Atlantis Found?

[Ghryphen]

LIMASSOL, Cyprus (AP) -- An American researcher claimed Sunday to have discovered the remains of the legendary lost city of Atlantis on the bottom of the east Mediterranean Sea. But Cyprus' chief government archaeologist was skeptical.

Robert Sarmast said sonar scanning of the seabed between east Cyprus and Syria revealed man-made walls, one as long as 3 kilometers (2 miles), and trenches at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards).

"It is a miracle we found these walls as their location, and lengths match exactly the description of the acropolis of Atlantis provided by Plato in his writings," Sarmast said, referring to the ancient Greek philosopher.

"We have definitely found the Acropolis of Atlantis," he affirmed, adding the site was 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Cyprus.

The chief government archaeologist of Cyprus, Pavlos Flourentzos, reacted with skepticism, telling The Associated Press: "More proof is necessary."

Sarmast, 38, is an architect by training from Los Angeles. He has devoted the past two-and-a-half years to trying to locate the lost city described by Plato in his dialogues, the Timaeous and the Critias. He spoke to reporters on the "Flying Enterprise," his expeditionary ship, after six days of taking highly sophisticated "side scan" sonars of the seabed.

He said he had chosen the area from data provided by two earlier sonar scans of the east Mediterranean by Russian and French expeditions. His own expedition used more sophisticated equipment, he said.

"We found more than 60-70 points that are a perfect match with Plato's detailed description of the general layout of the acropolis hill of Atlantis. The match of the dimensions and the coordinates provided by our sonar with Plato's description are so accurate that, if this is not indeed the acropolis of Atlantis, then this is the world's greatest coincidence," he said.

Tests of that part of the seabed showed it had once been above sea level, he said.

"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards), but the evidence is now irrefutable," he added.

Asked if the ruins could not be that of another city that sank beneath the waves, Sarmast said the remains match Plato's description of Atlantis so closely that they could not be anything else.

"If you compare it with Plato, you will be astonished," he said. "We hope that future expeditions will be able to uncover the sediment and bring back physical proof."

Plato wrote of Atlantis as an island in the western sea, which has been widely interpreted to mean the Atlantic Ocean. An earthquake undermined the island and it was submerged. But societies dedicated to finding Atlantis remain.

For its time, Atlantis was a highly civilized nation and in legend it has become associated with utopia. The English philosopher Francis Bacon called his 1627 book on the ideal state The New Atlantis.

Flourentzos said it was possible that Atlantis was near Cyprus.

"The myth of Atlantis has been around for ages and it is generally believed that, if it ever existed, it was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean -- hence its name. But ancient cities and civilizations in the Mediterranean region, such as the Minoan civilization of Crete, have disappeared as a result of major volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. For all we know, Atlantis may well have existed in our region."

Sarmast said his expedition had cost about $250,000. The funds came from public donations to his US-based company "First Source Enterprise," which is devoted to the project, sales of his book "The Discovery of Atlantis," and the Cypriot Tourist Organization, which donated $60,000.

He said the book, published in September 2003, said Atlantis was in the east Mediterranean and his latest sonars confirmed it.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

[Raiyven]

...in my local politically-charged and hopelessly biased newspaper this morning. I haven't read Plato myself so I'm not familiar with the work he's quoting from (most likely of which is Republic, but I'm probably wrong) I've already heard naysayers dismiss this find as... well, nothingness

This was by word of mouth, that the walls he refers to (a few miles long as they were) couldn't possibly have been built in this time. I smacked him. A wall is easy to build, and if the ancient greeks can build HOUSES they can build walls.

Also, what I find interesting, is that there is no mention of this pre-Plato. During 700-500 BC we saw the great colonization push of ancient Greece during the Archaic period. It is quite possible that an island near Cyprus was colonized and rose to be Atlantis. However, there's mention of an acropolis. Atlantis would have to have been rather large for it to warrant an acropolis. Usually, only larger hellenic poleis had acropoli (sparta, athens most notably) which lends credence to the idea that Atlantis must have been around for awhile for its population to grow to such a point that it could *build* an acropolis. They're stone, always quite expansive. We don't really see the widespread use of stone in Greek architecture until about 650-ish of the Archaic age. Before that it was usually wood and thatched roofs, even for civic buildings, which didn't really appear as independent structures until 750 or so.

The fact that he read it out of Plato also bothers me. Plato didnt show up until the Classical Age, which is of course after the Peloponnesian War and the subsequent dismemberment of Athens' Mediterranean empire which, if Atlantis existed between 430-400, given its size due to the existence of a stone acropolis and city walls, would have either been an object of their imperial desire or owned by an ally. But there isn't much mention of it. So, if Atlantis already took a bath by Plato's time, and before the Peloponnesian War, and the fact that the walls and acropolis are made from stone and are quite expansive, this leads me to think that this Mediterranean Atlantis could have only existed in 1500 BC or earlier, during which there was indeed a definite cataclysm in ancient Mycenaea, which dominated the Aegean between 1700-1500. The running theory is that the volcano on the island of Santorini (then named Thera) erupted, probably the largest eruption in history, which spread enough ash and the like to affect the entire known Greek world (we see this through a widespread pattern of destruction and damage consistent with ash-fall throughout crete and minoa). Perhaps then, this eruption caused Atlantis to sink? If so, I'd love to know a) how THAT happened, and b) where Plato got his material from. Most likely spoken legend, we have to keep in mind that artistic license was the way of the pen in greek literature, unless whatever sources he learned from have long since been lost, which is VERY likely.

History blurb for the day!

~R

[Jadal]

a good read, thanks guys

[Ravok99]

Robert Sarmast said sonar scanning of the seabed between east Cyprus and Syria revealed man-made walls, one as long as 3 kilometers (2 miles), and trenches at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards).

"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards), but the evidence is now irrefutable," he added.

Heheheh - uhh, how do sonar scans act as irrefutable evidence? That stuff is under quite a bit of dirt, which is under quite a bit of water. Bust out a shovel, and pick up some clay for me, then start yapping about being irrefutable.

[Gambit]

Yeah. I mean, sounds very much like this guy has let his supposed scientific objectivity go bye-bye. All that's irrefutable is that he's got a straight line of sonar echos.