Do you think Atlantis was a real place and if so when and where did it exist?

[AngelOfLight258]

Was it a fictional account based on an amalgamation of historic civilizations that abruptly ended in catastrophe? One based around the Minoan civilization but also including elements of stories such as Troy? Or was it a true story based around an as of yet undiscovered civilization?

Was it perhaps a Bronze Age civilization that existed in the Western Mediterranean that ended in a natural disaster like a volcanic eruption. Around 3200 years ago, mysterious marauders called the "Sea-people" would arrive via boat and ravage the Eastern Mediterranean. Were the Sea people refugees fleeing Atlantis who's superior technology (iron metallurgy) allowed them to lay waste to mighty empires?

Was Atlantis an older Stone-Age civilization that flourished ~9500-7500 years ago on the coast of the Black Sea when it was in inland sea (as the Roman Empire did around the Mediterranean). Was the opening of the Bosporus and subsequent flooding of the Black Sea basin the cataclysm that Plato described which ended the civilization? Did the survivors wonder aimlessly for ~1500 years until they settled in Mesopotamia and gave Rise to the oldest attested Civilization?

Or was it perhaps an Ice Age civilization that existed beyond the Mediterranean world (past the Gates of Hercules) on land that was exposed when the sea levels fell because so much water was locked up in the glaciers. In this case the rising of sea levels and subsequent climactic disturbance from the rapid thaw would be the cataclysm described. What are your thoughts?

Updates

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I think it was a fictional story based mostly around the fall of the Minoan Civilization.

[NamerOfStars]

The Tryptillian civilization had at least three cities with populations of over 10,000 in *3800 BC*. Most people have never even HEARD of them. The folks in Mohenjo Daro had a thriving civilization going when even the Assyrians were just a bunch of sheep farmers.

They also had better hats

It's not only possible, but quite likely, there were other strong, powerful, and advanced civilizations in places all over the world that rose and ruled and fell, and whatever they left behind was either lost or claimed by others who came later. Similarly, they probably told you in school that Eric the Red called Greenland "Greenland" as a marketing ploy to lure in colonists. Well, there may be SOME truth to that, but as the planet warms up, glaciers are receding- and in Greenland, rolling back over thousand-year-old Scandinavian-style farms. The planet changes, and it may well be that things that seem impossible today were readily accomplishable long ago.

The first reference to Atlantis that I'm aware of is in Plato's Republic, but there's probably no shortage of similar stories about lost civilizations, even back then.

[Wade12345]

Santorini is the best candidate I've seen. The Minoan civilization was wiped out over a period of 50 years following the Thera Super-Volcanic eruption. It meets the description of an island sinking into the Ocean, it's just not quite as far back in time as the legend of Atlantis alleges. That's okay though, because oral traditions lose some of the Truth they are meant to preserve.

The next best candidate I know of is Dwarka, but it's in the wrong Ocean basin, so that doesn't count.

[Wade12345]

The sinking of the real Dwarka is almost at the right time to be the fabled Atlantis, but again it's at the bottom of the wrong ocean basin to be Atlantis. Plato or Homer or whoever couldnt' possibly have known about a Magnitude 9 Earthquake hitting East India that far back in time because the Greeks didn't even know the planet was round nor that big at the time. They had no idea any such people as the east Indians existed at the time.

It's possible the legend is somehow just a lucky guess.

[Bee-Hatch]

It's a myth based as a morality tale isn't it?


A good and just people that live on an island who became greedy and petty and morally bankrupt. So the gods destroyed the land of Atlantis for ever as a lesson to humans to behave. Bit like Sodom and Gomorrah but more impressive.

[melanieeeB]

Honestly I like the idea that Atlantis is a true story

[Chazmatazz269]

Atlantis IS a real thing, but “place” is debatable. OBVIOUSLY, it was a city sized spacecraft that brought one or more much more advanced species of extraterrestrials to Earth to spur on the technological age. When they realized great tech was a waste on such a self destructive species, it returned to interstellar travel in search of worthier beings. Occasionally they return to determine if we have advanced ourselves enough socially to be deserving of all they have to offer; compelling unbelievable tales of alien visitations and abductions. Likely inspiring religion and implanting advanced mathematics into gifted minds. And what do we do with it? Obsess over anal probing, murder each other over whose god is bigger, and point nukes at each other. Ell oh ell!
Would YOU come back?

[Straight2thepoint]

I'll make this short. My brothers college professor, whom I met personally. Had burnt scar slits behind his ear. I was 13 y/o. He noticed that saw that. And all he did was laugh and opened a book and pointed at image. It read, Mount Shasta. Years are long gone now. Funny this question popped up. Today I asked my brother of that day. He said that professor relocated, that he was very close to him. And told his past. That the gov treats him like shit. And Atlantis is a myth, that is above ground and dry.

[RosieMelts]

I think fictional as well, if we want to be specific, but anybody can see it’s fictional in general, if they were to look for any skeletal remains within the oceanic soil as they would for terrestrial Pompeii or excavating for dinosaurs.

Ancient civilizations and history is never really lost, but buried beneath. It takes a while for anything to be truly gone as far as info and remains go.

[jshm2]

To be fair, every civilisation has it's "Atlantis" and in the case of the Greeks it was only Plato who "alleged" to have heard about it - never seen it.

Hence it's dubious at best.

[AviatorTom]

Most myths are based, at least in part, on reality. There probably was a location that became Atlantis.

[Likes2drive]

You never know, myth’s start from somewhere, earthquake could have submerged the city

[Lalilulelo]

No, never happen.