There are many ideas that real events might have inspired Plato's fictional story of Atlantis, which he wrote in the Timaeus and Critias. Plato's story was not part of Greek myths, and he used it only as a lesson about the dangers of pride and overconfidence. Some people have suggested that real natural disasters could have inspired the story, and these ideas appear in both popular books and some academic studies. Additionally, many books that are not based on real history or archaeology treat Atlantis as a true event, offering new interpretations that connect it to national legends or stories about ancient aliens. Plato's story clearly places Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules, but other theories suggest possible locations such as Helike, Thera, Troy, and the North Pole.
North-West of Egypt: From Greece to Spain
Many people believe Atlantis was located in the Mediterranean Sea, especially because the story of Atlantis has its roots in ancient Egypt. Some experts think the Atlantis story may be based on a real event: the eruption of the island of Thera (now called Santorini) around 1600 BCE. This eruption destroyed the town of Akrotiri and harmed some settlements on the island of Crete.
In the early 1900s, a scholar named Robert L. Scranton suggested that Atlantis was located in the Lake Copais area of Boeotia, Greece. He believed the "Copaic drainage complex" and its ancient civilization were the real Atlantis. Later archaeological findings confirmed that there was a drainage system and underground channels in the lake dating back to the Mycenaean era.
An American architect, Robert Sarmast, claims Atlantis lies at the bottom of the eastern Mediterranean Sea near the Cyprus Basin. He says sonar images of the sea floor show shapes that look like man-made structures at depths of 1,500 meters. He thinks these shapes are part of the lost city of Atlantis, as described by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Sarmast also points to evidence such as copper deposits, extinct dwarf elephants, and local names and festivals in Cyprus (like "Kataklysmos") as clues that Atlantis was once part of the region. He also believes the story of Atlantis’s destruction by flooding may be connected to the biblical story of Noah’s Flood.
Sarmast bases his claim on the idea that the Mediterranean Sea dried up during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, when tectonic movements blocked water from flowing into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. This caused the sea to partly or fully dry up, leaving a desert with salt lakes. Later, the sea was flooded again when the blocked area collapsed. Sarmast argues that this event happened many times in the past, but most scientists disagree. They say the sea dried up only once, around 5.59 to 5.33 million years ago, and that the sea floor has been underwater for millions of years.
Geologists and archaeologists who studied the Cyprus Basin disagree with Sarmast’s claims. Research by Dr. C. Hübscher and others showed that the shapes Sarmast thought were man-made are actually natural geological features caused by salt tectonics and underwater landslides. This conclusion matches findings from a documentary series called Digging for the Truth. Studies of sediment layers in the area also show that the sea floor has been submerged for millions of years, meaning Atlantis could not have been on land.
Some scholars believe Plato’s Atlantis story was inspired by the destruction of the ancient Greek city of Helike in 373 BCE. This city was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, and some researchers, like Dora Katsonopoulou and Steven Soter, think this event influenced Plato’s writings.
Another theory suggests Atlantis was the island of Sardinia. Supporters argue that the name "Atlas" may be linked to the ancient Italian name "Italos" and that Sardinia’s Bronze Age culture shares similarities with Plato’s descriptions of Atlantis. Luigi Usai, an Italian researcher, claims Atlantis was once an underwater island that now forms the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. He points to a hill near the town of Santadi as the possible location of Atlantis’s capital and notes that some place names in the area, like "Castello d'Acquafredda" (Coldwater Castle) and "Acquacadda" (Hotwater), may be connected to the Atlantis myth.
Malta, located between the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, is also considered a possible location for Atlantis. Some researchers and local enthusiasts believe this because of the ancient megalithic temples on the island, such as Ġgantija and Ħaġar Qim. In the 19th century, an antiquarian named Giorgio Grognet de Vassé argued that Malta was Atlantis, based on the discovery of these ancient structures.
In 2002, a book titled Fdal Atlantis (Maltese remains of Atlantis) was published, exploring the idea that ancient ruins in Malta may be linked to the Atlantis legend.
North-East of Egypt: From Middle East to the Black Sea
Peter James, in his book The Sunken Kingdom, says Atlantis was the same as the kingdom of Zippasla. He believes Solon learned the story during his travels in Lydia, not Egypt as Plato wrote. He claims Atlantis is the same as Tantalis, the city of Tantalus in Asia Minor, which Greek traditions say was destroyed by an earthquake. He also says the legend of Atlantis’ conquests in the Mediterranean comes from King Madduwattas of Zippasla fighting against Hittite rule. He argues Zippasla is the same as Sipylus, where Greek traditions placed Tantalis, and that the now-gone lake near Mount Sipylus was where the city once stood.
Eberhard Zangger, a geoarchaeologist, thinks Atlantis was actually the city-state of Troy. He agrees and disagrees with Rainer W. Kühne. He believes the Trojans-Atlanteans were part of the sea peoples, but only a small part of them. He says all Greek-speaking city-states in the Aegean civilization or Mycenae were part of the sea peoples and that they caused wars that hurt each other’s economies for many years.
German researchers Siegfried and Christian Schoppe place Atlantis in the Black Sea. Before 5500 BC, a large plain existed in the northwest where there was once a freshwater lake. In 5510 BC, rising sea levels reached the barrier at the modern Bosporus Strait. They say the Pillars of Hercules were the same as the Bosporus Strait. They did not explain how ships from around the world could have reached Atlantis’s harbor when it was 350 feet below sea level.
They claim the word Oreichalcos refers to obsidian, a type of stone used as money at that time, which was later replaced by spondylus shells around 5500 BC. This would match the red, white, and black colors described. A major geological event caused the Neolithic diaspora in Europe, which began around 5500 BC.
In The Great Atlantis Flood, authors Flying Eagle and Whispering Wind say Atlantis was in the Sea of Azov. They wrote this in their book Atlantis Motherland (2003), claiming Plato’s Dialogues accurately describe geological events that happened in 9,600 BC in the Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor. Melting glaciers at the end of the Younger Dryas Ice Age caused the Caspian Sea’s water level to rise sharply. An earthquake created a crack, allowing the Caspian Sea to flood Atlantis’s fertile plains. At the same time, the earthquake caused Atlantis’s farmlands to sink, forming the present-day Sea of Azov, the shallowest sea in the world.
Around Gibraltar: Near the Pillars of Hercules
Andalusia is a region in modern-day southern Spain that once included the "lost" city of Tartessos, which disappeared around 600 BC. The Tartessians were traders known to the Ancient Greeks, who also spoke of their legendary king, Arganthonios. The idea that Andalusia might be the location of Atlantis was first suggested by Spanish author Juan de Mariana and Dutch author Johannes van Gorp in the 1500s. Later, in 1673, José Pellicer de Ossau Salas y Tovar proposed that Atlantis's main city was between the islands Mayor and Menor, near the center of the Doñana Marshes. In 1919, Juan Fernández Amador y de los Ríos suggested the city was located where the "Marismas de Hinojo" now exist. These ideas were repeated in 1922 by German author Adolf Schulten and later discussed by others in the 1920s. The proposed locations in Andalusia are outside the Pillars of Hercules, near the Mediterranean Sea.
In 2005, German teacher Werner Wickboldt, building on Schulten's work, claimed Atlantis was in Andalusia. He suggested the "war of the Atlanteans" described by Plato might refer to the attacks by the Sea Peoples on Eastern Mediterranean countries around 1200 BC. He also proposed that the Iron Age city of Tartessos could have been built on the ruins of Atlantis. In 2000, Georgeos Diaz-Montexano argued Atlantis was located between Andalusia and Morocco.
Rainer Walter Kühne, in an article published in the journal Antiquity, suggested that Plato combined three historical elements to describe Atlantis: (1) Greek stories about ancient Athens, (2) Egyptian records of the Sea Peoples' wars, and (3) oral traditions from Syracuse about Tartessos. Wickboldt claimed satellite images show two rectangular shapes in the Doñana Marshes, which he believes are the "temple of Poseidon" and "the temple of Cleito and Poseidon." He also noted that parts of "rings" visible in satellite images resemble the ring system described by Plato. However, it is unclear if these shapes are natural or manmade, and further archaeological studies are planned. Geologists have shown that the Doñana National Park experienced heavy erosion from 4000 BC until the 9th century AD, turning it into a marine environment. For thousands of years before the Medieval Age, the area now known as the Doñana Marshes was a gulf or inland sea-arm, but there was no island large enough to support even a small village.
Two theories place Spartel Bank, a submerged island in the Strait of Gibraltar, as the location of Atlantis. The more famous idea was proposed in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard. A less well-known theory was first presented in 2000 by Spanish-Cuban researcher Georgeos Díaz-Montexano. Díaz-Montexano claims Collina-Girard copied his idea, while Collina-Girard denies this, calling both theories pseudoscience.
Collina-Girard explains that during the last Ice Age, sea levels were 135 meters lower than today, narrowing the Gibraltar Strait and creating a small enclosed sea between the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Spartel Bank formed an island in this sea, about 10 to 12 kilometers wide. As sea levels rose, the island shrank. Around 9400 BC, a rapid rise in sea levels (4 meters per century) flooded the island's top. A major earthquake and tsunami, similar to the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, may have caused the island's destruction. Collina-Girard suggests this event was recorded in ancient Egyptian traditions for 5,000 years and later inspired Plato's story of Atlantis.
A review in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review noted that Collina-Girard's timeline and use of coincidences are questionable. It concluded that while his work highlights important historical events near Gibraltar, it does not prove that Atlantis was real.
Northwest Africa
According to Michael Hübner, the central area of Atlantis was located in South-West Morocco near the Atlantic Ocean. In his research, he analyzed Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias to determine the most likely location of Atlantis. Using a method that considers various geographical clues from Plato’s descriptions, Hübner concluded that the Souss-Massa plain in modern-day South-West Morocco is the most probable site. This plain is surrounded by the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas, and the Atlantic Ocean, which ancient Greeks called the "Sea of Atlas." Because of its isolated location, Hübner believed the Greeks referred to this area as "Atlantis Nesos," meaning "Island of Atlas." The Amazigh (Berber) people also call the Souss-Massa plain an "island."
Archaeological evidence includes a large, ring-shaped geological structure in the northwest of the plain. This structure is nearly the same size as Plato’s description of Atlantis’s capital and is covered with hundreds of prehistoric ruins made of red, white, and black rocks. Hübner also identified possible harbor remains and a unique geological feature that matches Plato’s description of "roofed over docks" built into red, white, and black bedrock. These docks are located near the ring-shaped structure and near Cape Ghir, which was known in ancient times as Cape Heracles. Hübner also noted that the name "Agadir" may come from the Semitic word g-d-r, meaning "enclosure" or "sheep fold." This matches the Greek translation of the name Gadeiros, which is Eumelos, meaning "rich in sheep."
The Richat Structure in Mauritania has also been suggested as a possible location for Atlantis. This structure is a large, eroded hill that covers a buried rock formation. From 1974 onward, researchers mapped the area and found no prehistoric artifacts, Paleolithic or Neolithic stone tools, or human-made structures in the structure’s central area. No signs of long-term human activity were found, leading to the conclusion that the area was used only briefly for hunting and making stone tools during prehistoric times.
Atlantic Ocean: East
It has been thought that when Plato wrote about the Sea of Atlantis, he might have been referring to the area now called the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean’s name comes from Greek mythology and means "Sea of Atlas." Plato mentioned that the area was given to Poseidon when describing the origins of Atlantis. In Ancient Greek times, the words "Ocean" and "Atlas" both referred to the "Giant Water" that surrounded the main landmass known to the Greeks, which could be described as Eurafrasia (though the Greeks did not fully understand this supercontinent). This water mass was considered the "end of the (known) world," which is why the name "Atlas" was also used for the Atlas Mountains, as they marked the edge of the known world.
One possible location for Atlantis is near the Azores Islands, a group of islands belonging to Portugal located about 900 miles (1,400 km) west of the Portuguese coast. Some people believe the islands could be the tops of mountains from Atlantis. Ignatius L. Donnelly, an American congressman, first suggested this idea in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882). He also connected the Azores to the mythical land of Aztlán.
In 1917, Charles Schuchert discussed a lecture by Pierre-Marie Termier, who suggested that an area north of the Azores, including the islands themselves, may have been submerged recently. Termier reported evidence that an area of 40,000 square miles (possibly up to 200,000 square miles) had sunk 10,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean. Schuchert concluded that the Azores are volcanic seamounts that drop sharply to a plateau. Studies of this plateau and other evidence show that the area has been an underwater plateau for millions of years. Ancient signs, such as old beaches, marine deposits, and wave-cut terraces from the Pleistocene era, indicate that the Azores Islands have not sunk much. Instead, some islands have risen during the Late and Middle Pleistocene. For example, relict wave-cut platforms and beach sediments on Flores Island are found at elevations of 15–20, 35–45, ~100, and ~250 meters above current sea level.
Three tectonic plates meet near the Azores, forming what is called the Azores triple junction.
The Canary Islands have been linked to Atlantis by many authors. In 1803, Bory de Saint-Vincent proposed in Essai sur les îles fortunées et l'antique Atlantide that the Canary Islands, along with the Madeira and Azores, were remnants of Atlantis after it sank. Later writers, such as Lewis Spence in The Problem of Atlantis, also identified the Canary Islands as part of Atlantis.
Detailed studies of the Canary Islands show that they have been steadily uplifted over the last 4 million years without significant sinking. Processes like erosion, gravitational unloading, and volcanic activity have caused this uplift. For example, Pliocene pillow lavas on Gran Canaria, which formed underwater, are now exposed at elevations of 46 to 143 meters above sea level. Marine deposits on Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote, dated to 4.1 to 9.8 million years ago, show that the islands have risen over millions of years. Raised marine terraces on Fuerteventura indicate the island has risen about 1.7 centimeters every thousand years for the past million years. Studies of the Cape Verde Islands also show that they have been uplifted during the Pleistocene and remained stable since the last ice age. Sedimentary deposits around the Canary Islands show no evidence that the ocean floor was ever above water, except for narrow areas exposed during glacial periods.
According to Jorge Maria Ribero-Meneses, Atlantis was located in northern Spain, specifically on an underwater plateau called "Le Danois Bank" or "The Cachucho." This plateau is 425 meters below the sea, 50 kilometers wide, and 18 kilometers long, located 25 kilometers from the continental shelf and 60 kilometers off the coast of Asturias. Ribero-Meneses suggested that the plateau broke off 12,000 years ago due to tectonic activity at the end of the last ice age, causing a massive tsunami. He argued that survivors had to rebuild from scratch.
However, geological studies of the Le Danois Bank region have shown that it was not formed by the collapse of the northern Cantabrian continental margin 12,000 years ago. Instead, the bank is part of the continental margin that was uplifted by thrust faulting during the Paleogene and Neogene periods. Precambrian granulite and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks on the northern edge of the bank were pushed northward over Miocene and Oligocene marine sediments. A graben (a type of geological basin) formed between the Le Danois Bank and the Cantabrian continental margin due to normal faulting linked to the thrust faulting. Marine sediments from the lower Pliocene to Pleistocene cover much of the Le Danois Bank and fill the basin, showing that the bank has been submerged beneath the Bay of Biscay for millions of years.
Atlantic Ocean: North
In his book Atlantis of the West: The Case For Britain's Drowned Megalithic Civilization (2003), Paul Dunbavin claims that a large island once existed in the Irish Sea and that this island was Atlantis. He suggests that a Neolithic civilization in Europe was partially flooded by rising sea levels caused by a comet impact that shifted Earth's axis around 3100 BC. Scientists today do not accept these claims as valid scientific evidence.
William Comyns Beaumont believed that Great Britain was the location of Atlantis. Lewis Spence, a Scottish journalist, argued that ancient traditions in Britain and Ireland remember Atlantis.
On December 29, 1997, the BBC reported that Russian scientists thought they found Atlantis 100 miles off Land's End, Cornwall, Britain. They believed a shallow area called Little Sole Bank might have been Atlantis's capital. This idea may be linked to the myth of Lyonesse.
In Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land (2004), Swedish geographer Dr. Ulf Erlingsson claimed that Atlantis refers to the Neolithic Megalithic tomb culture in Ireland because of their similar geographic areas.
The North Sea contains lands that were once above water, such as the medieval town of Dunwich in East Anglia, which sank into the sea. A land area called "Doggerland," between England and Denmark, was flooded by a tsunami around 8200BP (6200 BC) caused by a submarine landslide in Norway called the Storegga Slide. Human remains have been found in the Dogger Bank area. Author Jürgen Spanuth suggested Atlantis was near Heligoland, Germany, and was destroyed during the Bronze Age around 1200 BC. Dr. Ulf Erlingsson believes Atlantis refers to Dogger Bank, with the city located at the Silverpit crater beneath it. A book attributed to Oera Linda claims a land called Atland once existed in the North Sea but was destroyed in 2194 BC.
In The Celts: The People Who Came Out of the Darkness (1975), Gerhard Herm connected the origins of the Atlanteans to the end of the ice age and the flooding of coastal areas in Denmark.
Finnish writer Ior Bock claimed Atlantis was in the Baltic Sea near southern Finland, where he said a small community lived during the Ice Age. He believed warm water from the Gulf Stream kept the area habitable. Bock's family story says the name "Atlantis" comes from Swedish words meaning "all land ice" and refers to the end of the Ice Age. He claims Atlantis disappeared in 8016 BC when ice melted in Finland.
In 1679, Olaus Rudbeck wrote Atlantis (Atlantica), arguing that Scandinavia, especially Sweden, was Atlantis. He claimed the capital of Atlantis was the ancient burial site of Swedish kings in Gamla Uppsala.
Americas
Before the discovery of the New World, many scholars believed Atlantis was either a metaphor for teaching philosophy or a story created by Plato without linking it to a real place. After Christopher Columbus returned from his journey westward, historians began to connect the Americas with Atlantis. The first person to do this was Francisco López de Gómara, who in 1552 thought Columbus had found the Atlantic Island described by Plato.
In 1556, Agustin de Zárate suggested that Atlantis once connected America and Europe, and that Plato’s writings led to the discovery of the new continent. He claimed the Americas had the same features as the land Plato described, and that ancient people traveled from Atlantis to the Americas. Zárate also noted that Plato’s mention of 9,000 "years" actually meant 9,000 "months," or 750 years.
This idea was later repeated and explained by historian Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1572 in his book "History of the Incas." Using longitude calculations, he argued Atlantis stretched from near the Strait of Gibraltar westward to include the land from the mouth of the Amazon River and Brazil to the South Sea, which is now called America. He believed the sunken part of Atlantis was in the Atlantic Ocean and that the original people of the Americas came from this sunken land through a continuous landmass.
The name "Atlantic Island" (Insula Atlantica) first appeared on a map of the New World by cartographer Sebastian Münster in 1540. Later, in 1669, Nicolas Sanson and his son created a map titled "Atlantis Insula," which labeled both North and South America as "Atlantis Insula." The map also named the eastern Atlantic Ocean "Oceanus Atlanticus" and the western Atlantic and Pacific Oceans "Atlanticum Pelagus." Guillaume Sanson, Nicolas’s son, added details from the Atlantis legend, including the names of the ten kings of Atlantis, with Atlas’s portion located in Mexico. The map supposedly showed Earth as it appeared 200,000 years before humans existed.
Francis Bacon and Alexander von Humboldt also connected America with Atlantis. In 1663, Janus Joannes Bircherod wrote "orbe novo non novo," meaning "the New World is not new."
Antarctica
The idea that Antarctica was Atlantis became popular in the 1960s and 1970s. This was partly because of Antarctica's isolation and a map called the Piri Reis map, which seemed to show Antarctica without ice, suggesting humans might have known about the continent in ancient times. Authors such as Flavio Barbiero, Charles Berlitz, Erich Von Däniken, and Peter Kolosimo supported this theory.
In 1958, Charles Hapgood proposed the idea of "Earth Crustal Displacement," suggesting that Earth's outer layer could move quickly over the upper mantle. He believed Antarctica might have been livable about 10,000 years ago. At that time, the idea of continental drift was still debated, and plate tectonics would not be proven until the 1970s. Many geological theories existed, but no clear answers were found. Albert Einstein was interested in Hapgood's ideas and wrote the preface for his book Earth's Shifting Crust. This theory remained popular among people who believe in the "Hollow Earth" idea and is similar to the Hyperborean theory. In his book Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock supported Hapgood's ideas and suggested exploring Antarctica for evidence of Atlantis.
More recently, Rose and Rand Flem-Ath continued to support the Atlantis-Antarctica theory in their book When the Sky Fell. They later revised and expanded their ideas with Colin Wilson in The Atlantis Blueprint (2002). This book suggested that Atlantis might be located in Lesser Antarctica, near the Ross Ice Shelf.
North Pole
William Fairfield Warren (1833–1929), a professor of systematic theology at Boston University, wrote a book titled Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole in 1885. In this book, Warren argued that the original center of human life was located at the North Pole. He claimed that mythical places such as Atlantis, the Garden of Eden, Mount Meru, Avalon, and Hyperborea were all situated at the North Pole. Warren believed these locations were memories passed down through generations, recalling a time when humans first lived in a northern region.