Did Atlantis really exist?

Researcher Says He's Found Atlantis Off Cyprus

LIMASSOL, Cyprus (Nov. 14) - A U.S. researcher on Sunday claimed he had found the lost civilization of Atlantis in the watery deep off Cyprus -- adding his theory to a mystery which has baffled explorers for centuries.

Robert Sarmast says a Mediterranean basin was flooded in a deluge around 9,000 BC which submerged a rectangular land mass he believes was Atlantis, lying beneath sea level between Cyprus and Syria.

"We have definitely found it," said Sarmast, who led a team of explorers 50 miles or 80 kilometers off the south-east coast of Cyprus earlier this month.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti...14113309990012

I don't know why, but I've always been intrigued by Atlantis. I think it's probably because I've watched the movie over and over again.

I hope he's found it. It'd be nice to finally figure out what happened to the civilization...if it ever existed.

[honeychile]

I want to believe that there was an Atlantis. I don't know why, but somehow, it's cool to think that there was an entire advanced civilization and it all disappeared. Hail Atlantis!


The continent of Atlantis was an island which lay before the
great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed to the South and the North
Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.
To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea
miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian
culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the
Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were -
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be,
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
I wanna see you some day
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
My antediluvian baby,
My antediluvian baby, I love you, girl,
Girl, I wanna see you some day.
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah
I wanna see you some day, oh
My antediluvian baby.
My antediluvian baby, I wanna see you
My antediluvian baby, gotta tell me where she gone
I wanna see you some day
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, oh yeah
Oh glub glub, down down, yeah
My antediluvian baby, oh yeah yeah yeah yeah

[KillarneyRose]

THIS is the Atlantis that interests me the most Anyone ever been there? I haven't but I reallyreallyreallyreally want to someday!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Originally posted by KillarneyRose
THIS is the Atlantis that interests me the most Anyone ever been there? I haven't but I reallyreallyreallyreally want to someday!

Yes, I have. I was there when it was Merv's casino, and then they knocked it down and built Atlantis. Now they have a cool aquarium with sharks and a water slide in addition to the casino. It's huge.

[AlphaSigOU]

Originally posted by KillarneyRose
THIS is the Atlantis that interests me the most Anyone ever been there? I haven't but I reallyreallyreallyreally want to someday!

Never have been there, but I know personally their director of casino marketing - he's a high school classmate of mine. If you're a high roller and want to bring some serious action to the tables, I'll steer you to him!

[ZTAngel]

Originally posted by KillarneyRose
THIS is the Atlantis that interests me the most Anyone ever been there? I haven't but I reallyreallyreallyreally want to someday!

I was there about 2 years ago. It's beautiful! They have an aquarium and water slide park right on hotel property. Atlantis is amazing.

[zchiprincess]

Originally posted by KillarneyRose
THIS is the Atlantis that interests me the most Anyone ever been there? I haven't but I reallyreallyreallyreally want to someday!

I was there 2 weeks ago, quite breathtaking

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by OohTeenyWahine
Researcher Says He's Found Atlantis Off Cyprus
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti...14113309990012

Since your link asks me to sign into A-O-Hell-Of-A-Waste-Of-Money, I'll provide a CNN article.

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

Lost city of Atlantis found?
Researcher claims ruins are in the Mediterranean

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.

[xo_kathy]

Interesting, because I read this article a while back. This scientist claims it's a suken island off of Ireland.

Scientist says Ireland is lost island of Atlantis

DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuters) -- Atlantis, the legendary island-nation whose existence has been debated for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.

Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 B.C., was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.

Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography, and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.

"I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it's incredible," he told Reuters.

"Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest across the middle. They both have a central plain surrounded by mountains.

"I've looked at geographical data from the rest of the world and of the 50 largest islands there is only one that has a plain in the middle -- Ireland."

Erlingsson believes the idea that Atlantis sank came from the fate of Dogger Bank, an isolated shoal in the North Sea, about 60 miles off the northeastern coast of England, which sank after being hit by a huge flood wave around 6,100 B.C.

"I suspect that myth came from Ireland and it derives from Dogger Bank. I think the memory of Dogger Bank was probably preserved in Ireland for around 3,000 years and became mixed up with the story of Atlantis," he said.

Erlingsson links the boundaries of the Atlantic Empire, as outlined by Plato, with the geographic distribution of megalithic monuments in Europe and Northern Africa, matching Atlantis' temples with well-known burial sites at Newgrange and Knowth, north of Dublin, which pre-date the pyramids.

His book, "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land," calculates the probability Plato would have had access to geographical data about Ireland as 99.98 percent.

Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores islands 900 miles west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean sea. Others locate it solely in the long-decayed brain of Plato.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Ireland?

Hard to understand some of the tribes living there, though. Many seem to be devote followers of a god named "Guinness". But it's even harder to understand them when they are in ritualistic prayer of said god; they begin speaking in tongues and staggering around, overcome by the spirit of the great Guinness.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
Ireland?

Hard to understand some of the tribes living there, though. Many seem to be devote followers of a god named "Guinness". But it's even harder to understand them when they are in ritualistic prayer of said god; they begin speaking in tongues and staggering around, overcome by the spirit of the great Guinness.

Nice to stereotype an entire country.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
Nice to stereotype an entire country.

Nice to not have a sense of humor.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
Nice to not have a sense of humor.

I have a sense of humor. Your post wasn't funny.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
I have a sense of humor. Your post wasn't funny.

I think it was just you.

[CSUSigEp]

^ I Agree. I dont buy the whole Ireland theory though because well uh.. It didnt sink into the ocean for one, and also I find it hard to believe that Ireland could harbor an advanced civilization!