Nowadays, many researchers of Plato place Atlantis in the Aegean Sea and particularly in Santorini (Agelos Galanopoulos1) or in Crete (J.V.LUCE 2).
Frost K. was the first who reported that Atlantis, which was destroyed during the Bronze Age (1500 BC) by a cataclysm, must have been the Minoan Crete.
This cataclysm has been caused by the eruption of the volcano in Thera (the first explosion is dated back to 23000 BC)
In 1939, the archaeologist Spiridon Marinatos (born 1901 and died 1974), relates equally Atlantis with Minoan Crete supporting the belief that it has been destroyed in 1456 BC by the eruption of the volcano Thera in Santorini. He did extensive archaeological research at Akrotiri of Thira and Aspronisi from 1967 to 1974.
In 1955-76, Jacques Yves Cousteau researched the territory south of Thera and north of Crete. According to his statements in November 1976, he excluded the existence of Atlantis in this area3. However, he discovered in the little island Zeus some sunken squarish and rectangular rocks constituting an artificial breakwater, that were named Cyclopean walls. At the beginning, researchers believed it was an artificial harbor, a navy yard for Minos, the king of Crete, but it was much later when they realized their ancient age. They look alike with the Cyclopean walls found in 1969, in the Bimini islands near Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean. The belief for these walls was that they were the remains of the lost Atlantis and this caused a confusion to the researchers.
In the late 1960s, the Greek archaeologist Professor Angelos Galanopoulos proposed the astonishing theory that Atlantis was Santorini, north of Crete. The island was blown up around 1500 BC. from a terrifying volcanic eruption, which probably destroyed most of the Greek islands and the coastal plains of Greece and Crete.
But how could the small island of Santorini be Plato's vast continent, with its 400 km plain? Galanopoulos suggests that the scribe simply multiplied the numbers by ten and that this also applies to the dates: Plato's 9,000 years should actually be 900 (ie around 1300 BCE). In any case, says Galanopoulos, a channel one hundred meters wide and thirty meters deep is absurd. Ten meters wide and three meters deep seem like more reasonable numbers.
The main objection to Galanopoulos' theory is that Plato clearly states that Atlantis is beyond the Heraklion Pillars, i.e. Gibraltar. Galanopoulos counters that, since Hercules performed most of his labors in Greece, the Heraklian Stelae may refer to the sea passage between the two southernmost capes of Greece (Tainaros and Maleas).
But Plato also says that the Atlanteans had reached Egypt and the Tyrrhenian Sea and these were certainly not Greek capes. Despite the objections, the tourist authorities of Santorini made great use of Galanopoulos' theory with advertisements that trumpeted that the island was the original Atlantis.
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Agelos Galanopoulos (Professor of Seismology in the Technical University of Athens: "The Ancient Atlantis”, 1960, Athens
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J.V. LUCE: “The end of Atlantis. New light upon an old myth”. Translated by Christina Konstantopoulou, Athens, 1975.
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See the Athenian newspapers of 23/11/76 (“APOGEFMATINI”, “ELEFTHEROTIPIA”, “TA NEA”).
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