the Bimini Highway. Some are sure they're the work of an ancient civilization. Scientists, however, aren't convinced they're not simply natural rock formations. Plus, there's no evidence of canals, bulls, elephants or colored stones. This is an unlikely choice.

Off of Cuba under 2000 feet of water lies eight square miles of huge stones that appear to be shaped like temples found in ancient Mayan cities. If they are man-made, it would have taken a major catastrophe to put them down there. But there's no evidence of colored rocks, no bulls or elephants, no circular waterways and no indication of the time it happened.

The leading contender to have actually have been Atlantis is the Greek island of Santorini. Studying city remains shows that a catastrophe did wipe out the city and part of the once-circular island. A volcano erupted there with 90-times the power of Mt. St. Helens. While there is no evidence of elephants having lived there, frescos have been found depicting bulls. But what about the time frame? The explosion was only 1300 years before Plato but some experts say the writer could have meant 900 years as opposed to 9000 years.

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