There are many theories about real events that may have inspired Plato's fictional story of Atlantis, which he wrote in the Timaeus and Critias. Plato's story is not part of Greek myths and is used only as a lesson about the dangers of pride. Some books and academic studies have suggested that real natural disasters might have influenced the story. However, many books that are not based on real history or science claim Atlantis was real and connect it to national legends or stories about ancient aliens. Plato's story says Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules, but other theories suggest it could have been in places like Helike, Thera, Troy, or the North Pole.
North-West of Egypt: From Greece to Spain
Most theories about where Atlantis is located focus on the Mediterranean Sea, because of Egypt's position, where the story of Atlantis has its origins in ancient writings.
The story of Atlantis has been discussed since the early 1900s as possibly remembering a past event: the eruption of the island of Thera, which destroyed the town of Akrotiri and harmed some ancient settlements on Crete.
A classicist named Robert L. Scranton wrote in an article for Archaeology that Atlantis was the "Copaic drainage complex and its civilization" in Lake Copais, Boeotia. Modern archaeological findings have shown a drainage system and underground channels from the Mycenaean period in the lake.
An American architect, Robert Sarmast, believes Atlantis is located on the seafloor of the eastern Mediterranean near the Cyprus Basin. In his book and website, he claims that sonar images of the seafloor near Cyprus show shapes that look like human-made structures at depths of 1,500 meters. He thinks these shapes are part of the lost city of Atlantis, as described by Plato. He also says that features in Cyprus, such as copper deposits, extinct dwarf elephants, and local names and festivals (like Kataklysmos), support his idea that Cyprus was once part of Atlantis. He suggests that the destruction of Atlantis by flooding is connected to the story of Noah's Flood in the Bible.
Sarmast bases his claim that Atlantis lies offshore of Cyprus under 1.4 kilometers of water on evidence that the Mediterranean Sea dried up during the Messinian Salinity Crisis. This event happened when tectonic movements blocked water from entering the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. Without water, the Mediterranean either partially or completely dried up, leaving salt lakes and deserts. Later, the sea flooded again when a ridge collapsed, allowing water to rush back through the Strait. However, Sarmast disagrees with most scientists, who say the drying and flooding of the Mediterranean happened only once, around 5.59 to 5.33 million years ago. He claims it happened many times, but he does not name the scientists who support this idea or provide evidence from scientific studies.
Geologists and archaeologists who have studied the Cyprus Basin disagree with Sarmast. Research by Dr. C. Hübscher and others showed that the features Sarmast thinks are Atlantis are actually natural folds caused by salt movement and a slide scar from underwater landslides. This finding matches seismic data from a History Channel documentary called Atlantis: New Revelations. The documentary used reflection seismology to show that what Sarmast called artificial walls are actually natural landforms.
Studies of sediment layers from the bottom of the Cyprus Basin, including cores from the Ocean Drilling Project, show that the Mediterranean Sea last dried up during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, between 5.59 and 5.33 million years ago. These cores, taken from depths near Sarmast’s claimed location of Atlantis, prove that the area has been underwater for millions of years. Therefore, the entire Cyprus Basin, including the ridge where Sarmast claims Atlantis is located, has always been submerged beneath the sea.
Some classical scholars think Plato’s story of Atlantis was inspired by the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the ancient city of Helike in 373 BC, just a few years before Plato wrote his dialogues. This idea is supported by researchers Dora Katsonopoulou and Steven Soter.
Another theory suggests Atlantis could be the island of Sardinia. This idea connects the Italians to the Sea Peoples movement, a group of seafaring people mentioned in ancient texts. It also says the name "Atlas" might come from "Italos" through the Middle Egyptian language. Plato’s descriptions of Atlantis and its city share traits with Sardinia and its Bronze Age culture.
Luigi Usai believes Atlantis is underwater near Sardinia and Corsica, forming the plateaus that now make up those islands. He says the capital of Atlantis would have been near the town of Santadi in Sardinia. He claims there are patterns in the town planning near Santadi and toponyms (names of places) that reference Atlantis, such as the cold water source called "Castello d'Acquafredda" and hot water sources named "Acquacadda" and "S'Acqua Callenti."
Malta, located between the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean, is considered a possible location of Atlantis by some researchers and local enthusiasts. It is home to some of the world’s oldest man-made structures, such as the megalithic temples of Ġgantija and Ħaġar Qim. In the 19th century, the antiquarian Giorgio Grognet de Vassé argued that Malta was Atlantis, inspired by these ancient temples.
A book titled In Malta fdal Atlantis (Maltese remains of Atlantis) by Francis Ga discusses the possibility that parts of Atlantis are still visible in Malta’s history and geography.
North-East of Egypt: From Middle East to the Black Sea
Peter James, in his book The Sunken Kingdom, says that Atlantis is the same as the kingdom of Zippasla. He claims that Solon collected the story during his travels in Lydia, not Egypt as Plato said; that Atlantis is the same as Tantalis, the city of Tantalus in Asia Minor, which Greek tradition said was destroyed by an earthquake; that the story of Atlantis’ conquests in the Mediterranean comes from King Madduwattas of Zippasla’s rebellion against Hittite rule; that Zippasla is the same as Sipylus, where Greek tradition placed Tantalis; and that the now-vanished lake north of Mount Sipylus was the city’s location.
The scientist Eberhard Zangger believes Atlantis was actually the city-state of Troy. He agrees and disagrees with Rainer W. Kühne: He also thinks the Trojans-Atlanteans were part of the sea peoples, but only a small part of them. He suggests that all Greek-speaking city-states in the Aegean civilizations and Mycenaean regions were part of the sea peoples and that they fought wars against each other for many years, harming their economies.
German researchers Siegfried and Christian Schoppe say Atlantis was in the Black Sea. Before 5500 BC, a large plain existed in the northwest where a freshwater lake once was. In 5510 BC, rising sea levels reached the barrier at the modern Bosporus. They say the Pillars of Hercules refer to the Strait of Bosporus. They did not explain how merchant ships from around the world could have reached Atlantis’s harbor when it was 350 feet below global sea level.
They claim the word Oreichalcos refers to obsidian, a type of stone that was used as money at that time and later replaced by spondylus shells around 5500 BC, which matches the red, white, and black color pattern. A major geological event caused the Neolithic diaspora in Europe, which began around 5500 BC.
The book The Great Atlantis Flood, written by Flying Eagle and Whispering Wind, places Atlantis in the Sea of Azov. These authors argue in their book Atlantis Motherland (2003) that 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 the fertile lands of Atlantis. At the same time, the earthquake caused Atlantis’s farmlands to sink, forming the modern Sea of Azov, the world’s shallowest sea.
Around Gibraltar: Near the Pillars of Hercules
Andalusia is a region in 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 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 16th century. Later, in 1673, José Pellicer de Ossau Salas y Tovar proposed that Atlantis’s capital 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 capital was located where the "Marismas de Hinojo" now exist. These ideas were repeated in 1922 by German author Adolf Schulten and later supported by Otto Jessen, Richard Hennig, Victor Bérard, and Elena Wishaw 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 that Atlantis was located in Andalusia. He argued that the "war of the Atlanteans" described by Plato might refer to the attacks by the Sea Peoples on Eastern Mediterranean countries around 1200 BC. Wickboldt also suggested that the Iron Age city of Tartessos may have been built on the site of the ruined Atlantis. In 2000, Georgeos Diaz-Montexano wrote an article proposing that 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 traditions about Mycenaean Athens, (2) Egyptian records of the Sea Peoples’ wars, and (3) oral stories 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 Plato’s description of Atlantis’s ring system. However, it is unclear whether these shapes are natural or manmade, and archaeological excavations are planned. Geologists have found 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, the area that is now the Doñana Marshes was a gulf or inland sea, but no islands large enough to support a village existed there.
Two proposals have placed Spartel Bank, a submerged island in the Strait of Gibraltar, as the location of Atlantis. The more famous claim was made by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard in 2001. Another proposal was first published by Spanish-Cuban researcher Georgeos Díaz-Montexano in 2000 and later in 2001. Collina-Girard and Díaz-Montexano disagree about the origin of the idea, with each accusing the other of plagiarism. Both argue that the other’s work is not scientific.
Collina-Girard explains that during the last Ice Age, sea levels were 135 meters lower than today, narrowing the Strait of Gibraltar and creating a small enclosed sea between the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. Spartel Bank formed an island in this sea, measuring about 10 to 12 kilometers across. As sea levels rose, the island shrank, and around 9400 BC, a rapid rise in sea levels (known as Meltwater pulse 1A) submerged the island’s top. Marine geophysicist Marc-André Gutscher proposed that a major earthquake and tsunami, similar to the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, may have caused the catastrophic destruction described by Plato. Collina-Girard claims that the island’s disappearance was recorded in ancient Egyptian traditions for 5,000 years and later inspired Plato’s fictional story.
A review in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review noted problems with Collina-Girard’s timeline and use of coincidences. It concluded that while his work sheds light on prehistoric events near Gibraltar, it does not prove that Atlantis existed in that location.
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 studied Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias to find clues about Atlantis’ location. Using a special method to analyze geographical details from Plato’s writings, Hübner concluded that the most likely place for Atlantis was the Souss-Massa plain in modern-day South-West Morocco. This plain is surrounded by the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas mountain ranges and the Atlantic Ocean, which ancient Greeks called the Sea of Atlas. Because of its isolated position, Hübner believed the Greeks named it Atlantis Nesos, meaning “Island of Atlas.” The Amazigh (Berber) people refer to the Souss-Massa plain as an island.
Archaeological findings in the northwest part of the plain include a large circular landform with the size similar to Plato’s description of Atlantis’ capital. This area has hundreds of ruins made of red, white, and black rocks. Hübner also found possible remains of ancient harbors and a unique landform that matches Plato’s description of “roofed over docks” built into red, white, and black bedrock. These docks are near the circular landform and Cape Ghir, which was called Cape Heracles in ancient times. Hübner also noted that the name Agadir may be related to the ancient Semitic word g-d-r, meaning “enclosure” or “sheep fold.” This matches the Greek translation of Gadeiros in Plato’s text, which means “rich in sheep.”
The Richat Structure in Mauritania has also been suggested as a possible Atlantis location. This structure is a large, eroded hill covering a hidden rock formation. From 1974 onward, studies found no prehistoric tools, buildings, or evidence of long-term human activity in the structure’s center. Only short-term hunting and tool-making by early humans were recorded in the area, which means it was not used as a major settlement.
Atlantic Ocean: East
It has been thought that when Plato wrote about the Sea of Atlantis, he may 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 wrote that the area was given to Poseidon when describing the origins of Atlantis. In Ancient Greek times, the words "Ocean" and "Atlas" both described the "Giant Water" that surrounded the main landmass known to the Greeks, which could be called Eurafrasia (though the Greeks did not fully understand this supercontinent). This body of water was seen as the edge of the known world, which is why the name "Atlas" was also used for the Atlas Mountains near the Ocean, as they marked the edge of the known world.
One place suggested for Atlantis is near the Azores Islands, a group of islands owned by Portugal and located about 900 miles (1,400 km) west of the Portuguese coast. Some people believe the islands might be the tops of mountains from Atlantis. In 1882, Ignatius L. Donnelly, an American congressman, first wrote about this possible location in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. He also connected the Azores to the mythical 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 (or up to 200,000 square miles) sank 10,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean. Schuchert concluded that the Azores are volcanic seamounts that drop sharply to a plateau. Studies of the plateau and other evidence show that this area has been an underwater plateau for millions of years. Signs of ancient shorelines, such as old beaches and wave-cut terraces from the Pleistocene era, show that the Azores Islands have not sunk much. Instead, some islands have risen during the Late and Middle Pleistocene. For example, on Flores Island, old wave-cut platforms and beach sediments 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 wrote that the Canary Islands, along with the Madeira and Azores, were what remained after Atlantis sank. Later authors, like Lewis Spence, also connected the Canary Islands to Atlantis.
Studies of the Canary Islands show that they have risen steadily over the last 4 million years due to geological processes such as erosion, gravitational unloading, and volcanic activity. For example, Pliocene pillow lavas, which formed underwater and are now exposed on Gran Canaria, have been lifted 46 to 143 meters above sea level. Marine deposits on Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote, dating back millions of years, show that the islands have risen without significant sinking. 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 they have been uplifted during the Pleistocene and remained stable since the last ice age. Detailed research on sedimentary deposits around the Canary Islands shows no evidence that the ocean floor there was ever above water, except for narrow areas exposed during glacial periods.
Jorge Maria Ribero-Meneses argued that Atlantis was located in northern Spain, specifically on an underwater plateau called "Le Danois Bank" or "The Cachucho." It is about 25 kilometers from the continental shelf and 60 kilometers off the coast of Asturias and Lastres. The top of the plateau is now 425 meters below sea level, and it is 50 kilometers wide and 18 kilometers long. Ribero-Meneses suggested that the plateau broke off about 12,000 years ago due to tectonic activity at the end of the last ice age, creating a tsunami with waves hundreds of meters high. He believed survivors had to rebuild from scratch.
However, geological studies of the Le Danois Bank area have shown that it was not created 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. Along the northern edge of the bank, Precambrian granulite and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks were pushed northward over Miocene and Oligocene marine sediments. The basin between the Le Danois Bank and the Cantabrian continental margin is a graben formed by normal faulting. Marine sediments from the lower Pliocene to the Pleistocene cover large parts of the bank and fill the basin, showing that the area has been underwater 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. This event, he says, shifted Earth's axis around 3100 BC. Scientists today do not accept these ideas as valid because the evidence is not supported by scientific research.
William Comyns Beaumont believed that Great Britain was the location of Atlantis. The Scottish journalist Lewis Spence claimed that ancient traditions in Britain and Ireland contain memories of Atlantis.
On December 29, 1997, the BBC reported that a team of Russian scientists thought they found Atlantis in the ocean 100 miles off Land's End, Cornwall, Britain. The BBC stated that a shallow area called Little Sole Bank might have been Atlantis’s capital. This idea may have been inspired by the myth of Lyonesse.
The idea that Atlantis was located in Ireland was presented in the book Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land (2004) by Swedish geographer Dr. Ulf Erlingsson from Uppsala University. Erlingsson claimed that the empire of Atlantis refers to the Neolithic Megalithic tomb culture, based on their similar geographic areas. He concluded that the island of Atlantis must have been Ireland.
The North Sea contains lands that were once above water. For example, the medieval town of Dunwich in East Anglia collapsed into the sea. A land area called "Doggerland," between England and Denmark, was flooded by a tsunami around 8200 years before present (6200 BC). This was caused by an underwater landslide near Norway called the Storegga Slide. Prehistoric human remains have been found in the Dogger Bank area. Atlantis has also been linked to an area near Heligoland, off the northwest coast of Germany, by author Jürgen Spanuth. He claims Atlantis was destroyed during the Bronze Age around 1200 BC and partially re-emerged during the Iron Age. Ulf Erlingsson believes the island that sank was Dogger Bank, and the city was the Silverpit crater at the base of Dogger Bank. A book supposedly written by Oera Linda claims a land called Atland once existed in the North Sea but was destroyed in 2194 BC.
In his book The Celts: The People Who Came Out of the Darkness (1975), author Gerhard Herm connects the origins of the Atlanteans to the end of the ice age and the flooding of eastern coastal Denmark.
Finnish writer Ior Bock claimed Atlantis was located in the Baltic Sea, near southern Finland, where he said a small group of people lived during the Ice Age. He believed this was possible because warm water from the Gulf Stream reached the Finnish coast. Bock’s family story, passed down through generations, claims the name "Atlantis" comes from Swedish words meaning "all land ice," referring to the last Ice Age. According to this story, Atlantis disappeared in 8016 BC when the Ice Age ended in Finland and the ice melted.
In 1679, Olaus Rudbeck wrote Atlantis (Atlantica), in which he argued that Scandinavia, specifically Sweden, was identical to Atlantis. Rudbeck claimed the capital of Atlantis was the same as the ancient burial site of Swedish kings in Gamla Uppsala.
Americas
Before the discovery of the New World, many scholars believed that Atlantis was either a metaphor for teaching philosophy or gave credit to Plato without linking it to a real place. When Columbus returned from his voyage to the west, historians began connecting the Americas with Atlantis. The first person to do this was Francisco López de Gómara, who in 1552 thought that what Columbus had discovered was the Atlantic Island of 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 also said that the land described by Plato had all the same features as the Americas but noted that ancient people may have traveled from Atlantis to the Americas. Zárate also mentioned that the 9,000 "years" in Plato’s story actually meant 9,000 "months," which equals 750 years.
This idea was later explained by historian Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1572 in his book History of the Incas. Using calculations about longitude, he claimed Atlantis must have stretched from near the Strait of Gibraltar westward, covering all the land from the mouth of the Marañon (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 area 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. It later appeared on a map titled Atlantis Insula by Nicolas Sanson and his son in 1669. This map labeled both North and South America as "Atlantis Insula," the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean as "Oceanus Atlanticus," and the western part of the Atlantic Ocean plus the Pacific Ocean as "Atlanticum Pelagus." Guillaume Sanson, Nicolas’s son, added details from the Atlantis legend to the map, including the names of the ten kings of Atlantis, with Atlas’s portion located in Mexico. Sanson’s map supposedly showed what Earth looked like 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" ("the New World is not new").
Antarctica
The idea that Antarctica was Atlantis became very popular during the 1960s and 1970s. This was partly because of the continent's isolation and a map called the Piri Reis map, which seemed to show Antarctica without ice, suggesting humans might have known about the area in ancient times. Authors such as Flavio Barbiero, Charles Berlitz, Erich Von Däniken, and Peter Kolosimo promoted this idea in their writings.
Starting in 1958, Charles Hapgood introduced the idea of "Earth Crustal Displacement," which suggested that Earth's outer layer could shift 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 confirmed until the 1970s. Many geological theories existed, but no clear answers were found. Albert Einstein was interested enough in Hapgood's work to write the introduction for his book Earth's Shifting Crust. This idea remained popular among people who believe in the "Hollow Earth" theory and is similar to the "Hyperborean" theory. In his book Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock supported Hapgood's ideas and specifically connected Atlantis to Antarctica, suggesting that Antarctica should be explored for evidence of Atlantis.
More recently, Rose and Rand Flem-Ath continued to support this theory in their book When the Sky Fell. They later revised and expanded their ideas in The Atlantis Blueprint (published in 2002) with author Colin Wilson. This book suggested that Atlantis might be located in a region of Antarctica called Lesser Antarctica, near the coast of the Ross Ice Shelf.
North Pole
William Fairfield Warren (1833–1929), a professor of systematic theology at Boston University, wrote a book called Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole in 1885. In this book, Warren proposed that the original center of human life was located at the North Pole. He also claimed that mythical places such as Atlantis, the Garden of Eden, Mount Meru, Avalon, and Hyperborea were all located there. Warren believed these places were reminders of a time when humans first lived in a northern region.