Ever since Plato wrote that Atlantis sank beneath the Atlantic Ocean around 10,000 B.C.E., theorists have set out to determine the location of this ancient civilization.
Public DomainA map outlining the purported extent of the Atlantean empire according to Ignatius Donnelly.
When Ignatius Donnelly published his 1882 book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, a new wave of scholars, conspiracy theorists, and believers developed an interest in the fabled lost city. In the nearly 150 years since, countless expeditions have been launched, papers written, and theories put forth in the search for Atlantis. Was it real? What was it like? What happened to it? And most importantly, where is Atlantis?
Many scholars have asserted that Plato was simply speaking allegorically when he wrote of the lost city. Atlantis, they say, is not real, nor has it ever been. However, this has not stopped people from believing. In fact, statistics from 2018 show that 57 percent of Americans believe in Atlantis or a similar advanced ancient civilization.
With so many people convinced that Atlantis is real, there is certainly no shortage of theories on where Atlantis rests on the ocean floor. Some have pointed to the North Atlantic Ocean, others to the Middle East, and even more to the Mediterranean. Obviously, no one has actually found Atlantis to date, but what does historical evidence tell us about where the mythical city may be?
Clues About The Lost Civilization’s Location From Plato’s Writings
The most sensible place to start looking for Atlantis would be precisely where Plato said it was. According to his writings, that would place the island nation in the Atlantic Ocean. Plato specifically wrote that Atlantis was located outside the Pillars of Hercules, which many believe to be the rocks that mark the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar.
The problem is that ancient Greeks and Romans may have used the term “Pillars of Hercules” to refer to several different places, including the entrance to the Black Sea.
Public DomainA map claiming to show where Atlantis was located, with south at the top of the map.
So, what does Plato’s invocation of the Pillars of Hercules actually tell us about the location of Atlantis? Evidently, not much.
Plato also claimed to have heard the tale of Atlantis from Egyptian storytellers, which only complicates the matter further. Based on what one Egyptian priest said in Plato’s writings, Athens “generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars” — meaning Egypt, too, falls within the so-called “Pillars of Hercules.” The Egyptians also frequently spoke of their own “pillars of heaven,” which could have been confused with the Pillars of Hercules.
Ultimately, if we want to determine where Atlantis is, we have to look beyond Plato’s writings and into more modern speculation.
Where Was The Lost City Of Atlantis?
In the 20th and 21st centuries, more eyes than ever before turned toward Atlantis. As such, new theories about where the lost civilization may have been were put forth. Some even suggested that Atlantis may not be on the ocean floor at all but rather that it is simply known now by another name.
For example, in Robert Graves’ 1955 compendium The Greek Myths, the English writer argued that Atlantis had once stood off the western coast of the Nile Delta. Atlantis, he wrote, may have simply been the island of Pharos before Alexander the Great constructed a causeway to connect the island to mainland Egypt.
Public DomainAn illustration depicting Swedish scientist Olaus Rudbeck pointing to Atlantis on a map.
Half a century later, the American architect Robert Sarmast published a book entitled Discovery of Atlantis: The Startling Case for the Island of Cyprus, in which he examined sonar data from the ocean floor of the Cyprus Basin. The images, Sarmast claimed, were of manmade structures — the very same Atlantean structures described by Plato. He referenced Biblical floods and disagreed with the findings of mainstream scientists.
Public DomainA 1928 painting by Nicholas Roerich depicting the destruction of Atlantis.
For what it’s worth, those very same scientists disagree with Sarmast. In 2004, social anthropologist Benny Peiser told Live Science that Sarmast’s “selective interpretation is nothing more than the blinkered reading of very ambiguous and unconvincing images… Anyone with a critical eye can pick out that these images are far too vague and uncertain to be regarded as compelling evidence for any manmade structures.”
Peiser went on to call Sarmast’s theory “completely bogus.”
Several more reasonable classical scholars have put forth the idea that the island of Helike had served as inspiration for Atlantis, given that it was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami only a few years before Plato wrote of the fabled civilization. Likewise, some have pointed to places like Sardinia, Malta, Turkey, and Troy.
Another theory is that Atlantis was located in the North Sea. Thousands of years ago, a great plain stretched between modern-day England and Denmark known as Doggerland. Around 6200 B.C.E., a tsunami submerged the land, and it’s been lying at the bottom of the North Sea ever since.
Yet another hypothesis claims that Atlantis was built atop what is now Antarctica. The landmass, the theory goes, once stood in the northern Atlantic Ocean, but plate tectonics moved it to its current position. The lost city and its inhabitants were then buried under layers of ice.
The only thing these numerous theories have in common is that evidence is scarce, speculative, and frankly lacking.
Why We Still Haven’t Found Atlantis After All These Years
With the sheer volume of people who have set out in search of Atlantis, why haven’t we found it yet? For an island that was “greater than Libya and Asia [Minor] together,” according to Plato, there sure seems to be a staggeringly small amount of proof that Atlantis even existed, let alone where and when. The real reason no one has discovered Atlantis, then, is that it is likely fictional.
Granted, that’s not going to convince believers. However, there simply is no evidence. When Bimini Road was discovered, people theorized it might lead to Atlantis — but it hasn’t.
Scans of the ocean floors with new technology have revealed vast troves of treasures and undiscovered creatures but no signs pointing to Atlantis. Dinosaur fossils dating back millions of years have been found in people’s backyards, but scientists haven’t unearthed a single verifiably Atlantean artifact.
Public DomainRussian artist Léon Bakst painted Terror Antiquus, which depicts the destruction of an ancient city, in 1908 after visiting Greece.
Most scholars agree that Plato simply used the story of Atlantis as an allegory for the hubris of nations. Ignatius Donnelly, the man who popularized the idea of Atlantis in a modern context, was not even an archaeologist or historian — he was a mostly unsuccessful politician.
Donnelly also proposed that William Shakespeare’s plays had actually been written by Francis Bacon, writing the book The Great Cryptogram to prove it. He then took his “findings” to England, put the theory to a vote, and was discredited as a result.
That’s not to say everything Donnelly did was undeserving of praise. He was an early advocate of women’s suffrage and a proponent of the eight-hour workday, but Donnelly’s ideals did not necessarily make him an excellent scholar. Much of what he wrote was purely based on his own opinion and lacked evidence to support it.
So, if you’re looking for Atlantis — unless you’re looking for the resort in the Bahamas — you’re likely not going to find it.