According to Encarta:

"....in the tradition of antiquity, a large island in the Western Ocean (the ocean to the west of the known world), near the Pillars of Hercules. The first recorded accounts of Atlantis, which is said to have been engulfed by the ocean as the result of an earthquake, appear in Timaeus and Critias, two dialogues by Greek philosopher Plato. According to the account in Timaeus, the island was described to Athenian statesman Solon by an Egyptian priest, who maintained that Atlantis was larger than Asia Minor and Libya combined. The priest further revealed that a flourishing civilization had reputedly centered on Atlantis about the 10th millennium BC, and that the nation had conquered all the Mediterranean peoples except the Athenians. In Critias, Plato records the history of Atlantis and depicts the nation as a utopian commonwealth. Although Plato's descriptive material and history are probably fictional, the possibility exists that he had access to records that have not survived. The tradition that a lost island such as Atlantis once flourished has always fascinated the popular imagination, and the tradition continues today. In the 20th century some oceanographers advanced the theory that Atlantis was once a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Some associate the legend of Atlantis with the Greek island Thíra, which, according to geologists, experienced a massive volcanic eruption about 1500 BC. Other theories have been based on archaeological discoveries. Scholars have variously identified the island with Crete, the Canary Islands, the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the Americas."

Click on the thumbnail for a full image of Plato and Aristotle Plato/Aristotle

It is Plato's account that lies at the heart of all arguments for or against the existence of a lost continent.

Here is a summary of the story told by Plato around 360 BC in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias:
Over 11,000 years ago there existed an island nation located in the middle of the Atlantic ocean populated by a noble and powerful race. The people of this land possessed great wealth thanks to the natural resources found throughout their island. The island was a center fortrade and commerce. The rulers of this land held sway over the people and land of their own island and well into Europe and Africa. This was the island of Atlantis.
Atlantis was the domain of Poseidon, god of the sea. When Poseidon fell in love with a mortal woman, Cleito, he created a dwelling at the top of a hill near the middle of the island and surrounded the dwelling with rings of water and land to protect her.
Cleito gave birth to five sets of twin boys who became the first rulers of Atlantis. The island was divided among the brothers with the eldest, Atlas, first King of Atlantis, being given control over the central hill and surrounding areas.
At the top of the central hill, a temple was built to honor Poseidon which housed a giant gold statue of Poseidon riding a chariot pulled by winged horses. It was here that the rulers of Atlantis would come to discuss laws, pass judgments, and pay tribute to Poseidon.. To facilitate travel and trade, a water canal was cut through of the rings of land and water running south for 5.5 miles (~9 km) to the sea. The city of Atlantis sat just outside the outer ring of water and spread across the plain covering a circle of 11 miles (1.7 km). This was a densely populated area where the majority of the population lived.
Beyond the city lay a fertile plain 330 miles (530 km) long and 110 miles (190 km) wide surrounded by another canal used to collect water from the rivers and streams of the mountains. The climate was such that two harvests were possible each year. One in the winter fed by the rains and one in the summer fed by irrigation from the canal.
Surrounding the plain to the north were mountains which soared to the skies. Villages, lakes, rivers, and meadows dotted the mountains. Besides the harvests, the island provided all kinds of herbs, fruits, and nuts. An abundance of animals, including elephants, roamed the island.
For generations the Atlanteans lived simple, virtuous lives. But slowly they began to change. Greed and power began to corrupt them. When Zeus saw the immorality of the Atlanteans he gathered the other gods to determine a suitable punishment. Soon, in one violent surge it was gone. The island of Atlantis, its people, and its memory were swallowed by the sea.

Plato intended on writing a trilogy where the Atlantis story plays an important part, but he completed one of the works, Timaeus, and only part of the second, Critias. Heading the discussion is Plato's old teacher, the Greek philosopher Socrates. His debating companions are Timaeus, Critias and Hermocrates. Hermocrates mentions a story derived from ancient tradition that Critias knows. Critias recalls how, a century and a half earlier, the great Athenian statesman Solon had visited Egypt. Critias says that while Solon was in the Egyptian city of Sais, a group of priests told him the story of Atlantis--"a tale that, though strange, is certainly true." (The story summarized above). Solon made notes of the conversation, and intended recording the story for posterity but he didn't. Instead he told it to a relative, Dropides, who passed it on to his son, Critias the elder, who eventually told his grandson, and another Critias--the man who is in Plato's Dialogues.

According to Plato's account in Dialogues, all this happened some 12,000 years ago. He located Atlantis in the Great Ocean, The True Sea whose swelling waves rose beyond the Pillars of Hercules which we know as the Straits of Gibralter.

Here, there is a problem with the date. It is possible that Plato made the error of multiplying his dates by ten and that when he said that Atlantis existed 9,000 years before his time, he meant 900 years. This makes more sense. 900 years before, Solon's journey to Egypt would place the destruction of Atlantis making it approximately 1500BCE. Also, there were no known advanced cultures developing in 12,000BCE.

Also, there is a problem with location. Is it possible that the expression 'The True Sea', did not mean the Atlantic. Could the Greeks have been wrong in assuming that the 'straits' referred to were the Pillars of Hercules? There are other straits close to the Nile Delta. Egyptians were not a seafaring people and their knowledge of the ocean was second-hand from Phoenicians and the Cretans. So, it would be natural for the Egyptians to place a vast and mysterious continent like Atlantis in some remote ocean, and unlikely that they would place it close to home.

How literally do we take Plato's story? At one time, scholars were convinced that the Iliad, Homer's epic poem was based on legend and imagination. But Heinrich Schliemann [1822-90] upset all official dogmas when he discovered the remains of Troy at Hissarlik in north-western Turkey.

It seems to have been the Egyptians who had preserved the story of Atlantis. It means that the Egyptians had not only heard of Atlantis but also had trade relations with the island power.

Many fail to to point out that in the Dialogues Plato is concerned with the wisdom, institutions and influence of Athens rather than Atlantis.

Crantor, who lived around 300BCE was the first to comment on Plato's works, and maintained that the account of Atlantis was accurate in every detail. It is believed that Crantor went to Egypt to check out Solon's sources.

Over the years, many places have been suggested as the site of Atlantis. Current science has narrowed the search to two main possibilities: The Atlantic, either in the Azores or the Bahamas; and the Mediterranean, at Santorini or Crete.

In 1967, the Greek archaeologist Spridon Marinatos began excavating an ancient city buried on the island of Kalliste. Now known as Santorini or Thera. It is the southernmost of the Cyclades Islands.

A massive volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini/Thera corresponds with the catastrophe described by Plato. To give you an idea of the power of this volcanic eruption, it was equivalent to the detonation of 6,000 modern, 1-megaton thermonuclear devices at the same instant. The forces unleased by this explosion were compared in 1965 by American scientists Dragoslav Ninkovich and B.C. Heezen with Krakatoa, an island between Java and Sumatra where a volcano erupted in 1883. They calculated that the Santorini forces were four times that of the Krakatoan eruption, and the tidal waves at Krakatoa reached a height of only 115 feet compared with over 650 feet at Santorini.

It is hard to say how long the destruction lasted, but its effects were certainly felt throughout the eastern part of the Mediterranean sea. The ash was deposited over an area of more than 100,000 sq. miles, carried as far as 435 miles from the volcano itself. Ash reached the coast of Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt. This all happened on the island of Santorini about 1500BCE.

Mediterranean Sea

Thera

When the the volcano erupted engulfing the Greek island of Santorini 3,500 years ago, it destroyed one of the world's earliest civilisations--the Minoan Crete.

Below are several thumbnails of what was once Akrotiri--the ancient city on the island of Santorini.

Santorini seems the most likely solution to the question of Atlantis, but it hasn't been proved beyond all doubt. Atlantis still remains one of the world's most enduring mysteries.

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